As You Like Dancing

I got to see two more great shows last night. First was Decadance with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Moose. My favorite of their dances was probably the Polka Contrille (music: Beaumont Rag, by Natalie MacMaster) with its Grand Square exploding into silliness. There was also a post-show attack of Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Much fun.

After that I went to the Stanford Shakespeare Society's performance of As You Like It, outside in the Old Union courtyard. That was absolutely fantastic. The actors were all excellent and had us laughing almost non-stop. There was a blues-singing ukulele player for a few musical interludes. And there was a swing dance for the finale. That was what really blew me away. It wasn't just some non-dancing actors doing slow-slow-rock-step-underarm-turn a few times, it was a serious choreography. The did an entire song (Jumpin' by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, almost 5 minutes) with charleston kicks, lifts, and solos for all the major couples. Not as polished a performance as an actual dance group, of course, but very nearly as complex. And they were doing this all in Shakespearean costumes. I was very impressed. I wish that hadn't been the last night of the show, so I could tell everyone to go see it.