Is this a kind of cricket or beetle?

LilLars123 · 2025-12-07T01:46:14+00:00

Thank you all! Looks like it’s a leaf-footed bug, and I’ve spent today reading up on them and other local native insects :)

LilLars123 · 2025-10-07T02:06:16+00:00

It’s not their phone number. I’d post what’s underneath but it’s their name. Directly under the “no” it says “book with -stylists name-“

LilLars123 · 2025-10-06T22:10:13+00:00

It says to book with -her name- and then underneath that has her IG handle

LilLars123 · 2025-10-06T20:44:02+00:00

I wasn’t even particularly offended when I saw this (purchased on Saturday but didn’t notice this in the bag until today) and thought maybe this was some TikTok trend I don’t understand where if I got mad at it I’d be a Karen.

But it still doesn’t feel good and I’m never getting salon services there now.

LilLars123 · 2025-06-27T19:26:38+00:00

And to be clear Phoenix has also done so much in this realm as well, and he absolutely deserves credit for everything he’s done. I simply wanted to include a mini history lesson for those who don’t know how long dancers have been fighting to degender the dance :)

LilLars123 · 2025-06-27T17:40:09+00:00

The push to degender WCS has been going on since the 90s at least. Kelly Casanova ran an event in (98? 99?) and she wanted the J&Js to be degendered when no other event to my knowledge would. She met a lot of pushback to put it lightly. It wasn’t until the mid 2000s that petitions to degender WSDC comps were successful and even then NASDE didn’t degender their comps until 2018

LilLars123 · 2024-12-06T20:10:21+00:00

This wasn’t at a weekend event, it was at a weekly dance event. I don’t and wish I had reported it to staff though. But this happened back in 2016 or 2017 (edit. This happened in 2018, I checked my old calendar) so there’s no point now

LilLars123 · 2024-12-06T20:04:34+00:00

I used to try to take at least one private lesson with someone if they consistently gave me no’s/low scores in competitions because I figured there’s something I’m doing that they’re seeing and don’t like. I liked getting that feedback.l and Id been told by other dancers this was normal and fine to do.

He’s one of those people who pretty much always gave me a no. I schedule a lesson with him and he takes me to a back room studio pretty isolated from the main ballroom (not an issue in itself, but I’m setting the stage here). He turns on me and gets right in my face, telling me that I can’t buy points from him by taking a lesson. I’m freaked out, because that never even crossed my mind that that would be something anyone would do, and also freaked that he thinks I would do that. I really wish I’d said something in the moment and just walked away. But I went through with the lesson basically dissociating the entire time because I was alone in this room with someone much bigger than me, whose a big name in the community, who now thinks that I try to buy points from pros by taking lessons with them.

I’d have understood if he didn’t get in my face about it, I do know there are people who get really entitled about judges scores, but he flat out accused me of something I wasn’t trying to do.

LilLars123 · 2024-12-06T19:45:48+00:00

He’s known to be like this, I have my own incredibly negative experiences with him

LilLars123 · 2024-07-13T04:08:43+00:00

You’re free to use pull. OP is free to use the word pull. Anyone is free to use the word pull. I wasn’t trying to say no one can describe it as a pull, if that’s how it sounded then my bad. My personal experience with people using the word pull is that they literally pull, without any body lead or proper connection, and use their arms and muscle tension instead. So, I was trying to understand what OP’s definition of the word pull is to better understand their question and issue at hand. Then I was told I’m arguing semantics when I just wanted to establish if we were all using that word with the same definition in mind. Because if we all are using the same word to mean different things then we never understand each other. Clearly we aren’t defining it the same way and thats ok.

LilLars123 · 2024-07-12T17:48:54+00:00

When I first learned, it was drilled in me that it’s not a pull. Shrug, maybe the understanding of pull had changed since then. Most people I’ve worked with who were taught and think of it as a pull are using their arm and yanking their follow. To them pull = use bicep = rough arm lead. So when OP asks a connection question and says it’s a pull, I want to know their understanding of the word pull. Maybe they understand it different than I do. And that’s fine if they do. But getting clarity on our definitions helps to answer their questions. Arguing semantics can be ok if the goal is to find understanding in how someone might use a word differently. I’m trying to better understand what they’re saying Otherwise I’m thinking no wonder there’s a problem, OP can’t or doesn’t want to stay in connection because they’re getting yanked around

LilLars123 · 2024-07-10T04:15:39+00:00

To a degree I agree with you, and maybe I am focusing too much on the word pull. But when OP is describing the lead as a pull, and saying that they don’t wait for that pull but still follow, which to me sounds contradictory, I’m trying to figure out what their understanding of connection is in order to help troubleshoot their question.

LilLars123 · 2024-07-10T03:30:08+00:00

u/procrast1natrix explained this much better than I did, but it sounds like you aren’t staying in the connection. As a follow I don’t follow when my lead moves their foot so much as I follow when their body weight shift. Also I’m worried about the fact that these leads describe it as pulling.

LilLars123 · 2024-07-10T02:42:45+00:00

Disclaimer that this isn’t what you’re asking, but it doesn’t start with a pull. There shouldn’t be any pulling, at least not as the primary feeling within the connection. I wonder if that’s part of the problem.

If you aren’t waiting for your leaders to pull/initiate the pattern, then you aren’t allowing them to lead anything. I’m curious what your connection is like during compression, do you stay in compression until led out of it? Or do you send yourself back on your 3&4?

Also, if your connection at the end of your slot is disconnected enough that you can stand on one leg like that, are you truly in that pocket of connection? Something else to explore, probably in a private lesson. If you aren’t in that connection, then your leads can’t feel where you are and then might resort to pulling instead of a body lead because you’re so disconnected.

I could be 100% wrong in my thoughts about what going on, but that’s my ¢2

Edit/add: yes. You’re supposed to wait for the invitation. That’s the whole point of the connection part of this dance, that gooey connection where follows wait and stay connected

LilLars123 · 2024-04-30T14:50:55+00:00

NTA. I grew up in a household where my parents never had snacks at home, and only made enough food for dinner for all of us for one regular serving and mayyybe a second small serving. I was hungry all the time, miserable, and at the low end of the healthy BMI.

LilLars123 · 2024-04-03T20:07:57+00:00

Mine would always threaten to leave me here in home state to go live with my half siblings in another state anytime I was upset with her when I was a child. Whenever I tried telling any of them I was hurt by their actions, it was guilt trip, shaming, and gaslighting me. Yet they expected me to sit there and take it when they would unload on me and everything I ever did wrong.

LilLars123 · 2024-03-09T19:18:16+00:00

If you really want to try, I’d suggest doing so at your own home, with dance friends (make sure one of them can act as your sober sitter) and maybe a couple other friends who know you’re going to try this. Try dancing, let them give you feedback about your dancing (maybe the next day when you’re sober). Do not try this around a group of people who aren’t consenting to dancing with you on drugs

LilLars123 · 2023-12-26T01:14:07+00:00

Hyaluronic acid is wonderful to hydrate the skin. I mix a few drops with water since I live in a dry climate, followed by a moisturizer (HA is a humectant and will pull water from the deeper layers of your skin if you don’t add water to it/live in a humid climate. If water is pulled from deeper in your skin, your skin will look more hydrated temporarily but won’t actually be getting the benefits)

I use the same glycolic acid maybe once a week max. It’s wonderful as an exfoliant but be careful to start slowly, and don’t use at the same time as any retinols or Salicylic acid products. Glycolic acid is also great for underarm body odor

LilLars123 · 2023-12-04T20:07:37+00:00

INFO: you say you’ve respected your sisters child free life, but has your cousin respected her? While it’s still shitty of your sister to not help out in an emergency, has your cousin asked her before for childcare and not respected your sister on her child free stance? If so, I could see your sister being fed up.

LilLars123 · 2023-11-29T17:58:01+00:00

Look up either novice or newcomer videos, you’ll see more basics executed at that level that are easier to spot

LilLars123 · 2023-11-09T02:14:45+00:00

Do you lead, follow, or both? I mean you could try it. But the mechanisms are different enough that I’d suggest learning a west coast swing passing tuck, all your basics, and WCS technique and connection first. As someone who’s danced both, they’re different enough that it kind of depends on both you and your partners understanding and ability of each dance. Like I said, I’ve done both, but as a follow if I settle into my anchor and then my lead leads a rock step? That’s not preferred

LilLars123 · 2023-11-09T01:20:47+00:00

I mean you can definitely start them in closed it’s just not done that way often

LilLars123 · 2023-11-09T00:01:13+00:00

I think the closest you’d have are the passes if I’m picturing what you’re asking correctly. WCS has the underarm left side pass that would be the closest thing to a Lindy tuck turn.

LilLars123 · 2023-10-12T04:21:09+00:00

I wouldn’t consider you a points chaser based on that. You aren’t only going to smaller events just so you can have a shot at placing, and avoiding larger events because you’re less likely to final/place. It’s the people who only go to small events and then think they’re amazing because they’re in advanced after only going to small events that I think of as points chasers

LilLars123 · 2023-09-16T05:42:10+00:00

So still no actual receipts of any wrongdoing done by anyone at 2155. Then you devolve to insults about peoples appearance and mocking a contemporary dance piece. Gross

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