Posted by Bennyroyce Royon
We all need some potassium in our life right? Well, for an alternative potassium source pick up a bundle of red bananas from any PathMark near you! I think they are the strangest looking bananas I’ve ever seen. But they taste quite deLish!
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| Posted by Sloan
Hey everybody.
I wanted to let you know about a couple things I’ve added to the site… hopefully you guys will like them 
The first is a new INTRO PAGE, which you can find at the right side of the site. Here you will find FAQ’s, weekly site archives, archives of podcasts and newsletters, a subscription page, an overview of contributors, and more. As you’ll see, some of it is still in the works. Let me know if you can think of anything that may be missing. I’m always open to suggestions
Next, The Winger has added an account to UPCOMING.ORG. Upcoming.org is a site that allows you to list events, recieve email reminders, see who’s attending, let people know you if will attend, comment on events, get maps, and more. We will be adding Gia’s Picks to our group, as well as events recommended by contributors and readers. If you’d like to post an event to our upcoming.org account, register for your own account, list the event, and then add the event to the Group, The Winger. There is also a listing of these events on the left side of The Winger site.
I’ve also added the ability to subscribe to EMAIL UPDATES on what’s happening on The Winger. If you subscribe, you’ll receive emails from The Winger, with excerpts of the most recent posts on the site. This is a separate list from the Newsletter, but if you have already subscribed to the Newsletter, I’ll add you to this new list. Don’t worry though! If you do not wish to be on this list, there is an easy link to unsubscribe.
Finally, every weekend I’ll be doing a post that features the topics from The Winger Board that are currently the most popular. Hopefully that will help better connect readers of the main site with the great information that members of the discussion board are posting!
Happy reading
| | Posted by Sloan
Last night Dougie and I may have found our new favorite place!
It’s called Water Taxi Beach at Hunters Point in Long Island City. It sounds far from the city, but in reality, it’s only one subway stop out of Manhattan on the 7 train, a short water taxi ride across the east river… (or a 20 minute drive on the bike from downtown).
It’s not really a beach. Which is ok… because no beach in the world has a view like this!
Somebody just dumped a ton of sand, on some property right on the edge of the water, facing midtown Manhattan. There’s food, drinks, beach volleyball, and lots of picnic tables.
They also host a PS1 after party on Saturday’s.
Here was our view for most of the night…
| | Posted by Sloan
Can’t wait to go during the day!
| | Posted by Sloan
HiBall sticker, hanging out in front of my drum teachers studio on 8th Ave.
| | Posted by Sloan
Here are some silly illustrations I made with a pair of my Freed of London pointe shoes.
Philip asked for some detailed info on how dancers prepare their pointe shoes, so here’s a bit about my personal preparation technique.
The illustrations above help to show the different parts of a pointe shoe, which everyone may not be familiar with.
Our pointe shoes at NYCB are custom made for us (this is what it is like at many large ballet companies).
My shoes are made by Freed of London.
There are many different “makers” of shoes. (mine is maker “T” - we call him “Mr. T”)
They all have their own symbol which is stamped on the bottom of the shoes along with the size and the type of shank.
There are many ways you can customize a shoe besides the fit.
-I have a “combined” shank, which is one of the harder shanks they make. (It’s a combination of two shanks).
-I also have my shanks “three-quartered”, which means that they only go up 3/4’s of the way towards you heel. (this way the shank can stay relatively hard when you pointe your foot, instead of bending and getting softer faster.)
-You get the option of a cloth or elastic drawstring (i have elastic)
-You also can choose the strength of the box of the shoe. “wing block” is stronger than “deep vamp” (I think I have wing block)
Totally customizing a pair of shoes can be a daunting task, especially since they can take 2-3 months to arrive, and you only get 3 pairs to try before placing a full order. What a lot of dancers do is find a pair of another dancers shoes in the company that they like, and have their shoes modeled after those. I modeled mine after Aesha Ash’s.
Once I actually have my shoes…
-I sew on the ribbons and elastics with dental floss
-then I cut the ends of the ribbon in a reverse V shape |v| so they don’t fray (a lot of dancers burn the edges)
-Then I step on the box of the shoe with my heel to flatten it (some dancers do this carefully with a door)
-Then I cut the satin off the tip (less slippery)
-Sometimes I’ll put some glue (we use “hot stuff”, but anything that’s like super glue) inside the tip of the shoe to keep the edges hard if iIm dancing in something with a lot of pointework or borrees.
-I bend the part of the shoe where the shank ends (in the arch) just a bit with my hands.
-Then I’ll use the “scraper” or a pair of scissors to rough up the bottom of the shoes if it is for a performance.
-A little bit of rosin applied with a paper towel to the box of the shoe as well as the inside of the heel and that’s it!
One pair of shoes will usually last for one or two ballets and a few rehearsals or classes afterwards. (I prefer wearing new shoes for performances).
Everyone does something different, this is just my version
“Brick”
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| Posted by Kate
This is Brick Lane from the corner of Fournier Street, one of my favourite places in East London. I work just off Brick Lane, which is a wonderful place, and I walk to work through three street markets and a park.
Brick Lane is famous as London’s best place for a curry, for there are many restaurants, some very cheap and canteen-like and others more gourmet-like. As you can see the street sign is in Bengali, the language spoken by many of Brick Lane’s residents. The sign says ‘Fournier Street’.
The north end of Brick Lane is really cool, with venues like 93 Feet East and The Truman Brewery. Even though it’s two blocks away from here, the north end looks almost like another place, with its impromptu art galleries and vintage clothes shops and trendy bars.
“Fournier”
| | Posted by Kate
Taken from the same spot, this is what you see when you turn right along Fournier Street. It’s a lovely street, and it’s been conserved so the houses all look just as they did when they were built in the eighteenth century. The artists Gilbert and George live here. At the end of the street is Christ Church Spitalfields, which is absolutely huge and designed by the architect Hawksmoor. At the very end of the street you can see Spitalfields Market, which is an amazing place to go on a Sunday morning for anything, from organic veg and falafels to designer clothes and old LPs.
I feel very lucky indeed to work around here, and to be able to walk around and shop and socialise after work here whenever I like!
Also, I’ve just booked my summer intensive and I’m really looking forward to it - 2 weeks of contemporary dance (Graham, which I love because it’s so hard.)
Delicious/tag/wingmark
