Events Schedule

INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND

7/3: FRIDAYDJ Lefty Hernandez

7/4: SATURDAYDJ e

7/5: SUNDAYDJ Julio

7/11: SATURDAYDJ J Hunter & DJ Nick Johnson

7/12: SUNDAYDJ Mike Dominico

7/18: SATURDAYDJ Benny DiConstanzo

& DJ Alberto Crespo

7/19: SUNDAYDJ Rob Scott

7/25: SATURDAYNO SKATING - Triathlon

7/26: SUNDAYNO SKATING - Triathlon

Central Park Dance Skaters Association NewsletterJuly 2009

Vol. 15 Issue 2

ITEMS ON THE SKATE SCENEby Lezly Ziering, President/Chairman - CPDSA

Skaters weather another rainy day at the CPDSA Skate Circle

© 2009 Bob Nichols

ITEM 1:HAPPY FOURTH OF JULYY’ALL!

IT’S OUR BIRTHDAY –JULY 4TH 2009 IS OUR14TH ANNIVERSARY!

ITEM 2:Keep your eye out for the Village Voice’s “BEST OFNEW YORK” issue comingout around Halloween –Crazy Legs Skate Club will be featured in it!!!

ITEM 3:On Saturday June 27th,Mayor Bloomberg sponsored ahuge event at Randalls IslandGolf Course, with free foodand drink, tents featuringamusements and a large cast

of dancers, break dancers, and - yes - roller skaters toperform on the raised rollerrink stage constructed for the event.

The rink - about the size ofLola Starr’s Dreamland RollerRink in Coney Island with thesame portable floor of plasticsquares. Of course since itwas constructed specifically to be a roller rink, the underfloor was perfectly level, sothe rink surface had nodefects, and was perfectly flat. There were barrels ofbrand new rental skates forthe attendees.

I was asked to supply 5skaters (at least 2 of whomhad to break and skate) and

choreograph and coordinatetheir 7-minute skate show.From N.Y. - the inimitable“Boo” (Selby) to break andskate, the lanky and loose-jointed Skate Master Chuck(Wright), hot, hot Joey Kool(Pagan) and from Pennsylva-nia, the multi-giftedskater/breakers, “Blade” (Burgos) and Karl Scott.

We were originally slated toskate to “Planet Rock” butjust before our last rehearsalthe King of Pop passed fromthis mortal coil and Joey sug-gested skating to a remix ofMichael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop‘Til You Get Enough,” whichthe ‘powers that be’ OK’ed ina heartbeat.

(Continued on page 2)

Official CPDSA Contacts

Lezly Ziering 212-777-3232 Bob Nichols 212-246-1344On the Webwww.CPDSA.orgE-mail CPDSA@earthlink.net

CPDSA Board of DirectorsLezly Ziering, President Bob NicholsMark WolfVera SinnreichJohn WatersTyrone Cloud

The Central Park Skate Circle

takes place every Saturday, Sunday and major holiday in 2009 from April 12th through October 26th. The music playsfrom 2:30pm to 6:30pm.

The routine, which was to fea-ture a battle of solos by thissuper talented quintet, beganas choreographed, but as soonas they made their entrance,totally unexpectedly, the otherperformers - the Breakers andDancers and Stilt Walkers -stormed onto the stage as abackground for our crew, whoto my utter amazement werenot thrown an iota by thisunanticipated addition to our cast.

To add to the bizarre turn of events, the screaming andspirited audience began tocome up onto the rink to dancearound the skaters. Like thepros they are, my fabulous fiveIncorporated this invasion intotheir solos without so much asa raised eyebrow.

On stage left and stage right,two breakdancers dropped intoa spinning hand glide and in a flash “Blade” popped inbetween them, center stage,and matched their hand glides,spinning with the breakers like

it was part of the choreogra-phy. A little girl got too close to“Boo” as he soloed and almostgot knocked on her butt, but“Boo” grabbed her by bothhands and jumped with her ina circle to her excited screamsand laughter. He then took a beaming little boy’s hands and jumped him around a fewturns. The guys never missed a beat of the rest of the choreographed segments andended the number together to the wild ovation of theirardent fans. They tore downthe house.

What an exhilarating experi-ence for cast and audiencealike. The pity was we were not allowed to film or eventake photos of the show, noteven with our cell phone cameras.

I don’t understand what thehush hush was about, but wewere not allowed to use cellphones at all. At one point Ithought, screw this I have tocall my wife. No sooner did I

dial, but a security lady with a 2-way radio approached meand said, “sorry, no cell phones.”I said, ‘I have to call my wife,she’s not well.’ She said, “OK,but go behind the barrels ofrental skates so you’re not insight.” I asked, wuzzup withthe cell phone ban? She saidthey don’t want people callingoutside and talking about thisevent or using their phones totake pictures before it hits thenews.” I said, ‘I see.’

But I didn’t see - I still don’tsee - the phone ban makes nosense to me.

We all had a blast, none theless!!!!!

“Items on the Skate Scene” continued from page 1.

If you would like to contribute stories or photos for consideration in our next newsletter, please contact: CPDSA@earthlink.net

WE SELL SKATES AT SUPER RATES - Quad (traditional) skate specialists - RIEDELL DEALERSkates - Wheels - Bearings - Parts - Repairs - Riedell - Snyder - Suregrip - Bones - Kryptos & more

(212) 777-3232 visit us on the web: www.SkateGuru.com

LEZLY SKATE SCHOOLNY’s #1 Inline & Traditional Rollerskate Specialists• We have taught over 15,000 skaters since 1979• Private & semi-private classes by appointment - all levels

Beginner Classes

OUTDOOR TECHNIQUES

$80.00 for 4 week course

weeks 1 & 2 at Mercer PlaygroundSat. 12:30–1:15pm

weeks 3 & 4 at Central Pk.Sat. 1:30–2:45pm

DANCE ON SKATES

Wednesday 6:30–7:45pmat Crazy Legs Skate Club

in Brooklyn - Class: $20.00$29.00 includes class and

entry to skate session following the class -

8pm–midnightDirections:

CrazyLegsSkateClub.com

Beginner Classes

INDOOR TECHNIQUES

$80.00 for 4 week course

at Mercer PlaygroundSat. 11:00am–12:15

COMBINED INDOOR & OUTDOOR - 8 classes in 4 weeks - $150.00

DJ Alchemy plays a tribute to Michael Jackson

© 2009 Bob Nichols

New York now has a fifth season: Monsoon. We have justendured the second wettest Juneon the record books, over teninches of rain! Starting with thesecond week in June we havebeen rained on every time wecame out to skate until last Sun-day - the 28th. The wet weatherhas been disheartening, but ithasn’t stopped us. The CPDSAhas faced setbacks in the pastand we have always survivedand kept the party going. That’swhat we’re all about - skating,dancing and having a good time- even if we have to work ourbutts off to keep it going.

One of our skaters recently com-plained that people were chain-ing their skate bags to the bench-es in our area, so that they weretaking up space where skaterswant to sit. This is very selfish!We provide a space near the DJbooth where you can leave yourbags and there are chains to lockthem to. You can also lock yourbags to the supports under thebenches or put them on theground in the rest areas and lockthem to the fence. We have veryfew benches and they are alwaysin demand by people who wantto sit, so please be considerate.

We have limited space in theSkate Circle for the people whowant to join us and sometimeswe have to either find a way toaccommodate certain activitiesor ask that they are done out-side the Circle. We have givenover the lower area in the centerof the rink to dancing on footand we ask that the central areajust uphill from the baggagearea be reserved for dancing onskates. We get a few complaintsabout this arrangement, but forthe most part, it works.

This season, skaters who havetaken up hula “hooping” haveasked to be allowed to do it in theCircle. They suggested using thearea at the extreme uptown endof our space and staying close to

the barricades to keep out of theway of skaters. This arrangementturned out to be problematic,because some skaters like to circle that area next to the barri-cades and continue back into themain rink. So we asked the hoop-ers to move away from the barri-cades to leave room for skaters.

Unfortunately, the skaters wholike to use the center of that area were soon complaining thatthe hoopers were hitting themwith their hoops and making it impossible for them to skatethere freely. I proposed a compro-mise to “Dreadlock” Richard, along-time skater and adamanthooper advocate, that those whowanted to hula on skates coulddo it there and non-skatinghoopers could do their thing inthe grassy triangle just north ofthe Circle. I even offered to finda boombox for them to tune intothe CPDSA FM broadcast. Sev-eral hoopers agreed that it was a great spot and said they wouldstart hooping there.

Richard insisted that thereshould be an area within theCircle for non-skating hoopers.Last Sunday, we tried an experi-ment, pushing the barricadesback ten feet in the Northwestcorner to give hoopers morespace, so they would not inter-fere with skaters.

We hope that this extra spacewill allow us to accommodatethe needs of hoopers on wheels,without infringing on the rightsof those who want to use thelower freestyle area for skating.This is a very tough call. TheCPDSA is dedicated to danceskating to music in our littlespot in the park; we want to satisfy the needs of our skatersto be free, creative and to allowthe most fun for the most peo-ple. We don’t want to step onanyone’s toes, but where do wedraw the line?

The Skate Circle Lives!

The View from Skaters Roadby Bob Nichols

Check out these funky floor moves!

Photos © 2009 Ed’s Stride Zone

The Central Park Police have reminded us not to allow unattended bags at the SkateCircle, because they are vulnerable to being stolen. We are a close knit communityand things are fairly safeinside the Skate Circle, butthere are many non-skaterscoming through the area andthis is not a perfect world.

The police recommend thatyou do not bring valuablesinto the park. It makes senseto leave your new digital camera, video cam, palm pilot,ipod, jewelry and other expen-sive items at home; unless youintend to keep them in yourpossession at all times. Thiswill be difficult if you are skating, because we insist that skaters not try to dancein the Circle while wearingbackpacks.

Please try to keep your walletand house keys on your person

at all times - invest in a small fanny pack or a belt bagto wear around your waist.We recommend that you bringa small padlock and use it to lock your backpack to thechains attached to the benchesin the baggage area next tothe DJ booth.

If you insist on keeping yourbackpacks on the fence, pleasedo not hang the bag from thetop of the fence - lock it to thebottom of the fence - but pleaselock up your bags. It is easy to see someone rummagingthrough your bag, but if theywalk out of the Circle with it,no one will notice until it is too late.

Small bags and women’s purs-es are particularly vulnerable.Try to leave bags like that in a friend’s backpack that islocked to one of the chains in the baggage area. In an emergency, you might want

to speak to one of our skateguards about special securityarrangements inside the DJbooth. The best protection is to get into the habit of alwayslocking your bag.

We hope that by taking theseadditional precautions, no oneelse will suffer the loss of ourproperty this season. After all,we come here to play and forget our worries.

Security Guidelines 2009

Name________________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________

City____________________________ State_____ Zip________

Home or Cell Phone

Work or Cell Phone

E-mail

Contribution:

■■ $25 ■■ $50 ■■ $100 ■■ Other

■■ New Member ■■ Renewal

Please cut out this membership application and mail it,

along with your contribution, to the CPDSA address below.

You can get additional applications and more information

from our staff members at the CPDSA Skate Circle, located

mid-park at the foot of the bandshell. You can find us by

entering Central Park at 72nd street and walking along

Olmsted Way toward the center of the park. Just follow

your ears. Listen for our dance music. You can’t miss us.

Central Park Dance Skaters Association

c/o Mark Wolf320 East 46th Apt 18HNew York, NY 10017-3025

Date ____/_____ Member # _____________

CPDSA Membership Application JOIN US!

h

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Your Body: The Girls’ Guide(St. Martin’s Press)

Janis’ book is recommended by Publisher’s Weekly,Jump Magazine, and Amazon’s Top 10 Family List.Available on Amazon.com