An internet search reveals that the phrase entered popular culture in the 1894 song “The Sidewalks of New York” and has proven to be a resilient idiom. Consider the classic 1967 Procol Harum song “A Whiter Shade of Pale” which features the phrase “we skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor.”
These not so frivolous thoughts arose upon listening to the latest CD from Valmar Kurol and Michael Stibor. Their instrumental dance stylings recording, Dancing with Antarctica arrived as a pleasant surprise. As Kurol writes in the introduction to the record’s liner notes, Antarctica has not been deeply associated with either dancing or music. Hence, “in the spirit of fun”—which certainly is reflected by both Milton and Procol Harum—the duo “chose Antarctic themes and events, some serious and others less so, that [they] could illustrate with various styles of dance music that seemed to fit the stories.”
As with all of the Kurol-Stibor collaborations, the album notes add greatly to the listening experience. We learn a great deal about the frozen continent in the process, and it is also hard to keep your toes from tapping. As Stibor notes in his introduction, “we dance to stay warm, sure, but mostly we dance to celebrate being alive.”
“… explorer Richard Byrd took three Guernsey cows along on his second Antarctic expedition over 1933-35. Ostensibly, as Kurol writes, “to provide milk, but more practically, for publicity reasons.”… upon their return to the U.S., the cows became media darlings.”
Indeed. We begin the aural enjoyment with “Trip Hopping with Icebergs”; trip hop is a “loose blend of atmospheric, psychedelic electronica, with elements of hip hop, cool jazz, funk, and soul”, according to Kurol. Moving on to disco, a waltz for a ballerina, an “Irish Icedance” all the way to the ultimate cut, “Isolation Blues.” All nine tunes on the album have the unifying theme of movement and hope in a warming world.
Of these latest Antarctic musical musings two cuts stood out for this listener. “When Cows Went to Antarctica” is a light-hearted barn dance making reference to the little-known fact that polar explorer Richard Byrd took three Guernsey cows along on his second Antarctic expedition over 1933-35. Ostensibly, as Kurol writes, “to provide milk, but more practically, for publicity reasons.” Imagine that almost ninety years later. And the curiosity, that upon their return to the U.S., the cows became media darlings.
This is followed by a swinging “Warming Up with Bossa Nova”, referencing also the fact that Brazil, home of samba, the rhythmic dance that paired with jazz fostered bossa nova, maintains a permanent scientific base on the warmest and most accessible part of the Antarctic Peninsula.
For the Freds and Gingers among us: “Last Call at the Grand Ice Ballroom” is sure to conjure up the image of couples gliding across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, competing in a dance marathon. It’s an impossible image today, a reminder of what’s being lost as the dire threat of global warming alters the landscape forever.
Returning to “Isolation Blues,” the duo’s recordings have at least one cut with a soaring guitar solo by Stibor. This slow number captures what the composers intended—the blues created by not only the various shades of colour in icebergs and ice, but by the psychological effects of the isolation and darkness experienced by those, who in the name of research, winter-over in Antarctica.
Selections from this most enjoyable recording can be listened to on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. More can be found at dancingwithantarctica.com . Whether you shuffle your feet in solitude or leap about with reckless abandon, these dance numbers should invigorate even the stiffest of aging limbs.
Tõnu Naelapea
