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Amenities Active Retirement for Active People Dominican Oaks offers all inclusive living with 3 homecooked meals, weekly housekeeping and laundry services, activities and local transportation options. Our activity calendar is robust with a variety of physical & cognitive exercises, social events, support groups and cultural enrichment. Dominican Oaks is also a supporter of the local community attending the lo cal museums, theatre, symphony and events. Meals are homecooked with fresh ingredients and feature daily specials. Residents receive restaurant style service. Schedule a tour today! (831) 462-6257 www.DominicanOaks.com Lifestyle Our goal at Dominican Oaks is to give you back time in your day. We take care of the cooking, cleaning, yard work and chores, providing you with more time to spend doing what you love with who you love. Our 1 and 2 bedroom units come with kitchens, private patio and a parking space. The community features multiple beautifully landscaped outdoor courtyards plus a resident garden, pool hall, library lounge, salon and more. Lic# 440708773 "What Santa Cruz Needs – A Brand Swing Dance Move" In my recent visit to St. Louis, I learned the famous St. Louis Shag Swing dance move. Amidst my trip's primary purpose-- visiting St. Lou- is' world-renowned Medi- cal Center then famed The Gateway Arch, I relished my adventurous search for the famed dance move, and the dance scene that surely thrived around it. I was not disappointed. My jump into this delight- ful extra stratum of culture really topped off my visit to that great city. From this, I sadly real- ized that we here in Santa Cruz are lacking such an important branding. We have no famous Santa Cruz swing dance move! So many other cities have one. Why not us? Especially for this most American of dances, the epitome of expressing our American spirit of free- dom, creativity and well, just gosh darned bouncy fun. Swing dancing's fame began, of course in Har- lem's Savoy Ballroom --ground zero venue for the birth of Lindy Hop, the mother dance of the entire family of Swing dances that roared across America, and the globe, in the past century (though the Afr- can-American innova- tors were still not given nearly enough credit for this, and a lot of other cultural contributions, so let's change that). Still, that particular ballroom had credit for its own "Savoy Style" of Swing. Soon other cities added their unique flair: - Charleston, South Car- olina: "The Charleston" - Myrtle Beach "Caroli- na Shag" - St. Louis "St. Louis Shag" - New York City: "The Big Apple" - Washington DC: "Hand Dance" - San Diego's Balboa Park: The Balboa - Whoa Nellie! Even Missoula Montana has its "Missoula Roll" swing move. - San Francisco: "The Texas Tommy" --sadly, a missed opportunity in Swing dance branding. Let's not make THAT same mistake. Soooo… we Santa Cru- zans have been asleep at the Swing wheel, neglect- ing our swing opportunity for fame. Admittedly, we are included in the region- al West Coast Swing. But c'mon Cruzans, we are unique and vibrant enough to deserve our very own signature move! Only ours will be mari- nated in a brine of beach, banana slugs, redwood trees, The Boardwalk, and a swirling host of Monte- rey Bay wildlife. So what could encapsu- late all that into a simple, pride-filled Swing dance move? Hold on. I've been working on it. Still smoothing out the kinks, but what I've got so far is an adaptation (hey, no griping-- we all borrow) a combo of The Surfer Stomp (from 1962 Surf movies, turn by Bud- dy Schwimmer into the world standard ballroom NightClub Two-Step), and the line dance "Cruzin' " (thanks to my dance buddy Mike) based on latin Cha-Cha, and with my Irish cre- ativity, morphing it into Afro-American originated Swing, danced to "Surfing USA" features our own city in the lineup of best surf spots by the best boy band EVER The Beach Boys (take that BTS), So naturally it becomes (drumroll please) "The Santa Cruzin' " (deep bass voice) Yeah- hhhhhh! From deepest ocean depths to farthest "Far Out" outer space, from banana slug filled redwood forests, to craziest surf rides. With a forward-back, side-to- side pattern, then a wild figure-8 grapevine with big swinging arms to mim- ick a crazy surf ride— this Swing move has got the essence of all that is good in our city. So come down to dance The Santa Cruzin' with our Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing, Santa Cruz Swingout on the wharf, and any Swing dancing you can find. Let's celebrate our city in Swing, dancing our way together into our rightful place in Swing Dance history. By Peggy Pollard, Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing www.peggy- dance.weebly.com Adobe Stock photo

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