Dancing

About 60 people of various ages are noisily stomping, clapping, and twirling at a school in North Hills. It's not some strange ritual, but an Appalachian clog-dancing class. "It's my favorite thing," said homemaker Diane Kaisanlahti, one of the enthusiastic students. "I'd even miss Roseanne's show (for it)." The class is taught by Walt Spellmeyer and his wife Helen, who first became hooked on the dance form after they saw a group of cloggers at a Rock-a-thon picnic in 1980.

Sergia Anderson climbed high up a pole as Bjork's "Hyperballad" blasted through Circus Disco, a West Hollywood nightclub. Spinning and twirling, legs straight and toes pointed, she hung perpendicular to the ceiling, holding the pole with just her hands. Anderson then dropped quickly, catching herself just inches above the floor. The crowd gasped, then applauded. So goes the National Aerial Pole Art Championship, in which 10 amateur pole dancers and 16 professionals competed on April 7. The stage included two floor-to-ceiling poles -- one that spun and one static -- against a glittery backdrop for competitors.

"100 Beautiful Girls!" beckoned the blinking marquee at the downtown dance hall. Inside, however, as Latin rhythms blared from the dance floor, only a smattering of hostesses could be seen entertaining their customers at the soft-drink bar. Dating back decades to the dime-a-dance era, clubs like this one have come to cater to a primarily Latino clientele and to depend on the illegal immigrant work force for their hostesses.

Almost before he had taken his last spin, there was a video posted on YouTube of Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White break dancing in front of hundreds of appreciative students at the Dominguez Hills campus. It follows the video of him doing the Harlem Shake with students at Cal State East Bay in February and considering - but deciding against - climbing a rock wall at Cal State Sacramento in March. White came to Dominguez Hills on Tuesday as part of his promise to visit all 23 Cal State campuses during his first year on the job. So far he's been a big hit, approaching students in food courts and classrooms to hear their stories and ask whether they are supported and challenged and familiarizing himself with the larger campus community.

A half dozen singers and dancers from Fiji's Conservancy of Music are performing at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, the lively exhibit was drawing healthy crowds and serving the traditional kava, a non-alcoholic drink made from the root of the pepper tree. In Fiji, it's used as medicine, and also to mark important occasions, such as weddings, or a new tribal chief. Also, ask about a “tapa, a piece of Fijian artwork.

The adage that "the show must go on" applies as much to ballet as it does to Broadway. Rayna, the leader and lead dancer of Rayna's Spanish Ballet, was in an automobile accident about a week before her scheduled performances at SDSU's Studio Theatre, but she was on stage Friday and Saturday, doing a flamenco that seemed more intent on cracking a couple of ribs than nursing them.

Emmitt Smith was the first athlete to win "Dancing With the Stars. " That was in Season 3, after Jerry Rice finished second in Season 2 to Drew Lachey, the less famous but maybe more talented younger brother of singer Nick Lachey (who used to hang out with USC quarterback Matt Leinart, but that's a whole other reality show). Since then, four other athletes have won the mirror-ball trophy given to the winning couple and, counting Pittsburgh Steelers great Hines Ward on Monday night, 12 have made it to the final three.

"Jubilee!" has a cast of about 100, most of them dancers. Each dancer has a six-month, renewable contract and has to re-audition; about 10% of the company turns over twice a year. The money isn't much -- salaries average just over $30,000 a year -- but the job offers vacation and health benefits, prized commodities among the non-union productions on the Strip. But talk to cast members and you find it's about the opportunity to actually dance.

The Times is pleased to have tennis legend Martina Navratilova guest-blogging for us while she competes on " Dancing With the Stars . " Today, Navratilova answers a few questions from Karen Chaderjian and gives some insight into the competition. Here are Navratilova's thoughts, which she offered via email. Q: You had a very indefatigable response immediately after the disappointment Monday night, saying, "You just pick yourself up and dust yourself off. " What would you compare this experience to?

For one week at least, Donny Osmond was a big-time television star again. Osmond's victorious turn on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" was Thanksgiving week's most popular prime-time TV program, narrowly beating CBS' "NCIS." The "Dancing" results show came in third, the Nielsen Co. said Wednesday. Osmond is familiar with the prime-time television world, having hosted a variety show with his sister, Marie, three decades ago. Still, with an audience of 19.29 million viewers, it was the lowest fall finale for the dancing competition, down 7% from a year ago. The 2006 fall finale averaged 27.52 million viewers.

It's been just over 50 years since a new dance craze called the Twist swept the nation. Though tame as near-beer by today's standards, the dance so upset the guardians of public morality that Dick Clark ordered the cameras turned away when teens on "American Bandstand" started swiveling their hips. And when adults such as Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys took up the craze, the New York Times fumed that "instead of youth growing up, adults are sliding down. " In the Twist, one could see the seeds of everything that became the '60s - sexual liberation, civil rights, even the women's movement got a boost by allowing girls to operate as free agents on the dance floor instead of being attached to shambling males.

Charles McKay makes a detailed spreadsheet of the authors he wants to hear during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, typing in his first and second choices and getting tickets ahead of time. Jerry Oborn, from San Diego, said she goes about it another way: "I just wander around. " But McKay and Oborn both said they finish the festival the same way - with a long list of new books to read. "It takes us months to get through all these books by authors who inspired us," said McKay, who lives in the South Bay. McKay and Oborn were among the 150,000 people expected to attend The Times' 18th annual book festival, being held this weekend at USC. In clear, hot weather Saturday, visitors listened to poetry, watched cooking sessions, danced to local bands and shopped at dozens of makeshift bookstores.

Like many high school seniors about this time of year, Mareshia Rucker and Stephanie Sinnott ooh and aah over gowns with heart-shaped bodices and jewel-encrusted necklines. Yet the ritual of picking a prom dress is little more than an afterthought for these teens, amid all the pressure of organizing their county's first integrated prom. Rucker is black and Sinnott is white. More than 40 years after the Supreme Court ordered school integration, the two classmates are pushing one of south-central Georgia's slowest-moving counties to overturn a long-standing tradition of segregated proms.

If Edward Hopper's painting "Nighthawks" had been set in a splashy speak-easy, it might have come to life as Kyle Abraham's ebullient work "Another Night. " One of four pieces performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on Thursday during its five-day run at the Music Center, this study in controlled freneticism was a mashing of sexual energy, amped-up Lindy Hopping and jitterbugging, and rampant athleticism. Set to Dizzy Gillespie's enticing "A Night In Tunisia," this 2012 work for 10 dancers - Abraham's first Ailey commission - was led by the powerhouse duo of Jacqueline Green and Jamar Roberts.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has long bedecked its ensemble in suits (the jazz crowd in "For Bird - With Love") and took a recent turn with androgynous menswear (Camille A. Brown's "The Evolution of a Secured Feminine"). Yet in previous incarnations, these fitted jackets and rakish hats have been of a jazzy, romantic stripe, spurring angled moves and scurrying feet. One imagines a crafty urban vernacular born from fast pedestrians, tight corridors and dizzying heights. Those speedy, showy creatures of past Ailey seasons bore no resemblance to the crumpled, besuited unisex ensemble that came to life Wednesday night at the Music Center premiere of "Minus 16" (1999)

A stripper is recovering from a gunshot wound after a male customer who made advances toward her shot her when she rejected him, police said. About 7:30 p.m. shots rang out at the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club in Rialto when a 46-year-old customer was turned down after making several passes on the dancer, said Rialto police Capt. Randy De Anda. The man shot the stripper then turned the high-powered semiautomatic handgun on himself, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Times is pleased to have Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones guest-blogging for us while he competes on "Dancing With the Stars. " Each week while he competes on the show, Jones will answer a few questions from Sports Now editor Houston Mitchell and give some insight into the competition. Here are Jones' thoughts about Week 4, which he offered via email.   Q. Your son obviously means a great deal to you. How has having a child changed your life? It's really a blessing.

What is it about athletes and "Dancing with the Stars?" In the season premiere Monday night, Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver joined a long list of athletes who made themselves the immediate favorite to win the competition with a sensational first dance. Driver and his partner, Peta Murgatroyd, danced a cha cha Monday night that, while technically not the best, had the crowd on its feet for a standing ovation when the dance was over. Driver's smile and charisma overpowered any technical problems as even the judges were impressed with his style.

"Floor of the Forest," a retrospective dance performance celebrating the work of Trisha Brown, will come to life as dancers weave their way through a steel-and-rope sculpture draped in clothing. The dancers move through the apparatus by slipping into and out of the clothes, without touching the ground. The piece was first performed in 1970 by Brown and Carmen Beuchat in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. The Hammer Museum courtyard, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Thu. and Fri., and noon, 2 and 4 Sat. and Sun. Free.

A man who was spurned by a stripper during a private lap dance at a Rialto club shot the woman and then turned his high-powered semiautomatic handgun on himself, police said Thursday. The 46-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene at the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club and the woman was in stable condition, the Rialto Police Department said. She was shot in the head. The shooting occurred in a private lap dance room at the club Monday shortly before 7:30 p.m., Capt. Randy De Anda said.