Hyperreal

Hi everybody!

Well tonight I did my first Intermediate class! Woo!!!!

And although I didn’t do too bad (if I say so myself ) I don’t think I’m quite ready to drop the handle of “advanced beginner”. :nice:

But I’m rushing ahead! The night begins with the beginners’ class.

This was quite good. You know, it’s funny but I’m not sure I can remember the moves we did… Let’s see… catapult, back-pass, first move (I think?), then side-to-side (let go). Someone correct me if I’m wrong. :blush:

I really like both the catapult and the side-to-side let go - they’re fun!

During the first freestyle I (you’ll be glad to hear) danced most of the time. I went to grab some water during the first track, and might have been back for some more later, but the rest of the time I think I was dancing. It’s all a bit of a blur. :confused:

Overall I think it didn’t go too bad. There were probably fewer times when I was stuck for something to do next, though it did happen a few times.

But more of that later - let’s get onto the meat… The intermediate class.

I had hoped that maybe our fabby teacher might have chosen a slightly easier routine knowing that I might be there. :flower: No such luck! :tears:

I can’t remember all the different moves we did but I’ll try to describe them and I’d appreciate if someone who was there might clue me in.

So here we go…

1. Basket something unwrap?? You go into a basket but you let go left and unwrap the lady round to behind where you were, then you spin her back across behind you. This wasn’t so bad. I could pretty-much do this one.
2. First move something something?? Start with a first move but turn round to face lady and turn (spin?) her, then bring her round into a bit of a dip (or was it a lean??) back up and step back.
3. We stuck an Octopus in here to give us a break before going into the next move…
4. No idea what this is called. It starts with a basket-style wrap, but then you walk round the lady doing clever things with your arms so that she end up facing away from you at which point you can unwrap her round acw for one and a half turns. I initially had trouble with this move, as I think many people did - so I didn’t feel so bad. The teacher said that for people just starting out as intermediates it’s quite a tricky move to do. I think I got it in the end though. And this is one cool move, btw, definitely one to keep. :waycool:
5. We finished off with a slow man spin I think. Not good at slow. Not good at the spin at the end of this move either.

And that was it! Watching the general carnage around me from time to time it was good to know I wasn’t the only one struggling with some of the moves. In the end though, I think most people got it.

I struggled in a few places…

• Between the first two moves somehow I was meant to get the lady into a first-move hold without allowing the step-back, step-in bit. Never quite got this.
• The lean/dip thing. The main problem here wasn’t so-much the actual dip (which I didn’t have much of a clue about,) it was all the stuff just before that that meant I was rarely ready for it.
• The slow man spin - never really knew what I was doing through the slow part of this move. Didn’t really figure out how to switch hands to hold with the right while the lady walked round me. :confused:

And then it was over!!! Relief!!! :clap:

After, into the freestyle, I probably danced maybe as much as during the first one. Again, bit of a blur. My first dance was with a girl who had just the week before done her first intermediate as the lead. She had gone back to following this week - she said it was easier. It went quite well - we tried to do the routine a few times, but then I fell back on my trusty collection of beginner moves, throwing in one or two of the moves I could do from the intermediate class occasionally. I probably danced another 5 or 6 songs, maybe with four different partners, again, mixing mainly beginner moves with the odd (very odd?) extra fancy move.

I had a great time, though it wasn’t in any sense effortless. There were a few things that kept tripping me up (metaphorically speaking! :na: ) beyond my usual issues of losing the place mid-dance.

I found that often my yo-yo would go wrong with the girl letting go and spinning rather than stopping for me to pull her back round. I tried a stronger grip - this seemed to help! :nice:

I also found more than one partner misinterpreting a standard return as maybe a travelling return or even the start of a catapult (or who knows???). I’m not entirely sure what was going wrong, and so I’ve no idea why this was happening. I thought my returns should have been fairly well led by now. Maybe it was because the move the girl thought she was being led into was more natural at that point. I really don’t know. :confused:

I was pretty beat by this stage, and so based on the old adage, “always leave ‘em wanting more,” I left before I had managed to dance with everyone that I had promised dances to (or that I had wanted to dance with.) There’s always next week!

So, overall, a good night. Beginners’ class went reasonably smoothly. I went to my first intermediate class and managed to get through it - and learn some moves. I danced a whole lot more than previous weeks. I danced with some people I hadn’t before, whom I’ll hopefully be able to dance with again. I met some of the folks from the workshop, danced with a few and enjoyed the feeling of a shared experience.

I don’t know if I impressed anyone else, but I’ve impressed myself.

So once again, thanks to all the ladies I had the pleasure to dance with, (and I don’t think there were any where it wasn’t a pleasure!) Respect to the DJ - played some great tunes, (some of which I can even remember this week!) And thanks to the teacher and taxi dancers - you guys rule.

Cheers!