Hyperreal

Another good night at JJ’s.

I arrived a little late, missed most of the Ceroc Essentials, but was good to go for the beginners’ class. First move push spin, yo-yo, comb, step across. Good fun! Got a few good dancers, and a few really new dancers that I was really struggling with. I wonder why they so often want to spin or turn the wrong way from where I’m trying to lead them, no matter how awkward it is. I try to make my lead a little less subtle, but it can’t be working…

Freestyle is good. I’m still not getting the variety I want in my dancing – still too many first moves and yo-yos. I tried in one dance to severely limit the number of these moves, and I didn’t do so bad, though instead it was lots of octopuses and baskets. At least I know a few basket variations, so it wasn’t so bad.

On to the intermediate class. I really liked the moves we did tonight. So, here we go…

• A sway variation where you turn the girl round stepping back as she goes into the sway. Then forward for a two-handed turn, step back.
• Into a two-handed yo-yo variation. Actually I think the yo-yo bit was fairly standard, but it led into a lean, and finished with a right-to-left slide away, and wrap in, much like the side to side shoulders variation I’ve been having problems leading. This has helped that.
• From there into a half-octopus, stepping backward around for a bit and into a turny-spiny thing, caught with the right hand and straight into the sway…

There was very few problems for me with these moves tonight. I feel good about that. The biggest problem is me forgetting what I’m trying to do half way through the sequence of moves. I’ve always had this problem though.

I like these cross-over hands, and double hand turns. Seen so many moves involving that kind of thing, but never had a clue how they work. Now I do. Neat.

Second freestyle went quite well too. Got more adventurous and asked some girls I hadn’t asked before to dance, rather than sticking to the usual suspects. Was rewarded by one of the girls asking me back (with was really great for my tender male ego.) In fact, I got asked more than before, so I guess I’m getting to be known by people as a friendly face, if not a fantastic dancer.

A few of my partners were quite difficult for me. I enjoyed these dances, but I came off the floor feeling floored. They were just a bit too exuberant for me. I’m quite a wee guy, and some women are simply just bigger than me – taller, larger frame, that kind of thing – I don’t mean over-weight. And so if these women are putting their heart and soul into their dancing, things can get a bit messy. Fun, sure, but messy fun.

In the past I’ve been shown a few ways to rein in exuberant dancers, without really being aware of what the problem was. Now I’ve realised, I get to apply this knowledge. It’s hard to enjoy a dance though if you’re always trying to close it down and control it. I don’t know what else to do, and I don’t want to turn these women down, as they do give you a fun dance.

So I met some nice people, danced with nice people, chatted with nice people, listened to good music. Synergy brought it all together into a great night. Thanks everyone!

One negative point. The bar-man was a bit off. Unhelpful, though not quite rude. But totally charmless. Anyone else agree?

I’d like to finish up this post by saying that, again, I’m thinking a “partner” would be useful to help me learn these intermediate moves. I’ve found that from one week to the next I’ve usually forgotten all the moves we did and there is no time during the class to practice moves you’re not totally sure about. It’d be good to find someone with about the same level of experience who attends the same class who’d like to get together maybe once a week, typically at the weekend so we can practice the moves we’ve just learnt and also maybe try out moves we’ve seen somewhere.

I’d be interested in anyone’s point of view on this.

Cheers guys!

(and remember to leave a comment – just hit the “comments” link below…)