Hyperreal

Oops! late again!

Tonight was the GUU, and I was a good 40 minutes late. I had slept in!

I was really tired from dancing last night and hadn’t got much sleep, so when I got home from work I had a quick bite to eat then flaked out on my bed – for about an hour. Except that the hour turned into almost two!

This had two consequences. I had creased the t-shirt I was going to wear by sleeping in it, so I decided to wear my “sorry I’m single” iron-burn t-shirt as an ironic comment on all the other t-shirts I would have worn had they been ironed. (Hey, I thought it was funny!) No-one commented on it though.

The other consequence was that if I had turned up on time I might have been the demo for the beginner’s class! That wasn’t a sure thing, but it’d have been cool anyways.

So, the beginner’s class of which I missed half was arm-jive swizzle, basket, shoulder drop, catapult. All cool stuff. There were lots of new beginners tonight, and lots of them were men. I’m sure the girls will be cheering that!

Intermediate class was…

• basket something-or-other – start off with the basket, on the way out stop the girl – this induces a sort-of catapult-kind-of lean then move to the girls left, lifting her hands up, turn clockwise in front of her to bring her hands onto your shoulders, with her behind you. wiggle-wiggle. Then drop the hands into a double catapult hold.
• catapult double handed turn. (I’m making these names up as I can’t remember what they might really be called.) From the catapult position, bring the lady round but don’t spin her – just turn her. As she come round go double-handed for a two-handed return.
• two-handed yo-yo something something. I wish I could remember these somethings! So, two handed yo-yo, but after the turn (or was it the return?) bring both near arms over heads, facing same way, and walk round for two beats. This bit has a special name – anyone know it? Please? I’ve no idea how to explain the next bit, but it involved letting go with the right behind the girl’s head and then finding her right hand again in front of her to pull her through for a sort-of step-across move.
• finish with a slow comb to get onto a two-handed hold for the basket.

I could do most of this, except the bit I found hard to explain – hardly any wonder I found it hard to do too! I already can do a fairly convincing two-handed yo-yo, and I do an occasional comb – I’m just too shy to do them much. The catapult variation is nice, but it’s actually very difficult (for me) to get my partners not to just do the spin when I’m trying to hold on and do a turn. The basket thingy is just too long and involved for me.

So, freestyle was good. Lots of good music, lots of good dancers, lots of girls asking me to dance.

There were a few folks down from Stirling for the night – and maybe from other parts, as there were quite a few good dancers I didn’t recognise. Also with all the beginners the dance floor was very busy at the start of the freestyle. It got less busy after a wee while though – I reckon the beginners had had enough by that point.

I didn’t do any of tonight’s moves beyond a few two-handed yo-yos, though I tried doing the catapult variation once (and got a spin.) Tried a couple of Tuesday’s moves though – the first move double turn, and the shoulder blade thing. In both cases I only did the moves once rather than the double move we were taught. Good to throw in now and then though.

Best news of the night was I have a partner for the baby aerials workshop on Saturday!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!! I won’t name the girl foolhardy enough to put her life in my hands, but I think she’s going to be great. She’s apparently done at least one of these workshops before, so hopefully she’ll be able to keep me straight. Just hope I don’t drop her!

So, really great night! Thanks to the whole wide world for being in just perfect alignment for me! (Do you think that’s a bit over the top? )

Roll on Saturday!!!!