Hyperreal

Another Wednesday, another night at the GUU.

It was a funny night in many ways. Let me explain…

We were in the downstairs hall, so it’s nice and roomy, but it did seem the numbers were down a little – heat and holidays might explain this. During the beginners’ class there were never more than 6 or 7 to move on. This is much lower than normal. And in the intermediate class there were no spare women!!!! Let me repeat that – no spare women!!!!!

As a result Mairi thought it would be fun to move the guys on instead of the girls. That was a bit weird. All that walking! All that counting! (Up to, um… 1.) It must explain my physical and mental exhaustion!

Well that’s my excuse!

Anyway, before we go any further… beginner’s moves: arm-jive push spin, yo-yo, shoulder drop, side-to-side shoulders. Some nice moves there!

Intermediate moves…

• Um… Catapult man-wrap walk round spin?? Starts the same as a catapult, but turn to face woman wrapping self in anti-clockwise with right hand behind back. Lead girl with left hand on her upper arm for a couple of paces round. Unwrap to face and prepare to spin lady. Spin! And return.
• Secret? Hatchback something… Starts with a hatchback/yo-yo with left hand offered behind. After twist out, girl takes spare hand… lead her across into catapult exit position… Turn and return.
• Archie spin!
• Side-to-side shoulders flamenco. Let go on exit, trail left hand over her back, catch left to left, facing opposite directions. Pull her across and step back into a flamenco position, step round a couple of times, undo into a double-handed turn and return. Drop the left-left hold.

Some really good moves tonight. Archie spin is my total favourite of the night. I think I was at my first intermediate class when I was first taught this move. What with it all being new to me, the weird signal/preparation, and the risk of injury, I never dared to try it out. This time I wasn’t going to let the opportunity go by – it’s a really cool move.

The others I could do, but the first one involved me having to turn about too fast, and just made me dizzy. I like the side-to-side flamenco and hope to remember it to try it on women who don’t know it to see how easy it is to lead.

Freestyle was also weird. I just felt so tired, both physically and mentally. I switched into auto-pilot for most of the first few dances and couldn’t have been a great partner. I chose to sit out much more dances than I normally would, just taking time to recover and see if I could pull myself together. I even considered refusing dances if asked. Fortunately I was allowed to relax and slowly I began to wake up and the moves began to flow, I started thinking and using different moves. Much better.

So I got to do a few Archie spins – first one was a bit hesitant, but once I knew I could do them in freestyle they flowed much better. I tried the other moves I liked from the class, and found problems leading the hatchback one (usually the girl wouldn’t see my hand to grab hold of it.) Also tried the butterfly thing from Tuesday, though I didn’t really get the lead right.

Managed to get stabbed twice when doing my improvised right-handed shoulder slide that I’ve grown attached to. Seems if the girl isn’t expecting it her hand will end up embedded in my neck. Need to be more careful with this move… :?

So, a slow start, but the marvellous dancers who insisted I dance with them brought me to life. One of the ladies who now beats me at knowing the right thing to say helped especially. Thanks ladies!

Got an unconventional offer to dance tonight… bash on head “Let’s go!” How can you refuse such an offer?

I’m sure other stuff happened tonight, but my brain is shutting down. Anyone want to remind me???

Oh, Ceroc Jock was there. Congratulations again to you and your wife. Now get a good night’s sleep, it’ll be the last one for a while!