Hyperreal

Not long back from a really good weekend away that included a wee trip up to Inverness.

Why Inverness? Because that’s the newest place in Scotland to experience Ceroc, with a new class night starting at the beginning of September. And as a run-up to it, Franck is running a couple of workshop and “party” class days. I went along with a couple of girls to help out – we were all guys together though most of the time, helping to balance the numbers.

We had a great time! The beginner’s workshop was really good. Almost all the beginners were first-timers, and so it was pretty much all from first principles. I really liked the emphasis Franck put on dancing, rather than moves. I feel that if I had had this particular workshop at the start of my dancing, I’d have been able to survive a freestyle dance much, much earlier than was the case. (Almost 2 months, if I recall correctly.)

While I’m not really a beginner anymore (though when I watch Franck dance, I think I really know nothing) I learned lots of useful stuff. Dancers of many more years experience tell me that every workshop they do teaches them something. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to take part.

Besides positive useful things, I learnt some more negative things. Things about me. Mostly I learnt that I have a lot to learn. I don’t need to beat myself up in public, but I’ve certainly got things I need to think about.

We had a break for a while between the workshop and the party/class, but I missed the opportunity to explore Inverness a little. I haven’t been in Inverness literally in decades and it really was a new experience for me. I have clouded memories of Inverness being a dull, boring place, but what I did see yesterday impressed me. I’d love to go back, maybe stay overnight and explore it a little.

Back to the party/class… In the evening as many of the workshop participants as could make it, plus a few new women turned up. The format was more like a class night, with two beginner’s classes, but it was more casual and relaxed than a typical class. We all had a lot of fun, with lots of laughs.

It was such a pleasure dancing with these ladies who at the start of the day knew nothing about Ceroc dancing – two or three of them did really really well and had no bother following my (needs improving) lead of a few other beginner’s moves I tried with them. (Of course, Franck had them all looking like they’d been dancing for years. )

If I’m allowed one gripe about the beginners, it would be that too many of them would grip on to my hand, on more than one occasion hurting me during a move. I always told my partners when they had too tight a grip (almost all the time if a hand-hold can be called a “grip”, it’s too tight) but it rarely made much of a difference. From experience I know this is very common amongst beginners, and almost always disappears as they improve, but I wonder if there’s anything else I can say or do to help… :?

As for dancing with the non-beginners – that was really great. I got to practice a couple of new moves I’ve been wanting to improve and had a really good time. Hopefully any of the beginners who may have been watching were inspired, though, again, I was left in the dust compared to Franck and Sheena’s demonstration freestyle dance. Truly awesome.

After the night was over, we stopped in the bar of the venue for a bar for a bit of chilling and chatting. The whole venue was really great (though I thought the dance-floor could have been a bit more slippy) but the bar was simply incredible. Best hotel bar I’ve ever seen. If you’re in the neighbourhood, check it out.

Just want to thank Franck for allowing us to come and help out, and Sheena just for being so fab.

Thanks also to the others in the “crew”, helping out. And to the ladies for the lovely dances.