Hyperreal

Not long back from the GUU…

Our wonderful DJ played Madison Blues especially for me, to see if I would be caught out by the false ending. Well despite what he thinks happened, I wasn’t – unfortunately my partner was. After we had talked about it too! I still think it’s evil and it was doubly evil that he played it. I’m sure me saying that will make him grin even more though.

Anyway, it was a great night. Had special guest teacher(s) tonight which was cool. Variety is good, but these teachers are just great. (I should explain, it was a couple of teachers, though only one of them teaches the class, while the other acts as a demo.)

I had no duff dances – right across the range from a beginner who’d only done three classes, up to one of the teachers. Sure, there were lots of things going wrong now and then, but I don’t let it worry me too much, though when it was appropriate I’d ask my partner if they knew what was going wrong, or could help. Some volunteer advice, which is cool too, especially if it’s someone you know, and can trust to give useful comments. So thanks to all advice givers!

Wouldn’t like to blow it out of proportion – I don’t think I’m making that many mistakes, but it’s something I’m becoming more conscious of as I try to add more musicality and style to my dances. Like a baby learning to walk, complete with lots of falling on my face (figuratively speaking.)

I was also wearing my new shoes – very slidey, very shiny, lots of admiring glances, though I didn’t point them out to so many people, and when you’re dancing you shouldn’t be looking at your partner’s shoes that often anyway. Thanks though to the folks who said such nice things.

I’ll need to figure out my suede brush as they were getting a bit too slidey towards the end of the night.

Music-wise, it was pretty good. The only song I deliberately sat out during was “All That Jazz”. Just too much work! Otherwise, all the music was good to dance to for me… Would have been good to dance to music more to my taste, but it doesn’t look like that’s ever going to happen.

Let’s talk about the class…

Beginners’ was your typical fodder. Arm-jive spin-spin, comb, step-across, basket. Our normal teacher has a fairly different style to our guest, who maybe gave greater emphasis on some of the basics of technique and movement than we’re used to. Interesting. Unfortunately I find myself pretty much going through the motions during these classes and I don’t know how easy it is for me to pick up useful advice. Still want to have a go at following in a beginners’ class to see what that can teach me!

Intermediate was different. Rather than four moves, we did only three, the first two fairly simple, and the last one rather complex. Made quite a good routine when put together, though all the new stuff in the tricky move means that it’s unlikely I’ll have much success repeating it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! What were the moves???

• Step across stutter. Like a beginners’ step across, but as you step round on right foot, stop the lady by applying tension against her right hand (need to make sure it’s a palm-palm hand-hold with palm in a good position to block – thumb down, fingers pointing away to rear, palm facing direction of your travel); step left foot forward to meet right, and another wee stutter; allow move to finish as normal. Do a travelling return, going double-handed for next move…
• Basket pull. Done this one, or something like it before. Starts as normal basket, but on the way out, still with the same low hands on girl’s hips, “project” her forward, stop her and pull her back; let go RH, get out the way(!), lead her backwards and turn to face her, holding L-R, another (travelling?) return? to re-connect R-L double hand-hold for the tricky move…
• Arm hook mambo with a twist (?) – lots of new, difficult to describe stuff here! On the step in, hook right elbow inside top of girl’s left arm – this step in works best right foot first, which means it’s better to have done a step back on right, but I find it difficult to make myself do that, but did (I think!) somehow manage to get on the right foot for this part of the move. With other hand (and maybe hooked arm?) lead the girl to turn clockwise, turning in to face her (now facing in opposite direction!) hook other arm, but let go hands and place left hand on girl’s shoulder blade. (Can do same with right hand if it’s easier.) While doing this we should find that we should already have done the left step forward of a mambo walk! Do the step back (but only a bit) and find the girl’s right foot between your own. Now twist ACW quarter-ish turn crouching down a bit so our knees sort-of inter-lock, and then back up. (I guess a different thing to do here would be to go down further and do a seducer and/or sweep???) After coming up, either do a body roll with your partner, or just mark time, placing hands to top, front of lady’s arms. Push back left (and a bit on right) to open up a little, still right arm on shoulder, but now L-R handhold. From here a simple lady’s step across back, ready for the start again!

Cool but complex! As I never seemed to get my feet in the right position for the mambo walk, the twist rarely worked. With the breakdown of the move at this point, it was difficult to recover it. This is definitely a move that needs lots of practice to perfect, but if you can, it could be so worth the effort.

The other moves… The step-across I found went well with some partners, but not so well with others. As I had no feel for how well I was executing the move, beyond that some partners had problems, I figure it was my lead that wasn’t working – I was never really convinced by my own footwork for the move. The basket pull was good, but it leaves a nagging sensation of “was that it”??? Over too quick, and the end of the move seemed to lack much impact. Felt the need for a spin or something.

Anyway, practised this basket move and most of the moves from yesterday during the freestyle. The side-to-side block thing caught out every girl I tried it with who hadn’t been to JJ’s the night before. Found I had to make sure the girl’s spare arm was up, out of the way for the block. I really like the move though – keeps the girls guessing!

Hang on… time I was in my bed! Don’t think I’ve forgotten anything important, but who knows???

Got a busy weekend ahead of me, with two or even three possible dance things to do. It’s going to be great, but I really better get some sleep!!!! (The time on these posts, if you can see it, is normally when I start editing, not when I finish. It’s now just past 1 am.)

Cheers everyone who was at the GUU tonight and made it such a great night. Especially our very cool DJ, and the fabby teachers.