I think we might have a new convert…
Tonight was the GUU class.
Which was unusual, in that there was no teacher… Un-surprise!
Instead we had an extended freestyle session. Which was good for the intermediates anyway…
Not so good for the likes of my friend I’d brought along for the very first time and didn’t have a class to do. 
Fortunately we had an excess of taxi dancers (four rather than two) and they took the beginners for an impromptu beginner’s class elsewhere.
It was quite weird going straight into freestyle without a class to warm us up – a bit like the party night in fact, and it took me a while to get into the swing of things…
As things went on I did have some good dances though. 
There were several things that I’m unhappy about in my dancing however…
I think I’m filling up my dances with too many “filler” moves – man spins, back-passes, that sort of thing – all mortar, no brick. Especially as we come to the end of the dance, and I’m having problems thinking of any more cool moves to use, reasoning that I can’t do such-and-such a move as it’ll take to long and the song might end in the middle of it…
This goes back to my thing about needing to work on the intermediate moves I’m being taught each time, but quickly forget. Which again takes me to “partner” territory, but I don’t think I need to say anything more here.
Another bad thing was that a move I’ve been using for ages has started to fall apart on me. I think what’s happened is I’ve been taught another move that overlaps with the first one somewhere in my head and so I get a single confused move which tends to always go wrong.
Slightly related, I’ve found recently that quite a few of my partners have been letting go of my left hand while going into a basket (as if it was a “Lady’s Breakthrough” part of an octopus.) I actually noticed this first during the party on Saturday with one partner in particular, but I fear now that it’s been going on for a while with quite a few dancers. I really don’t know what the problem is… 
The last thing I’ll moan about tonight is that I don’t seem to be able to lead beginners half as well as some other people. Of course, it’s simply because my lead isn’t as good, but I’m curious what’s intrinsically different. Is my lead too soft for some beginners? Or is it something else? I dunno… :?
Hopefully this goes a little way to balancing out all the praise I was indulging myself with after the party on Saturday. Maybe I am improving, but it’s a slow, slow process, and there are lots of speed-bumps.
One last thing about the freestyle… I was taught the windmill by a couple of friendly dancers. That one will get you dizzy fast 
– especially when it’s being led on you by a lady who seems to be out for revenge against all the guys who have windmilled her until she’s falling over! 
Lots of good music, though I sat out quite a few… either just plain tired, or chatting with my friend. Talking of which…
My friend, despite “just wanting to go home” when she heard the class had been cancelled, stayed, went off with the taxis, and came back a dancer! She was very unsure at first, but after a dance with me, and a good few other sympathetic guys, she seemed to me to be much happier.
She still doubts her ability to become a good dancer, but I was impressed at her ability after only one sort-of class. She’s talking about coming to Jumpin’ Jacks next week, so I think we might just have a new convert!
All we got to do now is find a class for her to go to near Grangemouth, where she’s moving in a few weeks’ time.
And I think that’s all I’ve got to say about tonight.
Happy Dancing! 
danielle said,
August 25, 2005 @ 12:47 pm
who ever were you talking about?
Jo said,
August 25, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
Stirling must be the closest Ceroc to Grangemouth isn’t it? (I went there for freestyle this week again and had another great night…)
ducasi said,
August 25, 2005 @ 11:23 pm
Danielle… Sorry, I was too dizzy to remember!
Jo… Yep, Stirling was what we figured… Might be a (hushed tones) LeRoc alternate somewhere around about there too.
Although she didn’t turn up to either of my two usual haunts this week, I’m still hopeful for her.
Graham said,
August 26, 2005 @ 9:36 am
I notice that you’re talking about running out of moves and also that some of your basic moves seem to be going wrong. Three things occur to me - firstly, it could be that you are beginning to think ahead more, and in doing so have stopped concentrating on what you’re doing at the moment, secondly it could be that it’s always been a problem but you’ve only just noticed, and thirdly it could just be that you have grown out of some bad habit which was masking this problem.
One of the things I notice is that if I’m undecided between two moves, I will often unintentionally do something which is “in between”. It’s difficult to think of a real example, but if you can imagine mixing a shoulder slide and a step-across and hitting yourself in the head you’ll get the idea. The same thing sometimes happens if I’m thinking of what move to do next - your body unconsciously starts performing the next move instead of the current one.
As your dancing evolves, you are constantly becoming aware of new subtleties. Sometimes you realise that something you do is wrong, and that it must have been wrong the whole time, since you haven’t changed anything. You can’t understand why you never noticed before, but often it’s to do with anticipation in your partners. For example, it could be that you’ve always been a bit wishy-washy in a basket, but until recently your partners all realised it was going to be a basket and went into the right position anyway. Now perhaps you’ve added some other similar move to your repertoire and they’re no longer “helping” you so much.
Alternatively, it could be that you’ve been training yourself out of some bad habit which was stopping the problem - for example if someone tended to grip on to their partner’s hands, then when they managed to stop doing this they could easily go to a hold which was too loose, and start having problems letting go when they didn’t want to.