Hyperreal

Been to JJ’s tonight, but it wasn’t so good.

I’ve got a sore ankle. Not sure how… Think it was from practicing spins in my trainers…

So I didn’t dance as much and stopped asking for dances half way through the night. Danced with ladies who asked though…

I’m sure it’ll be fine… it doesn’t really hurt so much as it just doesn’t like it when I put it under stress. Was planning on taking Wednesday off from dancing this week anyway to prepare for my Grand Tour, so I’ll be able to rest it for a couple of days.

So, apart from that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?

Some good moves tonight… Bit of a blues theme…

• Yo-yo into blues position #2. Start as yo-yo, but rather than turning to face, step back (turning 90º) on right to bring the girl right round into a sort-of sway position, but in front and to your right rather than just to your right. There should be contact with your right hand, arm and shoulder, and outside of right thigh to lead the girl into a few left-right sways, slow or fast. The left hand can pick up the girl’s left to help lead, or add style or whatever. By leading back into your body on this L-L hold, you indicate to the girl you’re about to lead her out into a crossed hands face-to-face hold.
• Lady’s shower of combs. Lead girl in and comb with upper hand, letting go, then other hand, letting go; and if you use your spare hand to catch the girl’s spare hand again, you can keep going forever. Alternatively, you can lead a step-back from a hand-hold, or from the hip. (We did if from the hip with left hand to get L-R hand-hold.)
• Half pretzel. Tonight’s classic move. Signal right hand behind in nelson, lead girl to left, she takes spare hand; lead her behind you, raising right and lowering left … then I can’t quite remember, but it ends we’re facing the other way, right to left and we use a spin to go back to right-to-right.

Took a while before the blues move felt at all smooth. Varied a lot with the partner – e.g., with one, she always wanted to step forward to end up in front of me rather than front and side. Also, the lead out could be tricky. I think the biggest problem here was a level of anticipation in the swaying into the exit by many of the girls which led to a messy move. But the basic problem was mine – I wasn’t leading it well. Didn’t do this move in freestyle.

Did the comb a few times, but not much. It’s quite nice, but a bit cheesy. At least one girl in the class did not like it at all. Though I think she was concerned about sleazy guys and said my combs were good. As I hardly ever do combs anyway, I’m not sure how much this move will get used. I really should try a few close moves sometimes.

The half-pretzel, although I can’t remember it now, I could do fine in the class. Again, I did it a few times during freestyle, but not much.

My dancing performance was way down tonight. I was tired, I was wearing my trainers, and I had a gimpy ankle.

Not my best night, but still had fun. Cheers guys!!!

As I said, I’m off on my Grand Tour on Thursday… I don’t know how much time I’ll have to keep my blog up-to-date while I’m out travelling, but I’ll try my best. Wish me luck!