Hyperreal

Glasgow party last night… Intermediate workshop today.

Result: very tired boy.

After Rutherglen on Thursday, and knowing I had this weekend to look forward to I took Friday night off. Saturday was spent tidying my flat and washing clothes after my wee holiday… But I had the night to look forward to… Party time!!!

The party was, as usual, just fantastic. We are really spoilt with the location, the dancers and the music. Oh – and the teacher!

I arrived just in time to take part in the “fun” class – I had just missed the arm-jive swizzle, which as a beginner move I’ve got pretty much sorted. This led, with a clever bit of turning, straight into a basket position and wiggle, with the girl directly in front of me, rather that to the side. I think we just did a fairly simple turn out to go into a first move variation. The variation was when bringing the girl back in, rather than taking LH to shoulder, lead further out in order to do a faster double anti-clockwise turn. I think then on the second turn go double-handed for the arm-jive…

Might have missed something out there… Was too tired to write this up last night, and wanted to get a good night’s sleep for today’s workshop.

Once we got into the freestyle, because I was trying to conserve my energy I figured I’d deliberately sit out the songs I didn’t like, unless I was asked. Unfortunately, the music, the dancers, and the whole mood conspired against me to make me keep dancing.

It’s funny how much your dancing can evolve over a night. As ever I started weak, not doing many unusual move, keeping well within my safe zone. By about midnight, three hours later I was remembering moves I’m not even sure I’ve been taught, and having to improvise clever things when I made mistakes.

If there’s one thing that really raises my standard though, if the combination of the right music and the right partner. Last night it was “Fever”. Fab dance, which just worked so well for me, and (I think) for my partner. I actually felt like I could really dance then.

That’s not to belittle the other fab dances I had. Had great dances with a wide range of dancers, though there’ll no doubt been at least one duff dance with someone probably better than me. Vast majority I enjoyed every second of.

I stayed to the end – though here’s something to puzzle over… I think I gave three different ladies’ their last dance of the night.

So, another brilliant Glasgow party, even though the numbers seemed down a bit from normal – I guess it’s a result of the comps last weekend, plus Southport being next weekend…

That was last night… On to today…

It was an early start for me this morning for my first Intermediate workshop down at the GUU.

The numbers were just about right for me. Four couples, plus teacher and demo, with no-one having to sit out. So, lots of practice with the teacher able to give lots of attention, and enough partners to make sure you get a good variation in followers.

Just for reference, here were the moves we covered…

• Arm-jive tea-pot – some initial confusion because I come out of the tea-pot a faster way than we were being taught. Which led me to be out of step in subsequent moves of this routine.
• Pretzel – Is this the only time I’ve been taught a plain, simple pretzel on its own?
• Neckbreak – Likewise, could have been the first time I’ve been taught it. (Not sure I like it though – hate the stupid signal.)
• Spinning top – sway then LH onto girl’s shoulder blade, but main spin comes from RH on hip.

…

• First move walk though – I think I’ve been taught this before, but not in so much detail. Involves coming round in front of girl, stepping back and opening back into first move position. (twice) Use a ballroom grip to get a good lead in the “pull; pull” part of the move. (finished with a push spin)
• Catapult walk – keep LH out of lady’s reach in front, bring her to side put L arm around her and start walking! We did four steps forward, turn, two, turn, turn, push spin.
• Double-handed return shoulder turn-out – Same as my favourite double-handed travelling return, but bring LH to girl’s shoulder, travelling back across and prepare RH for push. Fast double turn-out, holding on L-R.

…

• Hatchflick barrier turn-out – quite like this move… Last time I was taught it I didn’t. I think the difference came when we were shown to do side-steps (á la arm-jive footwork) on the clicks.
• Accordion ladiespin walkaround – I like the accordion. Not so sure about the walkaround. Trouble started when we were shown the footwork – which with some fairly complicated leading happening at the same time just had me in trouble. Got it a few times, but not so sure I could do it for real.
• In and out hands-on-chest – this is the cheesiest move ever. Not quite so bad if you turn it into a double-comb, but harder to do.

…

• First move seducer (aka first move dip) – we started with the “safe” version, and then went deeper, for those that wanted to.

There was lots of tips on footwork and spins. We were also instructed more than once on the topic of handholds (a wee hobby horse of mine…) All the women there were fairly good, based on their level of experience. They all seemed to be able to follow my lead in all the moves we did. (When I was getting them right.)

I liked the seducer. It’s been a while since I’ve done any dips, and this one is just nice. I had no problems taking it quite low and taking the weight through my legs. I suppose the two girls I practised with were fairly light, so that must have helped.

So, a very useful 4 hours spent. I just need to get some sleep! I’m going back to work tomorrow!