Hyperreal

Three days to go to the BFG, and I’m worried…

I’m worried that my recent forced absence (OK, it was just a week) has had a negative impact on my dancing – it’s not so much that I’m worried I’ve forgotten how to dance, as I’m concerned that my stamina and general health has suffered, and it is going to take another week or so that I don’t have to get back to full fitness.

So tonight, although I felt I was dancing fairly well, I was getting tired and my feet were hurting.

Let’s talk about the class… I was following again with my usual leader during the beginners’ class… Moves were arm-jive swizzle, in-and-out, basket, shoulder slide, catapult.

I think I did a fair bit better than my last time two weeks ago… Not sure why, but I expect the freestyle following I was doing on Saturday helped, plus I’m just getting more used to it. Oh, I’m sure also that as my leader improves her lead it is helping my following. I’m still pants though. We had a really inexplicable problem with our hand-hold getting twisted up going into the basket… Puzzling. I also apparently had a tendency to shoot the gate on the way out, doing a bit of back-leading. I wasn’t really aware of it though… Got better as I made greater conscious effort to be better.

We had a lot of fun though, spent most of the class in laughter…

Intermediate class… This was all about awareness of of partners weight, and using it to lead steps and turns which match which leg has freedom…. Some of it was hard going…

• Arm-jive Manhattan. Like the swizzle we did earlier, but as the girl come round, lead her back on her right leg before she put weight on it, stepping forward and back Manhattan-style. Exit by not stepping back one time as you lead the girl towards you and then push away into a step back…
• First move basic dip. Not quite the same as how I’m been taught it before… First move entry, same big arch with hand and pull down, but things change here… As you reverse the dip, lead the girl by pushing on her hip with RH to turn ACW around away from you as you also turn to face away so you end up not quite back to back with L-R hold. Lead girl to turn and face as you do same by drawing LH back through between you… (The weight on the dip bit is on the girl’s R leg, which makes her ACW turn from it easy.)
• Neck-break turn out thing. Go straight into the neck-break, turning the girl twice CW to behind where you were. Done this move a few times now… Not sure where the weight thing is here…
• Nelson click-spin thing. On the return from the previous move (the only one of the routine), as the girl come round keep her turning a bit further and lead her to her left by turning ACW to face away as she come round and bring your RH behind you in a nelson. (This is where the girl’s weight, on her right for the return can transfer to a step out to the left easily, rather than the normal step back.) You should be able to see the girl behind your L shoulder… Click L. Turn back to lead the girl back to her right and stop and spin her ACW. Catch double-handed to go back to the arm-jive…

The biggest problem for me in this routine was going from the first move basic dip into the neck-break. I never felt the girl was in the right position (being to my left a bit) to comfortably get into the neck-break position on the beat. Pretty much all my partners wanted another beat to step back before coming into the neck-break, and giving them a return seemed to work even better. Not sure why that was…

Freestyle was good, though I didn’t get to dance with a lot of the girls I wanted to – I had been missing them, and hadn’t seem some for a while. No-one asked me where I was last week though – presumably because they all knew from read my blog where I was… I’m sure that also why there were apparently much fewer women there last week. Yeah, right!

I had some spectacular dances with some fantastic dancers, some of whom I don’t take the opportunity to dance with often enough. Must sort this out! I felt a bit rusty though, and thought I had forgotten lots of my normal moves… But to compensate I made up a few of my own new variations, or practised ones I’d come up with on Saturday.

I find myself playing around doing things that aren’t moves I’ve been taught, but just feel right at the time… Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don’t. I used to do this a bit with some of the best followers sometimes, but I’m now doing it much more often, and increasingly often with dancers who might not be quite ready for my experiments, so I should be a little more careful… I’m having a lot of fun though. It’ll be good if I can practice just playing around with a dance “just good friend (not partner)”…

I had a rather good dance with a 2-week beginner who was doing really well except she didn’t seem to have learnt the first move yet, but otherwise I’d have though she’d been dancing for much, much longer. Because I’m doing the beginner’s class outwith the mix of beginners, I don’t get to see who’s new and remember them to ask for a dance later. It’s a shame, but I guess this won’t always be a problem.

Good to see everyone there… All the dances were a pleasure… Especially enjoyed a great dance with our unexpected but very welcome visitor from Dundee…

I’m dancing every night now until Monday… (Though I don’t know if my Salsa lesson really counts as dancing yet. ) Hope I can take the pace!

Watch this space!

Cheers everybody!