Hyperreal

A triumphant return to the GUU tonight after fleeing there two weeks ago in sickness. Well, when I say triumphant, I mean I had a good night and don’t feel ill, so on balance, pretty good…

This is going to be another short post so I can get to bed… so, the intermediate moves…

• Shoulder basket into a basket (?). Two-handed first-move style step in – taking LH to shoulder, RH lead girl to your side, but when she gets there keep leading her round and turning CW as you also turn 180º, taking RH high and LH low. You want to get her facing away from you, your LH on her L hip holding her right hand and then take the RH over her head to come down to her R hip. (Each move on and off the hip takes place as weight is transferred to that side.) Sway back to the L, R, L and as you go back left raise your RH, unwrapping her to face, keep her turning, and then re-wrapping her in front again (the second basket.) As you are lowering your LH she’s swaying to the L, and again, sway R, L, R and unwrap and step back. Travelling return into another double-handed hold.
• Wurlitzer Pretzel – Standard wurlitzer start but catapult the lady under your right arm (using an unusual R-L handhold) and turn ACW to nelson yourself presenting the girl with your spare left hand. Although you connect with a flat hand, you’re basically going into a normal pretzel with the standard L-R step back at the end. Straight into the next move…
• Double turn first moves – (classic beginner variation of the night?) This is the one when you double turn the girl on the way out of the first move and chase round her to go straight into the open out step on the first move, and then normally repeated. Return to go double-handed for the shoulder basket…

I maybe only did the first move variant during freestyle, but not the others. The entry to the shoulder basket is too different that I guess I never found myself there to do it. Almost all baskets I lead are from semi-octopuses, and that wouldn’t work here… I don’t do any of these sort of wrap/sway moves, and I’d like to, so I’m going to have to try to remember this move, practice it and see if I can add it to my rep. Similarly, I don’t often find myself in a wurlitzer lead, so the pretzel addition didn’t really happen for me…

I had quite a good night, though a lot of the people I normally look out for weren’t there… At times it was quite difficult to get a dance with a good dancer, though there were quite a few beginner dancers that I had some fun dancing with. I got the opportunity to have more than one dance with a few especially lovely people, so overall, I can’t complain.

Only two more days to the BFG… Just so-long as my feet hold out, I think I might be able to get through it!

See you tomorrow, when I’ll have been to my second Salsa class…