Hyperreal

It’s really over…

I’m going to write up a over-view post that’ll have all my thanks to everyone, but I have to say a big thanks to Franck for organising such a fab weekend. I’ve had a fantastic time.

This post is going to be the story of Sunday…

I had decided last night to skip the first set of workshops, to give myself a bit of a lie in after an exhausting couple of nights, but I didn’t really wake up much later than I had done on Saturday morning. It did mean that I could afford to take my time and not have to rush out the door.

I arrived just about the time when the first set of workshops must have been ending, around 12 o’clock, in time to get a bite to eat from the Subway at the venue before the next workshop, and just in time before they closed for a bit (for lunch???) That was weird.

So, my first workshop was Marc’s style tips for men. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but thought it would be based around Marc showing us stylish things to do while dancing. And to a certain expect he did that, but he did much more than that, he explained how style can bridge the gap (I think they’re my words) between musicality and lead and follow. There’s no point in being musical if you’re not involving the woman in it, or worse, disturbing her dancing. She wants to be able to work with the music too, and can only do this if this comes from the musicality of the guy though his lead, or else is given time to add her own interpretation. So the guy’s style should convey the music in the lead, but at the same time reflect the girl’s interpretation too. (I hope I’m representing Marc correctly, but this is what I got out of the workshop.)

Second workshop was Safe Dips and Drops with Mairi. It was fun, though I totally messed up the first ballroom drop and decided to stick with just the dips after that. I had started with a fixed partner, but she thought it would be good for both of us to rotate. I’m not saying she said this due to a lack of confidence in me, but I’m sure she’s glad it wasn’t her that I was dropping… I find dips a unique experience with each girl – there is such great variation… How much they will take their own weight, how much they will want to dip, how fast they dip… It’s something that I need so much more experience with, though it’s difficult to practice except in regular freestyle dancing, which isn’t ideal.

There were another two sets of workshops after this, but I didn’t go to any more, instead I went to the Tea Dance, and just enjoyed myself, though again, like yesterday I ended up not feeling very well and didn’t dance much… I don’t think I could have done any other workshop even if I had wanted to…

I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason for feeling unwell is a combination of lack of sleep through the week and not having fully recovered from being ill before. With then the extra energy required over the weekend, something had to give… (That’s also the excuse I’m using for messing up the drops!)

So I went home after the day’s activities and went to my bed for a good couple of hours. Unlike yesterday there was nothing special happening during the party in the evening that I had to get there particularly early for. I think I make it there for about half past 10.

It meant I only got two and a half hours of dancing, but it was better than none and the way I was feeling that was a possibility… I had to be there to say good-bye to everyone though, and the dancing was a bonus. Shame so much of it wasn’t my sort of thing, being slow and bluesy. But as I didn’t feel fantastic, I was happy dancing a few and sitting out a few…

As the night ended, the good-byes began… So many great people and great dancers, but I’ll talk more about that in my post tomorrow…

Instead I want to just say how impressed I was by my own dancing at times this weekend. Typically workshops can cause a dip in your performance as you try to incorporate what you’ve learnt in your dancing. This weekend I deliberately chose keep this to a minimum, and mainly just allow the atmosphere of the event affect my dancing.

I was re-discovering moves I’d been taught ages ago, I was making up my own simple moves and variations, and I’ve even started finding things to do with that spare arm… All this seemed to come without any real effort.

I’ll have notes, memories and a video of stuff to take away from this weekend. There’ll be plenty of time to learn from the weekend without expending a lot of energy doing it when I’m tired, dancing with unfamiliar dancers, many of whom I’d like to impress…

And maybe it was as a result of this policy that I was given some really nice compliments about my dancing. (Which in the context of such a vast number of truly excellent dancers, I felt was a good reason to be rather chuffed.)

We’ll see on Tuesday if I’m still “in the zone”, but I’m feeling generally positive. (I’m doing my best to force myself not to talk about what I don’t like about my dancing… That’ll probably come in a post-weekender dip during the week.)

Going to my bed now to sleep until forever, but expect another post tomorrow where there’ll be lots more of these: and .