Hyperreal

I finally made it to Route 66 tonight. This is been an event I’ve been trying to get to for months – since at least August. A couple of months ago there was a bit of controversy on the forum when one of the organisers suggested I shouldn’t attend as I probably would like it.

So you’ll be dying to know what I think…

Well I had a great time. Let’s look at what the factors are… Let me think… 1. the venue… 2. the music… 3. the crowd… 4. the dancing… Um… Think that’s it! Let’s look at these then…

The Venue

It’s a really good venue. Good size and a good floor. The bar wasn’t the worst I’ve ever come across (the staff even smiled!) and the room was nicely laid out. Unusually for a small-ish venue, at no time through the night did I feel the temperature either too hot or too cold. Goldilocks would have loved it.

Biggest downside for me would be the difficulty in getting there. Though easy to get to by car, not so sure about how I’d get there any other way. I was fortunate to get a lift there and back tonight, but that’s not going to always be available to me. But that’s a small matter really, no matter where it was, anywhere outside Glasgow isn’t good for me!

The Music

So this was going to be where the problem would arise. But it wasn’t a big deal. I actually liked most of the music played. But that’s not the whole story. There’s liking music and liking dancing to music. Of all the music played, I’d say maybe about half of it I felt comfortable dancing to. Another 10% I really, really enjoyed, but the rest was either a bit too slow or a bit too weird for me to dance to.

Not that much weird, but there was one track that had the tempo going all over the place (or at least, that what it felt like to me, as I tried to chase it down.) I think one of the DJs selection tended to have more of the weird stuff, while the other tended towards the slow stuff. But both had a fair share of the 60% of music I was OK with.

While a fair amount of the music was pretty new to me, there was some old hits from the 70’s, I guess, that I was familiar with, but outside of that I heard a good few tracks that I was already familiar with from dancing to them before. There might even have been one or two getting near a “top 50″ of my favourite dance tracks. Find it hard to remember song names or in fact, any detail of them to name them here though.

One thing is clear. The floor is usually busy, so clearly the crowd like this music. Well, mostly – they do tend to show a bias to one of the DJs in particular…

The Crowd

This for me was the best thing. It was good to go and meet up with some great dancers (mostly from Edinburgh, but a few from other further off places, like Dundee, Stirling, or Glasgow) that I hadn’t seen for a while.

It wasn’t though that the crowd was stacked with the best dancers. There was a fair mix of abilities, including one lady who I think said she’d only done a couple of Ceroc nights before coming along tonight. She was fun to dance with, as was everybody I danced with.

I suppose I could compare it to a typical Edinburgh Ceroc party night. I’m going to meet much of the same people, but I think higher average standard, combined with the other factors (like a room which isn’t over-crowded, and over heated) would edge me towards Route 66. What would keep me at Marco’s is the Saturday schedule, and the better chance that I will meet more of my dance friends from outside Edinburgh too.

I imagine though that if I attend regularly I’ll acquire a group of favourite dancers that I could rely on to be there and help make it a special night.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to dance with everyone I wanted to, but there’s always the Stirling party tomorrow (actually, later today!), the Edinburgh party next week, or the Glasgow party the week after. As well as, of course, the next time I take a journey down Route 66 way…

The Dancing

This is my dancing, rather than other people’s.

Here there were two problems. One, the music wasn’t very compatible with my style of dance. Two, I don’t think I was dancing very well anyway.

The dancing to slower music is just something I need to get more used to. I’ve been thinking about the positive steps I might take to help me with this. Can’t help also thinking that if it’s so hard to dance Ceroc to slower music, it might be because Ceroc is not well suited to this music and I should really be learning a better dance that better suits it…

Getting down to the issue of my standard of dance… again two problems…

First I just think I wasn’t fit for dancing. I’ve been stuck in my house most of the week with a rotten cold which has kept me away from dancing and reduced my stamina. This must have had some effect.

The other thing is I’m not happy about my repertoire of dance moves which now seems to be shrinking. This troubles me greatly. I don’t know what to do here except maybe once a week, “come prepared” wit an extra move or two that I want to add to my rep and make sure I use them in my dancing as much as possible. Might try this on Tuesday @ JJ’s.

Apparently – in fact, not apparently, as I could see it myself when it was pointed out to me – I had a much better continuous lead earlier on in the night compared with later. Even though my later dances were better. I haven’t figured out why this is, but speculate that it may be a some part or combination of, tiredness, laziness, or raised confidence (meaning I don’t try too hard) in the later dances, or a lack of connection in other ways during the earlier dances which made me up the clarity on my lead. Don’t know. Definitely one to ponder…

Overall

So that’s my thoughts on Route 66. I came out of the night having had a good time and I’ll definitely try to get back there in the future.

It was a delight to see all my friends who were there, some of whom I hadn’t seen for a while, one or two who are new friends that I hope I’ll get to know better.

Big thanks to the lady who gave me a lift – you’re a gem; to the ladies I danced with – you were all simple marvellous; and to the Route 66 organisers – I had a smashing time.

Oh, special thanks to the “lady” in the size 18 (or was it 16?) outfit for my first dance of the night. It was magical.

Extra special thanks to the true lady in the gorgeous red dress who kept her last dances for me. You’re a beautiful dancer.

And that’s all I have to say.