Hyperreal

I’ve had a busy weekend… On Sunday I then had the final part of the “Feeling Good” workshop…

(Previously I had been at a workshop in Dundee with Nigel & Nina, on Blues dancing; next was a party later that night… )

It was good to get a good night’s sleep – I certainly couldn’t have survived another full day of dancing only getting a few hours of sleep. In fact I woke up in Dundee around the time I would have been thinking about leaving Glasgow if I’d been coming from home. So I was probably a lot more refreshed that I would have been had I been in Glasgow the night before for the party at the GUU.

In the workshop we did a wee warm-up – first just freestyle, then trying to do the routine. OMG! I’d forgotten so much of it!

We then went on to learn the last 30 seconds of the routine. It’s a nice slow bit so it only was a few moves… Nothing too tricky, but still quite challenging.

After we went through the whole routine in parts, working on the timing, and going over the tricky bits. Although I had had problems remembering the routine at the start of the day (and let’s be honest, I should have been revising it a lot more over the previous two weeks, but it’s difficult to motivate yourself when you don’t have a partner to practice with) after a few runs through I had more-or-less got it.

I was really pleased with my ability suddenly to do the leg-wrap & lunge move that my partner and I hadn’t been able to do the last time. Really not sure how that happened, as we hadn’t had a chance to practice it together, and I hadn’t practised it with anyone else either. Whatever, I’m not complaining.

So by the end of the session we had got ourselves sorted out and could make a good attempt at doing the whole of the routine. OK, we were never perfect, but given time to practice, I’m sure we could do it really well.

You don’t really get a chance to watch the other couples while you’re dancing yourself, so I’ve really no idea how we compare with the rest. At one point Steve told us we were the only folks who were bang-on-time. But that might have been more to do with being told a little earlier that we were the only couple that had the timing wrong at a different point.

I’ve really enjoyed learning this routine. Besides just learning a sequence of moves, I’ve learnt the moves themselves, plus something more about dancing to this slower style of music. Moves that work well in blues. Moves that can look flash. I’ve also gained a lot of confidence in my ability to do dips and drops and the like without dropping my partner on the floor.

I think though that just generally, in ways that are hard to express in words, this has been a good thing for me.

Many of the moves I find difficult to put into normal freestyle. Even when I think they fit the music, being at the right place at the right time for the move can be too tricky to pull off.

But that’s what practice is all about, and maybe it’ll come if I keep working at it.

Then finally to Stirling, for Franck’s “Focus On…” workshop and Sheena’s “Smooth Grooves”…