Random Redhead’s
I was at JJ’s tonight… Which I am now going to rename as “Random Redhead’s” – RR’s.
So, a good night a Random’s, made all the better by a visitor from France…
Wendy was over for a wee visit, and I the pleasure of having a few lovely dances with her. She claimed to be rusty, but she was just as good as I remember, if not better. I overhead another girl tell her she is a pleasure to watch. It’s even better when you’re involved. No-one hijacks like this lady, she should make a DVD.
I had lots of other great dances. I’m getting better at dancing to the music, rather than move after move… Sure, there’s moves in there, but they are no-longer the important thing… To get me into this though, it takes the right sort of music and a partner I connect well with. The music can’t be too fast, but it’s got to be something I still like. A lot of the latin/tango type of music works for me… As I get better I hope to be able to dance better with more dancers, and different, faster styles.
(Music was a bit different tonight. Lots of things fairly early on I didn’t recognise, but more stuff later that I knew and liked.)
I feel good about my dancing at the moment, I think I might be on the verge of a bit of a break-through… Maybe this weekend at Aberdeen will do it for me – it did wonders for me the last time I went up…
Let’s go over the intermediate class… We’ll do it with commentary built-in today, I think…
Yo-yo into sway/blues 2nd position. Yo-yo start, but don’t block – keep going, and then bring your hand down to bring the girl into a sway-like position. With your RH on her hip you’ve got a good connection to steady her and step in to lead a few sways/weight changes… While we’re to the right, lead her in a bit to let her “spring” (my word? dunno) back out. Quite liked this… I don’t seem to do many yo-yos during bluesy tracks though, so maybe that’s why I didn’t get to use it in freestyle – or more likely I forgot!
Man-wrap. Classic move. Another one of these moves you have to remember to do straight from a return… which might explain why I don’t do it much… I don’t think I’m missing much… Not a favourite…
Cerocspin blocks. Rather than do the normal spin at the end of the man wrap, do a few blocks before the spin. Must try this sometime… I guess it’s useful to put the spin in the bar where you want it…
Arm hook walk-around. From L-R, lead the girl into what would initially feel like a travelling return, but sent your R arm in just below girl’s R arm to lock in behind her shoulder-blade, her likewise… walk around… You’re leading with both the back of your hand on the girl’s back, and your upper arm on the girl’s arm. To exit, again it’s the old pull-in, push away thing… I always forget the pull-in in moves like this… Need to work on that. Otherwise, quite liked this move.
So, that’s all the dancing and the class taken care of… Oh, I should mention a couple of things…
There were lovely beginner ladies there tonight. Lovely in both that they seemed like lovely people, but also that they’re going to make lovely MJ dancers, I’m sure… Two things bothered me…
First, a gentleman leading these beginners into what I thought were entirely inappropriate moves, including some drops which I expect they have no experience of, and thus may injure themselves. And secondly, them being targeted to some individuals who to my eyes seem to attend more to meet this type of inexperienced beginner, rather than to learn to dance and have fun.
Of course, that’s just my perception, I could be wrong on both accounts. Maybe it’s all good clean fun – we’re all adults, so maybe it’s none of my business. Just hope it doesn’t put these beginner ladies off.
The other curious thing was at one point a friend was giving me a quick Argentinean Tango lesson (I was awful) and moments later and was “teaching” a technical point of MJ-dancing to a Random Redhead… This time it was the pupil becomes the teacher, but if I get myself into a AT class, it will be the pupil becomes the hopeless case…
I think that’s everything…
Thanks everyone, see you all again soon… 