Hyperreal

RR’s/JJ’s tonight… For the second week in a row, not such a great night… Very different to last week though.

There were a number of factors… (There always are!)

I had had a headache, though with painkillers I was able to get rid of it. It probably didn’t set me up for the best night though. I was also a bit fatigued from a busy day at work.

Added to that, two other factors… I’ve come to the conclusion that my first dance of the night is crucial is setting the mood for the rest of the night. My first dance was a bit mediocre, for whatever reason, and that left me in a more down than up mood. Once you’re a bit down, it takes much more to get you back up…

Also – and this probably wouldn’t have been an issue if the other things weren’t already getting me down – the music too often just wasn’t doing it for me. A few glitches in the playback didn’t help either. There were probably only 2 or 3 tracks that made me think “what on earth?” but not enough of the rest were making me put the others things behind me to storm the dance floor.

Saying that, I did dance quite a lot. But I think that’s because I was asked quite a lot… The best dances of the night were the ones I’d sought out a dancer I’d especially wanted to dance with (one of the Dirty Half-dozen, typically.)

Hmm… I guess I really am turning into a hot-shot…

I had a couple of pleasant dances with a beginner and a relatively inexperienced dancer, and I rarely have avoided dancing with anybody in these categories – you don’t get to be a good dancer overnight… I will admit to sometimes avoiding some experienced dancers who for whatever reason make dancing with them a less-than-pleasant experience. Who could blame anyone for that?

Anyway, let’s look at the intermediate moves…

• Short first move – aka Amir’s first move. Weren’t we going to hear something about Amir later on?
• Teapot
• Short neck-break
• Ladies’ eight with a twist and a spin. Turn lady ACW, yourself CW, directly out of your CW turn, lead the lady to turn CW (this is the twist), and then follow this through with a CW spin. Optionally ACW spin yourself. Return.

Key concept tonight were the snap twisting/turning to face on the end of the first move and the teapot, and keeping a continuous connection. To go for the direct exit from the first move, you need to make sure your lead is telling the girl to do this, otherwise she’s twist back to face. Likewise, going into the teapot straight from the first move you have to make sure you lead the girl NOT to return. Thus, you need to keep the lead between the two moves. Similar thing applies in the eight into the twist and spin – the connection has to be strong, else it gets lost…

My first move is sometimes “short” – maybe will try to make it short more often… For some reason I only tend to do teapots out of baskets, though I used to also do them from first moves, but with a block to go straight into them as a first move variant, rather than as a separate move. I’ve recently gained a taste for right-handed neck-breaks, but I’m not happy with my timing on them. That’s something to think about…

The eight with a twist isn’t so different from a move I think I’ve improvised once or twice. As I said recently though, I don’t tend to do push-spin type things, and this move’s spin has that sort of feel to it…

Anyway, like I said, not by best night, though not my worst either by a long way… Thanks to all.

PS> To the Random girl who managed to bash my nose with her elbow… (And I don’t care what folks say about it’s always the guys fault – not in this case!) My doctor thinks the bruising might have gone by Friday, but your embarrassment hopefully won’t have…

Hope you have a better day tomorrow anyway.