Hyperreal

Tuesday night was JJ’s as usual…

And these nights are my favourite.

I arrived at my typical hot-shot time of a few minutes before the beginner’s class finished. Crowded again…

Can’t remember if I got a dance in the first freestyle… Maybe one? Think there was only 2 or 3 songs before the intermediate class started.

Quite a smooth set of moves… Rather nice…

• Amir-style first move. Nearly all my first moves are like this. The girls were told they could hijack and take as long as they wanted on the step out.
• Almost pretzel. For fun I was doing the thumb-nosing thing with some of the partners I know better, but we were told the girls don’t like this, and it hasn’t been taught this way for 10 years… Oh well… Don’t like the finger clicking thing, but maybe it depends on the music. It certainly doesn’t work with smoother music.
• Not sure of a name… Man-wrap something? R-R, return the girl from the spin from the previous move. as she comes round, turn ACW to put yourself in a nelson. Put LH onto girl’s right arm to help form a connection. Take your time, do a wee wiggle, then lead the girl in and back out, letting go with RH to to L-R.
• Left-side pass. A WCS move. Easy enough. Lead the girl to step in and step away to your left as you change places. No triple-steps needed.

Not keen on the almost pretzel with its signal – I try to avoid using signals – think it might work without the signal if lead well. I liked the wrap-in thing, though like combs, you have to be quick to think about doing one, as you need to start the move before the girl has finished her return. Think I might also bring in more left-side passes into my dancing, and see how easy it would be to do other WCS moves…

Onto the freestyle…

Really enjoyed so much of the dances on Tuesday. A lot of the folks I would have danced with were absent again, but I got some quality dances from my favourites and others who were there.

I danced with a first-timer too… She was really good, following me very well – letting me know (as if I didn’t already know) that my lead on sways could be better as that’s really the only thing she had a problem with. Of course, she had done other kinds of dancing before. I am going to have to dance with her some more and make sure she doesn’t pick up all the bad habits that a lot of newbie Ceroc dancers seem to get, I guess, from dancing with too many other beginners and the like…

Also had another go as a beginner myself following my pal who’s now started doing the intermediate class as a leader. I think I’m getting better, but I’m still a bit random… It’s fun for a bit of a change though…

Kept dancing until the club began setting for their “Jax Factor” competition, putting a couple of tables right in the middle of the dance-floor. Figured I could have danced for another hour easily though.

Jumpin’ Jack’s remains my favourite regular venue – with the right combination of dancers, music and convenience.

See you there on Tuesday!