Hyperreal

Hi Guys,

I’m just back from my second beginners’ workshop, and I’m guessing some of you would like to know how it went…

It was good. Like the first one, I’m not sure how much I tangibly learnt - in that all the moves were familiar, but I still think it was a valuable experience for confidence building.

The were 10 beginners - 4 guys, 6 girls - plus the teacher and her demo. I probably had the most experience of the beginners except for one lady who had done a bit of ceroc a while ago and was just in need of getting back up to speed. She was also keeping a real newcomer company.

The standard format of moves in the morning, and putting them together in the afternoon was followed. Maybe it was because of the lower numbers, or more likely it’s just easier with a lady teacher, but in this workshop the girls had much more time given to them to work on their movement, spins, and such. We (the guys) were also given exercises to do to help us move ourselves in time with the music and in sympathy with our partner.

It was all fairly straightforward.

The other beginners were fairly mixed standards, but there’s none of them I would complain about, even if I were allowed to. One beginner whom I’ve mentioned before - who had problems allowing the guy to lead even the semicircle - was a lot better today.

Another lady really impressed me with her spins which had really sharpened up very quickly after some guidance from the teacher. It was really good seeing the improvement in pretty much all the girls through the day. (It’s hard to comment on how well the guys were doing.)

I enjoyed my brief dances with the teacher - she liked to do double spins off my catapult which surprised me a little, but I guess she thought I could handle them.

I still have the same problems that frustrate me so much though - I sometimes forget what I’m doing during repeats of a set routine, and I sometimes get confused when I’m trying to do simple freestyling and end up stuck.

I think there’s two things going on here.

Where I should know what I’m doing next, either because it’s a routine or because I’d already figured out what I was going to do next, I’m blanking. My new theory on this is that I’m too busy enjoying myself, or thinking about something else, like listening to the music or the teacher, and what I should be thinking about just gets lost. (It’s a bit like that advert for some magazine where the woman forgets to step off the escalator as she’s so engrossed by the latest gossip, and falls flat on her face.)

The other thing is that I’ve planned a move, everything’s going swimmingly, but somehow I’m on the wrong hand. (A catapult isn’t quite so easy off the left hand!) This is probably just a special case of the first problem where I just haven’t been paying enough attention during the last spin or whatever to use the right hand. (I’ve getting very good at changing hands after turns!!!)

After the class I had a very useful chat with the teacher. She gave me some tips about what to do in these situations. She also told me I’m a good dancer. I was really flattered. :blush:

I don’t imagine she meant I’m ready to enter any competitions or anything like that , but good for where I am in the learning process.

While she was showing me a few things, she had me dance the girl’s part once or twice. That was weird, but in a cool way. :waycool: Here I am, just a beginner and I’m now learning how to follow as well as lead!

I wanted to ask her about my leading skills - one girl had said it was really good dancing with me (compared to some of the other guys) as I gave such a good lead. The teacher agreed with the point of view given by someone else that I’m fairly good in my leading, though I could make it a little stronger.

I think part of that is a confidence thing, which was the key thing that she (and many people here) have said I need more of. And of course she said the best way to improve my confidence was to dance more.

She does think I’m ready for the intermediate classes though. Does this mean I’m going to have to start a new thread in the “Intermediate Corner” called “First-time Intermediate Impressions”?

Once again, I must thank everybody - the other dancers, the poor demo who had to dance as a woman quite a bit - including once with me( ), but most of all, our fantastic teacher.

Thanks guys! :clap: :worthy: :cheers: