Hyperreal

Not long back from a mega-workshop in Perth…

It was a long day, with lots to learn. I’m not going to go through everything here, but let me give a flavour…

I, not deliberately, ended up spending more time on technique – things like style, musicality and footwork. Only did a little bit of learning simply cool moves.

As it happens, I seem to be able to “learn” new moves fairly easily. I put “learn” in quotes, as although I had them pretty much sorted in the class, the chances of me actually remembering them next time I’m dancing is unfortunately fairly low. There was one rather cool move involving double-hand turning the girl behind your back that I really liked, and I hope I can remember it in the future. Also liked the lean move.

The other stuff I’m not so good at. I though I had a fairly good ear for the music, and figured once I had some more ideas about how I could put that into my dance, things would just work. Things didn’t work out so well. Maybe it’s just because I don’t yet have good control (over both me and my partner) that causes me problems. This is what I think I need to work on.

It wasn’t that I was total pants in these classes – I even got some rather high praise one or twice – but the overall impression was must try harder.

I think that’s all I want to say about my general experience.

Have to now thank the teachers and their demos – they were totally fab. The demos sometimes giving as much instruction as the teachers. I don’t have a “clap-clap” smiley on my blog, but if I did, I’d put it here.

Also a big thanks to the ladies I danced with. I didn’t have a fixed partner for most of the workshops, and I have to thank the partners I did have for their patience. (Another clap-clap or flower smiley here!)

And to everyone else, “Hi!”, nice to meet you if I did, sorry if I didn’t, hope we have time for more socialising next time we meet!

Last, but not least, thanks to my (non-exclusive) partner who ended up with me once or twice, for praising my dancing, feeding me toast, and taking me shopping (again!) I have nothing but praise for your dancing, and I’m looking forward to the next time we can tangle arms.

Just back from the GUU…

I’ve decided it now should be mandatory for girls to wear swirly skirts when dancing!

In future women wearing swirly skirts will get dances from me in preference to those wearing anything else (except maybe short skirts. )

They (the women) are just so much better a spectacle to watch as they spin and turn. I suppose there are women who might be able to do more interesting things that swirl in the manner a skirt can, but the way I see it… it’s better just not to risk it.

End of.

So tonight was good, despite a distinct lack of swirly skirts (only one,) and I had lots of good dances. Had a dance with each of my two least favourite wastes of time, but let’s not get into that.

Tonight I also experimented with silicone polish on the soles of my rubber-soled shoes. That worked really well for a while, but the polish soon wore off, mainly onto the patch of floor where I was doing the beginners’ class… which surprised a few of the women who found the floor around me surprisingly slippy!

Maybe if I gave the polish more time to dry… Hmm… Anyone got any ideas?

Let’s move onto the classes…

Beginners’ class: first move, shoulder slide, yo-yo, ceroc spin. Nice moves. The ceroc spin ain’t my favourite for class, but I find it works a lot better in freestyle when my partner isn’t expecting it.

Intermediate:

• Short Backhander. L-R: step in, whip girls’ right hand behind her back to switch it to your right hand waiting at the front.continue leading her behind you as you turn clockwise to face, switching hand back to left. Pose.
• Still posing, girl is doing stylish stuff.
• Travelling in-out thing, leading into turny thing. Double handed in-out-type thing (hands out low near hips during in,) travelling, going clockwise for two or three. Signal exit with left hand to shoulder rather than low at hips down and push down, letting go left, turn with R-L handhold. While girl turns, whip round to snap girl into first-move position.
• First move Walk-around Push-through? First move entry, but instead of coming back out, turn the girl behind you with left, turning to face her, then lead her back behind you again as you “step across” under your arm. Turn to face, return.

Think the first one is the classic move of the night, but they were all new to me. They were all fairly fast moves.

The back-hander is tricky. Often I wasn’t fast enough to transfer my hand in time and I needed the girl to help me by having her hands in the right place. Don’t think this is as likely in freestyle.

The pose/style bit was funny, though got in trouble with one partner for smiling too much.

Travelling in-out, blah blah blah must have had a proper name, but I’ve no idea what it was. It was quite good fun though, especially the snap in at the end – lots of momentum in the turn makes the snap fast and sudden. Got some sort-of “wow” comments from one or two girls while practicing that. Alas, I fear I will forget it before next week.

The last move was also fun, fast and furious. Doing something completely different in the middle of a first move will always catch out an anticipating partner. And the two turns in a row are quite neat, the way they flow together, but are still different. This is my move of the night. When I led it later in the freestyle one girl commented, saying something like “that’s new!” She hadn’t recognised it from the class without the bit before it. Not sure if that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing.

So I practised the two last moves separately and together a few times until I thought they went fairly well. I also practised the yo-yo over the head thing from last night, and they also worked quite well. What didn’t work so well was the double-handed travelling return back to back thing. I almost never managed to get my right hand down on the back-to-back at first attempt. I’m not sure why this is. Either I’m just not leading it right or, as one girl suggested, it’s because those partners are used to a different move with a high arm lead and automatically keep they left arm high. I dunno, but golden rule #2 comes in here – it’s always the guy’s fault.

It’s interesting that often after I’d done the double-handed return bit there was a look of fear, uncertainty and even doubt, in the faces of many of my partners, before I went into the bow-and-arrow lead into the back-to-back. Perhaps they were mirroring my own FUD about the move, or perhaps I was leading them into unfamiliar territory. Dunno.

The last new move I supposed I practised a bit was the left-handed hatchback as learnt in Inverness over the weekend. It’s simple and easy.

So… freestyle dances… Well again the numbers were fairly balanced and a bit lower than normal, though much better than last week. This meant it was harder to get a dance with some of the more popular girls, though that’s OK, cos there’s lots of beginners and those girls who (seem to) keep their good dancing a secret, so also seem to get asked less.

I danced with quite a few people twice, or more times. My lady with the swirly skirt was my favourite of the night though and I think I danced with her three or four times. She’s a lovely dancer. Missed out on dancing with a couple of ladies I wanted to, including the teacher again. Teachers always are popular.

All of the beginners I danced with did really well. Every dance with all the dancers with any ability at all was just fab. Some were extra fab.

Music was really good tonight. Maybe only a couple I wasn’t really up for. I’ve got to say though that I hate that blues song with the false ending. It gets me every time!!! When it first came on I was thinking… “I don’t like this song” but I couldn’t remember why, as it sounded good to dance to. It’s only when I almost let my partner return to her seat did I remember exactly why…

Apart from that, good stuff!

Thanks folks! Good night!

Back to JJ’s tonight – it seems like it was ages, but it’s only been two weeks!

Gotta say, it was a totally awesome night. Enjoyed every dance. No, really enjoyed every dance!!!

Thanks for the dances ladies! Thanks for the music Mr DJ!

But what happened apart from that?

Tonight we had a visitor from Aberdeen to Glasgow here to teach us. She’s a pretty cool teacher. Likes to get the girls doing style stuff. Always good for a laugh.

One gripe – twice she blamed all the guys for getting the count round of the girl wrong when we didn’t. On both occasions my whole row had it right, and we still were told we had it wrong by one or two. Something else must have gone wrong. :?

Anyway… the moves…

Beginners’: arm-jive swizzle; in-and-out; basket; shoulder slide; catapult. Straight forward stuff.

Intermediate:

• One-handed catapult. The classic of the night.
• Yo-yo something. Start with a normal yo-yo, but after sweep out, stepping two paces right, bring girl’s hand over your head into other hand, leading her out to the side. Travelling return back to the front.
• First move swizzle something. Normal first move, but on the turn out hold on to her hip as she turns to bring her into a swizzle position (without the half nelson though.) Pull on hip to do double turn with right hand ready to snap her in at end of second turn. Then push back and return.
• Tea-pot something (beginning with a T?) Straight into a tea-pot position, round for a couple of beats, then things get fuzzy. I bring her hand back in front of me and turn (CW?) to face her, bringing her into a turn (CW or ACW??? don’t know?!? I think anti-clockwise :?) double the turn and step in into a first move and push-spin catching right for the catapult.

Got the one-handed catapult pretty much nailed, though I think I’m a bit messy in my movement. Or maybe that’s style?

Didn’t really like the yo-yo move, I found it a bit dull… Maybe it suits a certain type of (dull ) song?

The first move swizzle thing was more fun. The girls liked the double turn and snap. Did it a couple of times in the freestyle and it seemed to go OK. Will need to re-visit it.

As I couldn’t get the tea-pot thing in class, I didn’t try it during freestyle. I like my first move teapot move, and that’s enough tea to be going on with.

As I said, it was an awesome night. The freestyle was just great. There were a lot of beginners again, and managed to dance with a good few of them. They were all doing really well. No complaints at all there. Danced with some more experienced ladies who like to do their own thing occasionally. I really like this. When I’m dancing I like to give the girl a surprise or two, and it’s great to be surprised back now and then.

Got to practice some other moves learnt outside class. Did a move that I saw in Dirty Dancing last night that worked pretty well and got a laugh from my partner. I love it when I can surprise a girl enough to make her laugh. Happened a few times, even with some of the more experienced dancers.

One dance I’d have liked, but didn’t manage to get was with our much-admired teacher. Someone was always there before me.

Next time!!!

At the end of the night the JJ’s DJ came on and did his usual thing of playing an extra-long mix of Grease and Jive-Bunny stuff. I quite enjoy this, but it has to be with a dancer who can keep up! Not seeing anyone immediately fitting that bill I was on my way out before I was grabbed and forced back to the floor. Glad it happened, as I had a magic time. Love these extra long, fast dances. Has to be the last dance of the night though, as I’d pretty much beat afterwards.

Hopefully more of the same tomorrow!!!

Well I’ve just watched Dirty Dancing. Last time I watched it was just before I took up dancing and it helped inspire me to attend my first class.

Ceroc isn’t Dirty Dancing though. What was the dance they were doing? Mambo? From having seen Ceroc beforehand and once I experienced it, I really didn’t think there was much similarity. That said, a lot of the moves would translate very easily into Modern Jive.

I had been told a relatively simple move I like to do was in Dirty Dancing. The move itself is just a stylised “step across”, and as such is more obviously a Jive move, rather than Latin. (Mambo is Latin, right?) But as it is fairly simple, I imagine that some Latin version of the step across must exist.

So, now I’ve watched the film again, is my current favourite move in Dirty Dancing? No.

Are you sure? Yes.

What, not even something similar? Well, OK, there is a similar move involving both the guy and girl turning under his hand in turn, but it’s done in a different order, and it’s not travelling. But if you were to switch the order around and put some travel into it, then sure, my move is in Dirty Dancing.

I can understand why someone might have confused one for the other in the middle of a dance, without close reference to the film. And the fact that my dancing made someone think of the film (though I think she said she’d watched it the previous night, and so she was probably thinking about it all through the night) and of a move in the film, filled me with joy that night. I have no intention of letting it slip away just over some trivial little details like reality.

So, in my mind, it’ll always be my Dirty Dancing move, though I shall stop embarrassing myself (and the poor girl who is the Dirty Dancing fan, if she reads this) by referring to it by this name.

Now… must get back to practicing my “Nobody puts Baby in a corner…”

Not long back from a really good weekend away that included a wee trip up to Inverness.

Why Inverness? Because that’s the newest place in Scotland to experience Ceroc, with a new class night starting at the beginning of September. And as a run-up to it, Franck is running a couple of workshop and “party” class days. I went along with a couple of girls to help out – we were all guys together though most of the time, helping to balance the numbers.

We had a great time! The beginner’s workshop was really good. Almost all the beginners were first-timers, and so it was pretty much all from first principles. I really liked the emphasis Franck put on dancing, rather than moves. I feel that if I had had this particular workshop at the start of my dancing, I’d have been able to survive a freestyle dance much, much earlier than was the case. (Almost 2 months, if I recall correctly.)

While I’m not really a beginner anymore (though when I watch Franck dance, I think I really know nothing) I learned lots of useful stuff. Dancers of many more years experience tell me that every workshop they do teaches them something. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to take part.

Besides positive useful things, I learnt some more negative things. Things about me. Mostly I learnt that I have a lot to learn. I don’t need to beat myself up in public, but I’ve certainly got things I need to think about.

We had a break for a while between the workshop and the party/class, but I missed the opportunity to explore Inverness a little. I haven’t been in Inverness literally in decades and it really was a new experience for me. I have clouded memories of Inverness being a dull, boring place, but what I did see yesterday impressed me. I’d love to go back, maybe stay overnight and explore it a little.

Back to the party/class… In the evening as many of the workshop participants as could make it, plus a few new women turned up. The format was more like a class night, with two beginner’s classes, but it was more casual and relaxed than a typical class. We all had a lot of fun, with lots of laughs.

It was such a pleasure dancing with these ladies who at the start of the day knew nothing about Ceroc dancing – two or three of them did really really well and had no bother following my (needs improving) lead of a few other beginner’s moves I tried with them. (Of course, Franck had them all looking like they’d been dancing for years. )

If I’m allowed one gripe about the beginners, it would be that too many of them would grip on to my hand, on more than one occasion hurting me during a move. I always told my partners when they had too tight a grip (almost all the time if a hand-hold can be called a “grip”, it’s too tight) but it rarely made much of a difference. From experience I know this is very common amongst beginners, and almost always disappears as they improve, but I wonder if there’s anything else I can say or do to help… :?

As for dancing with the non-beginners – that was really great. I got to practice a couple of new moves I’ve been wanting to improve and had a really good time. Hopefully any of the beginners who may have been watching were inspired, though, again, I was left in the dust compared to Franck and Sheena’s demonstration freestyle dance. Truly awesome.

After the night was over, we stopped in the bar of the venue for a bar for a bit of chilling and chatting. The whole venue was really great (though I thought the dance-floor could have been a bit more slippy) but the bar was simply incredible. Best hotel bar I’ve ever seen. If you’re in the neighbourhood, check it out.

Just want to thank Franck for allowing us to come and help out, and Sheena just for being so fab.

Thanks also to the others in the “crew”, helping out. And to the ladies for the lovely dances.

It’s Wednesday, it must be the GUU…

I don’t think I’ve had a really bad night since I started dancing, and this one wasn’t any different.

Hang on though… it was…

Not bad though, just different.

Last week I commented on how balanced the numbers were. This week though there were more guys than girls at the intermediate class, with only 4 or 5 extra for the beginners’ class. This is in marked contrast to the typical night at JJ’s where “18 on, 18 off” isn’t rare, and so I’m curious why this is…

Anyway, I arrived on time for a change (well, only just!) and did the full Ceroc™ essentials, and the beginners’ class. Moves were… yo-yo, slo-comb, in-and-out, basket, and man-spin.

There were quite a few first-timers there, which is good.

The intermediate class didn’t have any new boys or girls, so Mairi decided to make it a little harder for us. I didn’t catch most of the names, but here’s an attempt…

• secret clicks and spin – yo-yo/hatchback beginning, with spare hand behind in half-nelson. On the sweep out let go and click! Turn ACW to face, turning the girl also ACW about 90º and click! You’re right-left at the moment. Bring her back just beyond facing and spin! (return)
• straight-jacket twists? – this move replaced the spin of the previous move with a shoulder-dislocating wrapping of the girl into a straight-jacket hold – I’m not going to go into the details of how :? – a few wee twists back and forward then open out clockwise, finish with a travelling return. (You’re left-right.)
• first move basic dips. This was this week’s classic move.
• half pretzel double turn spin?? – as you go into the back to back bit of the pretzel, let go left and double turn right. Spin back ACW to go from right-left back to right-right, ready for the start…

I’m glad we’re doing these classic moves. It’s something I’ve recently been more vocal about their apparent (to me?) absence. It’s nice to have at least one move I know I should be able to figure out and remember.

I’d seen the first move basic dips on a DVD recently and had two thoughts… 1. Where’s the dip? 2. That looks really dull.

Now having done it, OK, I can see where the dips are, and it’s not quite as dull and twee as it looks, but it certainly ain’t going to be a favourite of mine. I tried it once or twice during the freestyle and just managed to confuse my partner (who hadn’t done the class.)

The half-pretzel thing was good – I think I’ve done something a bit like this before. It’s a definite addition to my rep.

The others… the straight-jacket is too damn difficult to get into. I’ve not into the clicks of the other one, but might try it a few times leaving them out. I’ve learnt over the past few classes how better to make sure my partner can see my hand behind, though beginners never know to grab hold of it, and if they don’t and I’m trying a move like this, we have a wee problem… :?

As I said, we had a surplus of guys this week, but it was still the girls moving round, and occasionally each guy would end up partner-less.

Freestyle was good on the whole. With fewer women, and many of my “usual suspects” missing, it was much harder to get the dances you wanted. On the whole though, I did alright. Got to dance with some wonderful ladies, and some charming beginners. There was one dance though that was the most awful I’ve ever had.

So I’m about to say something nasty. And, worse than that, I’m about to say something nasty about a beginner. If you’re going to flame me for it, perhaps you better just miss out the next few paragraphs.

So, I danced with a lady during the class who explained to me this was her third week. She seemed to manage the moves OK though, if a little hesitant. She had the not unusual problem of being a “gripper”, hanging on tight to my fingers, almost to the point of pain. I tried to get her to relax her grip, but didn’t have much success. During the second freestyle she asked me to dance, and being the sort of guy I am, I agreed. I’ve never regretted accepting a dance as much. First there was the grip of death… then she was a yanker – trying to pull me about the floor. OK, I have dealt with these problems before, and I could cope if they were the only problems.

Next up, she couldn’t follow my lead for almost anything apart from simple moves like man-spins. Not even the yo-yo she had just learnt. Now I know what you’re thinking – I should be patient with her, she’s only a beginner. Believe me, it gets worse. As she continued to have problems following me, she first tried to back-lead a different move on me, and when I chose not to follow, she then stopped and tried to teach me the move she wanted me to do.

When I realised what she was trying to do, I instead resumed my lead – attempting another basket, to see if she might remember what she had learnt just a little earlier this time. (No such luck. ) She said something like, “don’t you want to learn, that’s why we’re here?” I replied I was here to dance, not learn (which at that particular moment was the complete truth.)

We parted a few bars before the end of the song with a muted “thanks”. I really hope though that she will get better, and perhaps I’ll ask her to dance again in a month or so. I just hope she doesn’t ask me first.

Other dances were a joy. A wonderful lady told me I had a really clear lead, that she always knew exactly where I wanted her to be, and exactly when. I think I blushed.

Another rather nice lady complemented me on my “dirty dancing” move (I really should watch the film again to actually see if and how Partick does it), saying “you’re got that move perfected.” It is one of my favourites.

I had lots of other nice comments, so over-all a rather positive experience, and we’ll pretend the other stuff didn’t happen.

And that’s it! Another excellent night, some lovely dancers, good moves, and fab music. What more could a guy ask for? (Um… How about more women to be there?!?)

Cheers!!!

Just back from a good night in Stirling.

I arrived quite late on in the beginners’ class, and as there weren’t many spare women and the floor was already crowded, I sat and watched.

This is the first time I’ve been able to do this, and it’s quite a spectacle. I don’t want to make fun of beginners, but some of the twists they get themselves into can be quite comical. Of course I remember myself in the same position, and I’m sure I’d have hated someone laughing from the sidelines, but please, allow me just a little snigger.

General impressions… It’s a really nice venue. Good floor, good stage, rather grand. Rather fab. The other thing I noticed is that Stirling maybe has a slightly older age profile than the Glasgow venues I’m used to. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as older people can be just as good, and often better dancers than folks in their 20s. Stirling certainly has it’s fair share of quality dancers.

The intermediate class was fun. Here go with the moves…

• First Move slide flick? Regular first move, but instead of turning out, push girl away to side, change hands left to right, and flick her 270º to behind where you were. (Return.)
• Hatch-side spin turn? Hatchback/yo-yo start with spare hand offered in half nelson behind. After the swing out, move right, lady goes left, catapult spin out, but add an extra right-right turn. (Return.)
• Accordion Lap-sit. Standard accordion, but after bring the lady close to your right-hand side and sway right, kneeling a bit to bring her to sit on your thigh. Back up and out, double-handed turn and return.
• A simple back-pass to get back onto the left-right handhold.

Cool moves. Found my aim on the lap-sit sometime a bit wonky, meaning the girl wound miss my leg or trip over my foot :?, and it took me a few attempts to get the spin and turn of the hatch-thing right. In freestyle I tried the first two moves, but found it really hard to lead the slide out during the first move – most ladies wanted to turn out, and there was little I could do to stop them. In conversation with another dancer we concluded I need a clear “don’t move out” lead from my right hand on the ladies hip. Hip leads are something I don’t do well yet, especially when I’m working the other hand too.

Learnt another cool move, taught to me by my co-conspirator tonight that I’ll need to practice!

Freestyle went well. Took me a couple of dances to warm up, but I finished on a high at the end of the night. Danced with a fair mix of level of experience. Some excellent followers, some fab beginners who are going to turn out great.

It was good to meet all the people that I already know from workshops, parties, busks and such, and it was a pleasure to see some new (to me) faces too.

Music was good. Of course there’s some I don’t like so much, but there were plenty I did! Hats off to the DJ!

Thanks to our teacher, the DJ, and all the dancers. Special thanks to my well-slotted partner for the night.

Another Wednesday, another night at the GUU.

It was a funny night in many ways. Let me explain…

We were in the downstairs hall, so it’s nice and roomy, but it did seem the numbers were down a little – heat and holidays might explain this. During the beginners’ class there were never more than 6 or 7 to move on. This is much lower than normal. And in the intermediate class there were no spare women!!!! Let me repeat that – no spare women!!!!!

As a result Mairi thought it would be fun to move the guys on instead of the girls. That was a bit weird. All that walking! All that counting! (Up to, um… 1.) It must explain my physical and mental exhaustion!

Well that’s my excuse!

Anyway, before we go any further… beginner’s moves: arm-jive push spin, yo-yo, shoulder drop, side-to-side shoulders. Some nice moves there!

Intermediate moves…

• Um… Catapult man-wrap walk round spin?? Starts the same as a catapult, but turn to face woman wrapping self in anti-clockwise with right hand behind back. Lead girl with left hand on her upper arm for a couple of paces round. Unwrap to face and prepare to spin lady. Spin! And return.
• Secret? Hatchback something… Starts with a hatchback/yo-yo with left hand offered behind. After twist out, girl takes spare hand… lead her across into catapult exit position… Turn and return.
• Archie spin!
• Side-to-side shoulders flamenco. Let go on exit, trail left hand over her back, catch left to left, facing opposite directions. Pull her across and step back into a flamenco position, step round a couple of times, undo into a double-handed turn and return. Drop the left-left hold.

Some really good moves tonight. Archie spin is my total favourite of the night. I think I was at my first intermediate class when I was first taught this move. What with it all being new to me, the weird signal/preparation, and the risk of injury, I never dared to try it out. This time I wasn’t going to let the opportunity go by – it’s a really cool move.

The others I could do, but the first one involved me having to turn about too fast, and just made me dizzy. I like the side-to-side flamenco and hope to remember it to try it on women who don’t know it to see how easy it is to lead.

Freestyle was also weird. I just felt so tired, both physically and mentally. I switched into auto-pilot for most of the first few dances and couldn’t have been a great partner. I chose to sit out much more dances than I normally would, just taking time to recover and see if I could pull myself together. I even considered refusing dances if asked. Fortunately I was allowed to relax and slowly I began to wake up and the moves began to flow, I started thinking and using different moves. Much better.

So I got to do a few Archie spins – first one was a bit hesitant, but once I knew I could do them in freestyle they flowed much better. I tried the other moves I liked from the class, and found problems leading the hatchback one (usually the girl wouldn’t see my hand to grab hold of it.) Also tried the butterfly thing from Tuesday, though I didn’t really get the lead right.

Managed to get stabbed twice when doing my improvised right-handed shoulder slide that I’ve grown attached to. Seems if the girl isn’t expecting it her hand will end up embedded in my neck. Need to be more careful with this move… :?

So, a slow start, but the marvellous dancers who insisted I dance with them brought me to life. One of the ladies who now beats me at knowing the right thing to say helped especially. Thanks ladies!

Got an unconventional offer to dance tonight… bash on head “Let’s go!” How can you refuse such an offer?

I’m sure other stuff happened tonight, but my brain is shutting down. Anyone want to remind me???

Oh, Ceroc Jock was there. Congratulations again to you and your wife. Now get a good night’s sleep, it’ll be the last one for a while!

Back from JJ’s… Arrived late again. This isn’t deliberate, I just got my timing all messed up tonight. Still arrived in time for the first move of the beginner’s class…

Moves were… first move push spin, yo-yo, comb, step across. I’ve started doing a step-across with a turn at the end of it (is that really a move from Dirty Dancing??), so it’s hard to do just a simple step across. No biggy though.

Intermediate moves… tried hard to remember their names and failed miserably…

• something lady’s butterfly something. Start with a neck-break in, turn and switch hands, bring lady out in front with one hand at your hip and the other on lady’s shoulder. Alternate hips and shoulders for a couple then turn out into a cross-over hand-hold.
• travelling double-handed almost ceroc spin. (think this one is right!!) Double-handed, left above right. While moving round, go into ceroc spin position and release back, and again into ceroc spin position and release back. Third time into ceroc spin position and this time go for it!
• no idea what this was called. Instead on doing the ceroc spin, or preparing with your hand on the wrist, hook the girl’s hand further up her arm about her elbow. Bring her round and do a sort-of lady-comb so you’ve got one hand at her shoulder holding on behind her head, and the other at her elbow below, where her other hand is stuck. Pull round and double-spin out. You should have a r-r hold.
• lady comb. Allow the girl to wiggle a bit first then bring her in for a quick lady comb and back, ready for the first move…

I like the butterfly thing and did it a few times during freestyle. this is my official move of the night. The almost ceroc spin was OK, but I’m not one for ceroc spins, so I’m not sure how much use this one will get, but I’ll try to remember it. The third move was a killer. I never felt it comfortable. One or two of my partners said I had it right, but maybe I was just not messing it up as much as some other folks. :? Don’t see me doing that one. Lady comb… Well, I’ll have to get over my shyness about doing a man comb before I can even think about doing lady-combs.

That was the class… How about the freestyle!

Well, over-all tonight was good!!!!

Danced lots – maybe only missed 5-6 dances at the most. Only one or two didn’t go so well. Both with relative beginners. One is already doing the intermediate class, but I’m really not sure she’s ready for it. I so-much want her to be better, as she’s a really nice girl. I don’t want to crush her by telling her dancing still needs some basic remedial work. Hmm… Hopefully she’ll get it by osmosis.

Other dancers and dances were pretty good. Towards the end of the night I felt myself getting tired and my standard of dancing dipping. Sorry to those who had to endure this.

I was really happy though when a few ladies (was it two or three?) told me how good my dancing was becoming compared with a few months ago. Chuffed to bits in fact.

One of these lovely ladies was the first woman I ever danced with, and it was a pleasure to see her and dance with her tonight. Will miss her when she’s gone.

Had one girl give me some very useful negative feedback about an aspect of my dancing I need to think more about. It concerns where I position myself when turning ladies, and making sure I’m near enough to not pull their shoulder. This seems to be a particular problem in the one-handed catapult turn thing I like to do. It’s something I’ve sort-of been aware of, but having it confirmed to me helps a lot. I’m going to have to keep an eye on this. Thanks though! Hopefully next time we dance it’ll be better, and perhaps you can find something else to complain about! (Just kidding. )

So this was one aspect of experimentation for me tonight. I also experimented with footwear – I wore my “tiger feet” shoes, but no-one commented, and I found them too flat when combined with the black jeans I’m wearing which are a bit long. I ended up dancing on the hem of my trousers. Not good. Will have to avoid this combination in future.

Of course, the big thing I was meant to be experimenting with was whether my new method of getting asked to dance actually worked. Initial results have proved negative. I’ll write more about it separately.

Oh, the other thing I experimented with was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, rather than a t-shirt. I’ve danced in shirts before, at the corn exchange and at the party back on Saturday, but as they were both special occasions (and the party was way too hot) I wanted to see what it was like on a class night…

Result: big failure. I think I was more sweaty in the shirt, but the worse thing was I had to keep pulling it back round me as it tended to get pulled round by my partners during moves like the man-spin or shoulder slide. Why do some ladies have to drag their hands so deliberately round my back? I was taught to you a light touch bringing my hand round the girl’s back. Hmm… Anyway, it’s a bit of a problem with t-shirts, but not half as bad.

The shirt I wore was LOUD. I had it as a spare for the party on Saturday, but didn’t need it, but I thought it needed an out-ing. Only got one or two comments. Don’t think it went down well generally… Maybe that’s why I wasn’t getting asked as much… Hmm…

Only one more thing I need to mention – the music – which was really, really good tonight. A sound selection. Only one or two that I thought were a bit too slow for me, one I danced to anyway, and did OK, the other was the “last dance” which was very slow and it was rather telling that the 5 or 6 couples still on the dance floor had the best guys, and mostly very good ladies. I’m happy to leave these sorts of dances to them!

So, like I said, I had a great night, though I think I peaked too early and dipped a bit towards the end. Dunno how to fix that!

Thanks everyone!

Last think – want to finish with a question for you… I’ve decided to have a weekend off from Ceroc, but I am thinking of going dancing on Thursday this week – what do you think? Perth or Rutherglen? Or maybe somewhere else? Leave a comment by following the link…

(Also thinking about Stirling on Tuesday… Comments?)

Did anyone else wonder why that Barnes fellow played football when he described it as “90 minutes of sheer agony” in the Lucozade adverts?

I’m now beginning to understand. Although in my case it was 4 hours of sheer hell, plus 4 hours in a room that was so hot you’d maybe think you were in hell.

I’m really suffering today. But let’s talk more about yesterday… Party first…

We arrived just in time for the “fun” class, and already there were lots of people there – some I knew for the first time. (Yea!)

Like I said the theme was G8/Live 8 and 8-ness in general. so we were drawing figures of eight with our own feet in ochos, with our bodies in turns and again with our feet in rondes. Cool stuff. Was mighty impressed that the demo chose to wear a hat – how many other people would dare?

The rest of the night was reserved for dancing – and nothing but dancing. No cabaret or competitions to slow the pace – though having never experienced either, maybe I just really don’t know what I’m missing.

There were so many great dancers from all over. At least one person down from Aberdeen, and I met a lady who’d come up from Manchester for the weekend, just for this party.

I danced loads – missing some (usually slower) songs to cool off, with the help of a spanish fan, or preferably a girl with a spanish fan. (Noticed though that these fans are designed for right-handed folks, so all the more reason to get a girl to do the fanning for me!)

Did a lot of asking, was asked a lot to dance. Out of the loads of dances, maybe only had two really duff dances. Sorry to the ladies involved. Put it down to the heat, incompatibility, or something like that. All the others were just fab.

I’ve gotten used to girls sometimes saying things like “you really know the right thing to say” upon me somehow actually, like, knowing what the right thing to say was. I still marvel at the phenomena, as I almost never know the right thing to say, and when I do it’s usually ‘cos I’ve been able to sleep on it first. Last night a lady who’s said that twice to me made me have to repeat it back to her when she said something really, really nice to me as we started to dance.

Do you guys ever wonder about how seriously you can take the “thanks” you get at the end of a dance? Some of the girls I danced with were almost gushing in their praise. I’m not saying they were lying, but am I really so great a dancer? As for the girls giving complimentary words just on the offer of a dance – I thought that was perhaps more than I deserved.

OK, I figure it’s just the way these people are. Lots of other people didn’t need to go into high praise to thank me, so I can’t be that wondrous. It’s really nice, getting these compliments, but I never know what to say, usually just stumbling another “thank you”.

Or am I being overly modest? I was told of a lady I respect saying nice things about my dancing well out of my hearing, so I must be doing something right.

Should say something about the music… On the whole, very good. I tried to follow my new policy of not asking anybody if I didn’t like the particular song, but still accepting if asked. Mostly worked. Sometimes I just needed to dance, or wanted to dance with somebody in particular and couldn’t wait. Other times (e.g. All That Jazz) I just ran away and hid (sorry, that should read “I just had to step outside for some air.” )

Two things frustrated me. 1) False endings should be banned. No excuses. 2) One song I’m used to dancing to is fairly up tempo, but has a even faster, really kicking bit in it – but the version played last night didn’t. Can’t remember the song though.

Oh, the other thing was… Who was it I was talking to about the particular music we were dancing to, and the name of the singer? I thought the singer might have been Sonique. Or a woman who’s name I couldn’t remember. Well the name I couldn’t remember was Anastacia. Don’t know if that’s who it was, but there was another song played later that may of may not have been the same or other singer. :?

The most incredible thing was that I made it through without collapsing after all the efforts of the afternoon. Lots of people seemed to know I had done the workshop and it was really nice to be asked about it.

So let’s talk more about baby aerials and such for a moment…

As I said, I like the through the legs move, but of the aerial moves, the “hip-hop” had to be my favourite. It starts into a sway position, then a hop/lift up and in onto a “shelf” made of my right thigh. It looks really cool. If you do it right you can hold it pretty much indefinitely, extending your arms out just so it looks even cooler. I also like the way this can move into a “lap-sit”, which was also pretty cool.

I’m still amazed I could do any of these moves at all, but come to that, I was pretty amazed when I did my first catapult, back just over four months ago, and if you’d told me then I’d be doing aerial steps now, I’d think you were just a total nutter. (This would be about a month or two after you’d told me I’d be busking in the streets and I’d laughed at you.)

Of course, we now know it’s me that’s the nutter.

A lot of the workshop was quite painful on my thighs and arms. (I’m not a big, strong guy and I’m just glad I had a small-ish, slim girl to work with.) After taking ibuprofen at the lunch break, I managed to recover sufficiently to complete the workshop. Some more drugs, plus an injection of Red Bull set me up for the party later and I reckon by the end of it I was running on adrenaline.

OK, so I know I’d hurt today. Our teacher told us a rather frightening story of the time he attended two of this style of workshop two days running (something I just could never do) but could not walk the next day.

Today I don’t have the adrenaline to keep me going and the drugs don’t seem to be working quite so well now.

And they say that it’s always worse the day after the day after. Hmm…

If I’m not fully fit by Tuesday, I think I might miss the class that night and go to the Thursday-night class in Rutherglen. I think I’m on holiday on Friday too.

Anyway, just want to thank everyone I met and danced with at the party last night. It as pure magic. Was really great to see the girls who had travelled over from the east. Also, the girls who couldn’t persuade their men to come along should perhaps find men who like to dance. It was lovely to see you there.

And a big “Yea!” to Franck and co. for making it all possible.

Now what am I going to do next weekend??? :?

What an awesome day!

Baby aerials workshop in the afternoon, and party at night!

This’ll be a quick report, as I should get to my bed… Maybe I’ll have time to write more tomorrow (or should I say later today!)

I’m really pleased by how well I did at the workshop. From the first move (the first move jump actually) I thought it was going to be an unmitigated disaster. I was so wrong! You watch, and even if consciously you have no idea how you’re going to pull it off, somehow your body just does the right thing. (Well, sometimes!)

There were a few moves my body just didn’t seem to get at all. But out of at least 10 moves, there were only 2 I didn’t at all get – one just wasn’t happening, the other my partner and I decided to sit out as it looked a bit beyond us and by that time we were quite tired and sore.

My favourite move was probably a slidey one, pulling the girl though between my legs. That went well, wasn’t sore and looked and felt good. Strange that the move we couldn’t get was another slidey one. Actually now I think about it, there was third sliding move I don’t think I managed to get working with my partner, though I did once with the demo. We’ll put that down to not-very-slippy shoes when doing the move. Or I’m just not very good at these “drop and slide” moves.

I felt a little inadequate at time as, as far as I could tell, all the other couples managed to get all the moves. But I’ll put that down to either our lack of experience or greater ages.

Some of the moves were really hard on my right thigh. Almost all the jump moves involve it in some way. At the lunch break I was so sore I could hardly walk down the stairs. Some ibuprofen fixed me up though for the second half.

(Hang on, wasn’t this supposed to be a quick post??? OK, I’ll cut it short!)

So, the workshop was magic – had a really great time.

Thanks to our teacher and his lovely demo – she’s an very good dancer and looked really great doing all these moves.

Biggest thanks goes to my long-suffering partner who ended up sitting or lying on the floor more times that I think we could count – and kept smiling. Thanks for understanding, thanks for not complaining, thanks for all the help and advice – basically thanks for everything! I had a totally fab day!

I’ll talk about the party tomorrow I guess, but here were the moves in the “fun” class…

• First move ocho – figure eights with the feet in the middle of the first move. Push spin at end to change hands and go left-left over after the return.
• Double double-handed man turn, lady turn (???) – double-handed turn of the guy, turn of the girl, turn of the guy, turn the girl then return (drop hand back to r-r hold.) Is that the right number of turns?
• Sway walk ronde – Sway, couple of steps then on right foot stop girl going forward and do part-circles in a ronde-style so that together you’re drawing a sort-of figure eight.

If it wasn’t obvious, there was an “eight” theme for these moves – a tribute to the G8 meeting and Live 8.

Liked them all, but first and third are too involved for me. Maybe give the second move a wee outing during the week.

Tune in later for the rest of my party report, and for all thanks I owe…

Cheers!

Have you ever seen Gregory’s Girl where Gregory thinks he’s going on a date with one girl but he gets passed through a sequence of other girls until he gets to the one he’s meant to be with?

I feel a little bit like that…

(Update: Read the comments for an explanation.)

Oops! late again!

Tonight was the GUU, and I was a good 40 minutes late. I had slept in!

I was really tired from dancing last night and hadn’t got much sleep, so when I got home from work I had a quick bite to eat then flaked out on my bed – for about an hour. Except that the hour turned into almost two!

This had two consequences. I had creased the t-shirt I was going to wear by sleeping in it, so I decided to wear my “sorry I’m single” iron-burn t-shirt as an ironic comment on all the other t-shirts I would have worn had they been ironed. (Hey, I thought it was funny!) No-one commented on it though.

The other consequence was that if I had turned up on time I might have been the demo for the beginner’s class! That wasn’t a sure thing, but it’d have been cool anyways.

So, the beginner’s class of which I missed half was arm-jive swizzle, basket, shoulder drop, catapult. All cool stuff. There were lots of new beginners tonight, and lots of them were men. I’m sure the girls will be cheering that!

Intermediate class was…

• basket something-or-other – start off with the basket, on the way out stop the girl – this induces a sort-of catapult-kind-of lean then move to the girls left, lifting her hands up, turn clockwise in front of her to bring her hands onto your shoulders, with her behind you. wiggle-wiggle. Then drop the hands into a double catapult hold.
• catapult double handed turn. (I’m making these names up as I can’t remember what they might really be called.) From the catapult position, bring the lady round but don’t spin her – just turn her. As she come round go double-handed for a two-handed return.
• two-handed yo-yo something something. I wish I could remember these somethings! So, two handed yo-yo, but after the turn (or was it the return?) bring both near arms over heads, facing same way, and walk round for two beats. This bit has a special name – anyone know it? Please? I’ve no idea how to explain the next bit, but it involved letting go with the right behind the girl’s head and then finding her right hand again in front of her to pull her through for a sort-of step-across move.
• finish with a slow comb to get onto a two-handed hold for the basket.

I could do most of this, except the bit I found hard to explain – hardly any wonder I found it hard to do too! I already can do a fairly convincing two-handed yo-yo, and I do an occasional comb – I’m just too shy to do them much. The catapult variation is nice, but it’s actually very difficult (for me) to get my partners not to just do the spin when I’m trying to hold on and do a turn. The basket thingy is just too long and involved for me.

So, freestyle was good. Lots of good music, lots of good dancers, lots of girls asking me to dance.

There were a few folks down from Stirling for the night – and maybe from other parts, as there were quite a few good dancers I didn’t recognise. Also with all the beginners the dance floor was very busy at the start of the freestyle. It got less busy after a wee while though – I reckon the beginners had had enough by that point.

I didn’t do any of tonight’s moves beyond a few two-handed yo-yos, though I tried doing the catapult variation once (and got a spin.) Tried a couple of Tuesday’s moves though – the first move double turn, and the shoulder blade thing. In both cases I only did the moves once rather than the double move we were taught. Good to throw in now and then though.

Best news of the night was I have a partner for the baby aerials workshop on Saturday!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!! I won’t name the girl foolhardy enough to put her life in my hands, but I think she’s going to be great. She’s apparently done at least one of these workshops before, so hopefully she’ll be able to keep me straight. Just hope I don’t drop her!

So, really great night! Thanks to the whole wide world for being in just perfect alignment for me! (Do you think that’s a bit over the top? )

Roll on Saturday!!!!

I was late to JJ’s again this week, but this time I have an excuse – I was seeing a friend I hadn’t seen for a while and wouldn’t see for another while again.

So I was about half an hour late. I had also had a wee drink, so wasn’t 100% sober. This revealed itself in two ways – I made lots of stupid mistakes in the beginner’s class (though I sorted myself out soon enough) and I was very, very thirsty.

Of course, it was that guy at the bar again.

Beginner’s moves were shoulder slide; yo-yo; shoulder drop; man spin. The man-spin unusually finished with a left-right handhold which I mostly got right, but maybe because of that I quite often got the shoulder-slide exit wrong. Fortunately there’s time in the return to fix these things!

During the first freestyle I didn’t have time to get a drink, so I went into the intermediate class very, very, very thirsty!

Moves were…

• double first move with double turn (or something like that) – basically move with the lady during the turn out and turn her a second time and come round into the first-move position again facing the other way. Repeat. Come out with a push spin.
• not sure what this is called – something about shoulder blade returns. The idea is during the return you put your spare left hand on the girl’s left shoulder blade as she returns, and from there you bring the right hand over the top your head to the right shoulder and push/pull the girl along the tramlines she likes to dance on. This then repeats bringing her back the other way. We’re still on a r-r handhold.
• sway lean? From the previous position, bring the girl round into a sway. on the way out, follow her as she steps forward, nudging her into position in front of you, then bring arms up under her arms and step back into a lean. Bring her back up and spin her out clockwise.
• simple return into a comb to get back onto l-r handhold.

First move thing was fairly straight-forward. So was the shoulder blade thing once I got out of the way of my partner. I’m a bit concerned there may have been a slight risk of shoulder injury in this move if you get the girl unaware. Dunno.

The sway lean I wasn’t so convinced by. I found it difficult to get into the right position for the lean and quite often the girl would just launch herself at me without me leading her. At least one girl didn’t pick up the thing Mairi was saying about taking most of your weight one of your legs. Hmm… Then there was another girl who was a bit sweaty and was wearing a sleeveless top.

The only move I tried later was the first move double turn, but only once, not twice – there wasn’t really enough space on the dance floor for these long-distance moves.

After the class I managed to get some water, despite the guy at the bar, before going dancing! I was sober by then, and needed to dance – urgently!

I’ve discovered a great way to get asked to dance at JJ’s, but I’m not going to divulge my secret, but I got asked loads more this week than last. And there’s even without some of my “usual (JJ’s) suspects” being there.

Music was mixed. Love dancing to the likes of Don’t Phunk With My Heart (Black Eyes Peas) and Sandstorm (Darude), don’t love so much dancing to all those blues/swing numbers (sorry Sheena!) I didn’t invite girls to dance for those songs, but got asked and would never say no, even to those that I really want to. With slow songs, I just never know what to do to spend the time. With fast songs I’m too busy dancing!!!

Plenty of other seem to like that sort of music though, so I can’t complain too much. I’m still hoping I get more into as my dancing improves. Really not sure though…

After Sheena had finished her set, JJ’s normal DJ came on and played a long, long mix of rock’n'roll songs, starting off with a Grease mega-mix. This was nice and fast, but like I said, very long. Most people got exhausted way before me and my partner – I think we might have managed about 8 or 9 minutes of just hard, fast dancing. In that time it’d gone from over a dozen couples dancing down to about three. I think we gave up after a some mistake and as the music changed to another track we decided we’d had enough.

Got to say though, that was the best dance of the night, bar none.

Funniest incident of the night was the sudden and mysterious appearance of a pair of girl’s knickers on the dance floor during the class. Oops! They also happened to appear right next to me. Just got to say, they were nothing to do with me, despite what anyone says! Of course, no-one claimed them as theirs – would you?

Funny that this should happen the same night as a matching bra appears outside my flat in the street. Perhaps there’s a girl throwing her underwear at me and I’ve just not noticed her yet!

Also funny was a weird compliment I got after I had left. I was walking along Sauchiehall Street (where JJ’s is) which is where so much of Glasgow’s night-life is. As well as all the bars and clubs you gets young guys cruising in their mum’s Corsas that they’ve tricked up with blue neon lights and the like…

So, as I was saying, walking along the street. After a while you get used to these guys blasting their music out, setting off air horns or shouting out abuse at you. It wasn’t really a surprise then when I heard a guy shouting something to me I didn’t quite hear. Foolishly, I turned round to see what he was saying and then when I saw it was just another idiot in a car, turned back expecting some sort of abuse directed at me. I didn’t expect his next comment…

“Check that guy out with the sexy wee jeans!”

He said something else after that but I didn’t quite hear. Perhaps it was just his friend saying “yeah, he must work out!”

So, a pretty good night which improved considerably towards the end.

Thanks everyone for a good night. And if you want to see me in my sexy wee jeans, see you Wednesday at the GUU or Saturday at the Glasgow party!