Hyperreal

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?)