Hyperreal

JJ’s tonight…

Good night in general, but what with trying to perfect tonight’s moves, plus work on the moves we did on Sunday, plus cope with various other distractions, there was lots going wrong.

I arrived a bit late, even though I thought I was going to be on time, not a good start. But I was there in time for the start of the beginners’ class, just missing the Ceroc Essentials. Moves were Yo-yo; Slo Comb; In-and-Out; Basket; Man Spin. All pretty cool. No really disastrous partnerships, despite a few first-timers going through my hands. Felt pretty good.

Intermediate moves were…

• Yo-yo spin (?) – simply a yo-yo, but instead of turning and blocking, turn and spin CW.
• Ceroc spin barrier repeating (?) – R-R, “prepare” for a ceroc spin RH, stop and prepare again LH, and again RH, and again LH, and finally do it from the RH. Except we never got a chance to do the last RH and spin, cos the girl would hi-jack on the LH and ceroc spin the guy.
• First move basic – Classic move of the night. Open first move, hand up between shoulder-blades, lift elbow and lead girl forward and turning around (dropping elbow) back into open FM position, repeat. Finish up by closing back up dropping right land back to hip, and Push Spin (no return.) The footwork for the guy is forward, turn, back, back; and for the girl, forward, forward, turn, back. For added fun and effect, turn the steps into two sets of triple steps.
• Catapult throw away (?) – regular catapult, but don’t spin out, instead keep arm low and turn girl into half nelson L-L, collect R-R, to the left, but discard the hand immediately and turn girl out ACW from half nelson as you turn CW to get back to the lean away position again. Same bring the girl round, half nelson, collect R-R again, but this time, do a little pull in and then push away, letting go left hand to get back to a R-R hand-hold ready for the yo-yo. (Can’t remember if we did a return here, but if we did, it’d be the old one of the routine!)

I liked these moves. Yo-yo thing I’ve probably done by mistake before. Simple enough. The Ceroc spin and hijack was cool. I liked the hijack, and it was a chance to practice my spins. Got caught by one lady anticipating her spin. Naughty me! A few of the girls I partnered weren’t very keen on the hijack for some reason. I thought they’d love a chance to take over! As I’m not very much into Ceroc spins (I just hardly ever think to do them,) I didn’t get to practise this move in freestyle.

We spent a long time on the first move basic. I really liked it. I got to practice some of the stuff I’d been taught at the workshop about leading travelling move, plus it was just a cool move. It got a bit tricky once we’d added the triple steps, and it’s really difficult to do them to the music too, so although I practised it in freestyle triple-stepping, maybe next time I’ll just do normal steps. It’s also a difficult move to practise on a crowded dance floor! What was really good about this move was how fast I got it, and how then a couple of girls I then partnered said they couldn’t do it, but once we’d gone through it, were like “hey, that’s how it’s done!” Too often it’s the other way around!

Catapult-y thing went OK. Wasn’t very inspired by it though, but did it a few times in freestyle and we’ll see if it sticks.

Freestyle was a bit mixed, for the reasons I said up the top… I was trying to remember stuff from the workshop, both technique and moves; the cool new moves of the night; take on board feedback; and give my partners good dances. Plus I danced with quite a few (relative) beginners with whom I am not good enough to lead these more advanced moves with. A bit frustrating.

So I made lots of mistakes (even in a few of the beginner moves,) and messed up lots of the leads of these trickier moves. But I still had fun. I enjoyed every dance, bar none.

I’m in two minds about some feedback I got. The particular problem doesn’t seem to happen at least with the few other ladies that I’ve asked, which makes me wonder if it’s only a problem with this one person, or with only some partners and not others. Either way, I’m a firm believer in the “it’s always the guy’s fault” rule, so I must be doing something wrong. I just wish I could figure out why it’s going wrong, and how to fix it. :?

So, much to think about…

Overall, a good night, but one that’s left my brain a bit frazzled. Hope it can recover in time for tomorrow.

Cheers everybody!