Hyperreal

That was my first real, proper Edinburgh party night. And it was good.

Last time I wimped out early as I wasn’t enjoying it – I couldn’t dance very much, if at all, and I had just had to get home. If truth be told, that was probably my worst day of this year so-far, for a few reasons.

Any wonder I was apprehensive? Of course, all the reasons to worry have sorted themselves out pretty much, and I really had nothing to worry about. But don’t you worry, I came away with new things to worry about!

I had hoped to make it over in time for the class, but only caught the end of it. It looked like fun though… Based on the evidence of killingtime’s blog (good to meet you at last!), Edinburgh seems to teach more leans and dips than I’m used to in Glasgow. No surprise that there was a dip taught tonight then…

Especially as I’d missed the class, my dancing initially was quite poor – not a lot of style, not a lot of interesting move. It seems to take at least half an hour before I’m really enjoying myself and maybe an hour or so longer before I’m on fire!

This worries me with the competition coming up next week. I hope I get the chance to turn up the fires in me before I’m asked to perform.

Anyway, once I got going I had a magic time. Much of the music was fairly fast, which suits me fine. There can still be room for interpretation in some fast tracks. Only was a couple of times when I found myself dancing to music I’d rather not have been, and there was only one song that I sat out specifically for that reason. That said, I’m ashamed to have found myself dancing to Shakin’ Stevens and Cliff Richard.

Most of the dances I had were somewhere on the scale of good to brilliant. There were a few maybe at the lower end of good with difficult beginners, but I still managed to enjoy them. There were a few beginners that were a joy to dance with – one lady was dancing Ceroc for the very first time that night, but did really well. She explained she had previously done “rock and roll” dancing, and while it’s really a different dance, there’s enough overlap in the concepts that she should be a pretty good Ceroc dancer in no time at all.

One constant I’ve found though is a far too high a percentage of beginner women use a vice-like grip on my hands. (In fact, there’s also too many experienced dancers who should know better who still seem to want to have a go at breaking my fingers.) I think the relaxed hand-hold needs to emphasised more in classes, with exercises to help reinforce it. I know I’ve got faults in my dancing, but hopefully I’m mostly painless to dance with. And if not – please tell me now!!!

I’m in two minds about the venue… On one side, it’s got everything you need, with a good floor and air conditioning. However, it’s not a particularly nice place. And it gets so crowded that the air conditioning doesn’t seem to be able to keep up. Oh, and it was that crowding I’d blame for the number of bumps and bashes I both gave and received. You try your hardest, sometimes it’s your fault, sometimes it the other person’s, but either way it wouldn’t happen so often if it wasn’t so crowded. Also, moving around the room when you’re not dancing ain’t easy either. Overall, I think I prefer Glasgow’s Henry Wood Hall (on a cool night. )

One of the best things about the night was meeting dancers you maybe don’t see so often, but you know you’ve had good dances with them and are keen to repeat the experience. There were lots of those people there. Had some cracking dances with some good friends. Of course, it’s also nice to discover (new to you) quality dancers from far-off places like Edinburgh, or even further!

Talking off people from way, way, far-off places, it was really cool to meet The Long One tonight. Nice guy, and from what I saw and heard, a quality dancer too.

Anything I’ve forgotten??? I could talk about my experience with various moves I was playing around with, but it’s probably not what you want to hear from this report… I’ll just say that I almost dropped yet-another girl on the floor from my not-lean move, but I’ve tweaked my lead a little to hopefully stop it happening as often.

And so I must thanks all the dancers I danced with. I had a brilliant time. I wish I could have danced with you so much more, even if I danced with you lots. But as The Shamen put it, “Life is never enough (but it’s all you get.)”

Oh, and a Special Thanks for those of you that especially deserve it – just for being you.