Hyperreal

GUU tonight…

Usual kind of thing… I really enjoyed the night. No heavy analysis tonight though – I’m too tired.

Intermediate moves…

• First move step across thing, with a twist. I think we did this last week at Rutherglen, but there was a bit extra.. on the step across add an extra CW turn for the girl. Most step-acrosses I do have such a CW turn, but because the first move has left you in a different place, it’s not quite the same…
• Don’t know if this has got a name? I’ll call it Octopus into wrap. Would start with the lady’s break-through part of an octopus, but as we’re not double-handed coming out of the previous move, we just do a travelling return, going double-handed on the way out. The next bit we did something similar to recently. Continue leading the girl back, but take both hands over your own head on your ACW turn across. As the girl comes round there’s a slight pause/lowering of the hands before turning her under the double hands on the spot. As she comes round bring LH down but continue turning her another half turn until she is facing away. Lead with the RH coming down to her RH hip moving to the right, so you’ve got her in a basket-style wrap in front of you, stepping a bit to the right. Lead back to the left, with another step, then back to the right. While doing this lift your RH and her LH over her head onto her left shoulder… lead back to the left and lift LH over to place her RH on her RH shoulder. A wee nudge away, into a double-handed lean away… (can you tell what’s coming next???)
• No idea what this is called… So, for me it’s simply a backwards drop. Yep, you’ve got two choices here, either go straight for the arms supporting under arms and pull back for a drop, or put a wee pause in there to split it into 2 beats. You’ll need to step in first, and make sure to step back and get your knees away from the girl as she comes down! Lift her back up, and hook your right hand under right to lead her CW… once you’ve got her hand, lead back ACW, but block for a ceroc spin kind of thing (though only using right hand??) Catch L-R to go straight into first move…

I liked all these moves apart from the drop. I don’t like drops where you can’t see your partner’s face. In fact I don’t like any leads where you can’t see what your partner’s reaction to them is. I’d like to find something cool to do with the octopus wrap thing. Because my partners tonight might think I wanted to drop them, and I didn’t want to catch, I didn’t try the move without the drop on the end…

As this is the second time I’ve been taught something like this, I’ll hopefully remember it and be able to use it again.

Anyway, good night… Bit of a sore back and arms from catching falling women, but I’m sure that’ll pass…

Good to see everyone there, and hope to see you all again soon.

… we’re following the leader, wherever she may go…

I had my first real, proper go at following today during the beginner’s class at JJ’s.

I’ve got to say, it’s tougher than it looks…

We did a first move push spin; back pass, octopus; side to side.

The push spin was the most scary! My spinning just isn’t there at all. I was all over the place. Typically I’d not make it all the way round and end up facing somewhere else. (This will become a common theme through the night.) I was surprised by how obvious which way I should go on the return… You get lots of beginners turning the wrong way, but turning anti-clockwise just seemed like the most natural thing.

I guess because I know from the other side how the moves are done, I’d got a huge advantage over an absolute beginner. Although it was a bit scrappy, and I was caught anticipating the push spin a couple of times, I think my first move wasn’t so bad. We had a problem where I’d let go of my partner’s hand on the sweep out, but I’m not really sure why that is…

Perhaps it’s because as a follower I was trying to put some more styling into my arms. When you don’t have anything else to think about, you got to find something to do! And the first move cries out for it! Not so much style anywhere else from me!

For the back-pass, more than once I think I was misled to turn clockwise, rather than stepping straight across. I’m going to blame my leader (it’s always the leader’s fault!) for that! Most of the time it went OK though. It’s funny being returned. Based on that I’m going to try to cut down the number of returns I use in my freestyle, I think.

Quite often the return went astray a little… Party due to my incredibly poor turns on the stop, but also it might be a little to do with the problem I had (or maybe still have) of many of my returns turning into travelling returns because there is a bit of a forward lead in the return. Not sure about this…

The octopus was perhaps our best and our worse move. Once we got going, it flowed so easily. I could close my eyes and be led back and forward in a blissful manner. Unfortunately we’d quite often have problems with the initial lead into the first breakthrough… I found the handhold a bit strange, but it wasn’t hurting me, so no problem…

The side-to-side was another one that my fearless leader liked to catch me out with, putting in extra side-to-sides. Got me the first time, but never a second time.

Later we tried a bit of freestyle, which was a good laugh. I thought we did really well though, considering I’d only done one class as a follower, and my partner had only done two as a leader. Knowing how hard it is to lead, I’m well impressed.

I’ve also got a new-found respect for beginner followers. I found I had to try hard to allow myself to be led, and not to anticipate. One big problem we often had as well was that I kept on stealing the lead, mid-octopus usually…

But it was lots of fun, so I hope we get to have a go again soon.

Going into the first freestyle, it was seriously weird going back to a normal L-R handhold, after only just getting used to the even weirder experience of being the “R” in the “L-R” :? I also kept expecting to be led, rather than leading…

Saved by the intermediate class…

• side-to-side flip-flop – side to side, and let go but block on girl’s hip as she passes you, push her back, but block the other way. Each of these is a flip-flop. For an exit, on the non-blocking side, take the girl’s hand, and lead her out in a turn, maybe going double-handed for a move like an…
• accordion yo-yo – this was a bit weird. The previous move ended with the left-hand accordion, so we go across into the right-hand position. Now lead with the high RH to your back, over your head as you turn 90º CW, and allow trailing LH to follow into nelson, as the girl passes behind you. From here, let go LH, and turning to face and lead the girl into yo-yo-style block. Usual range of exits are possible from here…
• right-handed archie spin – tricky… while “travelling returning” the girl, turn CW, back to back with her. Timing and handhold here are critical to avoid injury!
• lazy back pass – lead girl forward, and just place the girl’s hand on your hip, and let her figure out what to do next – you’d better have got out of the way though!

Most of my back-passes are “lazy” these days, that is, when I do them. I seem to prefer what you might call a right-handed shoulder slide… When done right the girl’s hand slides across your shoulder and down your left arm to a hand ready and waiting…

The flip-flop is a cool move. I prefer the basket version though, and did that a few times in freestyle. I only did the side-to-side version once, but I did throw in the side-to-side let go block a couple of time to surprise my partners. Keeps them guessing!!!

I liked the accordion yo-yo, but I never seemed to find my way into it during freestyle. I guess because even when I’m in an accordion-like position, I only realise when it’s too late. Something to work on.

Didn’t do an archie spins. They got me way to dizzy during the class to risk them on a busy dance floor. During class I found it difficult to go all the way round and lead the step back without almost falling over, so quite often my partner and myself would end up at some odd angle and position, not unlike my spinning as a follower, though in this case, it’s entirely up to me to sort it out. I typically did that by giving myself an extra beat to sort myself out before going into the next move.

And after all that, nothing cries out from my memory of the freestyle needing to be documented. I had some smashing dances with some smashing people, including a few pleasant surprises. Wish every night could be so uniformly good.

Overall, a really fun night. Learnt a lot, laughed a lot. I wonder what tomorrow holds…

Cheers!

Wow, is that the time??? I’m not long back from Edinburgh, and the party night at Marco’s.

Had a magic time!

Despite my best efforts, I didn’t make the “fun” class again, arriving at about quarter past nine. The night was just getting going, but the numbers seemed lower than I had expected. And in fact, it never seemed as busy there as it was last month. I can only guess it was the Southport effect… Nevertheless, there were plenty of people there, so I never had a problem finding someone to dance with.

I really wasn’t sure how the night would be… Based on the week I’ve had, a mix of highs and lows with sore feet thrown in for good measure, anything could have happened tonight.

So, I did find in the last hour or so a tiredness overtaking me that definitely affected my dancing. However, earlier on, I was much happier with my dancing and my musical interpretation. Neither are any where near good enough, but compared to even a month ago, I’m feeling much better about my performance.

That said, I wasn’t happy about my selection of moves… I’m doing way too many yo-yos, man-spins, part octopuses, and baskets. I go two-handed too often, but can never think of something novel to do. Likewise, when on my right hand, I’m finding it difficult to not just do a yo-yo. And with cross-over hands, it’s almost always the exact same sequence of moves, quite often with two two-handed yo-yos in there. I really need to work on this problem.

My feet… Well they are much, much happier after 3-4 hours of dancing than they would have been in my shoes as they were this last week, or the week before.

Still sore in places, but no-where near as bad as they have been. Hoping I get my Bloch’s before the next class on Tuesday though…

As for the dances themselves… I find the quality of a dance is directly related to how the lady dances with you. If you dance with me, but don’t actually look at me, then no matter how good, experienced, advanced or whatever a dancer you are, I probably won’t enjoy dancing with you.

All the dances that I can remember moments of (and I’m not good at this) were with dancers who kept a good level of eye-contact with me, and smiled. Even a dance with a beginner rated highly with me as she seemed to actually be dancing with me, and enjoying it! I can think of quite a few dances with “better” dancers where that didn’t happen.

Often the partner you’re dancing with seems to go into “auto-pilot”, and instead of interacting with you, is looking round the room to try to figure out who’s up next… My fix for this is throw in a really different move which catches them by surprise, and brings their attention back the the dance they’re currently having… (Though often this seemed to happen as a result of mistakes which not only would throw my partner, but me as well! )

Perhaps you can measure the success of a night by the compliments you get… So tonight, I got asked to dance by some fantastic dancers (a huge compliment), got asked to stay up for a second dance a few times, was given some really lovely compliments by partners before and after dances, got ranked in someone’s “top 5″ of the night, and had a hypothetical proposal of marriage hypothetically considered.

All in all, not a bad one…

Cheers to everyone, extra big thanks to those girls that just make dancing into something beyond reason and understanding.

This night was three in a row for two different reasons – it was my third straight day of dancing this week; and it was my third week in a row at Rutherglen.

And my feet hurt!

Was it last week I was complaining about my sore feet? I don’t get enough arch support from my dance shoes, which after so much dancing on my Grand Tour left me with a painful left foot. On Saturday I went to buy inserts for my shoes to support my feet better, hoping this would cure it.

Well it has… I don’t get the same stretching pain in my feet. Unfortunately it’s caused a different pain instead. The arch supports I bought were too short and most of their support was falling at the back of the arch. Now on both my feet I have sore arches where I feel these things have kind-of bruised a rather tender part of my poor feet. After wearing them dancing on Tuesday and Wednesday, I had real problems through the day today…

So, I went back to the shop, got bigger, but perhaps lower inserts for my shoes, and went dancing tonight. Well the result is good and bad… When the arch support is where it’s meant to be, everything’s cool. But for some reason they slip back to hurt the part of my feet that have already taken a bashing.

I hope the solution is to deploy the velcro pads I got with the things to see if I can get them positioned in the right place, and keep them there!

In a multi-pronged attack, I’ve also ordered a pair of dance trainers to wear on class nights so my poor feet don’t have to take the beating they get when I wear my fancy shoes.

There’s a deadline on this – there’s a party in Edinburgh on Saturday that I fully intend to go to, and my feet better be better for it! Doesn’t look like I’ll have my new shoes though, as the pair I’d originally ordered had been discontinued.

Anyway, my feet don’t feel as bad tonight as they did last night, but then I danced a lot less tonight, so that might be a factor…

The night started with the “Ceroc Plus™” class, which seems to be developing nicely. We did most of the same sort of stuff we did last week, but we got to try out some of it in normal moves with a partner. So the jazz steps, when mirrored can make a rather nice side-to-side, and the triple-step/shuffle also works in first move things. Managed to figure out the tap-tap-sailor steps I was lost at last week, and so felt good about that. Felt bad that I still can’t do a full 360º spin without falling over. So, lots of good stuff, and more stuff to work on.

Intermediate class was interesting… Wasn’t convinced by all the moves, but as a whole, they seemed to work…

• accordion comb change-hands – Accordion to the right, but instead of accordioning to the left, with LH low and RH high, turn the lady CW in nelson and comb self with RH. Do a couple of sways/wiggles/steps and while doing that change hands to take girl’s RH with your L, and her L (out of the nelson position) with your R. To mark the beat and make the turn smoother, take LH out to left and then back in front of the lady to turn her ACW for a return and step back (going double-handed for next move…)
• octospin – lady’s breakthough, then man’s basket but don’t break though… instead lead the girl in a circle clockwise (walking backwards! ) for a couple of beats, then let go L-R lead girl out and into a CW turn. Coming out of that … “prepare” and then spin her back ACW. Catch L-R for the next move…
• first move backhander – first move, but on the turn out, switch girl’s RH from your L to your right, in a back-hander style. Use spare LH on girl’s near hip to lead her out for a CW turn (careful you don’t twist the girl’s arm at this point!) rather than return…
• one-handed catapult – classic move, and one of my favourites. We use the return to go straight into the accordion…

Our teacher didn’t like the first move we did, and I didn’t like the first move variation we did. The octospin is OK, but I find it hard to hold on to the girl during the walk round bit, and having to walk backwards… Nah, I’d rather make the girl do that.

So, apart from the move I already have got pretty well sorted, I don’t think I tried any of these moves in freestyle. I didn’t dance as much anyway, with the sore feet, and a relatively limited number of women there (the intermediate class had one extra guy!)

Anyway, either due to tiredness or pain I don’t think I danced as well tonight. The music was in it’s usual top form – there wasn’t really anything that I danced to that I’d rather not, and I think I’d have been OK with all the music even when I was sitting out. This isn’t an indication of a change in musical taste, in case you’re wondering, just the same thing again about just because I like dancing to it, don’t mean I like listening to it. (There was lots that I did though. )

There were an Australian couple there on a flying visit, and the woman commented on how different the typical music and style was from what she was used to. As I’ve read on the forum, they seem to have more contemporary, faster music on the whole, and there was much more dipping and dropping in their dancing than I’ve seen from most UK dancers. I hope they enjoyed there visit to Glasgow – they’re off to Madrid next…

Cheers… hope to see you all in Edinburgh on Saturday…

… since I’ve been dancing at the GUU. What with my Grand Tour, and then it being closed last week, it’s almost a month.

So it was good to be back and remind myself again why I like this venue so much. It is, of course, all the magic women there.

Again, I though I was in pretty good form tonight. Well, for some of the time. As the evening wore on I began to fall to bits a bit. I think it may have been triggered by a surprisingly bad dance with a rather good dancer. I later found out it may be because I’m a “doom-doom” and she’s probably a “shoogy-shoog”. (I hope I have those technical terms right! )

But tonight, like last night, I felt a much greater connection with the music during my best dances. I was dancing not just with the beat, but with the guitar, or whatever instrument was taking the lead. Hey, I like to think I’m fairly in-tune with music all the time, but these past couple of days I seem to have found a way to make my dancing fit better with what I’m hearing, and I’m better able to move the way the music is making my body want to.

Anyway, enough of all this fancy talk, let’s get down to the moves!

Some difficult moves tonight!

• Hatchback lady-comb lock – yo-yo style thing with spare hand behind, lead girl round with RH going over your head and turning the girl into a nelson position with her LH. Comb R-R. (This move up to here I do lots.) While trying to make sure she doesn’t turn(!) duck under (go around) her right elbow undoing the nelson, but ending up with a bit of a choke-hold round her neck. Once you’re round at the girl’s LHS, straighten her left arm and raise it over her head turning her to unwind the choke-hold and ending up in a cleaver position.
• Cleaver – the last move took so long to do we didn’t learn any other way into the cleaver, we just learnt an exit of a wee sway back, letting go of R-R and dropping your RH down to catch her RH again in front of her and then turn her out into a return (this is all behind where you were in the cleaver)
• reverse catapult something? – Normal catapult entry, but offer LH back on RHS, stepping back for connect, lead her in front for a double-handed return, letting go R-R to end up with L-L hand-hold, not so-much facing each other as facing opposite directions, but looking at each other to the left. Turn in ACW to bring your RH to your LH, keep turning and the girl should (somehow?) be led to turn CW back to back and so you come round to face with a L-R hold. Done this move before.
• open first move – first move, but open so that most of the lead is only done by the RH on girl’s hip and back… lead her first out (stepping back), then forward and in-ish, then for a CW spin, catching R-R, ready for the hatchback!!!!!

Wow! I found that hatchback stuff really tricky the first few times I tried it, but got it on the fourth or fifth attempt. Only did the full thing once in the freestyle to show a girl who had missed it what we had done. The hardest part was stopping her turning CW with me as I tried to move behind her. Did the reverse catapult a few times, but usually any time I tried to drop the R-R hold, if the girl didn’t know the move she’d also let go L, and offer R so I’d end up in a normal L-R hold. Which was cool, as then you didn’t have the other weird exit to worry about. And in fact when I did end up L-L once or twice i think I found more conventional ways out of it.

There were lots of good dancers tonight. There was (like yesterday) a beginner who’d only done two weeks but was doing incredibly well, and could follow pretty much everything I threw at her. I still wish I was good enough to be able to allow her to follow everything I could lead, which many of the really fantastic dancers that I watch seem to be able to do.

Music… Ended up dancing to “All That Jazz” by mistake. Too many breaks, not enough flow. Also didn’t care for the music that was playing when I had the really bad dance I mentioned up at the top. Seemed to me that most of the song had a rather well disguised beat. We danced the next song though (”Jump”) and even with its strong beat the dance didn’t get much better. Which is why I’m thinking she’s “shoogy-shoog”, rather than “doom-doom”… Or there was some other incompatibility that I’ve yet to figure out…

One of the best tracks (or at least the dance done to it) was (I think) “It’s a Kind of Magic”, which was played quite early on when I was at my best, and it really was magic.

Cheers everyone!

(Wee addendum to yesterday’s entry… Somehow I managed to get my hand tangled in a girl’s “make poverty history” white arm-band. No idea how that happened, but we had to stop to get my hand out from it! I’ve had problems with scratches from jewellery before, but I never expected a rubber arm-band to be a problem! )

Magic night at JJ’s tonight.

Everything went so much better than last week. OK, not perfect, but what did work, really worked.

I’m now even more convinced that football keeps the girls inside, or brings extra boys out. When I arrived there were spare men!!! Later when there would normally be “18 women on”, it was never more than 11.

Moves…

• Octopull lady’s basket unwind (?) – first step of the octopus… wrap the lady, etc.. in second part do double-handed return yourself!!! As the girl comes round unwind her once, then left hand down and again to take her into a left-hand basket. Step back, step out, unwind her ACW, with an extra ACW turn on the end.
• Double basket double unwind lean (?) – normal basket, turn out and lead back in to left-hand basket, but go into push-spin mode with right hand near your right shoulder. Fast unwind, leading mainly from the LH around waist, with a double turn to bring the girl close to your side in an almost first-move position. If girl isn’t right by you for the lean, make sure you move to where she is! In the lean you can keep the L-R handhold near your left should, or for more security, leave the girl’s hand on shoulder and put comforting hand on her shoulder-blade. Then lean! And up, and back out, reconnecting L-R hold if disconnected. (No return this time.) This move combined with the first move by going straight from the LH basket into the push double unwind.
• First move pull through – classic move of the night. In first move out position, step round the girl, leading her to turn ACW on spot – LH leading the turn above her, RH dragging round waist for feedback and stability. As she comes round and you’ve half-way round her, do a “step across”, under her right arm, leading her forward with your right hand on her hip/back. Turn to face, return. To combine this move with the lean we went straight from the lean, which brought you out to the first move position, into the turn out part of the first move.

I had a much better musical night tonight that many lately. Not sure why… Some partners make it easier I guess. I got to practice this new lean and the first-move seducer quite a bit during the night. When I was trying to, I think I really got the timing of the seducer pretty-much spot on. On a couple of songs with a flourishy ending, I was ready for it and they really worked. On one song with a sudden ending, I gob-smacked myself by hitting the last note with the dip. Most triumphant!

As I said on the forum, I had a great dance with a recent beginner who did really well, and even managed to cope with all the breaks in the music without panicking. Thought she did really well.

So, lots of good dances… Except for a couple of tracks, loved the music… Fab moves which really flowed. I had a smashing time!

Sorry for the slightly abbreviated post, but I must get to bed! More news soon…

Rutherglen again…

Quick report – I must sleep!

Ceroc Plus™ body movement class. You could think of it as Ceroc Essentials™ on steroids. Was good. My Monterey Spins are getting better… Could do must things apart from a fancy thing based on sailor steps. I could do the sailor steps on their own though. Also did Jazz Steps, aka “Shadows” steps – as done by the Shadows way, way back… Did a “shuffle” step forward and back which could also be combined with a wee turn. Reminded me a lot of triple steps. :? Stille wasn’t good with the “double bump” of the hips.

Some lovely moves in the Intermediate class…

• Sway variation – done it before I think… As girl sways back, lift left hand over girls head taking two steps back… finish with a cross-over hand hold in front of both of you, but both in sway-like position. Lead back forward in sweeping arc (catapult style, but other way, with both hands!) for a double-handed turn. Would normally put a return in here.
• Double-handed yo-yo – classic move. Tonight this would go straight into the Accordion on the return.
• Accordion nelson dip. – Accordion back and forward as much as you want. When you’re ready, lead girl back from your left, turning her ACW into a half-nelson. Need to lead this turn fairly forcefully, and use the left hand above to help lead the turn. Once in position, drop left hand down to between girl’s shoulder blades and a small step/lunge to the right for a wee dip. Back up and gently unwind the girl in front of you from the half nelson.
• Change places letting go – lead a sway-like motion, but let go to change places and re-connect R-R for sway. Used to get hand-hold right, and maybe sort out timing after the dip.

Dancing went well, managed to use all these moves, mostly… In the sway thing, I normally just turned and stepped back after I’d taken my arm over the girl’s head. Makes for a simple, snappy move.

Did this dip, and my first move seducer a few times. One or two of them even fitted the music.

I’ll maybe write more if I get time tomorrow…

Cheers to everyone, and those of you off to Southport, hope you have lots of fun, and I hope to make it there next time.

Back to JJ’s for the first time in two weeks…

Not a bad night, but again it has proved the rule that too much of a good thing can be bad for you. Despite 36 hours of dance-related activity over the past week or so, I was dancing really bad tonight.

I know why. It was the workshop. Well, that and all the other classes I’ve been to. I’ve probably been taught about two dozen moves over the last week, and my poor wee brain is struggling to cope with it all.

It’s either I’ve got too many options (e.g. first move variations), or more often, an inability to remember a good new move to perform. And once I come up with one of these moves, because it is new to me, the lead doesn’t always go to plan.

Then at the same time I’m trying to be clever, putting a bit more musicality into it all. But what’s the point if I can’t even lead whatever I’m trying to do – assuming I actually know what that is?

But it’s not all doom and gloom – I did remember quite a few of the moves, and managed to lead most of the ones I remembered fairly well (eventually, if not first time!) I even got to practice my dip move a few times. (Though this is one place where musicality is so essential! You can’t just throw a dip in any old place, it has to fit the music. And because the timing of it isn’t wired into my brain yet, it’s hard to get in to it at just the right time. And so because of that there were a lot of first move without seducers led. And because I’ve missed the break with the dip, I’ve also likely missed it in the middle of doing the standard first move. So, just when I’m trying to be more musical, things are going to pot!

Hang on! I thought I said things weren’t all doom and gloom – so why am I back talking about the negatives?!

Well, while I’m still moaning, let me tell you that I have a sore foot! I need good arch support from my shoes, and these flashy new dance shoes of mine just aren’t giving it. Normally that wouldn’t be a big problem, but remember the 36 hours of wearing these shoes I’ve just been talking about? Well it takes it out of my feet. The left one in particular. I’m going to have to find some cure quite soon, or else it’s just going to get worse and then I won’t be able to dance.

Let’s get back to the positives… We did some good moves tonight…

• First up, a Granada Mangle!

Only joking! In fact, that was Franck’s joke. He was at a loss to explain why I had been taught this relatively rare and rather complex move three times in the same week by three different teachers. We figured that they must have talked about the moves they were planning to teach when they met up at the competition.

So, the actual moves were…

• Secret swizzle – Classic move of the night… like a standard double-handed yo-yo, with LH offered below, but where you’d normally block, keep going until girl has turned away from you and it’s the LH holding her left hand that has stopped her. Your RH is high for the swizzled turn. Pull back to turn the girl CW, and as she comes round raise LH above to be by RH to do double-handed turn. (Normally finish with a return.)
• Instead of doing a return do a left-handed comb with the ladies LH. RH provides the leads for “step-in/stay close”, a couple of sways or some wiggling, and the step-back.
• Catapult block – lead the girl behind you in a catapult movement, but turn anti-clockwise to face her. Your RH is nelsoned behind you holding the girl’s RH. Raise LH for left-hand hold in front. Girl should follow. Then lead with the RH to pull the girl past to your left, and at the same time push LH out over girl’s head to make her turn clockwise as you let go of RH and turn CW following the girl round. On the step back you should now be in a L-L hold. How do you get out of this one?!?
• Not sure of the name?? – sort of like a hatchback – you lead the girl in with her left arm across your chest and push with the right to spin her behind. Turn to catch R-R, return…

I’ve done the secret swizzle before, but it was a long time ago, and it wasn’t clear enough in my head to use it. Think I’ve got it sussed now. I really liked the catapult block, but getting out of the L-L hold is difficult – two girls during the class told me they didn’t like the exit we were taught, though I didn’t have any problems with it myself. During freestyle when I did the move I tried various other exits, but I think the easiest one is just to re-connect R-R, and then move on from there. I wonder what would have happened if I’d tried something like a left-handed sway into something… Hmm…

Anyway despite the pain and misery, I had a good time during freestyle. It was good to be “home”, with so many familiar faces, a few of which had missed me.

finally, I’m now ready to explain my patented technique for getting asked to dance (which seems to work in JJ’s at least…)

1. Wait until there’s a song on you don’t especially like.
2. Then notice that the girl/guy you wanted to dance with is already with someone else.
3. Decide you’re just going to wait this one out.
4. The crucial bit – step back, away from the bannister, and away from the crowd to get some air.
5. Maybe turn to talk to someone near-by.
6. At this point some-one will sneak up behind you and ask you to dance.

There are other things you can do to make this work even more reliably – such as wearing a bright shirt, or looking slightly forlorn.

Don’t ask me how to get asked to dance to a song you actually want to dance to – I’m usually doing the asking at that point. Why wait around??

So not a bad night all-in-all. There’s no dancing in Glasgow tomorrow, but I’m probably going to Rutherglen on Thursday. Hopefully I’ll have found a fix for my foot by then.

See you all there!

Now my Grand Tour of Scotland is over, I thought I should have a look back at the whole experience and see what I can learn from the experience…

Let’s see… We’ll mix the good with the bad…

• Don’t dance with indigestion.
• Don’t have the pasta at the next Musselburgh comp (maybe related with the previous point?)
• Don’t expect to feel good about your standard of dancing at a competition unless you win something.
• Don’t try to take photos of dancers in action without a flash unless you’ve got a tripod, and a very fast exposure on your camera.
• Don’t expect your dancing to up to scratch when you’re mentally and physically tired.
• You can enter a competition and not do well and the world doesn’t end.
• You have to be careful of dancers who will hurt you pretty much everywhere you go.
• Sometimes it’s the dancers that can hurt you that will also give you the best dances.
• The very best dancers will only give you heart-ache.
• Don’t try to go to Aberdeen when there’s an oil conference on.
• Take chocolate with you.
• A lack of people, especially women, can diminish an otherwise good night.
• It’s difficult to learn complex moves when you’re sitting off at the side for a third of the class.
• Learning the same move three times in a week doesn’t always help.
• Everywhere you go to dance, if you’re prepared to work a little, you’ll have a great time.
• Good dance shoes can still lead to sore feet.
• Scottish Ceroc dancers are the greatest bunch of people.
• English Ceroc dancers are an alright bunch too.
• In fact, where-ever you come from, you’re probably cool, as most people are good, honest, kind, and helpful.
• We have a fantastic bunch of teachers.
• We have some of the best DJs in the UK.
• Seducers are lovely.
• Aberdeen had the best buzz.
• Dundee had the most enthusiastic dancers.
• Edinburgh had the best looking women (but it’s a close contest!)
• Nothing beats Glasgow though.
• Sitting on a train with nothing to do for three hours can be a good time for reflection.
• Especially in the windows.
• As an adult, you really shouldn’t sit on a train sucking your thumb.
• It’s nice to go away once in a while.
• It’s nice to come home too.
• It’s good to hear that you’ve been missed.
• Not dancing can make you grumpy.
• Dancing makes you happy.

What other things have I missed? What have you learnt from your reflections on dancing? Give your comments below…

The big question… Would I do it again?

Yes – no question.

Glasgow party last night… Intermediate workshop today.

Result: very tired boy.

After Rutherglen on Thursday, and knowing I had this weekend to look forward to I took Friday night off. Saturday was spent tidying my flat and washing clothes after my wee holiday… But I had the night to look forward to… Party time!!!

The party was, as usual, just fantastic. We are really spoilt with the location, the dancers and the music. Oh – and the teacher!

I arrived just in time to take part in the “fun” class – I had just missed the arm-jive swizzle, which as a beginner move I’ve got pretty much sorted. This led, with a clever bit of turning, straight into a basket position and wiggle, with the girl directly in front of me, rather that to the side. I think we just did a fairly simple turn out to go into a first move variation. The variation was when bringing the girl back in, rather than taking LH to shoulder, lead further out in order to do a faster double anti-clockwise turn. I think then on the second turn go double-handed for the arm-jive…

Might have missed something out there… Was too tired to write this up last night, and wanted to get a good night’s sleep for today’s workshop.

Once we got into the freestyle, because I was trying to conserve my energy I figured I’d deliberately sit out the songs I didn’t like, unless I was asked. Unfortunately, the music, the dancers, and the whole mood conspired against me to make me keep dancing.

It’s funny how much your dancing can evolve over a night. As ever I started weak, not doing many unusual move, keeping well within my safe zone. By about midnight, three hours later I was remembering moves I’m not even sure I’ve been taught, and having to improvise clever things when I made mistakes.

If there’s one thing that really raises my standard though, if the combination of the right music and the right partner. Last night it was “Fever”. Fab dance, which just worked so well for me, and (I think) for my partner. I actually felt like I could really dance then.

That’s not to belittle the other fab dances I had. Had great dances with a wide range of dancers, though there’ll no doubt been at least one duff dance with someone probably better than me. Vast majority I enjoyed every second of.

I stayed to the end – though here’s something to puzzle over… I think I gave three different ladies’ their last dance of the night.

So, another brilliant Glasgow party, even though the numbers seemed down a bit from normal – I guess it’s a result of the comps last weekend, plus Southport being next weekend…

That was last night… On to today…

It was an early start for me this morning for my first Intermediate workshop down at the GUU.

The numbers were just about right for me. Four couples, plus teacher and demo, with no-one having to sit out. So, lots of practice with the teacher able to give lots of attention, and enough partners to make sure you get a good variation in followers.

Just for reference, here were the moves we covered…

• Arm-jive tea-pot – some initial confusion because I come out of the tea-pot a faster way than we were being taught. Which led me to be out of step in subsequent moves of this routine.
• Pretzel – Is this the only time I’ve been taught a plain, simple pretzel on its own?
• Neckbreak – Likewise, could have been the first time I’ve been taught it. (Not sure I like it though – hate the stupid signal.)
• Spinning top – sway then LH onto girl’s shoulder blade, but main spin comes from RH on hip.

…

• First move walk though – I think I’ve been taught this before, but not in so much detail. Involves coming round in front of girl, stepping back and opening back into first move position. (twice) Use a ballroom grip to get a good lead in the “pull; pull” part of the move. (finished with a push spin)
• Catapult walk – keep LH out of lady’s reach in front, bring her to side put L arm around her and start walking! We did four steps forward, turn, two, turn, turn, push spin.
• Double-handed return shoulder turn-out – Same as my favourite double-handed travelling return, but bring LH to girl’s shoulder, travelling back across and prepare RH for push. Fast double turn-out, holding on L-R.

…

• Hatchflick barrier turn-out – quite like this move… Last time I was taught it I didn’t. I think the difference came when we were shown to do side-steps (á la arm-jive footwork) on the clicks.
• Accordion ladiespin walkaround – I like the accordion. Not so sure about the walkaround. Trouble started when we were shown the footwork – which with some fairly complicated leading happening at the same time just had me in trouble. Got it a few times, but not so sure I could do it for real.
• In and out hands-on-chest – this is the cheesiest move ever. Not quite so bad if you turn it into a double-comb, but harder to do.

…

• First move seducer (aka first move dip) – we started with the “safe” version, and then went deeper, for those that wanted to.

There was lots of tips on footwork and spins. We were also instructed more than once on the topic of handholds (a wee hobby horse of mine…) All the women there were fairly good, based on their level of experience. They all seemed to be able to follow my lead in all the moves we did. (When I was getting them right.)

I liked the seducer. It’s been a while since I’ve done any dips, and this one is just nice. I had no problems taking it quite low and taking the weight through my legs. I suppose the two girls I practised with were fairly light, so that must have helped.

So, a very useful 4 hours spent. I just need to get some sleep! I’m going back to work tomorrow!

As I’m writing this, I’m just back from Rutherglen… Earlier today I departed Aberdeen, having dancing there yesterday.

So here’s the story of the last two days…

Aberdeen was a very good night. Very, very good.

I was in the company of another forumite who had very kindly offered to put me up for the night as the whole of Aberdeen was booked up with an oil conference on this week. At the class she was kind enough to introduce me to a number of dancers and point me out to the teacher. Again, there were competition entrants, supporters and winners there.

The venue in Aberdeen is “Jumpin Jack’s”, the same as in Glasgow, and you can see the family resemblance. Pretty much the same lay-out, with separate dance-floor surrounded by bannister and shelf, and tables around the rest of the floor. I thought that during the class the lights were a bit low to see the teacher particularly well, though I don’t know how much control they have over that.

What was quite funny was during the move-round of the spare women (and there were lots, despite the football being on ) the DJ played wee snippets of moving on music, including the Magic Roundabout theme.

There was a fair number of bodies there, including lots of beginners. The standard during the beginners’ class seemed quite high though. During the intermediate class, however, I found the standard quite variable – some really good, but a few that must have been fairly new intermediates… (The teacher later apologised for managing to pair me up with so many women who had problems with the Archie spin.)

But I’m giving away the moves before I’m ready!

• Double first move double turn into first move. – double turn out of the first move, coming round the girl anticlockwise to lead her into the out portion of the first move – repeated. Done this move before.
• Archie spin – despite a confidence sapping experience during the class, I think I’ve got this move.
• Basket pull around into sway – tricky one. Basket; lead forward and back in to LHS; then holding on with left, lead girl to turn on spot as you turn ACW around her; as she comes round swap her right hand into yours, and when you come round the whole way you should be in a sway!
• Might have been another one… Hmm…

I like the double first move stuff, but I find it quite hard to get round the girl into position for the first move the other way… Maybe it works easier with slower music.

I had lots of good dances in Aberdeen. Good dancers, which reflects well on Aberdeen and the local teachers. I had two or three really fantastic dances with the teacher. When I grow up, I also want to be as good a dancer as she is. As well as being a pleasure to lead, she likes to keep you on your toes by doing more clever things that I, alone, could think about. She’s really fab.

The music was really good too. I think this is proof that the DJ doesn’t need to be a Ceroc dancer to be able to DJ a good Ceroc night. He played a lot of Ceroc favourites, but also plenty of good dance-y tunes that other DJ don’t seem to play much of. (I wish I could come up with a good example.)

It was one of the competition entrant’s birthday (thought he and his partner were really good in the competition) so he had the full birthday dance experience, dancing a few bars with every woman in the place. Thought that was cool, but if you’re not such a good dancer, it much be awful having everyone watching you like that.

Stayed to the bitter end… Well until there were no more Ceroc dancers there. There was this rather strange fellow who joined us on the dance floor, who rather liked strutting his stuff, and doing some mock-ballet moves…

Afterwards, back to base, for another chilling-out session, then to bed. For the morning had a train back to Glasgow waiting for me…

Big, big thanks to my hostess and her family for putting me up, and putting up with me.

Also to all the fab dancers of Aberdeen. Look forward to my next chance to come and visit you!

So, today, after yet another a late night dancing in Aberdeen, and a long journey home, you might expect me to take a night off?

Don’t be daft!

I went to Rutherglen…

It was only my second visit there, but it’s still a fab, fab venue. I really should try to get there more often.

One particular reason I chose to go there tonight was that there was a brand-new Body Movement class starting up, similar to what I’ve previously experienced in Perth, and had found to be a really good idea. This was a different teacher, but I thought she did really well.

As in the class I did in Perth, the emphasis was on footwork, a traditionally weak spot for Ceroc dancers.

We practised a few “simple” steps, which I think I’ve remembered, so I’m going to list them here just to help me keep them… They were… half turns; steps forward, steps back; hip bumps; Monterey spins; grapevines.

Monterey spins were difficult to pick up, especially to relatively fast music. I could do them fairly easily without music. The steps weren’t Ceroc step in/outs, but were more wiggly step right forward, left forward; right back, left back. The only thing I couldn’t just do were the “double bumps” of the hips. I could bump my hips back and forward by just moving my weight back and forward, but the double thing never really worked for me. Hmm…

Anyway, it was a good class, quite short, but I think much longer would have been too much just for the first week of this.

Intermediate class…

• Travelling return step across – another one where the name says it all. Just don’t let the girl step back before doing the step across by using an arm round her waist to direct her.
• Granada Mangle – What??? Again??? Yep, third time in four days. This time rather than unmangling the whole way, just put the girl’s hands on her shoulders and push away gently. She should step forward and hold hands out behind her to go for a sort-of reverse catapult lean. This led straight into…
• Sway spin – normal sway with an unusual entry, and in the exit, do a ACW spin, leading straight into the travelling return…

This Granada Mangle was taught with a full swizzle, so I don’t know who’s mangled their mangle. Other moves were pretty standard fair.

Coming home to Glasgow was good – even if it’s not one of my regular venues there were quite a few the familiar faces. One thing I wasn’t so happy to return to is what I might now call the “Glasgow Grip”, as it seems to be particularly prevalent here, though to be fair I think I saw it in every other venue I travelled to, but not amongst quite such a high number of non-beginners.

The Glasgow Grip isn’t just about thumbs, though that can be a factor. The key thing is that the practitioners don’t ever want you to let go – either accidentally, or on purpose. So even without using their thumbs, they cling on for all they’re worth, making sure that if you even think about doing a tricky move they’ll snap your fingers off like twigs.

OK, so I’m exaggerating, but I have quite delicate fingers, and as I need them not just for dancing, but for my work, I’d rather they stay in one piece, attached to my hands. Some women round these parts are just not worth the risk…

UPDATED: I think I’m being unfair to Glasgow dancers and teachers – the same thing probably happens all over, but because I know the dancers better here, and I’m more at ease in these surroundings, I’ve got time to notice details like this. I’ve toned down my comments a little, and they should only be taken as a slight against dancers who grip my poor fingers too tight!

But excluding that, I had quite a good night. I danced with pretty much all of my Glaswegian “usual suspects” who were there. I also had the pleasure of dancing with some beginners who although all over the place at the moment show a lot of promise – the main thing is they were smiling at the end of the dance.

It was good to be home, and I had a good time in Rutherglen. Will try to make it back next week…

After a night off back home on Sunday, on Monday it was back to the Grand Tour.

First stop – Dundee!

Well, almost… Actual first stop was Perth to meet up two friends, one local, the other up for a few days extra after the competition…

We travelled through to Dundee together, along with another person who although invited to join us, ended up driving! Lovely journey over though…

Dundee’s Invercarse Hotel is rather fab. It is a hotel venue, so it’s the usual script of dance-floor surrounded by tables and chairs, under a fancy roof with a chandelier or two… But compared with other places I’ve seen, this place was grander than most, and bigger than most. They also do cool things like put out iced water and glasses (real glasses!) on the tables for the dancers.

I arrived just in time to join the end of the beginner’s class. Even at this stage I realised that I knew quite a few of the people – perhaps from previous journeys east, or at parties or the comps.

In fact, there were quite a few people not only who had attended the competitions, but had taken part, and even won. (Was it my imagination, but did Dundee have the greatest representation both on and off the floor in Musselburgh? Certainly there were more there than you’d expect compared to Glasgow or Edinburgh.)

Here are the moves we learnt…

• Granada Mangle – done a couple times before now, so not as difficult…
• Side-to-side shoulders dip thingy – found the dip bit (the girl sort-of crouches as you lead her under her arms) quite difficult to lead effectively, though all the girls dipped at the appropriate moment, or even before…
• Secret spin – not sure of the name, but this could easily just be called the double-handed yo-yo spin.

In the freestyle, I felt I was dancing better than I had in Musselburgh, though on two or three occasions I had real problems with my rhythm – I kept feeling that I was losing the beat of the song I was dancing to. I think this might have been the result of poor rhythm from my partner, rather than me, in combination with a “challenging” track, but ultimately it’s up to me to make sure these things work.

I didn’t feel happy about that at all, though when I danced with some of the dancers I think are good, things worked out much better.

I had a smashing dance to the Austin Powers theme (Soul Bossa Nova, by Quincy Jones). That was my dance of the night.

Afterwards, our little group of three chilled back in Perth, with a lovely cup of tea and some toast.

But it was back to the hotel for a (hopefully) good night’s sleep before Edinburgh…

Thanks to all the Dundee regulars for making it a great night.

Next stop – Edinburgh!

In the morning I travelled to Edinburgh in the company of our new English friend.

We did some of the tourist stuff, including doing the Castle, seeing the One O’clock Gun, and taking a bus tour. We also toured some of the more obscure one-way routes around the Lothian Road/Haymarket area…

In the end though, we ended up at Marco’s rather early. In fact I think we were the first there, after the venue manager, teacher and DJ. (The DJ was getting to look familiar – I’m sure I’ve seen her on every other stop on my tour up to now! )

Unfortunately not many more people turned up. And there were more guys than girls! I’d guess there was no more than 30-40 people there by the end of the beginner’s class. For a time there was three extra men.

During the intermediate class, things got worse. There was maybe a dozen women, and about seventeen guys…

This is especially bad as we were learning some very tricky moves!

• First move swizzle spin – it does what it says on the tin.
• Tea-pot into shoulder slide and arm-hold step/wiggle thing – this was a bit tricky, involving going from a tea-pot, into a shoulder slide, then coming out of that, twist L arm round to go into arm hold L-R with woman to lead stepping/wiggling, with a pull and push away.
• Granada Mangle! – Yep, that move again!
• Mangle Part II! – This time though we followed the Granada Mangle with Part II (the revenge!) This is done by raising the right hand, and turning the girl until you end up in a swizzle position the other way around. Then it’s just the same as the first part, but a mirror image. On the way out, raise left hand and turn out to whatever…

Well that was the fourth time I’d done the Granada Mangle, though in both Edinburgh and Dundee it was slightly different than I’d been taught before. Previously in the swizzle, we’d done the full thing, though we’d lead the arm out to the side lover than normal in order to make the fold back up to shoulder easier. These times we were taught to just lead to the shoulder without the arm out. Not sure what is “correct”, but I think the full swizzle would look better.

Despite the low numbers, there were quite a few good dancers there. Had some really good dances, including with the teacher.

I left slightly before the night ended though, to make sure I would be able to get my train and be home before midnight.

Not a bad night, but next time I’ll try to get a more popular night.

Cheers to my travelling companion for the day, and all the cool people at Marco’s who were there.

Awesome.

That alone would stand for all the rest of the rubbish I’m about to write.

Although I got a lift over to Musselburgh quite early on on Friday, for various reasons, (in particular me falling asleep!) I didn’t get to the pre-comp party night until about 10-ish.

I had been feeling quite nervous about the whole competition thing, and all unfamiliarity surrounding the event, so by the time I got there I felt quite ill. Meeting some friendly and familiar faces (and one wee drink), helped put me at ease, and by the end of my first dance I had forgotten all my worries!

There was a really great crowd there, lots of people I knew, lots of people I didn’t… There was some incredible dancing going on, but I didn’t let myself be wowed by it too much, and just got on and had a good time dancing.

I don’t think though that my dancing was on particularly good form. I guess there was still some nerves, plus some tiredness that kept me from finding my best form.

The music was really good, and had me up dancing lots. The night finished too early (considering I arrived so late), but it was a relief to get back to the hotel and get to my bed. It had been a long day – which, as you recall started in Inverness.

Saturday I woke quite early, giving me plenty of time to worry while getting ready for the day ahead, but for some reason I didn’t find myself as nervous as I thought I’d be…

I think there were two reasons for this… Having been to the venue the night before and seen the quality of the dancers, the fear of the unknown was gone – I knew I was totally outclassed, rather than just thinking I’d be… And also the nerves of some of the dancers who were so much better than me and going in for the real competitions, rather than just a fun one like the Lucky Dip, helped put my fears into perspective.

We got there quite early in contrast to the night before. In the meantime the hall had had a bit of a make-over, with lots of balloons and stuff. Really thought this helped add to the party atmosphere which kept the whole thing fun, rather than serious. The lucky dip heats were up first, but there was a chance to dance for a bit before the “dip” bit happened.

I was really worried about who I’d get as my partner. If you want to score the skill levels of dancers there out of 5, then there were maybe a few at 5, quite a few at 4, lots at 2 and 3, and a few at 1 – beginner level. I’d put myself maybe at 2.1 (just getting the hang of this intermediate thing.) So, I’d want to avoid those at level 1, and maybe even at level 2, if I wanted to do well. I figure I wanted a girl who’d be better than me, and maybe pull up our combined standard. At the same time, getting someone at the 4 or 5 level would just be too much pressure. They might have been hoping for someone a better match, who might guarantee them a place in the second round.

I hope I’m not insulting the girl I was matched with to say that I’m glad she was, in my mind, a “3″. She was good enough that I though we might just, maybe, get through to the second round, but not way better than me that it’d be an expectation.

I thought our performance wasn’t so bad, though I certainly felt a bit nervous when it came to dancing and being watched and judged. When I went to look at the results I was first disappointed that we didn’t get through to the second round, but then very, very relieved. I could start enjoying myself!

I liked the format of the event, with lots of dancing between blocks of heats. Though once or twice though I found I’d seized up a bit from sitting or standing watching for too long. Also found that as the event went on and the average quality of the dancing on show went up, my confidence went down. I thought all the dancers in the Intermediate section were superb. I was really impressed by the advanced, but the open and show-cases really blew my mind. What really gets me is that except for the lifts and drops and such, most of the moves I could probably do without too much difficulty. But they do them so well, and they make them work so well with the music, that it really made me wonder how I can continue to enjoy dancing at the level I am at, and just how much the women I dance with enjoy it.

Some highlights of the event…

• The girl who injured her knee, I think in a lucky dip heat (?), but managed to come back on for the second heat and then later won, i think it was, in the Advanced category.
• The double-trouble… the crowd-pleaser of the man in a skirt was fun to watch, but I’m glad the prize went to the under-stated bunch of girls at the back who I thought were doing some rather clever things.
• Some of the costumes were fantastic! Without naming names, a Glasgow couple and an Aberdeen couple in the Intermediates were well impressive… The frogs! The “pixie” outfit… Loads more.
• The Abba team cabaret.
• The dancer in the Open category who seemed to be able to defy gravity.

I was sometimes a wee bit surprised by the judges’ decisions, as on a few occasions the couple that gave the best visual performance and thus got the biggest appreciation from the crowd, didn’t always win. But then, the judges are looking for so much more than crowd-pleasing moves, and they should really know what to look for, so I’m not saying they were wrong.

I was really proud of some of our Scottish-grown talent who were competing for the first time and I thought were pretty damn good. I understand Blackpool isn’t so far away…

Congratulations to all the winners, in fact, to all the competitors. They were all magnificent. (Well, apart from one guy in the Lucky Dip. )

I liked the two “Scot Challenges”. These were fun wee competitions that people entered at the time to make up about 10 couples. They had no idea what the challenge would be beforehand. The first one was for the girl to lead the guy; the second was for the girl to dance blind-folded. I could have managed to do the guy’s bit on the second challenge, but I would have hate to have been one of the girls not able to see what was going on. I very nearly went for the first challenge, but I’m glad I didn’t – I have next to zero experience of following.

Some ideas for future challenges…

• Musical chairs
• iPod dancing – only the guy can hear the music
• Name that move – I’ll name that move in three counts!

With all the competitions over (congratulations to all the winners, hugs for all the losers,) it was time for a party!

Unfortunately this was also when I came down with indigestion. And dancing didn’t help it at all. Fortunately there was someone there with antacid. It took a while for this to take effect. And by the time I also had something to eat, it was fairly late-on, maybe about 10 pm. Also, by that time I was getting tired, so I really wasn’t dancing well. But I enjoyed the dances I had.

And that was that. Back to the hotel for not a bad night’s sleep considering… And the next morning, off home, in the company of one or two famous forumites for an hour or so, which was a good way to finish off this part of my tour.

It was really good to meet some of the other forumites at the event that I hadn’t met before… The badges that were made up were superb, but not everyone wore theirs, and after a costume change or two, a lot of people had lost them. Shame… Anyway, hope to see you again next year, if not sooner. (BFG???)

I have to give a big, no – a huge – thanks to all the ladies who looked after me. Driving me, nursing me, comforting me, accommodating me, and just generally looking out for me.

To everyone involved in the setting up and running of this event – you did a fantastic job.

Roll on next year!!!!

I’ve started my Grand Tour of Scotland… And my first stop was Inverness. The 1st of September was the opening night there, so when better to go?

I travelled up to Inverness by train, a lovely journey in fine weather (might not have been so good if it had been raining) and got into town about 5-ish. Gave me plenty of time to find my B&B (recommended – and make sure you say you’re a Ceroc dancer!), get settled and have a wee walk around the city before the class. This was probably the first time I’ve had a wander round Inverness for a very, very long time. My previous impression was that it was boring, but on this visit I’ve changed my mind a fair bit. The walk along the River Ness is lovely, and I’d like to explore the castle too. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to visit Inverness for a while longer in the future and get a more complete impression.

When I arrived at the Waterside Inn, at about 7:20, I had expected to just find Franck and Sheena and maybe a few keen early birds, but there was already quite a large bunch of people already there. (And also the venue manager – if I were in Inverness I’d make sure she learns to dance as soon as possible! )

I let Franck and Sheena get on with setting up and registering all the new people, and had a look around to see quite a few familiar faces from the workshop I’d been to, plus lots of new ones. What was most remarkable was that people just kept on coming through the doors. We had to spill through to the next room and extra tables had to be set up to get everyone in. One of the Perth dancers who’d come up for the same workshop I’d been to was there again to help out. Was nice to see her again, and have a dance or two…

So, unsurprisingly we started a fair bit late. The night consisted of a fairly simple beginners’ class, a bit of freestyle, some extra beginners’ stuff then some more freestyle. It was just a little tight on the dance-floor during the class, and there were a few teething troubles getting the move-round working, but people soon got the hang of it. I think both freestyles were relatively short due to the late start and more time being spent earlier on in the class.

I was amazed at how many people were dancing really after just one class. It took me weeks to have the confidence that some of these guys had. There was so much enthusiasm there though. More than once there were spontaneous rounds of applause from the class, for, e.g., suddenly finding they can put two moves together at it all works! A really great crowd.

During the freestyles I danced with as many of the girls as possible. (Though mostly with those I’d danced with maybe more than once in class, or who seemed especially enthusiastic. I wonder if that a good or bad thing…) Was a real trial to stick to the few moves we’d been taught, but I managed to use a few similar moves without freaking out too many of my partners. There was one girl there who had done a couple of years of Salsa, and so had a good notion of lead and follow and could cope with pretty much all the moves I tried with her. She even managed to find stuff to do with her spare arm that would put to shame some of the Ceroc dancers of more than two years that I know.

Another girl stopped me in the middle of a dance where I led a few moves she didn’t know, but found she could follow, though once or twice we’d had a problem because in the octopus (that she hadn’t been taught) she didn’t know to offer her right hand and I had to sort of ask for it… She asked something like… “So I should just follow where you lead me, and if in doubt offer my right hand?” Me: “yep, that’s pretty much it!” Her: “Right! I think I’ve just twigged how this is supposed to work!”

The rest of the dance went well and she rushed off to explain her findings to her friends…

I think there were a few people there who had had some amount of exposure to Ceroc before that will help give the beginners some inspiration and something to aim for, but over-all, I was really impressed by the standard of the dancers I danced with and their enthusiasm, which makes me think that in no time at all Inverness is going to have lots of really good dancers.

Maybe I’ll go back around Easter time next year…

I left Inverness the next morning, heading back home for a quick pit stop before Musselburgh…