Hyperreal

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…