Hyperreal

A quick wee posting for a great night at JJ’s…

I haven’t been dancing much lately, what with one thing or another, so my dancing was a bit rusty on Saturday night, but things were much better tonight.

My eye problems seem to be getting better, and so I decided to do the whole night, beginners’ class and everything. This is the first time I’ve done a beginners’ class (as a lead!) in ages, so it was a bit tricky, especially as I missed the start and was thrown in at the deep end, leading two moves I rarely do, and didn’t even get a chance to see first. Took me a couple of attempts before I got myself sorted out.

In the beginners’ class was the guy I knew from Salsa – the guy who’d done two-step jive. Unsurprisingly, he did really well, though he said he did have a problem not going back into the jive he knew, rather than the one he was being taught. Later he showed me some of his moves which were very impressive – doubly so, as he was using an absolute beginner as a demo, and she could follow him almost perfectly. (She didn’t do so well following me. ) But I think if he keeps coming he’ll do well and become a very popular dancer.

Let’s have a look at the intermediate class… Some nice, sexy moves…

• Side-to-side shoulders block – normal move until the travelling return out – you stop yourself after one step, turning it into more of a lunge, and slow the girl to a stop with your right hand on her back/waist/shoulder as she’s passing you. Bring her back to where she came from. On the block, good eye contact is a must.
• Left-hand side walk-around (?) – need to start this double-handed, so we stick in a return first, then lead both hands towards your left, keeping right low and raising (and bending) left arm to lead her around you. You’ll need to let go right. As she comes round, throw a wee ACW turn in for the girl.
• Travelling return into mambo steps – similar to how you did the block earlier, in this travelling return you slow her with your RH on her waist and then bring her in close to a ballroom hold, for a fairly rigid frame. step forward left, then back, for a few, leading with the upper body and frame. To finish, strengthen the frame as you step back to come to a neutral position. From here, maybe some sort of first move exit. We put this direct onto the end of the “wee ACW turn” for the girl in the previous move, and rather than just stop the mambo steps to exit, on the last step forward we opened the frame to turn the girl a quarter turn CW, and then on the step back, turn yourself a quarter ACW to bring the girl into a first move “in” position.
• Seducer – although it was called this, it looks very much like a fairly standard lean to me. The move on its own starts with a first move, but rather than turn the girl back out at the end, get your right leg in the right position, left hand in more of a high ballroom hold and lean. Back up and then do whatever you want. For this routine we would turn her out to the side for the entry into the next (first) move, as that’s what fitted the way we were all standing. It should also be obvious that from the previous move we’re already in the right place for the lean, without the first move entry.

I found the exit from the side-to-side… into the return for the next move a bit awkward, and I also decided a return at the end of the seducer set me up better into the side-to-side, probably because that way I could get the girl on the right foot, or maybe it was me… Either way the entry into the s-to-s wasn’t so comfortable without it.

I also liked to put a ACW turn for the girl into the first move before the lean as it allowed me to line us up better.

During the freestyle I danced a fair bit, probably as much as I would on any other average night. While at the beginning I was stuck with some rather basic moves, as the night went on I re-discovered some old forgotten moves from my rep that deserved to be dusted off and put back into service. Especially as many of my regular moves weren’t working as well as normal.

It was good to get for a full night’s dancing – I think it’s just the therapy I needed. doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go dancing tomorrow, though I’ve got Salsa on Thursday, but I looks like I might actually be ready for the Beach Ballroom weekend.

See you Thursday for my Salsa report…