Hyperreal

Tonight was JJ’s with a guest Teacher and DJ… Exciting! Then I found out with was just the same old pair I’m used to on a Wednesday night…

It was another busy night – I had made sure to get there well in time for the beginners’ class to help out – probably not as crowded as last week, but getting there… Doing the “out” part of the first move and the yo-yo were difficult when there wasn’t much space between my partner and me, and the couple of either side of us…

The intermediate class was quite fun. It’s been ages since I’ve been taught a dip in a normal class – don’t seem to get them very often from Franck. Here are the moves…

• first move something dip something (??) – variation on beginner’s move. First move start, but after the open out, turn to face girl, turning her ACW, with light hold round waist. As she comes round, before she has time to settle, step back, pulling her forward into a lunge. Keep LH hand-hold high-ish, RH is round her back for the lunge, and as support for the dip… Dip the girl by swivelling ACW. Back up… step her back, but keep RH to back, to lead her forward into a lady’s step across, turning to face, and return.
• short neck-break – classic intermediate move. Taught with a signal. Yuk.
• catapult nelson throw away (????) – standard catapult, but hold on L for the turn at the end, collection the girl’s RH with RH and leading the girl into a swizzle-like position, R hands out to left, L in lady nelson. Throw her R hand back towards the right to spin her ACW as you turn CW to face away from woman, re-connect R-R behind you and lean away – so we’re back into catapult position (though I guess the R-R hold is optional, it helps for the lean bit here… ) Finish as normal catapult.
• Wurlitzer nelson back slide (??) – wurlitzer start, though after the push away, bring her back catapult-style but turn ACW 90º to find yourself in nelson position with the girl to your LH side, slightly behind. Take a big step left to bring her back across, spinning her ACW. Catch and go straight into first move…

I liked all these moves. Found that very few girls were especially keen on the dip in the class, I had one or two partners who were very hesitant, though another one or two would throw themselves into the dip before I’d led it… Perhaps if we were taught dips more often these things would get sorted out. Anyway, I only did it once in freestyle, but I’d like to remember it and try it some more…

The short neck-break is quite cool… I don’t like the normal neck-break, but this one is fun. I don’t do it very often, but I’d done one in the dance just before the intermediate class, and I used it a few times more in the later freestyle.

I hardly ever do “pure” catapults (maybe only with beginners… ) Not sure why… Maybe I got bored of them. They’re not the smoothest of moves either, but this one was quite nice. I found it very difficult though to hold on to the girl’s LH and turn her when she wanted to let go and spin. I’ve had the problem before, and I never figured out how to fix it…

The wurlitzer… Nice move, and presumably will work with other catapult entries… Need to work on leading wurlitzers to stop them becoming badly led baskets…

Had some really nice dances tonight, but none that were really extra special (though a couple were going that way… ) Could never find the right dancer for the right track though… But I hope my partners enjoyed my dances as much as I did anyway.

One of the earlier dances I had, I danced with a woman who had a fairly tight, thumby grip. Very early on I said to her “no thumbs please!”, and explained that it can be sore and can make dancing harder. She told me no-one else had complained before, but as a relatively recent beginner/intermediate, I’m not too surprised by that. To her credit, she tried, and mostly succeeded at loosening her grip on me. I hope she continues to be aware of this. Must see if I can try it on the death-gripper I talked about the other week…

Well, if I’m still awake, I guess it’ll be more of the same tomorrow….

Cheers!