Hyperreal

Did the GUU last night… A good night’s dancing, but nothing special.

Again, the numbers seemed to be down a bit. Not as bad as it was a few weeks back, but less folks than last week.

Have I talked on my blog about the differing age profile between JJ’s and the GUU? Despite the fact that GUU is a university venue, it gets comparatively few student-age people against JJ’s, though as JJ’s is a night-club venue, it’s not a surprise it gets lots of young folks.

The thing is, encouraging more students/young-ish folks to the GUU night might involve changes that would alienate the current regulars. It’d also be difficult to attract people away from JJ’s to the GUU, though it would help fix the respective over- and under-crowding in each venue.

What I was thinking was that if there was a second GUU night especially, though not exclusively, for students then that might attract some people away from JJ’s, and also maybe bring a few more students to the “regular” GUU night once they are more into dancing and are looking for a greater variety of music and partner. Just a thought…

Anyway, back to talking about last night… I arrived just at the tail-end of the beginners’ class, just in time to join in at the end of the class as the last move is joined back up with the first one. This is probably the latest I’ve joined a beginner’s class, and I found it a bit tricky to get the routine – especially when I was chatting with my partners too much. (Naughty me!)

Let’s get on with the intermediate class…

• Man-wrap. Classic move. Not a favourite move of mine – makes me dizzy. Cue two girls: “now you know how the girls feel!” But I know they like it really.
• First move twist dip. We did this at JJ’s the other week when Franck was away. First move start, turn out, turn to face, turning girl ACW and as she comes round, before she has a chance to put her R foot down, pull her towards you as you lunge back (not too much though!) (During this you should be square-on to your partner.) Twist body ACW to dip girl in front. LH is held high, RH supporting. During the twist neither arm is actually moving much – everything above the waist stays pretty rigid. Back up and step back (going double-handed.)
• Basket this-way that-way. Normal basket but rather than a normal unwrap, let go L-R and “fire” the girl off to your L as you step/lean to the R. Wrap back in, twist back, forward, repeat. But not too many times. Good for a dramatic “bang!” in the music.
• Some-sort of “cuddle” thing, no idea of its name… From the basket do a double-handed return, then turn CW a half turn to face away from the girl, bringing your hands crossed-over over your head into a sort-of cuddle move, allowing the girl’s hand to land on your waist, and let her do a wiggle or something. Once either of you gets bored, they can push/step away to go into a catapult finish, catch R-R for the man-wrap.

I liked the dip, but still not confident with it. I very much liked the basket variation, but the time I did it in freestyle, it didn’t really feel so good, and the girl took two beats rather than one while “out”, which meant a lot of the impact was lost. I guess maybe it’d work better, as I said above, at the right point in the right track. Should maybe try it another time…

I don’t do many “wiggle” moves, and I really don’t like leaving my partner behind me where I can’t see her, so the cuddle move is unlikely to be done often by me, though I could maybe take something from it…

As I said in the opening of this posting, the night wasn’t really anything special. Had some really nice dances, but none of them were anything to write home about. I feel stuck on this plateau, and don’t see the way forward…

Maybe this weekend’s workshops with Nigel and Nina will help. Or there’s always the Beach Ballroom weekend, which I’m thinking of going to… The last one did have a very noticeable impact on my dancing.

That’s all I’ve got time to write at the mo… See you all after the weekend!

Cheers folks.