Hyperreal

I’m sorry that these posts are all beginning to turn out pretty much the same…

Basically I have an OK/Good/Brillant night, I blame/praise the music/my mood/the dancers (but only ever praise for the dancers – usually.)

So what did tonight bring?

Just another great night at JJ’s.

Lots and lots of really good dances, some excellent music, and the right mood. (So-far this is going to type…)

I wish I had more to say, but sometimes it’s just as simple as that.

OK, let’s talk a bit about my dancing. (I think) I’m off to Blackpool this weekend coming, to the “UK Open Jive” championship. I’m not competing for real, but I am entering the “Take a Chance” competition where I’ll get a random partner and we’ll have some fun dancing until we’re knocked out of the competition.

Frankly despite what one or two people have said, I don’t think I’m anywhere near good enough to enter any serious competition without being totally outclassed. But I’d like to think I might just maybe make borderline on getting through to the second round of a Lucky Dip/Dance With A Stranger/Take A Chance competition, given a particularly good partner, and with the wind blowing in the right direction.

But although I’m relatively happy with my standard of dancing when I’m only trying to impress my partner, I don’t think I’ll do so well in front of a judging panel. A lot of my dancing is in the connection with my partner. I don’t do lots of crowd-pleasing moves, and I don’t know how much it is possible to judge the internal stuff, rather than external stuff.

But I see that a lot of what makes a crowd-pleasing dance can also make a good dance for the dancers themselves. So, again, this is where I think a partner would be helpful to me… Someone I can work with to help me know what things are missing from my dancing and help me fill the gaps.

Tonight I was trying a few new things and having fun, finding new possibilities, sometimes finding that they go wrong, sometimes finding cool new things… Maybe another 6 months of this just having fun in freestyles would be enough to get more good stuff in my dancing, though I’m not sure I have what it takes to come up with and perfect crowd-pleasing moves on my own.

One thing I did notice tonight what a lot of really good musicality going on in some of my dances – though not all. I’m not even going to start thinking what the criteria is there except to say that I think it might be something the same as what makes just a brilliant dance – the right music, the right partner, and the right mood.

I like to think I’ve got not-bad musicality – compared with some guys I’ve watched, I’ve got it in spades, but some songs just don’t work for me. Don’t know if it’s even possible to do something about this, nor do I know whether it’s worth trying…

Umm… So what’s the point I’m trying to make? Who knows, but it’s nice to talk about this stuff now and then – even if it’s only to myself…

Let’s get back to talking about the night at JJ’s… Again, I arrived after the beginners’ class. Again, I apologise for my hotshotism. It’s not the result of any desire to avoid dancing with beginners though…

The intermediate class…

• Basket pull-through. This is one of the moves I missed last week at the GUU. Basket, on the out hold on, lean, come round, letting go R, as you pull the girl back through where you were, turning to face. There is a definite hesitation in the lean and through the pull. Especially as we want to go back to double-handed for the next move and we can’t have the girl shooting past us before we have collected her left hand again…
• Left basket turn out? Basket to the left (RH over LH for the wrap) keep wrapping in to bring girl round to almost face and block with RH to girl’s LH near R shoulder. Leading from the LH, turn out the girl a double turn. Bring her round prepare and spin her back CW. Catch R-R. (Oh, there’s another hesitation/suspend-time thing going on there – did you see it?)
• Catapult block? This is the opposite move to the pretzel block thing we did last week. Catapult start, but turn ACW to face, putting RH into nelson behind and offer L flat, high-ish. Leading from RH, draw girl forward and use L-L connection to turn the girl CW as she goes. Follow her to face with a L-L hold. Get out of this by doing another CW spin, reconnecting R-R. (Another hesitation, catch that one?)
• Swizzle top? Spinning top? Classic move. Lead the girl to your R and throw her hand away to spin her ACW as she passes, but as she turns to about 180º catch her R hip with your RH, and her L shoulder with your LH. Slow her to a stop and then primarily from the hip spin her back CW one and half times on the spot, catch L-R, step back, step in, return, double-handed for the baskets… (The hesitation is less obvious here, but it’s in the slowing down bit, before the spin…)

I don’t like the basket pull-through at all. This other basket thing though looks worth remembering… I do a similar move from a traditional basket, so it’s maybe worth experimenting with this variation in both directions. A key difference is there’s no step-back in the basket position. (At least, I don’t think there was!) I also quite like the catapult block thing. Tried it a couple of time in the freestyle. Will see if it sticks… Might re-visit the spinning top later…

Beyond just the dancing tonight, I took more time to just chat with some folks that I maybe don’t take enough time with usually. I love dancing so much, sometimes I forget the social aspects of a Ceroc night.

Anyway, I had a good night. Hope you all did too.

See you soon.