Hyperreal

GUU tonight… A bit of a mixed night. I’m beginning to go off Wednesday nights, thought this wasn’t my worse night of dancing by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe I’ve been spoilt by so many more good dancers at JJ’s, and music that’s maybe more targeted towards my tastes. That’s not to say that the GUU doesn’t have plenty of good dancers and music, but on an average night at the GUU I’ll more often not be dancing compared with an average night at JJ’s.

Oh dear, I’m turning into a hot-shot and a music snob! Eek!

Tonight I noticed one thing in particular I didn’t appreciate. During the intermediate class almost all the partners I had were gripping on to my hands with their thumbs to some degree. When it comes to freestyle dancing, it’s not always so bad, but it’s still present in too many of the dancers. These aren’t just new intermediates either, they are people who have been dancing for years probably. So it’s not my place to try to tell them of my discomfort, and I doubt it would make a difference.

The moves tonight weren’t especially compatible with death grips either…

• Hatchback nelson duck comb mambo – what a mouthful! Yo-yo/hatchback start with hand offered behind… Move to the right to straighten L and nelson R, and duck under girl’s left(?) arm, bringing arm round over girl’s head to turn her into nelson and comb her, stepping her back at the same time into mambo steps… Exit by letting go right and getting the girl to turn out ACW by drawing out the L-L connection… And boing!
• Flamenco walk around. L-L lead in for a travelling-return type of thing, but whiz round and do the flamenco thing… Exit by turning girl out CW
• Two-handed Yoyo.

Still don’t like duck moves since yesterday… But I need to work on my mambo steps and combs, so that was good… Must try to do that flamenco thing more too…

The freestyle was OK, but it wasn’t until I had a few dances with some of the dancers I feel better at dancing with that I began to enjoy myself.

I also danced with a few beginners – I think it was the second week for all of them… A couple of them were especially good, but at least one of them had done ballet, so she was already pretty good at moving to music in a controlled way. I thought they were all doing really well though, and I hope they keep at it.

Anyhow, that’s all for me tonight…

See you all soon…