Hyperreal

JJ’s tonight… Another good night, and so good to be in an air conditioned space when it was so hot outside (and here in my flat.)

Turned up fairly early – during the beginner’s class – but wasn’t taking part in the classes – not this week. Instead I spent the time during the rest of the beginner’s class and through the intermediate class messing about with my new competition partner, trying out some cool moves and seeing what we could do…

Was good, though I figure if I’m to get these moves learnt well enough to just throw them in in a typical random dance, we’re going to have to do a fair amount of practice. Although I can usually learn a move fairly quickly, getting it established in my dancing can take a long time.

I think things are going well though. We can have a laugh and joke, but we can also be honest with each other when things aren’t going right, which is essential if you’re going to fix it!

For me doing this competition is about two things. First, it’s a bit of fun. Neither me, nor my partner, believe that we have much chance of any particular success, so that takes the pressure off and lets us just enjoy dancing… The second reason is that I hope to improve my dancing – with the help of a partner I hope to learn new moves, work on existing technique, and maybe discover some new cool things to do on the dance floor.

So far things are going to plan.

During the classes was practice time for us, but freestyle is freestyle. Especially at JJ’s you don’t go there planning to dance just with one person all night. (Maybe at the GUU though… )

So again, I was there for the whole of the first and then the main freestyle… And again, I enjoyed myself enormously. Lots of fab dances with lots of fab ladies.

Been noticing some changes with my dancing with some partners… For example, I’m doing more eskimos, and I’m also occasionally consciously trying some penguins… Not always got them working, but I’m having fun trying…

I also think my musicality is improving… I think I’ve always been aware of the music, but I’m getting better at fitting my dancing around what the music is saying to me. I’m by no means perfect yet – for example, I was pulled up for dancing through a break – well there’s a few things that can cause this. Sometimes it’s just a follower who just wants to keep dancing and so I have little alternative to lead her into something… Sometimes I just don’t feel like playing musical statues. Sometimes my partner detects a break that I don’t – maybe she’s listening to a different part of the music to me. Sometimes I just miss them. (Think it was a differing interpretation of the song in this case…)

My musicality though seems to depend a lot on my partner though - the better the dancer, the better the musicality. Assuming that it’s not because they are back-leading all the musical interpretation (I know that isn’t the case) I can only conclude that it’s because when given the chance they are bringing their own musicality to the dance which helps support mine and keeps things musically in tune, so to speak. I think it’s also that there will be fewer wee mess-ups which can get get in the way of smooth musical interpretation.

Anyway, I’m off to bed!

Cheers to everyone! Hugs to my lovely partner. :hug: