The Kissing Hover

Dances:  Waltz, Tango, V. Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Salsa, Cha Cha, Nightclub 2-Step, Rumba
Part:  Lead
Word of the Day:  Sully - verb - To make soiled or tarnished, mar the cleanness or luster of, defile

I found out today just how much the foam rolling had paid off.  Taiki started off the massage with my back and just kind of assessed how bad the damage was this week.  Turns out, most everything was within normal limits.  My back was in good shape as were my hamstrings and quads.  What a mistake my foam rolling had turned out to be.  Because everything we usually work on was doing well, Taiki decided to work on the stabilizers on the outsides of my leg.  It was brutal.  I think I'll try and focus the foam rolling on those muscles more this week and see if I can minimize the pain during my next massage.  All that being said, I felt great afterwards.  Linda also made me a delicious pie and ensured I left with a healthy supply of cookies.  I think she's secretly trying to sabotage my efforts and make me fat.

After watching Men In Black this afternoon, it was off to the Washington Dance Club in the evening for social dancing.  Sarah and I arrived an hour early to stretch and warm up.  As the dance got under way I noticed a few things about my dancing.  Floor crafting is getting easier.  I'm able now to make some steps up to get us out of trouble and hop back on track with our routine.  I think taking Sundays easy is helping me a lot with that.  I'm able to focus on floor crafting more instead of worrying about things like my frame, my foot position, leading sides, etc. provided everything is within reason.  Sarah is also following better recently.  She doesn't freak out quite as much when I veer off the chosen path.  Though she's still not as responsive when my frame wilts.  We should try practicing just body contact a little and make sure we're still as responsive to lead and follow then.

Only a few things to note about the dance tonight.  First off, Linda (I know you're lurking), you'll be happy to know that our dancing was cookie powered tonight.  Second, Patrick is having a hard time with social dancing, and it's understandable.  For a man, social dancing is a formidable foe.  You not only have to worry about leading a woman, of which there are many, each with a different feel and style, but you also have to worry about traffic and floor crafting as well as coming up with amalgamations.  All the while keeping everything else in check (frame, posture, technique, etc.).  I keep telling him to just relax and have a good time, but I know it's hard.  It also doesn't help that some of the people are a bit more judgemental than others.  If he keeps at it, he'll get used to it soon.  I just hope he's brave enough to get over the initial learning curve.

Our last waltz tonight was interesting, only in the last step: the hover.  As mentioned before, Sarah LOVES the Hover.  I'm not sure why she finds that figure so intriguing, but I guess it's fair that she has a favorite.  In this particular execution of the step, she had stretched out to what I felt was a maximum.  Then all of sudden, her head disappeared from my field of vision, and I felt a sudden and violent shift in the balance.  I corrected for it and we didn't fall over, but she had managed to stretch so far back that her head had ended up in another couple's frame (they just happened to be dancing by).  Right in the middle, facing the guy.  She could've kissed him.  It was pretty funny.  I'm not a fan of the Hover but I know we'll have to spend some time practicing it to find a good balance.  Though most of the time it's not bad as is.  So long as she doesn't decided to suddenly stretch back further without warning.  :)

Overall I feel like our dancing has improved quite a bit over the last few weeks.  We'll see what our coaches have to say soon.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.