Takin’ it Easy

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, cha-cha, rumba

Hovers: 1

After no practice and no workout yesterday or today, I was ready to test the waters again tonight with some social dancing. Jeff and I headed out to the Washington Dance Club a little early for the Sunday evening dance party so that we could warm and run through a few things. We mostly went through some foxtrot, and little waltz and quickstep. Things felt much more relaxed today, I think because of our short weekend break, the warm weather, and Jeff’s massage earlier in the afternoon. I reminded Jeff that the object when social dancing for us does not necessarily have to be having the most power moving down the floor and having the most exaggerated layout and posture, as perhaps it might be in regular practice or competition. With that in mind, we tried taking some of our routines a bit more gently, and overall I think it really helped the lead/follow connection and made it easier to navigate around the busy social floor. Waltz and foxtrot are continuing to feel smoother, but quickstep still really needs work. I get the feeling it’s going to be our toughest dance for a while. Still, Jeff did a really good job jumbling up the various routines in floor crafting emergencies, and I think I stayed with him pretty well, all things considered.

For some reason I did not feel like I danced as much tonight, well, at least as much as I would have liked to and normally do…but the ratio of leads to follows was not entirely in my favor. I like to feel really physically tired from dancing for two hours, but I didn’t really dance hard enough tonight for that. I really need to hit the gym again tomorrow though, because I ate too much good food this weekend. On the other hand, I did have a few very nice dances with a couple of experienced competitive dancers, and it made me realize again how much I still have to learn and train my body to respond to.

The dance ended with me making a sad face because Jeff had agreed with some friends that we’d leave 15-20 minutes early to meet them for dinner afterwards, and of course I had wanted to get more dances in, but in the interests of the common good I went with a good grace.

All in all, a nice, relaxing sort of dance evening; but tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone!