Dances: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-Step
Part: Lead
Workout: None
iPhone/iPad Apps Purchased: 4
Holiday weekends are always a crap shoot as far as attendance goes. Especially in dance sport. Sometimes all the places are absolutely packed and other times it's a ghost town. Seeing as the weather has been unusually good this weekend I was banking toward the place being empty. Sarah thought the exact opposite. Turns out she was right.
Washington Dance Club was really full tonight. That meant that the normal issues we have with people not floor crafting was compounded this evening. To top that all off, Sarah and I were just not dancing well. She wasn't following, I wasn't leading, and the unpredictable crowd just accentuated that. It almost felt like I was just dragging her around and I'm sure my leads just felt ambiguous. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I stuck it out for about half the dance, after which I told Sarah I was done for the evening.
Now it would be easy to think that I was mad or annoyed. In reality I was far from that. I think it's important to know your limits and when to call it quits. To cut your losses and move on. Live today, fight tomorrow. It's a good concept to stick to. In my opinion I think if you both know your limits then you can jump out before things get ugly. Before anyone gets frustrated at the other for a reason that you will realize later is completely unreasonable or just downright stupid. It's a rare quality I'm proud to say Sarah and I both have. So three months in our number of fights is still at zero. Hopefully we can keep this record alive.
Leading requires a really specific frame of mind. One which needs to align perfectly with everything else that the rest of you is doing. Without this perfect match you can forget about leading yourself, let alone giving your follow good instructions and directions. You have to keep this focused persona running in the background so the foreground can deal with all the random external factors such as other couples. Tonight that wasn't happening. I'm going to blame it on the relaxing three day weekend I've been enjoying. I'm not worried though. Everyone knows you'll have both good days and bad. I'll be back to my regular form when we resume our practices next Tuesday.
I think that was a great call!
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm in that situation, I sometimes remember to take a step back and recognize that it's time to give up the idea of ending on a high note/nailing a particular technique/figure. We're already fatigued. Perseverance is good, but in this case, our doing it over and over again and expecting something different/better is just stupid!