The Prius of Dancing

Dances:  Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Nightclub 2-Step, Cha Cha
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Chest and shoulders at the gym.
Number of New Songs on List to Learn:  3

Please excuse the tardiness of this post:

Ahhhh!  Friday night!  What a relief.  I had quite a bit of catching up to do with my working out due to my recent trip to L.A. so tonight Sarah and I hit chest and shoulders pretty hard.  It's good to see her making progress on those two muscle groups.  I remember when we first started this whole routine she literally could not press any weight.  Only the weight of the bar and even then it was a stretch.  Now she is able to lift more weight and her form is getting better.  I on the other hand have continued to get stronger.  My max weight as increased and as Sarah has pointed out, we're both seeing physical improvement.  All good things.

Customary to Friday night practices, it was short.  We had both decided that our upcoming lesson on Sunday would be on Tango so it was time to run it and see what sticky spots we needed help with.  Not surprisingly it was the first long side.  It continues to be a GIANT thorn in our side.  To be honest though, I think it is getting better.  Slowly but surely.  But for all I know we could just be cheating more and more.  Slowly but surely.  I guess we'll find out in a few days.

After practice Sarah and I headed to DanceWorks for their Friday night social dance.  I'm beginning to like it there more and more.  Mostly because of the drastically different crowd and the different type of music they play.  Definitely completely social dancing based.  It's a good break from our normal competitive training.  The floor there is tiny though which forces me to be even more creative that I usually am with the floor crafting.  The crazy Asian driver strikes extra hard at DanceWorks.  And poor passenger Sarah is kept on her toes all night.  Other than some crazy new thing she was trying out in Viennese Waltz, the night was a success.  Our lead and follow is getting better.  I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty good social lead.  Almost all women are very comfortable dancing with me (at least so I've been told).  But I've come to an interesting conclusion.  I keep forgetting that Sarah was "raised" competitively.  Dancing Pro-Am with Simeon has bred her into a very strict set of parameters.  As a result, I've realized that the more relaxed I dance, the more tense she gets.  Always thinking, that one.  But she's has come a long ways and tonight was a testament to that.  I think we're both evolving into a hybrid of competitive and social dance entities.  Sarah giving into more social aspects and me firming up my dancing habits to conform to the more strict standards of competition.  The Prius of dancing.  All in all a good night!