The Recalibration Continues

Dances:  Tango
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Arms and back at the gym.
Hours Salsa Dancing This Week:  4+

Lots of breaks this week for Sarah and I.  Wednesday was no exception.  Sarah had a fund raising event to attend and I had been coerced by Kora and Simeon to take Simeon's, dad's, friend's, daughter out for a night of salsa dancing.  She has never danced salsa before and was in town from Vancouver to learn it from Simeon.  Both Simeon and I found that really funny since our salsas are REALLY square being Standard dancers.  But everyone had a great time and it was fun seeing the salsa crowd again.  Thursday started with my usual workout, then we headed into practice.

Today we focused almost entirely on Tango.  We employed the bar again.  It was tough getting used to being in frame with it.  Sarah and I tried various arm positions to try and make it work.  Finally we got it down, but not before Sarah managed to nail me in my teeth with the bar.  It was pretty funny from there on out.  Every time she put the bar down on my frame, my head was positioned straight up.  It must've looked ridiculous to the outside observer.

So with my front teeth still in tact, we danced through the first short and long side of our routine.  All the while with me trying to keep that bar perfectly parallel to the floor.  It was a painstakingly slow process.  After a few runs, I would put down the bar and try it without, looking in the mirror to track my progress.  Then we'd pick up the bar again and step by step go through the figures again.  Then finally on one of our final runs without the bar, Sarah remarked that I actually felt like Simeon!  Now usually I give her hell over this kind of comment since she likes to compare my dancing to Simeon's, but it was more than welcome this time.  I guess the new practice technique is paying off.  We'll keep hammering away at it and sooner or later I'll get myself recalibrated.

One small concern worth noting is the fact that this exercise with the bar requires me to maintain constant visual of us in the mirrors on the wall.  Now since we're not the fairest one of all yet, I need to keep looking which means my head is definitely in the wrong place.  Hopefully it won't form a bad habit.