Holiday Weekend

Dances:  Waltz, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Tango, Hustle, Nightclub 2-Step, Salsa, Rumba
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Chest and shoulders at the gym.

After a full week of practice, today was pretty blah.  After a good workout, Sarah and I met briefly in the practice room for some foxtrot.  I'm still trying hard at keeping my butt tucked in under me when I dance, but it's not easy.  Today was no exception.  Somehow it felt like I needed to waddle around Sarah which lead to all sorts of awkwardness.  So after a few attempts, we gave up for the day and headed over to DanceWorks for some social dancing.

It was really dead at DanceWorks tonight.  I guess everyone is out of town for the long weekend.  On the bright side, there was all sorts of room on the floor so I didn't need to hurt my brain as much as usual.  As we continue our training as competitive dancers, I'm realizing that social dancing is kind of dance stress relief for me.  For the length of the party, I don't have to worry about every little detail and dancing everything perfectly.  Instead I get to focus on other challenges like floor crafting, making up figures, and leading different people.  It's nice to break the daily routine and do something different if not really closely related.

One interesting thing that never occurred to me until last night was the level of our dancing.  As we continue our practices and get better and better, it does cause kind of a rift when we go social dancing.  The really awkward (and that's putting it nicely) receptionist at DanceWorks brought that to Sarah's attention.  You can tell from how she behaves that she's really insecure about herself and she always gives Sarah crap about how skinny and fit she is.  Tonight that happened again, and for a change of pace she decided to harass me as well.  To which I politely reminded her that she could be just as good and as fit if she actually put some energy and effort into it.  But the thing I took away from it was the potential perception that Sarah and I are out there showing off.  Of course we're just there to have a good time and dance/socialize, but I can see how it can been seen that way.  There's nothing I can really do about it, and it's not exactly a bad problem to have, but we should be careful when it comes to this.  Just interesting that it might be time for the mind games to begin...