Dances: Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot
Hovers: 1
As I entered the practice room today, I was greeted by the sound of a jolly merengue at a louder volume than usual, and Jeff's gleeful face...apparently this latest addition to the colossal ballroom dance collection is from the "Fast and Furious" and he was quite enamored of it, merengue though it be. Practice began with a waltz run through, and I must say that our hovers are getting very balanced and smooth, and I mentioned this when we finished.
Night club 2-step then commenced, accompanied by speculations about the possibility of competing in this dance sometime in the near future, and then we had the "brilliant" idea that I could dance bronze Latin with our Latin practice buddy for some competition or other, just for fun (he is pre-champ level and keeps getting better all the time, and I don't dance Latin other than socially). So we tested it out...bronze syllabus rumba; and I had to laugh...we must have looked just like a pro-am couple. Me: slow, sloppy, tall-and-awkward, and desperately trying to sell it at the same time, and him: quick, clean, compact, and under control. Good times. Jeff said we didn't look too bad though, for a bronze couple, so I'm probably exaggerating, but it was still good for some laughs.
We then worked on Viennese waltz, first just dancing it and then into the fleckerls. The trick here was for Jeff to figure out when to dump me into the contra check link so that we can switch from reverses to naturals. Problem is, he wasn't counting a crucial step as part of the figure, I believe, so that is why the footwork was never matching up. As for me, I'm just trying to figure out before it's too late that we're going into the fleckerls at all; I usually don't get the memo until step 2 or 3, and then it's really hard to recover, though I did a few times. When I attempted to justify my steps by saying I didn't feel the lead for the side step and cross behind step and therefore didn't take those steps, Jeff burst out with..."But I'm not LEADING anything...I'm just trying to dance my steps!!!" Oh, okay. In that case, I guess I'll just plug away at it until the lead decides to show up, but in the meantime, it means I should get off scott-free for not following! At least in that figure. It's only fair. I know what he means though. Sometimes you just have to focus on one aspect of a new figure at a time before you can assemble all the pieces. Right now he's just trying to figure out where the steps go, which is totally fair. I can hardly do my own in frame let alone worry about lead and follow. We'll get there in time.
We ended with a foxtrot. A rather short practice overall; the end of the week is approaching and energy levels are starting to wind down. Still, a worthwhile practice.
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