Social Dancing Friday

Dances:  Waltz, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Hustle, West Coast Swing, Nightclub 2-Step
Part:  Lead
Workout:  None

I skipped workout and practice today and spent it with some friends of mine who were visiting from CA.  However, Sarah and I did make it out to DanceWorks for social dancing.

The crowd tonight was just about right.  Not too many people but also not empty.  While we danced really well, I'm starting to notice somethings about Sarah in different situations.  For one thing, she seems to get this nervous energy when we go social dancing.  That usually leads to her reading some of my leads in really interesting ways.  She also tends to over exaggerate certain things such as shaping.  As her lead, I can definitely feel a difference in the way she dances in a social environment.  Those two things usually lead to her neck hurting.  I find it interesting that she doesn't complain that much about her neck hurting no matter how long or hard we practice.  But give it an hour and a half of social dancing and she almost has to quit because it hurts so much.  I think she needs to take it easy and not worry about the little things when we social dance.  I'm a little worried that when we finally do compete, she'll freak out and be unleadable while her neck snaps.

On the flip side, one thing I am good at is that I'm pretty even keeled in any situation.  Competitions, performances, etc. don't really seem to bother me.  It used to when I was young and had to do piano recitals and speak in front of classes for presentations.  But I guess somewhere along the way I figured out how to deal with it.  Mainly I just think:  Oh well, I'm here and there's nothing I can do about it.  It's no different that practice.  Let's just go for it.  Being in that mindset really helps with any nervous symptoms for me.  Now that I think about it, we should practice performing a few times to get the feel for it.  I need to know what I'm up against when Sarah gets nervous.  :)