Practicing the Perfect

Dances:  Waltz, Tango, Bolero, Nightclub 2-Step
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Arms, back, chest, & shoulders at the gym.

Today's workout was pretty brutal.  I had gotten sick over the weekend and apparently Sarah had as well.  So we decided to cancel Monday night's practice.  As a result I had to make up Monday's workout today.  Now when I say make up, I don't mean I just double the workout.  I just make sure I hit up all the parts that I missed.  So I pick the exercises I feel I benefit most from and do all those exercises.  In the end it's still pretty hard, but not as hard as just literally making up everything you skipped.

Practice today was interesting.  We started out dancing to a few new songs I had added to our collection.  Over the previous week I decided to start going through some of my audiophile recordings and see if there was anything worth dancing to in there.  Turns out there was plenty.  What I like about those recordings is the fact that the arrangements are designed to showcase the singer's voice.  Not to mention that since its an audiophile recording, it means the quality is superb.  What we ended up with is covers of famous songs in more or less an acoustic style.  To be honest I like them as much as their original counterparts.  While the originals might have been a Rumba, Cha Cha, or Hustle, the covers turn them into Boleros, Nightclub 2-Steps, and Foxtrots.  Needless to say, the music project is going well.

After our warm up we checked the calendar to find our mission was the Wing to Fallaway Reverse and Slip Pivot to a Double Reverse to yet another Fallaway Reverse and Slip Pivot in Waltz.  That section is easily the hardest section of that dance.  I've already ranted many times about the Wing so I won't get into too much here, but it SUCKS.   Going from a Wing to a Fallaway Reverse and Slip Pivot is just awkward.  So I grabbed Sarah and we danced through it once.  To our surprise it was damn near perfect.  Everything was dead on.  We looked at each other and decided to try it again.  Once again, we nailed it!  I started giving Sarah crap about planning to practice a section of our Waltz that was already perfect.  But it really was.  Throughout the rest of practice we really had no trouble dancing that section at all.  Everything was aligned properly and balanced.  Weird.  I guess I shouldn't complain about a perfect practice.  Hopefully these occurrences will become more and more frequent.