Takes Two to Hover

Part: Follow

Dances: Viennese Waltz, Night club 2-step, Salsa, Cha-cha, Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Bolero

Hovers: 2-3

Friday night we tackled Viennese Waltz once again. This time I had made notes to work on our natural turns, working on more power in our movement by really swinging our sides strongly. We ended up mostly just dancing through it, and trying to get in and out of the fleckrels. We can do it sometimes, we're still just inconsistent. Mostly the problem comes in when I don't figure out that we're doing them until it's too late, or else if our position gets off half way through. That was happening a lot for some reason, I was getting pulled in front of Jeff so that we were in each other's space and crashing into each other. Because of the amount of rotation in this figure, it's hard to maintain our positions, and I am thinking it maybe worthwhile to experiment with the wrong side position since I was getting pulled that way anyways. It's just that half-way between place when we're square on that it really doesn't work. Anyways, we're getting more familiar with the figure, and at this point that is the most important thing. Luckily we won't have to worry about competing with it for quite some time.

Then it was off to social dancing. I thought we danced pretty well, lead and follow wise. There were a few close shaves though; one where Jeff crashed his elbow into the mirror as we keep pushing the boundaries of that small floor, and we came up just a hair short. He told me that I also almost got a concussion on the mirror during Viennese, but I didn't notice. What I don't know won't hurt me, right? I've noticed that my dancing has relaxed a lot in these social situations; I'm less tense and I'm learning to choose one simple thing to focus on as I dance to keep me from worrying about my technique or anything else...usually something to do with the lead. There was a particularly good hover which Jeff led beautifully...I didn't even realize I was dancing a hover until I felt my feet drawn together and up and my frame swung into position, and then I was like "Oh, yay! Hover!" and did my usual extension, only we were more on balance than usual so it felt great. When I commented on how good it was, Jeff got a little smug, "Hell yeah, that's what happens when I get my floor pressure back!" so I had to remind him that it takes two to hover. He's right though that it makes a huge difference; on the slippery floors it's much harder for him to stay grounded and keep the balance while I'm doing my thing, and he did do a good job on that one; I'll give him that. We even tried a tiny bit of bolero later in the evening, but my knees were pretty much toast for the night by that point since I still haven't fully rounded the bend from my injury, so I was falling into most of the steps and Jeff could feel my lack of control and made me stop. Bolero is much tougher on the knees than any of the dances, I think.

All in all, a good night of dancing for both of us. We also had a good time visiting with the other regulars at the studio afterwards, talking about competition experiences, plans, ideas, and other randomness. If some of Jeff's crazy schemes don't get us killed come competition, at least they were the subject of much laughter among the group. It was also interesting to hear about the west coast swing competitions and how they are different from the more formal ballroom style. Though personally I am more drawn to one style over the other, I can definitely understand the appeal of the other styles.