Dances: Rumba, Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese, Nightclub 2-step, Bachata
Hovers: 2
We have more Friday night social dancing to report. This followed upon another day of insanity workout, but we're all doing much better this week. My legs are no longer killing me, and the muscle tension and soreness has moved to the upper body now. It's not terrible, just sore shoulders and chest and a tight neck. Not exactly fun for Viennese waltz, but I can handle it. It's not like I've never had that problem before. Anyways, tonight is going to be the fit test, so we'll how much we've all improved in the two weeks we've done it.
For some reason I ended up at the dance studio before Jeff got there, so I ended up doing a bit of people watching. There were a lot of new faces there, and a whole group who were dressed and dancing like they were used to country dancing (complete with a black cowboy hat).
I was thinking about this general observation that I am sure would make perfect sense to any guy who goes out dancing...I've noticed that there does seem to be a close correlation between how often I get asked to dance and what I happen to be wearing, or how I wear my hair. Don't laugh! You know it's true. Now what is tricky is that there is a fine line between looking like a dancer who knows what's what and just looking intimidating, or looking like you don't care. Okay, I'll admit it, I like dressing up, I like wearing dance clothes...but sometimes I think it backfires. Guys get scared to ask me because they think I'm some sort of professional teacher or something, not true of course, but I could see how that could be intimidating. Plus, I'm on the tallish side, adding more to the intimidation tally. Two things I've definitely noticed: guys like skirts...I think it's fun for them to spin a girl and have the skirt swish out, etc, and hair down rather than hair up. Hair up looks more dancer, but hair down is less intimidating and more inviting somehow, and in my case makes me look pretty young, I think, because it's so curly and crazy. A red flower in the hair brings hair done up to the same level as hair down, I believe. I should recruit some girlfriends and do a study on this sometime! This week Jeff and I were unintentionally both in all black, which happens fairly often. Or just "going Goth" as my siblings like to say. I'll add that this only applies to getting asked to dance by people with whom you don't regularly dance. Jeff is so not intimidated by me regardless, and knows what my abilities are even if I were to show up in jeans. It's just less fun that way.
Our friends Steve and "Von L" showed up again, so again, it was fun to dance with those two and generally goof off with them. Jeff and I danced a couple of waltzes, I believe, a nightclub 2-step, a tango, and Viennese, as well as a good "rumba box" American rumba. Jeff believes in the rumba box; it is a man's ticket to popularity with the fairer sex at any party, he explains. Sounds about right. I do wish that floor were larger; we move a lot in our waltz and it seems like we get through maybe two figures before we have to round another corner. Another thing I like about our waltz that probably needs a ton of work but still is such a fun feeling, is that swooping, dipping, turning shape that we create as we rotate and bank into the turns while moving down the floor. Our shape is pretty big and it counter balances with what the lower body is doing, and while I know I probably overdo it sometimes (I can feel his hand slipping on my bad or trying to get a better grip on me), and that the frame overall is sometimes quite broken, it's still a great feeling. It's really why I love standard so much. Foxtrot is lovely too, but it's more of a movement down on the floor like water flowing than a sweeping and or dipping one. The Viennese that night was quite slow, and didn't feel bad at all, except that my neck seized up part way through. I credit that to the workouts and the push ups, but in all fairness, I felt that our control and power in the legs was improved overall, also likely due to the new training regime.
I'm hoping we'll be able to get a little normal practice in this week, but that depends on a lot of things. I'll need to start preparing some more practice plans again!
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