Frozen Yogurt and Nachos! And dancing, too, I guess...

Part: Follow

Dances: Most of them

Hovers: 2?

This is the dance party post for last week, which has to cover 3 parties! I missed the Thursday practice party since I was out of town at a wedding (which actually involved ballroom dancing!), but Friday was salsa. I didn't dance much at this one, and the party ended a bit earlier, though Jeff and I did get one salsa in. I had a good time trying to lead in the class prior. I'm not the best lead you ever saw, but I try to at least be confident about it...it's one of the most important things for leads, I think.

Saturday night there was a great turnout. My younger sister came with me to check out the studio and test the waters with dancing, so we did the intro to tango class together, with me leading. Apparently my frame looked like a squiggle (according to Jeff), and I still had some kind of layout going on in my frame, but I thought I was doing okay. The ladies were going where I wanted and I was clear with my lead, so that's a start! Then came the dance party. Now that Jeff is connecting with more and more students and becoming established as a teacher and known for his skillz...he gets commandeered a lot more often and that means I get to dance with him less. It's to be expected though. In the end I think we danced a Viennese Waltz or two and a nightclub 2-step. My sister, as may be imagined, was a bit intimidated by the dancing because she really doesn't have any experience outside our living room at home when we used to mess around. She also didn't think she'd get asked to dance. Boy, was she wrong! I kept trying to get her to stop hiding in a corner and stand out where she'd be more likely to get asked onto the floor, but every time I came to get her, someone would be leading her out onto the floor. It was pretty funny. She may have danced more than I did! Afterwards a whole group of us went out for frozen yogurt, which is close to becoming a post ballroom party tradition at Aria now. It's just the best though, after dancing for three hours when you're hot, tired, and hungry.

Sunday night was West Coast swing. It was a pretty light turn out, but there were a number of students in the class, and I joined the class to learn a few more steps. I did get to dance a few dances though during the party itself. One thing that is tough for me with this dance is that the leads are so subtle; a tiny flick of the wrist can mean a lot more than I'm used to it meaning, and I'm not familiar enough with anything advanced to be able to just do it at a mere subtle suggestion. I like the feel of it though, especially the connection and the weight into the floor the looseness and tension at the same time. Jeff and I ended up dancing a nightclub 2-step too, since those are usually interspersed a bit with the West Coast swing. Afterwards, a group of four of us went out for happy hour and had some delicious nachos, which I kind of regretted the next day, but which were so good at the time.

The Slow Test

Part: Follow

Dances: Foxtrot

Hovers: 0

Practice on Wednesday (last week), was to focus on tango, and I had thought perhaps we should work on fleckrels too. Jeff vetoed both options, however, saying that the fleckrels for now are a lost cause, and tango needs "professional help," namely, let's-not-try-to-fix-anything-without-a-lesson-first. So since I put foxtrot down for our warm up, I suggested we go back to our old super slow foxtrot practice. It's always hard, but always good because we can tell where exactly we are with certain figures and how much control we have. Plus, the improvement after practicing this way is usually pretty obvious. This time we didn't have the metronome to give us tick-tock timing, so Jeff just set the speed. It's actually better practice for me without the metronome, because it forces me to follow his timing. It turns out that there were a couple of spots where hefelt I was rushing, so once I was conscious of it I really tried to hold back and wait for it, and he said it felt better. Then there was the section coming out of the zig-zag (for which we have a mutual loathing) where I always felt like I gapped terribly and mess up our frame, but after playing around with it I figured out that I just need to think about keeping my right hip forward and connected as I go into the telemark, and it works out great. I love it when I can actually find a solution to this conundrums. All in all, a good practice session. We did get a few looks from other students practicing and taking lessons, but maybe they'll catch on! It's one of our best practice techniques, for sure.

Quickstep and the Running Right Turn

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-step

Hovers: 1

Practice on Tuesday began with a waltz run through of sorts to get us moving, and then it was on to the dreaded quickstep. I thought we should work on the rumba cross and exit therefrom, but we ended up reviewing a lot of different parts of the routine, more for the sake of cementing it in the memory than working on a particular section. We did eventually get to the rumba crosses though, and the part that Jeff always complains about is the running right turn that follows them; he thinks I don't understand the timing or something. I understand it and try to dance it with him, but the issue for me is the heel turn there. For some reason I never feel like I should be doing a heel turn there, so I kind of have to force it because I know I'm supposed to, so Jeff was trying to figure out if he's not leading a heel turn the way he should. I even had a moment of self-doubt and consulted the grey book of wisdom to see if that figure actually did require a heel turn, but of course it did. By the end of practice though it seemed to be more in sync. Again, it does seem that our quickstep is not quite as bad as it used to be, so that is encouraging. Getting it to work on the social floor though is always the challenge, because it seems to be less conducive to mix and match than some of the other dances.

Fallaways and Contrachecks

Part: Follow

Dances: Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango

Hovers: 0

Monday we started back in with the practice plans. After "warming up" with a slow foxtrot, we were set to tackle two figures that I perceived as problems; the fallaway-reverse-slip-pivot (aka fallaway foot finish), and the contra-check, both figures in tango and waltz. Jeff was laboring under the delusion that there is nothing at all wrong with the fallaway reverse in our waltz (or tango for that matter) and that it's feeling pretty good. While I admit that it is vastly improved since we started, I still feel like we fight each other a bit on this figure and that we don't quite align properly when moving through it. Also, doing a fallaway reverse as a lady out of the wing position is no picnic...I have a much longer distance to travel to stay with him that he does, being on the outside of the turn and starting out in wrong side position. Jeff did agree that wing does not help matters, because, as he said before, "Nothing good comes out of wing!" We also reviewed the figure in tango, which wasn't bad, although apparently Jeff still barnacles a lot, or let's me slip to far behind (according to Kora who happened to be watching).

We also worked briefly on the contra check. We needed more rotation and less dipping, and of course, balance. No dumping the lady! So we tried it a few times with Jeff putting me into that extended position and that leaving me there to see if we were both on our own balance. It seemed that we were, so that's good. I just need to work on slowing down and timing my extension so that I don't use it up all at once, but instead "save some of the best for last," so that it will look I just keep stretching out and out until we are ready to come out of the figure. Naturally, Jeff can facilitate that by also going into the figure gradually. Now in tango, of course, this is not how it works. We have to hit it fast, and hit it right the first time; there is really no time or room for adjustment.

We ended practice with a nightclub 2-step. (What else?) Given our new practice situation, we're finding ourselves working more on small sections of our dancing and dancing less through the whole dances to music. This is probably very good from a practice stand point, and then again, we do get to dance around the whole floor with music at dance parties, so we're not missing much.

A Tale of Many Dance Parties

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-step, Salsa, Bolero

Hovers: Lost count!

This post is going to have to cover four dance parties! Since they aren't technically practices, and some we dance very little, I'm going to combine them into one post.

Thursday was the Aria practice party. The first half of the dance Jeff is dedicated to dancing with students, as he should be, so I didn't dance at all until that first half was over as the students who stayed on for the dance ended up being primarily women, so grabbing one of the new guys was not really going to work for me. I think we ended up dancing a couple of the standard dances, but Jeff was more tired than last week since I think he danced a lot more dances at the beginning this time with the students.

Friday was the salsa/Latin party. Since the crowd who ended up staying wanted more variety in the music, I somehow ended up dancing a tango with Simeon, and a foxtrot and waltz with Jeff. The part with the most potential came when Jeff had the brilliant idea of a nightclub 2-step "Simon Says" game, in which he would dance a figure that Simeon had to copy...but then that turned into foxtrot "Simon Says" with the only two couples on the floor being Simeon and Kora and Jeff and I, and that was kind of a fail. Jeff said he couldn't see what they were doing because of our direction and the way we were facing, so we couldn't copy the figures. I laughed, "Sure. Of course it's just because you can't see them. Otherwise we'd be dancing telespins and tumble turns and who knows what else no problem." Jeff agreed. It was a fun idea anyway and we'll have to try it some other way, though Kora brought up the point that having a caller for the figures would essentially turn it into square dancing. Somehow that sounded less appealing.

Saturday night was the ballroom party. This is intended to be a much bigger party, and this past week it was a lot of fun! Even more dancers came than the week before, Jeff did a great job on the playlist, and everyone, including us, had a great time. Lots of dancers, lots of dancing happening, and plenty of good music. I think we hit all of our dances, and the craziest was when we dived into our quickstep (yes, dive is the right word), and by the end of our first long side could not continue with our routine due to floorcrafting constraints, so Jeff suddenly went into basically a whole side of open naturals, very fast with lots of rotation and shaping and it felt like a roller-coaster. Yay, Asian driver! Somehow I stayed with him though and we ended on balance, with me in the kind of huge hesitation oversway thing to halt the momentum, which was pretty fun. It was nothing like our routine, but I was proud of Jeff for pulling that out of his hat (because normally quickstep is the hardest for us to deviate in), and of me for following through with it. I think we're continuing to become a better team in the floor crafting department; Jeff has always had extra talent there, but now that I've become more flexible and also have the ability to move a lot when I have to without running away, I think he's able to do more with it. Viennese felt really good on Saturday too, and my neck didn't hurt this time. I've been trying to be more conscious of moving my head in Viennese as I should so it doesn't lock up by delaying the head a bit in the natural turns, and using it to assist in the reverses. It seems to help if I can keep it moving. We also danced a bolero, and apparently afterwards someone complimented us on it...which Jeff thought odd because we don't really know it. But as standard dancers, I guess we have the basic principles of the movement in place, so even the basic figures kind of work because we're using fundamental techniques of movement and posture that make it look like we know what we're doing. Actually, to be fair, Jeff does know a bit of bolero, but I knew nothing until he started leading me through some of it. I really like it though and would love to learn more. Our nightclub 2-step was also good...it usually is these days. Now we're trying to think of new figures to add.

Sunday was the West Coast Swing dance. After the lesson (taught by Jeff), the turn out wasn't as great as some of the other dances, so I didn't dance much. A few random other dances besides West Coast were played, but I maybe danced 3 dances over all. I didn't really get the chance to see if I could apply anything from the classes, although I had one half of a WC dance where I tried. I feel pretty confident with the basics now though; I just need to get better with lead and follow of it and the many variants.

After the dance, Jeff and I and another instructor at Aria stayed a bit late talking about dancing, specifically dance partners, and our friend's rather unfortunate luck in that regard until just recently. It made me realize how lucky we are, to have been partners this long with still no fights, can communicate with each other like reasonable adults, give and take criticism, and actually enjoy dancing together after all that. It doesn't always work out so well for everyone, as we found out. Sure, we have our tough days, but overall I feel very fortunate. So many things have to come together for a dance partnership to work, and so often at least one of those pieces is missing. Anyhow, now that our friend has a new partner and it seems to be working out very well, we're hoping things will be looking up for him so that he can pursue his competitive goals and dreams too. Though now he is "threatening" to dance novice standard, and Jeff is being facetiously discouraging, because guess who wants to dominate that event? Uh huh.

Fluke Dancing: When You "Accidentally" Nail It

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep

Hovers: 1

Yesterday evening was our final review day. Jeff was threatening to come down with a cold and I was really tired, so practice had less energy than normal, but we did manage to work on a few things. Jeff feels quite confident now with all of the choreography, so we worked on the back open promenade in tango, because the shaping and rotation felt off, and then going in and out of promenade throughout that whole tricky section. Something was strange about the oversway too. Basically we reviewed those sections lots of times, slower, and faster, and tried to get a feel for where we each needed to be. Sometimes I went too far outside partner, so I worked on staying closer so he wouldn't lose me and so I wouldn't get stuck, though sometimes his right elbow would get too far back and I had a hard time staying where I needed to be. We had to laugh though, because it seems like whenever I bring up some problem or issue I'm feeling with the lead or his position, Jeff protests that there's nothing wrong and dances it just to prove it to me, of course fixing whatever the problem was in the process.

Then he'll say, "See? What's wrong?"

And I'll return, "Of course...NOW it's fine. What did you do differently?"

And he'll say, "Nothing. It's always been good."

Whatever works, right? I can usually tell by a certain mischievous glint in his eye that I actually had been on to something...but of course he can't admit that. Then again, last night, Jeff thought it appropriate to remind me of that one day when we decided that once and for all we'd fix our fallaway-reverse-slip-pivot of doom in waltz because it was so awful, only to nail it time after time...proving that I'm not a good judge of these things. But we both knew and admitted that section was awful and that day was a sort of a weird fluke, so after laughing about our sudden and unexpected bursts of good dancing, we got back to tango.

Jeff thought it would be a good idea (or funny, or mean, or something) to see how low into the knees he could go in preparation for tango with me in frame. He kind of forgot that I also have pretty strong legs and that tango frame is kind of hard to hold up when you get that low...needless to say we both ended up sitting on the floor laughing as the whole thing collapsed, providing an entertaining spectacle for the foxtrot class right next to us.

We also reviewed a bit of quickstep and foxtrot choreography, just to make sure it was fresh in our minds, and ended with a foxtrot, by my request. Though not the most lively and energetic practice, I think we've been making a good first week of it after such a long break. Tonight, it's Aria's weekly practice party!

Why is it so easy?

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Quickstep

Hovers: 2

Last night's practice was more review at Aria Ballroom. Although the floor is still very slow and a bit sticky, I do like the secure feeling I get dancing on it. The one goofy thing is that every time I drag my heel crosswise against the floor boards I get that clickety-click noise as my heel tip goes over the floor seams. I can tell that my brand new suede leather heel protectors are going to wear off very fast!

Anyways, we nailed down the last bit of our quickstep, which was really the more outstanding issue, as well as the rest of the foxtrot. I've slacked dangerously in my memory of our routines; but at the same time I think it's helped my following. Still, I was able to help Jeff remember some of the timing issues in tango and a little bit at the end of quickstep.

One thing Jeff commented on was how the last bit of our quickstep felt so much easier than we both remember it. It used to be one of the worst spots, I always thought. I don't know how, but we just kind of slid in and out of the quick open reverse into reverse pivots into double reverse with no problem really, and barely any strain on our frame...not usual at all. Personally, I think it has something to do with the timing of our shapes. I was turning my head at all the appropriate junctures and not dropping my side, and Jeff was shaping in a way that made sense for the turn, and we matched! Amazing what that can do. I did posit that perhaps we only think we're better because we've been away from it so long that we don't realize how bad we are, but Jeff disagreed. Our dancing has improved, for sure...at least as a couple. I'm inclined to agree. Even after switching from practice hold to full frame, it was still working, so we must have been doing something right. I'd say that my overall observation is that we move much better together than we used to; everything seems more in sync. I'm more docile to the lead but also confident enough to do something with it, he's more nuanced with the leading and doesn't drag or shove me around. But perhaps I speak too soon. Maybe yesterday was just a good day.

Practice consisted of reviewing the four routines, and by the end we were feeling pretty solid with them. Next up will be tackling some of our known technical problems.

Fallaway Foot Finish

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-step

Hovers: 2

Last night was our first practice as such since the Christmas holiday, and our first practice at Aria Ballroom! We decided that this week had better be review week, since our dancing has lately only been on the social floor, we don't necessarily ever dance our routines all the way through, and perhaps were in danger of having forgotten them. As it turns out, we remembered the waltz and tango just fine (and Viennese hardly counts), but foxtrot took a little review, and quickstep is still not quite all there. Then again, those last two dances have longer routines (3 longs sides and 3 short sides each), so that would make sense. Other than some stupid fumbles on my part in tango, I'd say we've held it together okay. Probably right now we're somewhat oblivious to some of the gross technical errors we're making, but at the same time I think the time off and the more frequent social dancing has, at least personally, made the dancing looser and more relaxed, in a good way. e

I titled this post after a figure name that Jeff blurted out with when he was trying to say something about a fallaway reverse slip pivot and feather finish. Over the time off, I ended loosing a good deal of my syllabus "nerdom" and am not as quick with the figure names as I used to be, but since Jeff was not international syllabus born and bred as I was, he often invents creative names for figures, like "worm-in-the-box," "fallaway-foot-finish," and yesterday, something like "double-super-spinny-thing" for double reverse. Anyways, we had some laughs over our communication breakdowns there. All in all though, we made some headway with remembering the routines, and we ended with the nightclub 2-step, which still feels great. Our friend Ed was hovering around with a video camera, apparently, just to keep it low pressure, you know?

Triple Threat

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Salsa, Bolero, Nightclub 2-step

Hovers: 3 or 4?

Aria Ballroom is hosting four dance parties per week, and this month they are all free, so you could say I'm taking advantage of the situation. Since I've been to three dance parties since my last post and danced with Jeff at all of them, I'm combining them into one post since in some respects they're running together in my mind.

After the Thursday practice party in the post below, we had the Friday night salsa party. This was preceded by a huge salsa class, which Jeff mostly led. I jumped in as a lead or follow depending on what was needed during any given rotation. The music for the dance that followed was mostly salsa, with a bit of bachata and some other Latin music thrown in. I didn't dance a whole lot during the dance, though Jeff and I danced one salsa, and I danced a rumba with Peter, one of the Aria teachers and a competitive Latin dancer. This party wound down a bit earlier, and in the end just Jackie and Lorenzo and Jeff and I were left. I had slipped on my standard shoes and started practicing a bit by myself in a corner, so when it was only the four of us left, Jeff decided to play a nightclub 2-step and a waltz so that we could all "warm down." We still really like nightclub 2-step, probably our best dance...but then again, it's the easiest of all. Anyhow, afterwards we had to check out this new self-serve frozen yogurt place that had just opened that day only minutes away. It was so good, especially when tired, hot, and hungry from dancing, and we predicted that the Aria dance crowd will be returning often in the future.

Saturday is Aria's ballroom dance party. It's intended to be the largest party of the four and features a wide variety of dance music. As it turned out, there was a great showing for this party, about 50 people in total, plus, the intro classes beforehand were well attended as well. Everyone had a great time and the music was a lot of fun (of course!). I believe Jeff and I managed to hit all of our standard dances at least briefly, though we didn't make it through in quickstep. Surprisingly, considering that we haven't practiced in so long, it's feeling pretty decent. I think what's held up the best is our movement; we're covering a lot of ground and our control seems pretty good. I think I'm following pretty well too. It's gotten to the point for me now that I really don't worry about anything having to do with lead-and-follow anymore, I just do my best to come-with and stay-with and move smoothly. I don't know if Jeff's noticed it, but I have fewer freak out "thinking" moments when we're dancing; really, I have no reason to anymore. We danced the last waltz on Saturday night, which was a very long and slow one, and really kept it together well. To top it all off, apparently Kora said that our waltz looks "legit." Of course, she had to qualify later with, "It looked a lot better than I was expecting," but still, we'll take what we can get! And the best part? We're starting up practice again this week!

Sunday night was Aria's first West Cost Swing party. There wasn't huge turn out for this one, but I did get to dance a bit and help out some newcomers. I'm getting a better feel for how the connection and rhythm work, but I still need to work a lot on my turns and balance. Jeff and I also danced a couple of nightclub 2-steps...always fun. Some of the swing dancers were commenting that they'd never seen nightclub move that much...we laughed and Jeff explained about how he likes to incorporate traveling steps from various smooth dances when he gets a chance. Really, how can you not love foxtrot and contra-checks, wherever they happen to show up? After getting to dance quite a bit considering that it was a West Coast Swing dance and it was me dancing (not a WC dancer by any stretch) I ended up leaving a bit early, before the dance ended, since I was pretty tired from the full weekend plus the daylight savings time change. If all goes according to plan, the next post should cover a practice session. Yes...I have missed it. A lot.

Practice Party

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Viennese Waltz, a side of Quickstep

Hovers: 2

Aria Ballroom hosts four dance parties a week (don't know how long I'll be able to keep up with that!), but one of them is a ballroom practice party on Thursday nights. This dance features a variety of ballroom music and is meant to be more focused on practice dancing with other students and just a chance to get some more dancing in. I guess you could say it is less formal than your usual ballroom dance. Also, this dance offers the opportunity to students to sign up for certain dances with an Aria Ballroom teacher, so as you may imagine, Simeon had a pretty full card, and Jeff was booked for dances as well. Since I felt that students should have first dibs on my partner for this dance since he is now a teacher, I just kind of hung out and danced with whoever wanted to dance. Simeon decided he wanted to completely fill his card and wrote me in for a Viennese waltz, and I'm afraid I almost ran him over...it took a few iterations for us to get the strides to match up, but after that it worked out fine. I even tried to dance a paso with him later on; I had learned and performed a paso routine maybe two years ago, and hadn't danced it in at least a year, so it was pretty funny because I had forgotten most of it. Funny how much your muscles still remember though.

Jeff and I danced at least a little bit of all of our standard dances. Even though the new floor is huge, I noticed that we're managing to fill it with our waltz routine, partly due to Jeff's re-configuring of some of the angles, and partly because we just seem to be moving pretty well. I felt that on Thursday night our dancing was pretty huge...my extension felt bigger and more secure than sometimes, and I didn't feel like we were fighting each other at all so the shapes were bigger and looser. It probably looked bad because my neck was still not cooperating, but it was fun and felt good, anyhow. Plus, we danced some hover crosses! Yay! Too bad there aren't any in our routine.

Oddly enough, I feel like my dancing and overall performance has improved since I haven't been working out quite as much. Maybe my cardio endurance is not as good as it was, but I feel more in control and strong, and I have less muscle fatigue. Before I found that I was so tired that I often couldn't keep myself up...now, I feel strong but more flexible and in control. I think my more balanced regime of cardio a few days a week with some weights thrown in here and there and some ballet on top of that are kind of the magic mix for me. Plus, my new trial run on the Paleo diet is helping things too, I think. I feel lighter and more alert, but at the same time I have less adrenaline and energy than before; I'm just on a more even keel overall. It's always hard to find that perfect balance. This afternoon, I'm off to Kora's dance conditioning class. We'll see what that adds to the mix!

Aria Ballroom: Open House!

Part: Follow, Partner-in-Crime

Dances: Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Tango, Bolero, Nightclub 2-step

(with Jeff, though I danced other dances too)

Hovers: 1

Saturday, March 3rd was the big day. After nearly a year of hard work, and the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears, a dream was coming true. On that day, Aria Ballroom opened its doors and welcomed in at least a couple hundred dancers to see what new playground had been built for them. From the newly renovated lobby and lounge area with fresh paint, new carpet, and relaxing sofas, to the large expanse of solid white oak floor, to the huge flat screen in the ballroom showcasing the dance playlist and promotion slides, to the firey red sign "Aria Ballroom" over the front entrance, to the framed and lighted poster featuring the Aria phoenix hung beneath display lights on the solid wood reception desk, to the changing rooms with lockers and colored drapes dividing the girls and guys' sides, to the little "lead" and "follow" bathroom signs (and I could keep going), Aria could not help but make a grand first impression. Some of the comments I heard were, "professional," "warm and welcoming," "polished," "Well thought-out." How rewarding for those who had worked so hard. The open house was really a huge success.

As for Jeff and I, there were times when it seemed questionable whether the open house deadline would be met. Scrambling to assemble lockers, other furniture, wire the electronics, create playlists, clean the bathrooms (yours truly...but lots more fun with a steamer to help things along!), dust the walls...so many things had to happen. Even the day of open house itself, late into the afternoon we were still there, putting away "construction fallout", vacuuming the floors, finishing up the playlists...any number of small tasks that had to be finished. Somehow, it all came together, and when I arrived at 6 PM after going home to change, it looked beautiful.

For the open house portion of the evening, I wandered around and introduced myself to various guests, gave mini tours to anyone who wanted one, and generally shared the excitement of the whole thing. The dance began later in the evening, after Jeff and Simeon and Kora had given away raffle prizes and thanked everyone for coming and for their support.

The playlist for the dance was very well done, and what with the program on the flat screen showing upcoming dances and the current song information as well as a big crowd of dancers, it was bound to be a good time. I danced quite a lot, some with leads I had never met before who came to check out the new place, some with old friends, and a few with Jeff. We hadn't danced since San Francisco, so I didn't expect it to be great, but it turns out that our biggest challenge was the stickiness of the floor. In the last waltz (the Beegie Adair "Moon River," what else?), this brought us to a halt, and Jeff didn't feel up to trying it again. For bolero, however, which we did try, it worked out great. I don't technically know bolero, but I do love it and since Jeff can lead me decently it worked out rather well. I just love the way it feels and the kind of movement and connection you have, like a cross between waltz and rumba. Our Viennese waltzes went pretty well, except that at the end of our second one I majorly screwed up my neck, and I'm not sure how, but it still is bothering me, even today, one week later. Anyhow, it seems like we've really become very in sync with each other in that dance and really move together more than in any other, and as a result can cover more ground and feel a lot more comfortable in many respects. Plus, how can you not love dancing to "The Kingdom Dance" from Tangled?