Dances: Waltz, foxtrot, tango, quickstep, Viennese waltz, west coast swing, salsa, night club 2-step, cha-cha, rumba
New dance song: "Send me a Song" by Celtic Woman
Hovers successfully executed: 0
(Jeff has been teasing me that I must have a mental journal in which I keep track how many hovers we dance each session because I like them so much. Maybe I'll do that in my blog posts, just for fun.)
As Jeff mentioned, Friday was kind of a wind down day, but we still got some good dancing and a workout in all the same.
I am the worst at the chest and shoulders weight regime...sometimes I can't even keep up with the 1/2 rule. At least I hadn't killed myself just before by running on the cross-trainer for 45 minutes, so that helped my energy at least, and I had eaten quite a bit of fish that day too, so the calorie deficit wasn't really in play.
Practice was short, more slow foxtrot, some waltz, and tango. The reverse wave is really hard to do at the deathly slow speed, and I got confused about my timing when I went to dance the twist turn, since the "quick and quick" is about the speed of normal quicks and when everything is that slow nothing feels the same. Tango is better, I think, though I still cannot nail the reverse outside swivel in a balanced fashion. The songs we danced to were three favorites, so that made it more fun, including the new "Pirates IV" tango, as well as the one from "Shall we Dance?"
Quickstep felt pretty good going down the first long side, and I think that's as far as we got, but it was pretty smooth. I think we are more comfortable with the sequence and freak out less on the super fast tipsies, so it comes out smoother since we aren't as worried about not making it.
One thing that felt pretty funny yesterday was that, for some reason, perhaps because of the prior workout and the warm weather, Jeff and I were both really warm/overheated, and when we got into frame it felt like we had a heating pad sandwiched between us! {insert jokes about chemistry, hotness, sizzle etc.} That reminds me of how we were speculating the other day about how "hot ballroom" would work, as in dance around in a 105 degree room "hot yoga" style. I think I would die, plain and simple.
We wrapped up practice early to head to to Danceworks in Redmond for their Friday night dance party. I'd never been there, so it was fun to check out a new venue and meet new people. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, and I danced a number of dances I don't normally do, such as salsa, West Coast swing, and even some international cha-cha, which I really haven't danced in forever these days even though I used to take Latin classes. I struggled with West Coast though, because though I have a pretty good sense of rhythm and timing and can catch on if the lead is using a consistent rhythmic footwork to dance with the music (I've never had lessons or officially learned West-coast), but each one of the leads I danced with did something different, and I think most were not in sync with the music either, so I could not figure out the pattern. In general at the places I regularly dance, all of the leads use some variation of the same rhythmic pattern and footwork in WC, but these guys were being very creative, and my standard training was not helping me. The floor was tiny, but they played some fun music that I don't normally hear at dance parties, including a waltz that I've always wanted to try dancing to ever since I heard the song for the first time. It was a bit fast for our waltz routine, and a bit slow for Viennese, but Jeff did a creative in-between sort of waltz and a good time was had by all...well, at least by me.
Today we're taking a break to enjoy the sunshine and put ourselves back together before we do it all over again. I'm planning to put some real time into my ball gown sewing project too, so if all goes well, hopefully I will have some photos of my progress to share at some point in the near future.
