Wow, already backlogged with dances!

This was the first night of my advanced class, so it was going to be interesting. As I was putting on my dance shoes before the class, Jessie came in. She immediately started saying how nervous she was. She was nervous to the point that she brought chocolate to calm her down.

I thought about it, and I wasn’t nervous in the least. I was nervous beyond belief at asking Debbie for the audition in the first place, while Jessie was not at all. The roles had reversed.

So, we went in the class, and thank god they started at the basics. Debbie’s partner had arrived, Patrick. They gave many corrections, though I was glad to know it wasn’t only me:

“Remember to be on your toes, with your butt out. Your left hand needs to be relaxed, don’t have it tight. Your right hand needs to be solid on their back with no fingers. Remember to whip around your had on 5. Drop your left hand on 3 and pick it up on 6.” So on and so forth.

It was so much fun! It was very intense but I could immediately feel improvements in my abillity to lead people. I could tell when I was doing something wrong and I could fix it fast. They also moved at a much faster pace, telling you to do something, and then you do it. No preliminary steps. One girl got overwhelmed at the fast pace and started saying it was really hard to concentrate on so many things.

I was very glad I was not the only one getting corrections. By the end of the class, I found it remarkably easier to lead people, and I never had much trouble before. All this for $5? Amazing, simply amazing.

So I went out on the floor in a great mood and just started dancing, applying everything I learned. It was so much fun, and I could tell I was working different muscle groups and it felt great. I realized, and they commented in the class, that I needed to start dancing with the better dancers. It would help me get better a lot faster.

Me and several others got into Lindy Groove for free that night because Jeff Antoine had put us on his birthday list, so we wanted to make sure he had a great birthday circle. I think he got a lot more than he expected. Our friend Shawn lifted him on his shoulders as we loudly sang happy birthday and whistled. It’s such a fun experience to be in the circle, even if you are embarrassed like I was on my first birthday dance.

While the dancing was good at Lindy Groove, most of my fun came later at IHOP, where we listened to random music in the early hours (we left at 5:30AM) and some comedy bits. It’s good to know that things get funnier the later it gets.

Tags: Lindy Groove, Swing Dancing

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Lindy Groove, Swing Dancing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.