Guest Appearance: A Lid For Every Pot

Michelle loves dancing.  It’s fun and she loves being part of something that makes her feel so alive!  She always gets a thrill when she first walks in and sees the dance floor.  The only problem was she was starting to have a hard time getting anyone to dance with her.  Darryl wouldn’t dance with her anymore and she didn’t understand why, his face seemed to be healing nicely.  Sean won’t even look at her, as if a black eye is any reason to avoid eye contact.  It looks like Dale is still wearing the cast on his foot, guess she won’t be asking him to dance.  It’s hard to believe that he was hurt that badly, she only weighs about 100 pounds.  Felix is only limping a little; maybe he isn’t mad at her anymore.

Maybe she needs to be honest with herself and face the fact that she just isn’t a very good dancer.  It just doesn’t make sense to her.  Sure, when she dances she likes swinging her hand outwards for every turn that is lead, popping her elbow as a form of styling in close hold and when it comes to the shines she won't hesitate to kick her leg out to accentuate her height.  Is it her fault if someone ends up getting hurt?  Of course, people are a little put off when she hits them in the face, kicks them, or steps on their feet, but there is always a chance that someone is going to get hurt, right?  I mean, isn’t that part of the excitement?  Maybe not, since no one seemed to want to dance with her.

Although it was a little disheartening to see the injuries of her past partners, and yes, she had to admit, nearby dancers were sometimes injured when she tried a particularly bold move, she refused to stop dancing.  She just needed to find a new partner, someone who didn’t know her.  She hated to think about it, but maybe she needed to look for a new venue.  Taking a final look around before she left, she noticed someone that she didn’t recognize, standing alone.  She took a chance and went over to introduce herself. 

His name was Nicholas, and he said he usually went to a other places to dance but had decided it was time to move on.  She asked him how he liked it so far, and he said he felt comfortable here, it looked really familiar with all of the injured people.  Quickly changing the subject, Michelle asked him why he wasn’t dancing.  He said that he wasn’t sure if he even should be dancing and Michelle realized that she had been having the same thought.  After pressing him for a while, he finally admitted that he was clumsy and was always tripping his partners and injuring them.  The shocked look on his face when Michelle burst out laughing made her admit to him her similar problem.  After sharing a good laugh they looked at each other and then at the dance floor.  With a mutual shrug they got up and headed to battle, I mean, to dance.

How do you think their first dance went?

Jim Liston is a guest blogger whose interests include playing insane fast bluegrass on his mandolin, reliving his childhood by collecting Beatles memorabilia, and reading e-books on his Kindle.  Visit him at http://jimsgotweb.com

Trite Trivia: Dance Progress 1

Couple of techniques I keep doing wrong:

1. Taking big steps. Waaaay too big. Social dances aren't supposed to have a lot of room, unlike solo dances like tap. So I have the tendency to step out more than I should. I should focus on taking small steps within a small slot that I'm allowed to dance in. Maybe entering a simulation of walking a small corridor might help lol.

2. In west coast swing, I either slide my foot, or take them off the ground too much. I have to practice moving elegantly. Someone I met from socials was nice enough to point out that I need to walk the basic moves for sugar push and left side/underarm pass in front of a mirror and determine which movement makes me look the most elegant, and aim to walk that way all the time by practice.

3. I still have the tendency to break the frame with moves that require a back to back and having my arms raised. This causes me to feel inconsistent with different guys, I'll feel too soft then too hard, with one guy I'll feel too relaxed or soft, and then another I'll feel too tense or noisy. I should inquire more into this with my dance instructors.

4. In salsa, its really easy for me to go off beat and step the shines step instead of partnerwork steps. Especially if I went too slow for some difficult combo, I'll fall back in tempo and then step the footwork wrong.

Alright, next entry I'm going to blog about socials again.

Video Vault: Swingvitation 2012

I can't seem to find some good West Coast Swing video tutorials in YouTube. Oh well, here's something to enjoy while I scout around with more specific keywords on the search bar, perhaps with a more specific technique on mind.

This was Jordan & Tatiana's opening performance for Swingvitation (which I unfortunately missed. Dag nab-it.) I really love their fluid motions in this choreography. It really fits their song choice too. Hopefully they can come down to Singapore again soon so I can catch them next time around (if my university work doesn't kill me)