Yippie! Hi gang! I had a lesson tonight, with RT of course... I was fully prepared for an overly technical lesson, bracing for it actually. Technical lessons tend to happen if I haven't danced with RT in over a week... but hey this girl has been wrong before... wait 'til you read about the dancing bliss that was tonight's lesson!
Happily we warmed up with a really fast Hustle. There's something about a good fast Hustle... in about two minutes I start to feel like I've worked out for about twenty. I noticed TNG watching from the corner of my eye... I was going to wave, but this Hustle was FAST...and RT was trying desperately for me to expand my repertoire of arm styling. I think I got at least one good styling in there. Song over, and sufficiently short on breath RT and I moved on to the next dance.
Salsa... excellent! There isn't much I don't like about Salsa, love the music, the beat, the timing, it all just makes sense to me and it's SOOOOO much fun! I live for the leverage of a cross body lead...and adore the spinning. (I'll adore it more when I'm better at it!) Now, we are working on my prepping through the first beat and actually whipping around for the second. Huh... that's going to take some more thought before it's automatic. My WHOLE world starts on the first beat... It's difficult for me to start counting and not acknowledge that first beat without moving. However, prepping for a turn is acknowledging that first beat, there is a little movement in prepping so I think I'll get spinning on the second sooner rather than later. Then there was a spin that RT was leading me into... and every time before this I've come out of this set up spinning one way, only this time he takes my arm and in a lead that doesn't push me, but instead "strongly suggests" I turn the other way... it takes my brain a second to adjust to changing like that, we had to do that a couple of times before I really felt like I could do what I think of as an opposite rotation. I could have worked on that for the rest of the lesson, but RT had other plans.
Salsa music over, RT suggested the unthinkable....
"How about Waltz?"
"Are you serious? My Waltz is TERRIBLE!" I retort.
RT comes back with "You've lost so much weight since the last time we tried Waltz, lets try it again."
Eyes rolling "My weight wasn't really the issue behind Waltz. It's my head, I can't wrap my brain around it. But I mean if you really want to... sure we can give it a go."
So after lining up some songs for us at the music machine... off we Waltzed... I've gotta be honest it didn't feel as bad as I remember... my balance must have improved a little. We didn't do anything over complicated but we made it 'round the floor once or twice. Huh...Maybe I'll
have to try Waltz again... but I still like Fox Trot better.
It's Rumba time! (When is it not Rumba time?) We worked on Rumba...again... and I made a real effort to try and make it feel the same way it does in my kitchen at home. If you all saw the attitude I've got when dancing in my kitchen... I could totally be a rock star! I just have to work on bringing that to the places where people actually dance... like the studio. We worked on open breaks and Cuban walks and a little arm styling. What I call the "11 o'clock/1 o'clock move"... I'll find out what it actually is... Then we just kinda started dancing Rumba... and then sometime between RT asking me to actually look at him, and my telling him the floor is actually very pretty to look at (I did end up looking at him)... with RT's help of saying "Settle" when I'm supposed to.. I did it ya'll! I actually shifted and THEN settled into my next hip! WELL IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!
The song we were listening to was really perfect for it, I just can't now for the life of me remember which one it was... maybe if I keep working to that song where I can really pick out the timing I can get good enough to do it all the time. It wasn't perfect, but for once it actually felt like a Rumba in the studio, instead of just in my kitchen.Goodness what else did we work on! Oh gosh we did a little West Coast... and a little East Coast... I still don't know what it is... but I think for the rest of my life RT will be my all time favorite leader for all things swing related... don't get me wrong...he's currently my favorite for all the dances I know... but I can't imagine having anymore fun with anyone during a swing (EC or WC) as I do with him... For as much as I love Salsa, I think the swings match my personality more... they're a little more relaxed, cool, and they totally have a sense of humor about them... just like me! So I'll never pass up a swing...but you have read me say that before. Then to wrap up this blast of a lesson... another surprise... RT suggests Tango! I don't know if he was trying to test me tonight or what, but I guess after the success with Rumba he was going to try and push that through to Tango.
So Tango we did, a little... it was mainly correcting my impression of Corte and a couple of the dramatic fan combos. Which I'll get someday I'm sure... Then it was time for the lesson to end... which was ok.. because much more of that and the high of my rocking out on Rumba would have faded to the frustration that Tango can bring.
Whew! That's the kind of lesson I live for... Dancing and learning and finally breaking through
that dang settling thing that's been plaguing me since the beginning!!!!Practice for the next few days, counting the hours until I'm back on the floor.
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