Practice Practice Practice... Introducing TNG

Hi again! Ok, so you've likely heard that Buddy is no longer with the studio I dance at.

Can I just take a moment and stress again how much he'll be missed? He will...

Well, on the evening I found out I was actually scheduled for a lesson with him, and didn't find out about his departure until about 15 minutes before lesson time. Now in the past, when my lessons have been rearranged without my prior knowledge, RT has stepped up and filled the void... On this particular occasion he was not available. So...what is a girl to do? There I was, at the studio ready to go and for a brief moment I thought there would be no dancing. (That would have been VERY upsetting!) It was at that point when an interesting suggestion presented itself.
"You could dance with [TNG], students do that sometimes when there is a schedule conflict to help The New Guy practice, and [you still get to dance]."

Well I'm familiar with TNG, I've danced with him at a few parties, he's young, cute, super tall, and for a newbie... not a bad dancer at all! He was a little nervous, but hiding it well... this could be fun... ;-)

He picked me up for my lesson and as we walked arm in arm to the music machine I asked "So teach what are we going to be working on today?"

With all the seriousness of a teacher with much more experience TNG states "Well I'm told we need to work on your footwork, hips, and arm styling."

It was all I could do to hold it together, you all know that my skills aren't great, but TNG is THE NEW GUY... not just new to the studio, but new to this style of dancing too... So while desperately trying to hold back from just busting up laughing I ask "What, did you just call [RT] and ask him what all my problems are?"

We started with some Rumba... and once again for the millionth time I wasn't thinking and was picking up my feet... grrr... bonus points to TNG for noticing and telling me to stop though. We put a song on, and another instructor would change it... so then we worked on Rumba to whatever beat TNG had in his head. (Being a musician though, he's really good at picking up and maintaining a beat without the music, or in this case against the music) We tried to pick another song, and it to0 was taken out... poor TNG, can't catch a break. It wasn't long before my upper back was getting weary from holding frame so much higher than I'm now used to. (I mentioned TNG is tall right? about 6'4"or 5" if I had to guess.) It forced me to stand up absolutely straight no matter what.

We then switched to Cha Cha and that was good, TNG suggested that I work my basic Cha Cha step into different lengths which actually could make the Cuban motion of it all easier. Another thing for me to work out on my kitchen floor. Then we worked on some Push pull Hustle, always a favorite... especially with the new ones, as it's generally one of the first things everyone picks up on. Lets see, we did some East Coast, some West Coast basic, I explained that there was more leverage needed for that to work really well... we also did some Salsa, and even a little Fox Trot.

It was definitely a good work out, and we kept the conversation light... at one point... I believe it was during a Cha Cha... TNG asked me "Do you like working with [RT]?"

Umm... huh...well which one of the million ways could I answer this... Clearly young TNG had never read this journal. I chose to respond with "Absolutely, he's my original instructor. I really appreciate his technical approach, and I like that he's as hard on me as I am on myself, we're very different, but it works."

"Yes" would have sufficed, I know that... but TNG is new, and needs to know how students relate to their instructors. I know he's excited about having his first lesson with a brand new student later this week. One can only hope that it works as well as mine did with RT.

All in all it was fun... and I did actually end up learning a few new things to work on my basics. TNG has the framework to make a good instructor... I can't wait to see how he develops.