Saturday Social Part II

Immediately after leaving Dance Connection, Capitan and I drove to a favorite studio party of ours, Latin Rhythms. As we arrived the party was already in full swing! It's amazing, each time we go to a party here we are surrounded my new and different people! Captain and I found a nice place to stand, and immediately Captain was asked to dance, that is definitely a good sign! I personally have only been asked to dance at this venue a few times, sometimes even making it without being asked once in a night. I was certainly hoping this would be a night of dancing!



After a bit of waiting, and trying to decide if I was actually going to be confident enough to ask someone to dance, I was pulled to the floor for a nice Salsa. All I could think during the whole dance was Don't think just follow...don't think just follow... over and over, I have to because there are a lot of patterns that I can follow, but have never actually done before... but I can only follow them if I let my body do what it now knows to do, and get my brain to just sit back and enjoy. I'm pleased to say that it must have worked because when the dance was over my lead asked if I would stay on the floor and dance another Salsa! We did, and it went much better! He even walked me through a combo I was having a little trouble with.

When the second dance was over, I made a point to thank him for the dances and I met up with Capitan on the sidelines. I would have been ecstatic with another dance for the evening, but even if it didn't happen I was SO happy I got two dances with the same leader. It's REALLY hard to break into new dance crowds... it's similar to starting a new school, you have to keep showing up and making your presence known, making the most out of each interaction, until eventually you will become accepted and start receiving more invitations to dance.

Then this studio had their show for the night, which was an awesome dance troupe that did an amazing Salsa! This studio produces some amazing things! I'm really glad I've had the opportunity to get to know some of the folks involved in it.

After the show, another friend and fellow student from our studio joined us, it's so great when we can meet up for a dance event! It wasn't long before our friend made the observation "This is so different than what we do at our studio!" It certainly is! The studio we all take lessons at teaches primarily American style competitive ballroom, which is vastly different from what is done out socially. I actually prefer the look of what we do at our studio to that of the look of the social dancing, but I enjoy actually dancing both styles equally! The one thing that's absolutely in common is the basic rules, Lead, follow, music, basic steps.... Captain and I reminded our friend that she just has to follow and everything will work out. (Our friend has quite a strong ability to follow, so she looked really good out there!) My friends were on and off the floor for the next hour or so, as predicted I wasn't asked to dance again... but as the night wore on I was getting to tired to make the most of any dance I would have been asked to do anyway.

Captain and I headed for home, and while this was not an ideal dance evening... for me it was better than most, and I absolutely plan to hit these studio parties again!