It's May And I'm Still Dancing Pt. 1

20070504
When I got to Atomic on Friday evening, Trish and Jerry were practicing their ballroom routines in preparation for the Emerald Ball. And who was that watching them? Aubrey was back to teach. She's currently doing a graduate program in dance ... somewhere, and only teaches one day a month. I remember taking a Balboa class from her early in March.

She ended up teaching the Balboa class at 6:15.

The thing that sticks out most in my mind was focusing again on the come around with Spike Out. The lead into the spike out should feel like a swing out. I know that, but it usually takes me a time or two to capture that feeling. Aubrey has me think about facing away from the follow during the spike out which will give more spring to complete the come around. Nice.

During swivels/switches at 7:45, Jerry took the leads separately and taught us footwork variations to do during the switches. Aubrey taught switches to the follows. The number of 8-counts we're using balloons and balloons...

The dance is nice, and passes like a blur. I'm dancing my fill, still. I work the Apache swing out in a few times followed by a block turn, an attempt at Socks (?), or a Socks swing out [EDIT 20070528: Jerry tells me it's pronounced "socks" but spelled "SIOUX"]. Also do the tuck to outside turn a couple times, during which, follows tend to stop their travel. That is, we end up closer than open position but farther away than closed. I'll ask about this some time. Did the reverse swing out with inside turn with the same issue. Neglected the reverse swing out with outside turn. Tried the swing out with inside turn on the entry, but I've yet to do that successfully socially.

One highlight was a dance with Danie, during which I did my standard 6 count patterns (tuck turn, change places, 6 count circle), standard Lindy swing outs, then the tuck turn with outside turn. Then threw in the reverse swing outs, then a reverse with a turn. She actually squealed with delight. At the end, she was stunned that I started dancing two months ago and told me I was advanced well beyond that level. She's a terrific follow and it was a great compliment.

20070506
Sunday morning saw me studying math with the study group, and heading directly to class with OC Swing. Shesha and Nikki were competing in the midwest, and had guest instructors Ben Morris and ???. Very interesting to get a new instructor teaching familiar material. An odd quirk that Ben had was that his left hand was at waist level for the tuck portion of the tuck turn, so he'd have to bring his hand up on 4 for the turn. Weird.

Coming into the day, I only remembered the drag entrance from side to side closed position. Ben focused exclusively on the front to front entrance, which started with a rock-step forward to wind up for a clock-wise turn for the follow, then into the drag, drag steps, and a dip. Also cool was the pivot step and more drags. Also an interesting take on spins and turns. We learn some moves where the lead and follow spin at the same time, which was cool. Spins are something that I'll have to put some solo work into, though. Am I motivated enough to do that?