Too Much Dancing? Part 1

20070603
This is the last day of the current OC Swing Sunday Series. I make the 2pm beginner class, and have a lot of fun doing it. The first timers have come a long way in six weeks, but it takes more than six lessons to develop good frame and to really anchor the footwork, much less add variations. I think doing swivels might be ambitious for a six-week beginner class. Tough for me to remember to lead a rock-step at the beginning of the swing-outs.

One of the beginning class attenders, Cassie, asks me if I'm going to Top Cats Monday night. I can, with no more Maths, so I agree to meet up with her there.

I'm feeling so very tired after a long Saturday. I see Mark sitting, not looking like he's going to do Drags and Rags. I make the decision to bail on it too, and we decided to get some food. Or Jamba Juice, since it's within walking distance, and open. It's a beautiful day, so we sit outside and shoot the breeze about our progress as dancers, the previous night's performance, and where we're going. We end up deciding to bail on all the rest of the classes, and head to Atomic for their evening classes. This series has been a bit disjointed as Shesha and Nikki have been gone on the 3rd and 5th weeks. And I missed the 4th week with Knotts. So though I wanted the content, I don't feel I really got much from Drags and Rags or Spins and Turns. Perhaps we can pick Scott's brain later.

Atomic Ballroom:
Liz, Mark, Danie, and I are among the hard-core. Danie takes tap right before the swing classes start, so it there already. Technique Class is always nice. Atomic Routine (We Cats Will Swing For You) series gets us ahead of the game when it comes to team routines (I hope). I'm always forgetting to the run-run early on in the routine ("You're gonna pack your feet"). Stomp-Stomp is more than I can handle, as my brain starts to shut down, and my legs get wobbly. Plus, it's pretty darn hard.

Looks like Danie is driving on her own now. No excuse to not be on the team! :-)

20070604
Monday night at Top Cats. I'm late (9:15pm), and Cassie beats me up a bit about that. :-) Shesha plays much faster music than I'm used to dancing to, but he's catering to a much more skilled crowd of dancers, who want that faster music. Cassie and I mainly work on her swing out. She does swivels while hanging back on 1-2, but doesn't come forward on 3 enough for me to hold my ground. She doesn't want to abandon the swivels, which I understand (they look cool).

While I'm there, I talk to Sky for the first time. He's a really nice guy, who gives me some details on the OC Swing team, like the audition is the California routine and that it's really the kind of team you have to be invited to join. I -think- Frances told me last week that she just joined and that Sky is her dance partner. He talks about previously being centered at Atomic but moving on (after Peter Flahiff left?). He doesn't think much of the Atomic teams and mentions how he didn't see any of the male members social dancing after the performance. I'm assuming he doesn't know I'm on the team, and take it in stride. Mark is a big social dancer, but had to do ballroom performance as well. I wonder if Sky was thrown by the fact that most of us changed out of the team attire at the earliest opportunity due to the heat? At any rate, I like Sky, as he's the first OC Swing person who's approached me and been pretty nice.

Cassie and I exchange contact information, and I thank her for the reminder about Top Cats. It's a bit intimidating, as most of the dancers are really advanced, and the music is ... faster than I'm comfortable dancing at. But I think it's good to be outside of my comfort zone. It's how I was originally growing as a dancer.

Later on, I invite Cassie to the Atomic Team tryout. We'd probably need to practice before it, but she could get to the level pretty quickly if she has the time and wants to put in the effort. She hasn't been social dancing, though. I wonder how much she wants to dance?