June Dance Wrapup

20070622
I guess I neglected to mention earlier that Katie and Jerry (but mostly Katie) had their daughter on Monday night, 20060618. I was holding out for Jayden Jordan, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Upside: Aubri is here and teaching! In Bal/Shag, Jenny's doing the choreography and Aubri's giving us technique tips. The big one is the come-around with a open pose on 7-8: I have to really get the follow around and behind me as I open her up.

Floorcraft is interpreted by Aubri as a tweak of regular moves to move us around on the dance floor. Very cool.

Pirouette's are spins. Finally learn that flashy lead spin: it's at the tail end of a circle, with the prep on 7. I think. I should have written this earlier.

20070623
No team practice

20070624
Technique and the Atomic Routine taught by Jenny. Technique is always awesome, but we're still slow on the Atomic Routine for the new team members who joined the class. I'll never learn that darn tap section!

20070626
Aubri again teaches all the upper level classes. Awesome! But it's all a blur.

20070629
Bal/Shag is slowed by new people again. Oh well.

Aubri morphs Savoy Styling class into mini-choreography incorporating the Savoy Kick during Charleston. The class has lots of new moves, which I feel I can use that same night! Especially the Swing Out with Free Spin which doesn't use the left hand at all.

Bombdiggity class: I take it all back. This was all new moves (a barrel roll?!) that weren't socially useful at all! :-)

Aubri is clearly the best swing instructor I've had. She's incredibly prepared, with written choreography for each class and relevant notes. My one critique: she's constantly praising me. That makes me nervous and doesn't feel genuine. I actually work harder for Jenny, who withholds love. I mean love. Praise! Withholds praise!

Isn't there a YouTube clip of Aubri dancing? I think this is her, but am not 100% certain. Well, I'm 100% certain that that's Aubri's dancing styling, body language, and hair.

UPDATE: No, it's not Aubri. Oh well, it's still an awesome clip.



As social dancing winds down on Friday night, I make sure that Trish was going to come out and dance with me. Jenny gave me the "Hey, what about me?!" gesture and vocalizations. I thought she only danced with guys named Chris and Will, and mention that. "You can ask me to dance any time," she replied. That special thrill I got can only be obtained by withholding love. I mean praise.

And later as I leave, "Seriously John, you can ask me to dance any time." Seriously, I'm still totally intimidated, but almost there.

20070630
Aubri is running the team practice today, and is a tough taskmistress. We run Jeep Jockey so many times that I'm soaked through with sweat. And I keep screwing up the solos. Damn you canceled practice last week! Might be the fact that I'm an A instead of a B solo too. Aubri has interesting technique observations, and still manages to praise too much (for my taste). I like the Katie/Jerry/Jenny honesty. I'm not a beginner who needs my ego stroked. :-) Well, I do, but I need to fell like it's genuine praise, and hers comes a bit too freely. What a weird thing to be fixating on. Maybe it's because of my talent crush. So I need to find something wrong and work that for all it's worth.

I said talent crush, not actual crush. Crush on the talent, not on the person. Does no one know what the heck I'm talking about?!

Danie is on teams now! Hooray!

Swing 1 team starts out with traveling swing-out practice, then we watch the team Shim-Sham. Then start to learn Big John Special. Find out that See-Saw is a simplified version of Big John, so we're learning two for one.

Lunch with Liz and Gerald after. Wiped out! Thai Spice is a welcome meal.