Dance...

Wow, so that's what it feels like... I'd nearly forgotten what it feels like to learn dance, to push yourself, to expand what you are comfortable with, and that wonderful moment when it clicks, and you suddenly understand what you're doing and can step off with confidence. There were so many moments like that yesterday.

I've done a fair amount of ballroom dancing over the years. It has mostly been social dancing, I haven't really taken many professional lessons, or focused too heavily on technique. I was with the Sacramento Ballroom Dance Company for a few years, that improved my dance quite a bit, but was also limiting in a lot of ways. I didn't get to push myself the way I wanted to, well, that may not be totally fair. I didn't push myself the way I should have as well. I half-assed a lot of things in my life, including that, getting by on my natural abilities, rather than seeing how far my natural abilities can be trained and focused. I decided, when I went through my life assessment back in September, that I wasn't going to half-ass things anymore. As I've been social dancing, and seeing others, and feeling followers' responses to my leads, and looking at my abilities, I realized just how much I've half-assed my dancing over the years. For one of the things that I love the most in my life, I have seriously sold myself short and not pushed what I'm comfortable with, or confident with hardly at all. I made a committment to myself to not do that, and here was an area where I had been doing it for a long, long time.

So, while I was running the other day, I ended up going by Ultimate Dancesport, which is right near where I live now, and on a whim, decided to stop in and see what they were doing. Talked with a really nice guy named Djimi, one of the instructors at the studio, and incidentally, the Argentine Tango teacher. We talked, and he suggested I meet with one of the instructors to have an assessment of where I am, skill-wise and technique-wise. Since I was off work the next day, I said sure, and made an appointment for the next day at 10 with Tania.

So, Tuesday morning, met with Tania, talked about my goals with dance, my background and experience, then went through some basic steps. I think she was a little worried when we started, because she picked what is probably my weakest dance, Rumba. As we went on and I got a little more comfortable, though, she got a better idea of what I know and where I need work. She was quite impressed with my technique on the basic footwork. For the most part, I keep things pretty clean in that respect, and she gave me a few suggestions that I was able to adjust very quickly to do, and I figured overall, I did alright. So, I'm going to be starting some private lessons, as well as doing group lessons,to really focus on learning technique, the basics of all the dances before I start filling in flash and trash. I'm very excited about that.

So, ended up on their website and found out that they had an Argentine Tango lesson that evening, which I'd wanted to do with a friend of mine who ended up having work commitments that conflicted with what we were planning to do. So sadly, that plan got scrapped for January. But on seeing the class, I figured I'd try it out and see how it went. It turned out to be a really fun, challenging, and educational class. Everything that I needed and wanted to stay focused and push myself. I was the only person with no Argentine experience in the group, so I had to play a little catchup, but Djimi is a really good instructor, and very quickly, I made it up to speed. I was initially having some issues leading the women, which is unusual for me, they weren't picking up on the leads. I tend to be, for the most part, a fairly strong lead, and pretty clear in what I wanted, so that was frustrating. So ended up dancing with Djimi to figure out what I was doing wrong. That was a little weird, not because he's a guy, but because he's a very tall guy. Like, probably 6' or a little taller maybe. It is very difficult to see where you're going with someone that much taller than you. Heh, but we got things straightened out fairly quickly, and as it turns out, I was just being too subtle with my lead for people new to Argentine. The lead was there, just not strong enough for the women to pick up on it immediately when they're working on their footwork as well. Once I figured that out, and how to accentuate things a little better, it went quite well. There were a lot of wobbly moments, as its been a LONG time since I've worn latin heels, but overall, I was very pleased with the class and what I learned, and I have a lot to practice and work on now.
Afterwards, dropped in on a beginning salsa class, that unfortunately, was pretty basic for what I'm looking for. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I really like the teacher. He's a ton of fun, really good natured, and a great dancer. Looking forward to getting in on some of his intermediate classes.
But as I'm sitting here writing, I'm thinking about all the things that I can do better, all the areas to focus on, improve, and practice. There is a lot to do, I have a long way to go, and I'm really excited about what is in store.