Waltzing it Up

Gary and I have been moving along with our cross step waltz which we both really love. It is a beautiful dance, and much more delicate than the ballroom variety, if a dance can be delicate.

But sometimes we've found we need to whirl around quickly like the ballroomers do. This need became apparent to get out of the way of said whirlers, but we quickly realized that we also do, in fact, like the ballroom variety of the waltz when we do it our way, e.g. no reverse poise and no mathematical positioning ...that happens naturally believe it or not. So...we now like it.

But could it mix in with our cross step? Why yes it can. We've found it isn't hard to come in and out of each, as long as the follower knows when that is. Gary signals me by squeezing on my right palm. Works perfect.

So now our waltz can be delicate AND whirly. :-)

Blues Dancing

Sometimes I wonder if our dance posts seem like Toady from Wind in the Willows; if you are not familiar with this book by Kenneth Grahame (wonderful), the character of Mr. Toad was known for flitting from one hobby to the next. We do explore many dances and some of them we end up not liking, but most we’ve kept and expanded. So I think we’re more like the adventurous Ratty (in the book). Just so you know.

Yesterday we had our first blues lesson with Mike Legett and Dan Rosenthal. Wow. First, they are a very cute couple…the connection they have is electric and they are fabulous dancers. We’ve experienced teachers who, although good dancers, were not the best instructors. This was not the case with Mike and Dan; they explained blues dancing very clearly and were able to teach something that is organic and mostly improvisational. Quite a trick, teaching something like that. But they did it.

Blues dancing covers a big territory…I had thought it was only a slot dance. I only found the stationary kind in my research. It can be that, but it’s a whole lot more. Mike and Dan demonstrated the slot variety, but also a traveling sort of blues dance.

They did show us some unique steps to the blues which was very cool, but the best part was their understanding of the fierce connection it takes to dance this dance. Gary and I came away with techniques that will help us with every dance. For example, the special blues hold we learned could work with the vintage foxtrot and perhaps the cross step waltz.

As far as the blue steps go, most anything can go into blues dancing, it’s the way it’s done that matters…stuff from the lindy, WCS, and even some Latin moves will work perfectly…as long as it’s done blues-ily.

This dance is hard to explain, but for me dancing the blues means you are connected by your soul to the music which is expressed through your body which is then shared back and forth with your partner if that makes sense. I think that’s true of all dances, but especially this one.

We’ve come a long way as far as how we are able to learn…from the ballroom one, two three put your foot exactly here, to Shayne’s Latin bop bop bop, to Rosie’s demonstrational technique, to Mike and Dan’s body kinetics.

We like knowing we can learn from anyone, but it is especially nice to find instructors like Mike and Dan who truly understand teaching is a different skill from dancing. I have a feeling they can adapt to anyone…if we’d wanted numbers and more structure I believe they would have given us that. Whatever your dance style I think these two would be helpful just for the connection advice. Even, dare I say, for ballroomers.

BTW, blues dancing is SO romantic. Sigh. Oh, and here’s their website:

www.livinghistorydance.com