Ballroom Dance Revolution
Okay, so after waffling and waffling for ages I finally decided to suck it up and go dancing tonight. I had noticed last week that the Washington Dance Club was having a Quickstep workshop before their Friday night dance tonight, and well, anyone who knew me back when I was in the CMU Ballroom Dancing Club knows how much I looooooove quickstep!
I'd kinda hurt a leg muscle the other night at the Pillows concert, from standing for so long... so I doused my leg in Mineral Ice to try to get the pain down. I think it worked pretty well.
So, yeah. I debated for a little while about what to wear; ended up in a black tight shirt and dark blue jeans, and put my hair back. Of course, I turned out to be the worst-dressed female there, but ah well, that must be typical. I don't really have any skirts I like.
They had a "workshop" for an hour which was basically them teaching the basics of quickstep. They actually had like 5-6 more females than males during that time period, and most people were there in couples. So of course the first few times they said "go get a partner", I ended up as an odd woman out. It's ok, since I pretty much remember quickstep very well. Though -- they taught this weird turn -- not a spin-turn like I am used to, but a half-turn with a hesitation. I actually think the spin turn is easier to learn! But, eh.
Anyway, I danced with a few people during the quickstep lesson thingy, then a real dance session started. They played a lot of ballroom music and very little swing, which is exactly what I wanted, except -- the problem is, it's hard to figure out who to ask to dance, or to be asked to dance, if you don't know anyone! But, I danced a few times with one of the guys from the beginner session, who was nice, though mostly a beginner... and I danced with this one guy whose name I have forgotten, but he did all these crazy steps -- we did a foxtrot, a samba, and a cha, and two rumbas -- except he led AMERICAN rumba, and I have only done INTERNATIONAL with the CMU ballroom club! Aiieee. Somehow I followed it anyway :) He was like, "Well, it's your job to just relax and follow..." and I was like "Okay, I gotcha on the following, but I dunno about the relaxing thing!" They had a foxtrot mixer, where I got to dance with several really good people, which was sort of fun -- they led a buncha cool complex steps that I remember Trey leading me through once upon a time. And I got in on a few waltzes by asking people I'd seen at the workshop to dance.
But overall I probably spent about 40-50% of the songs just sitting there alone watching. So, eh. I sat around talking to this older lady who had been collecting money at the door. She was really nice and recommended I go to a Sunday evening dance sometime, and said there were usually more people around, but it was Good Friday and all (oops).
I left around 10:30pm (the workshop thingy was 8-9, and dance is 9-11:30) and drove home, still in my high heels. And I've been goofing off on PP and doing laundry since. I still feel very good about myself for this -- I went to a dance hall entirely alone and I actually danced with people. Even if it was a little awkward -- I did it. I am proud of myself. I hope you are all proud of me too.
(and I guess I will try to drag![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bpr or someone to one of these things sometime... and maybe I'll get to do some sort of dancing thing when I'm back in Pittsburgh.)
(yes, for those playing the home game who didn't know, I did ballroom dance back at CMU for like 3-4 years, but it's been about 5 years since that time period, aside from occasional swing dancing.)
I'd kinda hurt a leg muscle the other night at the Pillows concert, from standing for so long... so I doused my leg in Mineral Ice to try to get the pain down. I think it worked pretty well.
So, yeah. I debated for a little while about what to wear; ended up in a black tight shirt and dark blue jeans, and put my hair back. Of course, I turned out to be the worst-dressed female there, but ah well, that must be typical. I don't really have any skirts I like.
They had a "workshop" for an hour which was basically them teaching the basics of quickstep. They actually had like 5-6 more females than males during that time period, and most people were there in couples. So of course the first few times they said "go get a partner", I ended up as an odd woman out. It's ok, since I pretty much remember quickstep very well. Though -- they taught this weird turn -- not a spin-turn like I am used to, but a half-turn with a hesitation. I actually think the spin turn is easier to learn! But, eh.
Anyway, I danced with a few people during the quickstep lesson thingy, then a real dance session started. They played a lot of ballroom music and very little swing, which is exactly what I wanted, except -- the problem is, it's hard to figure out who to ask to dance, or to be asked to dance, if you don't know anyone! But, I danced a few times with one of the guys from the beginner session, who was nice, though mostly a beginner... and I danced with this one guy whose name I have forgotten, but he did all these crazy steps -- we did a foxtrot, a samba, and a cha, and two rumbas -- except he led AMERICAN rumba, and I have only done INTERNATIONAL with the CMU ballroom club! Aiieee. Somehow I followed it anyway :) He was like, "Well, it's your job to just relax and follow..." and I was like "Okay, I gotcha on the following, but I dunno about the relaxing thing!" They had a foxtrot mixer, where I got to dance with several really good people, which was sort of fun -- they led a buncha cool complex steps that I remember Trey leading me through once upon a time. And I got in on a few waltzes by asking people I'd seen at the workshop to dance.
But overall I probably spent about 40-50% of the songs just sitting there alone watching. So, eh. I sat around talking to this older lady who had been collecting money at the door. She was really nice and recommended I go to a Sunday evening dance sometime, and said there were usually more people around, but it was Good Friday and all (oops).
I left around 10:30pm (the workshop thingy was 8-9, and dance is 9-11:30) and drove home, still in my high heels. And I've been goofing off on PP and doing laundry since. I still feel very good about myself for this -- I went to a dance hall entirely alone and I actually danced with people. Even if it was a little awkward -- I did it. I am proud of myself. I hope you are all proud of me too.
(and I guess I will try to drag
bpr or someone to one of these things sometime... and maybe I'll get to do some sort of dancing thing when I'm back in Pittsburgh.)(yes, for those playing the home game who didn't know, I did ballroom dance back at CMU for like 3-4 years, but it's been about 5 years since that time period, aside from occasional swing dancing.)
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That *NEVER* happens...
J/K
I once got into a Ballroom Dance course at University of Delaware which was full because "Oh, you're a man and you want to join the class? GREAT!" I think that brought the ratio down to 10:1 or some such.
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