Kicking and screaming at SOS

February 12, 2006

shine of the day
basic
1,2,3 Suzy Q
5,6,7 start of Suzy Q then R foot slides to R then slides back to Suzy Q start position (Suzy Q-like mechanics were used in this case rather than simple slides)
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot (again like Suzy Q)
2 R foot slightly back (or just weight on it)
3 L foot into normal standing position (together)
4 R foot forward keeping weight on L foot
5 R foot back to normal standing position
6 L foot forward
7 R foot together
8 both feet slide back slightly
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
5 R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot cross over in front of R foot
7 R foot cross over in front of L foot
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly back
3 L foot into normal standing position (together) - body but not feet turned 1/4 counterclockwise maybe
4 R foot cross over in front of L foot and possibly pointing L (if body wasn't turned on 3, it should be on 4)
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot and turn around 1/2 clockwise
6 R foot into normal standing position (still facing R)
7 L foot cross over in front of R foot
1 R foot to side (somewhat apart from L foot but similar to normal standing position)
2 L foot slightly back
3 R foot cross over in front of L foot
4 L foot now turned 1/4 counterclockwise toward the follower
5,6,7 not sure - basic or in place with R foot, L foot, R foot

After having gone through a number of shines classes at the Congress and that murder of a shine by Tony Lara, this was a piece of cake. Thanks again Tony for raising the bar. Next time I'm at SOS, I'll probably request that I be allowed to partake in Level IV shines while probably staying with Level III partner work.

Partner work - Level III - taught by don't-know-his-name and Miriam.

Leon was with Level IV, the tall guy with Level II, and Mauro with Level I today. I don't remember seeing Lee tonight.

1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with R-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a double turn ending with fingers (both mine and follower's) pointing upwards
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and traveling 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower with R-R ending behind follower's L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 offer L hand in front - cross body lead into full traveling (use R-R to help lead follower forward on 5) counterclockwise turn - keep R-R behind follower's waist and L-L is in half-Titanic - leader should be positioned to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 go around follower in front of her (L-L is placed behind follower's waist - into straightjacket position) - release R-R and let follower unwrap with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise with L-L pointing upwards after follower is mostly done with her turn on 7/8
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader completes his counterclockwise turn to get back to cross body position with connection switch to R-L - offer L hand in front of follower and - lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot turn (full clockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 and lead follower into a double stationary turn with L-R

This wasn't too difficult either as I was familiar with technique involved with much of the routine - I was able to complete the routine couple of times afterwards. However, I still need to work on it - especially leading the 2 1/2 turn part.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go until 5:10 PM. As it stood, I still had some things left unfinished so I told myself I would come back afterwards to finish my work. Thus I went alone for the first time since that magical evening of October 2nd, 2005. It's nice to have company most of the time, but having no obligations or responsibilities and total freedom to do things as I wanted was also quite nice. I only saw one (or two?) other from Cambridge - a bit of a surprise.

SOS tonight was on the whole very nice, although couple of things kept it from being perfect. The volume of the music was turned down a little - this wasn't too bad but I did hear complaints from others. During my fifth or sixth dance (as things were going brilliantly to that point), I received a hard kick on my inside left ankle near the end of the song. It was bad enough that I REFUSED to dance with two women immediately afterwards - telling them I need to take at least one song worth of break. I did make things up by dancing with both women in rapid succession after a short break. But then, I had to ask for another rain-check from a third woman; I never got around to her until near the end and by then she was no longer in the mood (because of low volume of music mostly) and SOS decided to end about 10 minutes early. One of the women was a stranger but the other two were among my favorites. My ankle was feeling hurt the rest of night so I wasn't exactly dancing with 100% energy level, and I was dancing quite tentatively immediately after the accident. Perhaps the worst incident was that one my dance partner later was kicked even harder by another couple (I'm 99.9% sure it was not our fault as I was more or less back to normal and we were dancing with good control and it happened while we were doing a simple cross body lead - the other couple just rammed into her seemingly from nowhere). She dropped to the floor in severe pain and decided to call it a night thereafter. I can't think of too many worse things that could happen on the dance floor. By the way, I think I ended up dancing with the woman who probably kicked me (I think she was blithely unaware); my estimation based upon this dance was that she was a bit on the erratic side on her control by the SOS standard.

I had couple of long-ish conversations - both touching on my work a little. An amusing excerpt from one of the conversation went something like this -

X - "Are you going to Bar Salsa tomorrow?"
me - "That would be asking a lot. Remember that I'm living in Cambridge?"
X - "Oh yeah! I forgot about that. What was it that you do again?"
[part of the conversation omitted]
X - "So have you ever been to Bar Salsa?"
me - "No. I tried going once on a Thursday in December but never made it because of some problems with interruptions in the train schedule. I hear it's very crowded on Mondays at Bar Salsa?"
X - "Yeah that's true, but it gets great after midnight."
me - "Midnight? Oh no…"
X - "Well, you could take a day off. It really is good."
me - "Ha ha. So do you like it more than SOS?"
X - "This is nice too but like the music here tonight was not good. The volume was so low; I didn't feel very energetic because of it. I guess you could say that Bar Salsa on Mondays is my favorite. [Super] Mario plays really good music."

Mondays at Bar Salsa gets really good reviews so I'll have to check it out one of these days. I had been wanting to do this for some time now anyway. The question is when I would be able to find the time and energy.

After the drive back to work (to finish what I started earlier in the day) as I was walking out of my car, I found that my ankle had stiffened. Owww. This sucks. SOS has made me a gimp (hopefully not for too long).