Seeing the light and following it

June 8, 2006

Advanced with Sally

1,2,3,5,6,7 closed hold to mambo jazz to allow follower for styling (for me the interesting bit here it leading mambo jazz primarily with R hand on follower’s back)
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL ending with R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower for a stationary clockwise double turn ending with arm-lock (after the first turn transition to hand of god position keeping follower’s hand position on the sweet spot)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa fake into 2 1/2 traveling over and under counterclockwise turn with leader positioned in front of follower possibly slight to her R (R-R is behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower around 1/2 clockwise starting on 2 and switch to L-R with L-R going across leader’s body (in reverse CBL position) decelerating and lead follower into traveling full counterclockwise turn over and under with L-R ending behind follower’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (neutral lead) and leader turns at least 1/4 clockwise and connect R-L and lead follower into double counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 after an optional back, open break and into tight closed hold and turn follower around 1/2 clockwise on spot on 4 and lead follower forward on 5 and move as a unit counterclockwise during 6,7 back into normal closed hold

It was not long ago when I said nice evening of dancing is likely to become rarer. I suppose I might have spoke too soon because tonight was pretty darn good.

For now, I’m going to assume that circumstance tonight was very unusual. In some cases, I felt that simply getting on the dance floor was cause for a minor celebration.

My emphasis today was on practicing certain general leading technique using hand on follower’s back (closed hold) rather than on specific moves – although there was a bit of the latter too. Part of this was perhaps more of a correction rather than introduction of new material. It worked out rather nicely as first pass practice.

Part of the warm-up and other moments were spent trying to do some basic footwork on-2 with the point Sergio made the other day about the pauses on 4 and on 8.

Sally mentioned Jay would teach that next Thurday's lesson. I don’t think it was privileged information. It should be interesting; I look forward to it.

Quote I liked – “I’m looking for a muse.”

Huh? What? Who? It’s nice to have one sometimes. It’s certainly better to gain one rather than lose one.

One of the more amusing things today was leading a double turn for a minor. It was but a small part of the spectacle. I would think that many things including dancing would be easier to learn when young.

Some people are done with exams. Congratulations! My understanding is that pretty much everyone will be done with them by next week. Of course, a lot of people probably would be going away for the summer (or longer).