Newspaper as fashion statement

July 27, 2006

Intermediate with Chris assisted by Jane

1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into single clockwise turn into hammerlock (R-L end behind follower’s R waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (L-R in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns 1/2 clockwise with R-L ending in front of follower (first to prevent follower from going forward while leading her into stationary clockwise turn (L-R ends behind leader’s R waist while R-L wraps around follower’s neck and with R-L connection by follower’s R side of neck)
1,2,3,5,6,7 pseudo-Mambo jazz (back step for follower on 1 and forward step for leader on 1) – let go L-R and lead follower into traveling 2 1/2 clockwise turn over and under (starting on 4 – follower’s L hand end behind her R waist) with leader turning full clockwise and reconnect R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (get L-R connection made in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist) again
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into stationary double turn with all connections coming together in the second turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 [mmm… I may need to reconstruct this with a partner to be sure about this part and beyond] leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise with both connections behind leader’s neck – then leader does a further 3/4 counterclockwise walk with L-R doing something like a touch-and-go but around his waist/chest – end with something like reverse CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 [not exactly my fav here] lead follower forward and connections going over her like lasso and bring her back under R-L from the right side
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader walks 3/4 clockwise to get into CBL position and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with big windmill motion (hands together) to allow leader to turn clockwise simultaneously [I also tried a variation in which leader’s turn comes on 7 near the end of follower’s turn and with R-L hat for leader and getting back immediately into closed hold position.]

Sally tried to lead the warm-up at the start of the class and finished looking completely out of breath by the end. She’s obviously not quite recovered yet. After the class, we talked about the LDA, which led me to show her some material from the 3.3 class. I asked one of the students from the class named Emily (mmm…that’s yet another name that keeps popping up lately – she wasn’t the only Emily in class today of course). This demonstration led to Sally making an assessment and going about correcting the amount of tension (and correct frame) Emily should have as a follower. For amusement, I asked Sally if I had appropriate level of tension as a prospective follower. After a quick test, Sally said, “You have potential,” which amused me to no end. It ended with me leading today’s material for Emily (with her focusing more on keeping appropriate level of tension and probably not self-leading) just before she departed – Emily claimed that the routine worked better than it did in class with these adjustments.

Another fun activity (perhaps brought upon by Sally’s comment earlier) during the second class involved having Anastasia lead first part of today’s routine (as well as few other basic material) for me. In retrospect, this might have had some beneficial effect on my spinning today.

Dancing only went to 11:30 PM, but I managed to get over dozen dances. I was spinning exceptionally well – I might be able to joke that I had a better spinning day than Jane; I’m sure this was a big aberration. Probably because of this, I probably danced with more energy (not quite Wayan level though) even when it did not necessarily fit well with the music. I wondered at the end if some of my movements were too big or exaggerated – for better or worse I don’t have good way of judging since I can’t watch myself. Regardless of these caveats, I had quite a bit of fun both when I was being extra energetic and also when I was keeping things more gentle and smooth.

In something of an anomaly, Sally played what I considered two Cuban songs – one was Temba Tumba Timba. In both occasions, I ended up choosing not to dance. It was an interesting day for song and dance – often I felt that I wanted with certain type of person (or one specific person) in the room for a given song; this happened regardless whether I liked the song or not. Vishal took over at the end to play two Merengue songs in a row before I decided to take off – preceded by a sudden and slightly surprising exodus of most Salsa dancers.

I started reading a 7-page manuscript with 72 pages of supplementary information. I think it is a very important paper – I’m not the only one as it has been making some big headlines in newspapers like the New York Times.