It wouldn't do to become too comfortable...

September 7, 2006

Advanced with Sally assisted by Lindsey

1,2,3,5,6,7 L-R hold open break and bring follower in on leader’s R side and place follower’s R arm under leader’s R arm (letting go L-R) – lead follower around the leader in a counterclockwise walk (slight lead with R arm and it’s probably best if leader could step to R on 5 and back on 6 to minimize amount of traveling follower has to do – leader’s L arm is raised straight up for clearance) – follower gets back to original position re-establishing L-R hold [note: For me this was somewhat new and in some ways was my favorite part because it gave instant gratification.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower in on R side again and do Apache (place follower’s L hand behind her R waist and make R-R connection) – end with traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn for follower with leader turning 1/2 clockwise to face follower (as opposed to stationary full clockwise turn – although I suppose stationary turn could be made to work here)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower in on R side again (R-R goes past leader) and lead follower to 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with leader turning full counterclockwise after (or near the end of) follower’s turn with R-R ending above leader’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns full counterclockwise on 1,2,3 – then lead follower to turn full staiontary clockwise on 5,6,7 with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise on the spot to face follower [Note: So in the last 1 1/2 bar, leader turns 2 1/2 overall in three parts with two moves to lead the follower. I found it challenging; I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Sally said I needed to work on keeping better balance here. It’ll need a lot of work.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect L-L underneath R-R – open break and bring follower on R side and lead follower to another traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn ending in reverse crucifix or Titanic [hint: It may help to start the lead with both hand down at the start of follower’s turn and stay very close to your partner. In any case, I wasn’t comfortable with this position; in fact I found the position painful. Not surprisingly Sally found my posture terrible.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 not sure – just get out of that painful position – open break seems inadvisable – bring R-R over leader’s head and have follower be on leader’s L side – lead follower to traveling clockwise turn ending with hats for both (R-R over follower’s head and L-L over leader’s head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 disconnect R-R and reconnect underneath as leader gets into CBL position (L-L could be taken out of hat maybe) and lead follower to traveling double counterclockwise turn into crucifix (or is it Titanic? Lindsey suggested that it’s best to bring both hands down low for the follower – possibly for comfort but also to signal end of turn)

Most of the second hour was spent at the Sauce next door with Rajiv and Cyrille for a change of pace (for me anyway). Euvian joined us after returning from a dinner party.

Vishal asked me to start DJing on Fridays again – starting next week. It could be interesting … and fun – at least until I manage to alienate too many people who can’t dance Salsa but are the best alcohol consumers. I probably would want to pander to the crowd more than I have done on some recent Mondays. Also next Friday apparently is Lindsey’s birthday (which led to a guessing game with a twist).

Quote of the day – “Are you doing lessons without me?”

Mmm. Are we getting possessive?

I think Sergio was doing more than usual to get people (including me) to work on stepping to on-2 timing.

Another quote – “I find that with more than one beer, I can’t spin quite as well.”

I don’t have one unless I think I won’t be dancing very much – although I did have one at the LDA social. Of course the drive afterwards is sometimes the bigger issue.

It’s interesting to note that there is no universal consensus on people’s favorite leader or follower – at least I cannot tell by thinking about and doing a quick mental calculation of who dances with whom and how often. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Apparently the Penguin is nearly ready. The Mime is not yet well developed enough. No pressure, dude. Personally I can’t imagine spending time in front of mirror working on making and perfecting shines. But, that’s what many good ones do. I don’t see it for me, but maybe it’ll change.

Cyrille and Mimi had a laugh over checking out this blog some weeks ago. I have talked about this blog in their presence, but didn’t know that they ever read it. It’s such an odd open secret – you have people who read it regularly and talk to me about it, people who read it regularly but rarely talk to me about it, people who read it regularly thinking I don’t know about it, people who read it regularly without me knowing much about them, people who I think read it regularly but could be mistaken about, people who talk to me all the time but read it only rarely, etc.

I didn't dance very much - maybe a dozen, but it was fabulous. Maybe I could use being sore from full-court basketball on Tuesday (first in over 3 months) as an excuse.

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This part added later.

I think a better candidate for the quote of the day might have been - "Mmm... Yeah... He likes women."

Whoa! Let's not get carried away here...