Where's the upper limit?

February 11, 2007

Remember “Goodbye tension, hello musicality?” I think the goodbye was quite premature. Perhaps I could not have learned more about tension at intellectual level or as could be described by words or by eyes. Nevertheless I continued making improvements in practice and have been able to feel my way into having better connection with different partners. I think in the end you have to practice – quantity matters at least as much as quality if not more. One has to learn to control all parts of one’s body and also learn to feel reaction of his or her dance partner.

One reason why the subject of tension came to my mind is that my left back muscle – the one Ivan stated as being important in having proper tension – felt quite sore. I don’t ever recall straining that muscle before. Possibly I strained it while doing Ceilidh dancing at Burns Supper event I attended last night. [added Feb 12 - I think I strained it while doing something called basket move - it involved having four people arm-in-arm with heads butting against other heads and walking in circles and having two girls lifted off their feet... another person who was involved in it complained of being sore also] In any case, I told myself to go easy on myself at SOS tonight.

Sore muscle aside, dancing was really good. Only one bad dance tonight, and it was with someone who seemed to have no clue about timing – she tried to spin unnecessarily fast and then would come out of the spin one beat too fast. Mimi was there for the first time and brought her friend Christina with her for a London weekend. Supposedly I danced with Christina in Cambridge in one of her previous visit although I could not remember it – surprising because I would have thought I would have remembered dancing with someone at her level in Cambridge.

Liam was there too, and he seemed to have well over his usual 1-4 dances for the evening. I guess Brit Fest inspired him. He seemed much more friendly and sociable in general too. He still owe me money for petrol - talking about this during one my dances drew a laughter from my partner. Liam’s partner for the only Cha Cha of the evening by the way was really nice to dance with – by far my favorite for-the-first-time dance of the evening.

It was unusually hot and humid for the season. Somehow I managed to go through three or four spurts where I danced two, three or four songs in a row. Maybe I was binging in anticipation of fewer dancing opportunities over next 10 days or so (because of an upcoming 3-day trip back to the States) - it would affect next week's SOS and the Monday following it for sure. As for Sally's LeL Valentine's party and the Club Salsa Friday alternative - I'll have to play it by ear.

Four different women asked me a dance within a half hour period. Then again, three women turned me down tonight (one of the three asked me later – I initially declined because it was Cha Cha before asking again and dancing with her near the end of the evening). I’m not even sure why I bother writing this sort of thing anymore because it’s all very unremarkable – nothing to celebrate about or agonize over.