Here we go again with On2

June 18, 2007

The new location for the On2 session seemed nice and spacious. The sound system was rather crappy - very bass heavy. It also got rather warm. It was recommended that clothes like jeans be avoided (unless you feel safe to do splits wearing jeans?). I was the only one wearing a long-sleeved shirt - I probably should wear something shorter next time. Looking at the mirrors I thought I should get a haircut.

It was good to get more people involved - there were seven tonight. If we had remained the same small group, perhaps we could have moved faster and cover more new material. However, to make the On2 scene viable, even more people will need to be involved. This is so that there will be more opportunity for practice outside the classes. In my opinion (not having consulted with anyone else) having at least six leads and six followers would be nice. Even larger number of people would be good although I suppose having too many people would make it difficult to keep the instructions detailed and with a lot of feedback. It also probably would be better to get everyone started at once (and sooner the better) to avoid repeating same material for new people every time (with caveat that repetition could be beneficial too).

Perhaps over half of the two-hour session was spent on isolation exercise - it's still pretty tough to do and I suspect that it will be tough for a good long time before I won't feel completely useless or inept doing some of the exercises. Most of the rest of the time was spent on basic footwork and basic turns. Relatively short amount of time was spent with basic partner work. Doing isolation exercise with other people is nice because it helps with motivation. Same with footwork even though it was all review for me because it's rare that I would do this type of exercise for more than few minutes on a given day and it won't get done every day. Partner work was all review of things I have seen before although I did get one new detail about how to lead cross body (a subtle preparatory motion on 1).

Next session will be on Monday again from 7-9 PM. There is nothing concrete planned after that - although continuing with the same time slot is a strong possibility. I suspect that most people who might be interested know who to talk to - the best one of course is the person who's giving the instruction.

Rajiv and I were at Club Salsa for the social part - the classes were not done when I arrived even after a bit of driving back and forth I did for Cyrille.

The routine being taught by Joe for the intermediate class seemed a bit different than ones I have seen over past year - perhaps there was a bit of tweaking done to the 20-week syllabus.

There were some nice people to dance with - some unexpected. Probably the best description for my dancing form might be hyperactive - this might have much to do with the music (I have heard this CD before and did not like it very much.

My opinion of the songs I listened to for the second time did not change much - indifferent to slightly negative and possibly a little better second time around for some of the songs. Some of the songs I had not heard before later in the CD (~2 songs in track ~8 to 11 range) were alright.

I was wearing my glasses for a change - it became relavant on couple of occasions. It's not bad, but it's probably easier without it.