Rake's progress

February 21, 2008

I said to Ivan, “Progress is hard.” What I said must have seemed evident to thousands of people. Take ten girls to a beginner class. Chances are none will reach level where they would feel comfortable following routines taught in intermediate class. I used to think that fewer guys make it beyond beginner level as social dancer. I think I might have been wrong. I think the proportion of those who reach competency may be quite similar – it’s just that many more girls are likely to start taking dance lessons. In any case, it’s a slow grind for anyone to improve, and this line of thinking has been somewhat depressing for past couple of weeks.

Dancing was very up and down in the beginning. Some were okay. Some were lousy. One problem I managed to diagnose finally was that I no longer can afford to not concentrate whether I’m dancing On1. I think those On2 dances are taking a toll. I think I have to take it as a fact of life since I don’t think I’ll stop dancing On2. I have no idea how long it will take before I’ll stop feeling confused - maybe never. Some of the dances were so messed up that it was hilarious. I think it means more difficult songs become even more difficult than before.

Already this slump seemed to have lasted longer than any previous ones. I don’t know if others noticed it (without having heard about it from me). If I felt that they did – that they smelled weakness, I cringed. If they did not notice that I was off form when I was off form (by the way, my feeling was that I was competent about half of the time and was quite lousy for the other half), then I would have found that saddening as well.

Steph called it the most depressing dance. Believe it or not, it cheered me up. I rather enjoyed it in fact – even the fastest transition ever. I thought it might have been a turning point; everything afterwards felt quite a bit better. I guess I’ll know for sure on Saturday since it’s unlikely that Friday will be enough of a test.

The pace of music tonight was much faster than usual. Maybe Chris and Emma were to blame – except I don’t know if they both like it fast all the time. One thing I cannot complain about was over-familiarity with the songs – no more than about a third.