Exhibition: done. It went extremely well. Pauline even said she was proud of us. o_O

I had exactly enough energy after my 12-hour day to get through 2 numbers, come home, put on my pajamas and eat a leftover grilled chicken salad that Miss Brown foisted on me. Internet, you heard it here first: exhaustion is actually a pretty good offset to stage fright. You're too tired to be cripplingly nervous, and the adrenaline rush you do get is just enough to keep you dancing and smiling. Good to know.

I totally get it now!

I always read your Women's Chorus day-of-show-logistics posts and think "Wow, that's a lot of planning." But tomorrow I have to go straight from a 12-hour workday to a dance performance. I get it now!

Tonight
+ Do nails
+ Get together all costume pieces:
-- black miniskirt
-- silver tank
-- fishnets
-- trunks
-- red dress
-- kimono to hide costume till it's my turn
-- shoes
+ Assemble makeup: foundation, concealer, bronzer, lipstick, eyeshadow, brushes, powder
+ Gather shower equipment: shampoo, soap, towel, razor, and flip-flops; round brush, gel, and blow-dryer

Tomorrow
+ 7:15 a.m.: Leave home with all of the above in car
+ 8 a.m.: Freshman comp. final
+ 10 a.m.-12 p.m.: Grading, lunch
+ 12 p.m.-4 p.m.: Discipline Committee hearings
+ 4 p.m.-6 p.m.: Find food. Shower, do hair, put on makeup and (possibly) costume in faculty locker room at gym
+ 6 p.m.-8 p.m.: Professional Communication final
+ 8 p.m.-10 p.m.: Dance event with exhibitions starting at 9:00, by which time my ass better be there
+ 10:30 p.m.: Arrive home and fall down dead

Last night, K-Dub, dancer1957 and I carpooled to a town about 25 minutes away where the Rotary Club was putting on its annual fundraising dance. Heavy hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, silent auction, live band, $35/ticket or $250 for a table of 8: doesn't that summary suggest at least "cocktail attire" to you? D. wore a shirt and tie; K-Dub and I sported sparkly dresses; most of the rest of the crowd looked like they'd just come off the golf course. It worked out for the best, though. Pauline had, unbeknownst to us, arranged (or decided on the spot, for all I know) to have us do some exhibition dancing during the band breaks. If I'm going to get up in front of people and represent the glorious excess that is ballroom dancing, I'd rather look, well, excessive.


From left to right, that's Mrs. K (come to think of it, I've never even seen her wear pants--always a skirt), Pauline, me, and K-Dub.

K-Dub picked out my dress; I'd never have considered that color but I got a lot of compliments on it.

BUG OUT COMPLETELY!!!

Last Friday dancer1957 and I ran into Pauline while out for a cup of coffee. She announced that our USA Dance chapter was talking about raising its profile and had, in keeping with that goal, decided to pay entry fees and travel expenses for a few dancers to go to a competition in Metropolis in "a few months." The chosen dancers are SuperJim and J.D., and dancer1957 and me. She has talked about stuff like this before, and I'd have chalked it up to a latte-fueled whim, but then our chapter president discussed it with us at the monthly social last Saturday. So it's really happening!

We'll now pause for a happy-dance. Play, or hum, the ballroom music of your choice.

Okay. Tonight at Pauline's class I got a copy of the competition announcement. The date is June 28. That's 2 months away! Holy crap! I just hope Francesca will be willing to take us on again as students. I danced with another student of hers tonight, and when I jokingly said "I bet Francesca is totally trash-talking us for dropping out of lessons," he just smiled and didn't answer. Then when I pressed him on it, he...didn't answer, some more. He's a gossipmonger, though. No doubt he was just enjoying watching me squirm.

"And since nothing appears to me to give children so much becoming confidence and behaviour, and so to raise them to the conversation of those above their age, as dancing, I think they should be taught to dance as soon as they are capable of learning it. For tho' this consist only in outward gracefulness of motion, yet, I know not how, it gives children manly thoughts and carriage, more than any thing."
--John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1692.

Got our groove on at the Cherry Blossom Ball last night. The venue was gorgeous, the food was tasty, the drinks were free, and everyone looked fabulous. K-Dub and I agreed that next year they need to do red carpet arrivals complete with paparrazi so that after the event we could all go online and play Fashion Police as after the Oscars, etc. My only beef was with the 2 bands that played. With serious dancers (I R SRS DANCR. THIS R SRS EVENT.) making up a good 1/4 of the crowd I was hoping that the organizers would have provided for a variety of ballroom music, but the first band played swing and foxtrot almost exclusively (they did manage one rumba after one of us went up and requested it) and the second band played swing and hustle almost exclusively. Still, I had a very good time. The Lieutenant and I invented a new way for ladies to gauge the fun factor of a ballroom event: how many times did you see the ceiling? (Me: 5) I also danced with someone new, "Jim Belushi," who is rather a blowhard but whose dancing ability at least matches his braggadocio. We danced a hustle that went on...and on...and on, inciting him to try progressively more complex combinations while I just prayed I wouldn't pass out. I know the basic hustle step, and hustle is a dance that responds well to the "just keep doing the basic" survival technique, but when you're being flung and twisted around the floor by a flirty character who is also a perfect stranger, panic starts to creep in. As I told K-Dub, though, I'm just competitive enough that a part of me was thinking the whole time, "Bitch, I can dance anything you throw at me." Which was...mostly true.

( Behind the cut: Picspam )

Pauline is re-starting her First Friday dances at the Sports Hall of Fame in May and is planning to include an exhibition. She wants dancer1957 and me to dance and I want to take the opportunity to do a rumba to Timbaland/One Republic's "Apologize." Will I be borrowing some steps from Helio & Julianne? Probably.

The Lieutenant (K-Dub's partner) taught a 2-hour workshop today on West Coast Swing, his specialty. 'Twas awesome, but as always we were short of men, so Pauline pressed me into learning the man's part. I couldn't have done it if we'd been working on a dance I already knew, but I have barely been exposed to WCS, so being a guy was not too difficult. One of the women I partnered said I was a better partner than the actual men she usually dances with!

After about an hour of workshopping, Pauline called for a break. When we got back to work, several of the men didn't return on time and Pauline asked about them. "They went to the restroom," someone volunteered. I added "They were too intimidated by me." And Kelly threw in, "Yes, they couldn't handle her towering masculinity." Hee.

Now back from tonight's social dance, at which I hardly danced, on accounta (1) too tired from this afternoon (despite hour-long nap: WTF?) and (2) sinus headache moving in from Lord knows where. Have taken some Sudafed and Tylenol and will now make with the sleeping.

*My towering masculinity: let me show you it?

If you are dancing with a man who is doing all the right steps but ignoring the rhythm of the music, do you try to alter your tempo/rhythm to match his? A lot of the men in my class can do the step patterns, but with no attention to rhythm or tempo--I think they get worried about remembering the steps and start to rush. In that case one is almost bound to speed up or start missing leads.

Some men would take a correction on this point graciously and with good humor; some would insist that they are doing the best they can; the most audacious would try to spin their tin-eared approach as a point of style: "That's just the way I do it."

On the up side, I discovered that it is possible to adjust to dancing with a man who is 7' tall (with my dance shoes on I am 5'11"). It's all a matter of figuring out how to follow a lead that's being communicated at a level up around your ears.

N.B.: Seven-Feet-Tall Man and Rhythmless Man are not the same guy. I'd have been doomed.

Discount Dance Supply's wish list feature includes the total cost of all the stuff on your wish list. I could have my whole list for $220.15.

Not that I have $220.15 to spare, but somehow, seeing the total there and looking at all the stuff (3 pairs of tights, 2 pairs of shoes, and some miscellaneous separates) makes me think "Oh, that's not so bad."

Must put the online shopping down and slowly...walk...away.

I took these with my digital camera so the quality is not spectacular, but you'll get the idea. They are good enough to remind me of the steps so I can practice, anyway, and I enjoyed the Pasha Ass Close-Up at the end of the samba routine.

Samba...Cha-Cha.

Pasha's Latin workshop was fantastic. I feel like I learned a lot, and I am so impressed by how genuine and enthusiastic he is. He was a better teacher than I expected. A good dancer isn't necessarily a good teacher, but he knows how to give constructive, specific criticism without letting a class get bogged down. he also has a knack for explaining the same thing in multiple ways, so if you don't understand one explanation, another one will come. He even told us when it's okay to cheat--I'd never done a "bachacata" (a samba step) before and had no chance of doing a technically correct one, but he showed us how to fake it by just stepping fast and wiggling our butts!

He divided the 2-hour session in half. We worked on cha-cha for the first hour and samba for the second hour. Thank goodness Pauline has recently started teaching us samba, or I'd have been utterly lost. For each dance, he taught us a short solo routine. As we learned the routine, he would stop and give corrections and drill us on certain elements; then we would do the full routine and get more corrections. It was such a smart approach: no one had to share partners (as always, more women were present than men) and we all had to focus on cleaning up our own dancing. He worked us really hard on pushing into the floor, engaging our muscles to make our movements more sharp and delineate changes in tempo/energy, and making crisp changes of direction. That doesn't sound like 2 hours' worth of work, but it was. I am exhausted, not just from the physical work (which was manageable, if sweaty) but from the mental work of learning the choreography and remembering the corrections and things he wanted us to emphasize.

I used my camera to take video of Pasha dancing the two routines he taught us, so I'll post links to the videos once I get them uploaded. Right now I'm just waiting for some laundry to finish so I can crash.

dancer1957, whom I've started calling "the Pied Piper," talked to Pasha about coming to the U.L. to do a workshop and he was very enthusiastic about the idea. About 1/3 of the attendees were people from our dance scene in the U.L.--I pointed out to him who we were and explained where we'd come from. We think we could collaborate with Neighboring Town's USA Dance chapter to host him for a workshop; I'm sure we could get 20+ people to come and hopefully he'd be available for private lessons on the same day. dancer1957 got his phone number (!!!!!). He's supposed to be back in Metropolis within the next couple of months and said he could possibly come to the U.L. for one day on that trip. Squee!

from a user on Dance Forums:
hypodancemania (HODM): if you do not dance more you will go nuts.
hyperdancemania (HEDM): dancing till you are nuts.
mesodancemania (MODM): lightweight - take up knitting.

And my own current condition: LHFOS, Left Hip Flexor On Strike. It's been sore all week; feels better when I stretch it but then when I get up in the morning it's stiff and sore all over again. This happens sometimes when I sit at a desk too much, especially if I sit with my legs crossed. I've been doing a lot of desk work recently and, I suspect, sleeping on that side at night as well.

At least it doesn't hurt when I dance. dancer1957 and I and two fellow dancers are going to Metropolis on Sunday for a two-hour Latin workshop with Pasha Kovalev from So You Think You Can Dance.
*poingpoingpoing*

Just watched 2 episodes, and part of a third, of MTV's series Made. The 3 eps that I caught all happened to have a common theme: overweight, overachieving teen discovers what it's like to bust ass for a goal that doesn't come as easily as they're used to. None of them, of course, becomes brilliant at his/her chosen pursuit (ballet, ballroom, figure skating), but they all seem to learn that getting out of one's comfort zone has positive results. And to that, I say HECK YES.

I heard a bit of interesting news yesterday, that SuperJim is interviewing for a job in Metropolis. Presumably he would move up there and no longer coach dancer1957 and me. If that happens, I'll miss him, but in the long run we might be better off working exclusively with Francesca. She has competition experience, which SuperJim doesn't, and she dances American style like we do (SJ dances International style).

Thursday evening at Pauline's class I got a copy of the video from our most recent exhibition performance, on New Year's Eve. Here be linkage if you want to check it out. We are the third couple to perform; our part starts at 5:33.

Time to stop faffing around and take a shower.

"Dance companions" for hire--a new "service" from DancePartner.com. I already mistrust pro/am partnerships because of the potential for weirdness on either side, but a pro/am couple at least has a clear demarcation of authority between student and teacher. Hiring a partner seems like a minefield. Of course, I can comfortably make such pronouncements because I have an amateur partner.

Must admit, too, that .001% of my brain is thinking, "I am slim and attractive enough, and a good dancer; maybe I should put myself out for hire." But around here, anyone who'd hire me would likely be someone I already know and have danced with for free. Also, even the prospect of financial gain can't get me past the sketchiness factor.

I wonder if most of the partners-for-hire are men (who are more in demand in the female-heavy ballroom world) or women (who are the majority of the ballroom population).

dancer1957: *leads a step*
Me: *fails completely*
dancer1957: Do you remember that one?
Me: Apparently not!

Went to a social dance at an "Arts Center" (repurposed ex-elementary-school cafeteria, charmingly retro but underheated) last night and danced pretty well. I'm more than ready to get back into lessons. Unfortunately, due to fiscal constraints (read: flat broke) we probably won't do any more private lessons till February. Pauline's class starts again this coming Thursday, so we'll be going to that. I'm debating also going to her Tuesday night beginners' class just for extra practice. I think I'll ask her on Thursday night.

I'm determined to do a competition this year and so is dancer1957. The competition calendar shows a couple of possibilities within reasonable driving distance. Must consult Francesca and SuperJim ASAP.

Last Saturday: the first time I stepped on the ice since my last lesson in June 2006!


Our local "Coliseum" has random public skating on the weekends from mid-November through mid-January. Judging by the crowds on Saturday, I'm very surprised we can't support a year-round rink, but I suppose they make more money using the building for other purposes.

Skating felt WEIRD. Familiar and strange at the same time. My body remembered everything, but my brain is no longer accustomed to the public-skate zoo, so I was very nervous. I have to go back again just to make it up to dancer1957 for being too weirded out to skate around with him in Killian hold. What is it with Canadians, anyway? Are they born with hockey skates on? (OW!!!)

(I suggest that you don't watch this space.)

Yesterday: Lesson with Francesca. Stupid-turny-step became nifty-spot-turn-step. Arm styling was applied recklessly and liberally, but with success. After 3-4 repetitions of the routine with Francesca urging us "FORWARD! BIG! GO!" we finally made it FORWARDBIGGO enough to look awesome.
Today: Fishnets arrived in the mail, along with a pair of jazz pants that were too cheap to pass up accidentally fell into my cart while I was ordering.
Tomorrow: Dress rehearsal
Wednesday: Makeup practice at Francesca's
Thursday: Really Big Shew
Friday: Cut these %$@#* fingernails!



P.S. I do not have enough ballroom-dancing icons. Can anyone advise?

We did our exhibition routine twice tonight in front of Pauline, Francesca, and the other dancers from our group. I think Francesca was surprised at the extent to which I can "turn it on" for an audience. Frankly, I was too. I haven't danced in front of people since about 1994 and I thought I might have lost the knack for, or the taste for, showing off on cue. Lucky for me, it hasn't gone away.

The group also had a vociferous debate about the performance lineup. Overpriced Studio Across Town is doing 8 dances. We are doing 7. Initially we planned to pack all 15 numbers into the first 30-minute band break--probably a mathematical impossibility and boring to boot. After much shouting and waving (mostly from Pauline) and muttering and smirking (mostly from dancer1957), we agreed that Overpriced would dance in the first break and we would dance in the second. Our cha-cha will be roughly in the middle, 5th of the 7.

Jorge, the Hispanic Huguenot, has agreed to videotape our performance. Francesca has agreed to do the women's makeup on the day. We have a lesson with her Sunday at which we will work on styling. Pauline is talking about having an extra rehearsal next Tuesday following the (fake) dress rehearsal. dancer1957 is burning our song onto a CD to give to Pauline, who will transfer it onto another CD along with everyone else's music. I've ordered fishnets and found out what color nail polish to wear with a red dress (white, because Francesca plans to dip me in bronzer). So far, I haven't broken any nails and have been applying Nailtiques like it's going out of style.

Let's put on a show, people!