Week 12 or Week 1 - Level 1 - Second Term. Dancers log - 5.30pm Tuesday the 9th April 2002. Returned to Rio after about three days without dancing. Now that I am level 1 student I can shorten the name to Rio - it's a cool thing. Paula greeted me with her usual friendly smile. I presented her my card, proud of the fact I had not lost it again during the Easter break. Paula waved her hand and told me she did not need to see my card. I thought it was because of my high profile at Rio, but alas no, I was in the wrong place and had to present it to Carolyn in Studio two over the road. Just when I thought I had it all sussed they go and change the venue on me.
Second term is a bit like being back at school. You know the routine, you can find your way around, but all of the old classmates are gone. I bumped into Monique, a friend a Nerida, who throws the very best parties. I last remember dancing with her at a dance party and I suspect she has been practicing, as she was fantastic. This term I aim to go to more dance parties as that will give me more opportunity to improve my technique and learn some new moves (the advertisement for practice partners has not thus far been unsuccessful).
Carolyn takes us through the usual warm up. We start with a few stretches and a bit of Latin fitness to warm up. We get to do the Latin fitness step and Carolyn threw in a turn at the end. Carolyn doesn't whistle when we do the turns like Monica, she is no where near as stocky as Ian - quiet the opposite in fact, she doesn't have an interesting accent like Guedo, but she does have one thing in common with the others - she is a great teacher. We are introduced to some new Bossa Nova steps - travelling forwards as well as the usual side to side. The trick in Bossa Nova is to drag the foot. So stepping forwards involve step with the leading foot, slide the other foot beside it, step again then step on the other foot and repeat. Kind of step slide step and step slide step. This was easy until we had to go backwards. When I dance Bossa Nova I am going to do a heaps of half turns and make sure my partner is the one going backwards.
The first dance of the new term with a partner and I am very apprehensive. I only know a few people in the class and it will takes a while to relax. We do a bit of Merengue and Carolyn teaches us the two-hand turn. It's a bit like the one hand turn. Now it has been a while since I did this in class so if any dancers reading this want to correct me please
e-mail me. Take your partners with the left hand, turn the partner anti-clockwise under her right, on completion of the turn change hands so you are holding the right hand, turn yourself anti-clockwise under your arm, on completion of your turn, turn your partner anti-clockwise again. Finish the turn by sticking a gun in your partners back. You don't actually stick a gun in your partners back, but you should wrap the arm around the back to indicate the turns are complete. The "gun" was a funny mental picture that Carolyn painted but it helped me remember how to complete the move properly.We got to dance a lot more than in beginners and it was really fun putting the new turns together. I began to feel more like a level 1 dancer after only one week. I can hardly wait until Saturday to try out the new moves at the dance party.
Steve - Sorry he couldn't have been at the Rueda performance by the legendary "Brisbane Black Shirts" at the Sunshine Coast.