Bolero Take 2

So we were back at the Bolero last night.  OwnerGuy was again working with someone else so it does seem like we are just down to having him one lesson a week.  Anyway, maybe it was better that he wasn’t on the lesson with us because it went very well.  I mean we didn’t focus a lot on technique and shaping so it was really just getting the choreography down a little better.

I mean I did try some of the things he wanted me to do like the slip pivot at the beginning and trying to get all my weight over the correct foot at the correct time.  There is one good thing about this Bolero in that it doesn’t end up in a corner.  For some reason, the one I used to do with Kid T always ended up in a corner no matter where we started.

There are still some parts in the choreography that leave me baffled.  I’m still not sure how to really make the part where we rock and then I get back on my left foot which brings her in to me.  And the contra check where he wants the third step to just be me rotating and changing directions.

But there’s some stuff that’s coming together pretty well.  The part after the little hand check where I bring her into a sweetheart where I roll her out and we end up in a double hand hold and do a little swivel is more comfortable.  The part at the beginning with me leading her to swivel is also feeling good.

So it is kind of a mixed bag but good enough that I figure we can do a couple of Boleros at Showcase just to see what kind of feedback we get.

The last half of the lesson was Viennese Waltz so we could practice because I’m supposed to do a student demo at the open house next week.  We did pick a song by Brian Adams which has a nice strong beat and a decent tempo.  The driving thing the coach talked about was really working because we covered most of the long wall before we got to the shadow spirals which is a good thing.   And the shadow spirals took all the short wall so we did the explosion to run around in the opposite corner from where we started.

We figured out where we’d end it.  There’s a spot right before the loop where I do a waist roll to change places.  It seems like the logical place because we are side by side and it gives you the opportunity to just end it and take a little bow.  The problem was that if we started in our normal corner, we’d end up with our backs to the audience so we started in the opposite corner and then we ended up facing the audience.

Group class was hustle and JoNY wanted to know why I didn’t do hustle.  No reason.  Just had too many other dances I liked better and you can’t really work on 20 dances.  Well you could but it would take more time and money than I’ve got.  Told her we could think about adding other dances once we get through Showcase.

Ended up staying for most of the party.  We had a shortage of men for some reason.  I did dance a Rumba and a Swing with JoNY just to take our little routines out on the floor with other people around.  I swear we looped the Swing about 4 or 5 times – they must have been playing an extended cut.  I did like they way both of them moved.  The best dance of the night was a Fox Trot that I did with Tex’s wife.  He was out of town working and she came to the party and there is only so much of OwnerGuy to go around.  I say it was the best because it really just moved so easily.  The floor was jammed with people at various levels doing various things so I had to take things at different angles at times but there was none of the start/stop jerkiness that you can get when you do that.  I mean you know I’m about how a dance feels and when it it almost effortless, that’s the best.

So that was yesterday.  All in all, it was a good day to dance.