Lay off the thumb!

OwnerGuy and Z took an extra day of vacation so they were missing in action from the studio yesterday. I think a whole bunch of people decided to take the day off because when I got there, JoNY was on a lesson with Tex and the other instructors were all huddled in the back doing unspecified instructor stuff. The studio was quiet and that felt a little weird.

A bunch of people showed up for the Bronze group class but not enough to draw the curtain so we just stayed out of their way to practice our West Coast Swing. Its a trial and error thing. Do a couple of runs, look for the parts that are awkward or where we lose the music and see if we can tweak them.

This is the grind part of dance. I’ve shown people videos of previous Showcase routines but they don’t really understand how much work goes into that little minute and a half performance. Maybe I should make a quick estimate of how many times we actually run the thing through before getting to a Showcase. On the one hand, it seems like a steep price to pay. But when something clicks and goes right at a Showcase, it is all worth it.

Had a bit of an issue in group class. There were only two of us for the Silver class so JoNY was giving us a Waltz variation. I have no idea who designed this step but the first part of it is a spiral turn where we end up in a sweetheart hold. So I’m turning her as I do the spiral turn. That part looks cool and (if done right) graceful. And I’m pretty sure whoever dreamed up this step started with that part thinking of how awesome it looked.

Then they got there and said “now how the heck do we get out”. She’s on my left side all wrapped up and I’m supposed to release my left hand and do kind of a passing twinkle where I’m progressing down the floor and she’s coming across me so we end up in promenade. Which means the release has to be smooth and the steps have to be such that you get momentum to get her into promenade but not so big that you run her down as she’s switching sides. It feels forced and awkward which is why I kind of think somebody just made something up to get out of that position.

Well my partner for the group class has a nasty habit of latching on to my thumb. I don’t know how or where she developed this habit but it is can be a bit of a problem when I’m supposed to release her and she’s still attached. That happened during this step and because of the way we were moving, she ended up bending my thumb at a not so nice angle and the arthritis just added to the pain.

My occupational therapist used an analogy about this. Think of the impacted joint like a bank but one where you can’t make a deposit. Every time you do something that causes pain, you are making a withdrawal. So the whole goal of lifestyle changes and exercises is to prolong the life of the joint. Well let’s just say that group class was a bank robbery. (Too much set up and I think I lost the humor)

We got to our second lesson after the group class and basically had the whole floor to ourselves so we went back to the Tango and tried to work on the driving. We must have done a few things right because my legs were a little tired today. Although we were both tired by the end of that lesson so it was hard to focus.

Was supposed to meet up with a group of people tomorrow. Still going to but most of the group can’t come. The ones who are still working have some big project and meeting that keeps them from coming. Kind of sucks but that’s life when you are working. Me, I’ve got all the time in the world.