Posted by 
I’ll get to the title a bit later in this post. First, I found out that a third person from the studio came down with the virus that shall not be named. She had it worse than the other two but was back at the studio yesterday. She was most concerned about the people she danced with on the night of Showcase (including me). I also sat near her for the entire event and we chatted for most of it but I don’t think we’ll ever have any idea of whether the spread was related to Showcase or just a couple of independent events.
Anyway, she did say that she thinks dancing helped her get through. By that, she thought the exercise may have made her lungs stronger and more able to withstand a respiratory illness. And who’s to say she’s wrong? Taking care of your body is a good thing and hopefully more people will recognize that because of the pandemic.
But the reason I tossed the opening quote in is that ballroom does more than help you physically. Getting back into dancing, even with all the restrictions, has been a real positive. I don’t know if we will ever be able to know the true cost of the various lock downs that have happened since the whole thing started. I understand the potential public safety issues but there is a cost to keeping people away from the things they love. We may protect the physical body but at a cost to mind and soul.
I think the concept of self care is usually around taking time off to unwind when the stresses of life start to mount up. With the whole pandemic, we had far too much time being isolated and way too many people living in fear and despair. None of that is good. Which is why I now consider ballroom a self care activity. As I said, even with the restrictions, doing something that can uplift your spirit is so important these days.
So we do have the Showstoppers coming up and the Rumba is locked in. I may have already mentioned this but I decided to go completely against type for the music. My original thought was a power ballad – 80’s hair metal. But then I’ve done a lot of stuff to 80’s music (which I love, don’t get me wrong) and maybe it is time to just do something totally unexpected. And that lead me in the Boy Band direction. Yes, I will be doing a Rumba to the Backstreet Boys. It is pure bubblegum pop but it is catchy so why not?
We had OwnerGuy on the lesson on Tuesday. Our mini routine right now consists of the two Silver VI Rumba steps with an opening and another step to close it. He changed the opening to better fit with the music – there’s now a dip at the beginning before we start. And he altered the step we were doing at the end to incorporate a Silver III pattern and it then can end with a bit of a flourish to fit the music. He still has some work to do with me to get the finer points of the two steps but there is time for that. Like the Tango, I can see this progressing into something for the next Showcase.
There was a newer student on a lesson at the same time. I was watching his instructor trying to get him to find the beat in their song. I remember those days. I’m better but I still struggle depending on the song and the sound system. It makes me a little jealous of those who are more musically inclined. But we are all gifted with different abilities.
I think he is going to do a demo for the Showstoppers. We stopped to watch their finished product (dancers support other dancers). This is actually one of the things I love about events like this. It is seeing the newer students especially the ones doing this for the first time. That whole combination of fear and nerves but the smiles that come after they’ve done it. Well, you can’t see the smiles with masks but you get the idea.
Which is why we need to have things like this and I’m glad that studios have been able to stay open.
Facing Diagonal Wall 