One Shining Moment

On Thursday, the studio had their second open house of the season. This one was a lot better attended than the one in January. I mean the place was packed. And it seems like every time I enter, there are new faces taking lessons. Not really sure why but it just seems like interest in ballroom dancing is at some kind of new high.

One of the couples brought their grand daughter and she kept them busy. At one point, a fox trot came on and the lady said she didn’t know the boys part. I just happened to be there and said “well I do”. She followed pretty darn well. They told me later that they were thinking about getting her some lessons because I guess she loves to dance.

They did student demos again so I got to do the Waltz to show off the Silver level. There were two other couples on the floor so I wasn’t flying solo but there was enough room to actually get into the pattern.

And I was struck by a random thought. The think about the Silver patterns is that they take up the whole floor and you sometimes need a significant amount of room to dance them to their fullest. But how often do you actually get a mostly free dance floor? Certainly couldn’t do it on Thursday since the floor was jam packed – not to mention the number of beginners who are unpredictable and can be hard to maneuver around.

It is a weird part about being at this level. You just don’t get a lot of opportunities to really dance the patterns you’ve spent so much time and money learning. It almost forces you into doing things like Showcases although, even there, space is at a premium.

I was given a homework assignment to come up with three things I’d gain from doing a larger event. Still stuck on that one. Sounds weird to say that I would do one of those events just to get an extra opportunity to really dance what I’ve learned. Maybe not so weird. Certainly not cheap.

We closed the week yesterday with two new West Coast Swing steps and a new Argentine Tango step. There are times when the steps just click and the Argentine was one such example. I think PJ was not expecting to get through all three and to get through the Argentine as quickly as we did. It does feel good when something just comes to you right away.

For me, there is a lot of truth to the above quote. Maybe that is why I continue to spend time working on these patterns even though there are limited opportunities to really use them.