Before last night, I have been dancing exactly ONCE in the last six weeks. It's scandalous, I tell you, SCANDALOUS! I've been taking West Coast Swing lessons for a year now, and am a total addict. So last night, I was really excited to get back into it.
Of course, six weeks with no dancing and that means I'm tripping all over my feet, but hey, what are you gonna do? It was fun to see all the 'regulars' last night, many of whom gave me "hey welcome back, I haven't seen you in a long time" kind of greetings. Cool!
Maybe my second or third dance, J asked me to dance. Now, J is SUPER fun to dance with, even if he sometimes turns on the smarm a bit too much. But he's a smokin' dancer and easy to follow, so I always get a kick out of dancing with him. So he asked me to dance and I prefaced it with, "Ok, but I haven't danced in a month and a half, so BE NICE!"
Well.
That was pretty much an invitation for CrazyGoNuts. It was all I could do to keep up with him, and once he spun me SIX TIMES! SIX! How I didn't fall over is beyond me! And it wasn't West Coast that we were doing. I had no idea what dance we were doing (I thought maybe lindy?), I was just trying not to die. BUT, he dipped me and I didn't nearly knock him over like I did last time he tried that. Yay me! Turns out it was East Coast Swing.
"Thanks, that was fun! ... but what WAS that?"
"That was east coast!"
"Aaaah."
"Yep. You kept trying to do West Coast, but I wouldn't letcha."
Schooled!
But that was NOT the biggest schooling of the night. That one was just funny.
About halfway through the night, Myles and Tessa showed up. Who the heck are Myles and Tessa, you ask? They're the Canadian West Coast Swing Champions. Baaaasically the swing gods of Canada. And regular freakin' people, but apparently I am not good with celebrity. Heaven help us all if I ever end up talking to someone famous.
OhMyGoodnessILikeTotallyKnowYouAndOhMyGoshICan'tBelieveYou'reActuallyTalkingToMe
AndOhWaitMyChanceToSaySomethingIntelligentIsNowLoooongGone.
The following words actually came out of my mouth last night: "Wooow! This is so exciting! I've only ever seen them on YouTube!" (here and here, for example)
WHAT KIND OF A NERDBALL AM I??? Hehehe
So they are PHENOMENAL. But they are also not stuck up in the LEAST and go out and dance with everybody, of all skill levels.
People like me.
Tessa asked me to dance (she leads, too). It was totally fun - she's hilarious! - but TOTALLY intimidating. Woah. She asked me how long I'd been dancing. I told her a year, but really really wished I'd said about half that, cause 'member what I said up there about tripping over my feet cause I'm rusty? And about not being good with celebrity? Well put those together and 1+1 equals, oh, I don't know, about 3782 on the scale of awkwardness.
She lead me in a little run-and-slide move thing, but I slid too early. Ever the student (shut up and dance, Hillary!) I was all, "Oh, now, see, I slid too early there!"
And that, folks, is when I got schooled by Tessa Cunningham:
"Yep! That's because you don't wait for your lead!" *hangs head in shame* hehehe
Aaaand, so it's official. I am now signing up for their lesson series. I've been told it's really good for people who have been dancing a while to not just learn new moves but also to correct any bad habits. Like not waiting for the lead.
At least it wasn't just me who finds it intimidating to dance with her. She danced with a friend of mine right after me, and after that he walked towards me and we both gave each other the "Holy Crap! was that ever intimidating!" look and proceeded to talk about our respective foibles.
Sheesh. ONE day hopefully I'll be cool enough for this NOT to be a big deal. *arms flapping, spoken in a squeaky teeny bopper voice:* I danced with Tessa! I danced with Tessa!" I'm rolling my eyes at mySELF here, don't worry. hehehe!
Ah, but was was SO nice to be back dancing again. My big toes full of blisters beg to differ, but I'll beat them back into submission soon enough.
Starting tonight! More lessons! More dance! Bring it on!
5 comments:
All those words coming out of you in one long sentence amazes me, let alone that you know how to dance! I wish I knew how to dance...will you teach me some day? oh pleeeeease? then I'll be able to do the words out of my mouth sentences and say that I danced with the famous Hillary! :)
I'm actually thinking about taking a dance class soon and having the church pay for it!! Wouldn't that be sweet!?
I miss dancing. I have decided to go back to it. Maybe even teach and after school class.
I used to go dancing as much as I could, then I met my now hubby, who was usually too uptight to dance, unless he had some liquid uninhibiter, then he'd dance. We don't dance well together, he doesn't lead. Dancing with other men is awkward when your married, unless they're good friends. Now I've gotten old and stiff and tired. Good for you! Keep having fun.
Watched BOTH the clips, and I gotta say, your kinda swing dancing is most cool. The swing I'm familiar with is all done to Big Band music, and it's way more about flashy moves than it is about what I would call real dancing. If you get around to it: what's the distinction between "East Coast" and "West Coast" swing, technically speaking?
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