Hi Dancers!

This week’s post will be short. Just an update from your friendly neighborhood ballroom dancer. 😉

I hung out with other ballroom dancers this past week! One of my long-time blog readers arranged a lunch for me, her, and her teacher. Turns out the teacher and I had some mutual connections from Southern California, so it was fun to see where our paths crossed in the past. He actually taught at a different branch of the studio where I took my very first lessons! We also chatted about my vision for the future. If I haven’t already mentioned it, I plan on turning the stables on our property into a dance space. Since my journaling exercise about the house worked out so well, expect a similar one about the dance space in the near future.

My ego was fed by my Zumba instructor (who also has had formal dance training) this weekend when she told me after class that she loved how I used my arms while we were Zumba-ing. For someone who loathed arm styling and had many an anxiety attack trying to emote with her arms while dancing, this was one of the biggest compliments I could receive! Teacher will tell you – I hated arm styling, to the point that he stopped focusing on it until I was finally comfortable enough in my own body’s movements that the arms started styling on their own. Then we could work on refining them without me having an emotional breakdown. When it was available at my old studio, I took a Ladies’ Latin Styling workshop every week before my Sunday solo practice simply because the instructor focused a lot on arms and Latin or not, I needed the styling practice. I practiced my arm styling while I was walking the dogs, watching TV, in the shower…you get the idea. I have worked really hard on this particular aspect of my dancing because it was so unnatural and awkward to the point of painful for me. And now? I’m impressing my Zumba instructor without even thinking about how I’m styling my arms! I’m just letting them do their thing!

That’s what happens when you practice. Real results right there. And yes, my ego is still a little inflated, but it’s ok. She earned it.

Isn’t it the best when someone recognizes something you’ve worked really hard on?

---

House update:

The bedroom serving as my home office officially has two fresh coats of paint, which means I can finally unpack my many boxes of books and order a desk, so I can stop working at the kitchen table or on the couch! The room was originally painted a dark-ish red. I liked the red, but wanted to brighten it up so I went with a slightly lighter shade with a pink hue. So it’s a bright red, but not smack-you-in-the-eyeballs kind of bright red (the office I worked in pre-pandemic had the latter). My home office also came with a built-in heater, which will be most welcome in the coming months. This morning, we had our first frost and while I’m looking forward to how pretty our land will look in the snow, I’m bracing myself for my first “real” winter in a long time. Grateful I don’t need to worry about commuting anywhere!

Recent critter encounters include more deer and turkeys, an owl that hoooed and then flew over my head when I hoooed back, a little garter snake in the garage (last seen heading for the woodpile), and a skunk who has only made itself known by its smell right outside the kitchen door (not what I want to encounter when I’m taking the dogs out after dark). I’m pretty sure a coyote left a deposit on our driveway one night. Gromit sniffed it and then peed right on top of it. Making it known who’s driveway it is!

That’s about it from here. I hope you had a wonderful week full of dancing. Until next time!