I was a little frustrated with my dancing this past week. After a breakthrough the week before and feeling like I was understanding more about why my body hurt while dancing and how to fix it, I went home from Tuesday’s lesson with my back aching in that old trouble spot. We were working on Foxtrot, and I thought I employed the same tweaks as the week before that made my movement in Waltz so much more powerful and less painful. Apparently not, or at least not with the same results. Thursday, we returned to Waltz and while I felt like I made some minor progress, my back was still aching.
Continue readingTag: foxtrot
Dancing Down the Yellow Brick Road
I’d like to officially invite you to my first pandemic performance! To be held virtually, of course. The region’s Fred Astaire studios are joining forces to put together this virtual spotlight, themed Dancing through the Decades.
Continue readingDream a Little Dream of Me
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll understand the title. I went searching for inspiration for this blog post in a glass of red wine and the Rat Pack station on Pandora. My pondering during “Dream a Little Dream of Me” was recorded for posterity.
Admitting I Don’t Suck – A Dancer’s Quandary
It’s not easy to admit when you’re wrong, and even harder to admit when you were wrong about completely sucking as a dancer. It’s weird because it’s like you’re humbling and boosting yourself at the same time. “Ok ok, I was wrong. I am a good dancer.”
Foxtrot is Not the Same as Foxtrot
You know when you’re talking to someone on the phone with a bad connection and they keep cutting in and out, or you’re trying to listen to the radio but you’re a bit out of range so there’s a lot of static? You have to strain to catch what the other person is saying or what song is playing. It gets so frustrating because no matter how hard you listen, the message still doesn’t come through clearly.
That’s how I felt during my last lesson.
Own It
I know it’s been longer than usual since I last posted. Searching for a place to live has been stressing me out of my gourd, which has left me with some major writer’s block. Some other things have been adding to the stress level too, and with Teacher out of town last week, I didn’t have any dance lessons to provide relief. So when this inkling of an idea pushed its way to the front of my mind, I jumped on it. The block has been alerted to its presence though, so hopefully it survives long enough for me to create something worth reading. (I have this image of this dark shadow slowly creeping toward the tiny glowing creature that is my inspiration inkling.)
Cha Cha – The Foxtrot of Rhythm
If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know I have a love/hate relationship with foxtrot. I’m always just a little off in understanding that dance. Things never go quite right. Steps constantly elude me. It’s maddening.
At the same time, foxtrot seems so fun! The music, the slick moves, it reminds me of old Hollywood and great dancers like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. But for whatever reason, this cat isn’t so cool when she tries to foxtrot. Foxtrot is my ballroom nemesis.
Now it seems a new villain has come to town: cha cha.
Remembering Bronze
During lunch yesterday, I was going through videos and pictures stored on my phone, deleting stuff I didn’t want or need to free up space. I came across a video of Teacher and me dancing a round of bronze smooth, and I realized that it was recorded just a couple weeks before we were supposed to leave for the United States Dance Championships, a.k.a. Nationals. A couple weeks before Teacher broke his wrist.
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Like a Warm Spring Breeze on a Cold Winter’s Day
I got my new video of the silver foxtrot routine. And what’s more, I actually feel like I am starting to get the hang of it!
I’m always so grateful for the lessons where things just go well.
But I’ll be frank with you. I think I had something to do with it.
What the Hell is Wrong with My Face?
No new questions this week, but I did ask myself a big one while watching videos from my last lesson. So we’ll set “Ask the Girl” aside for now and just explore the deep dark forest that is my brain!
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 