Back in the stilletos again...

I have serious Travolta-sized dance fever. I think until finals peaked, I didn't have the energy to realize whether or not my underwear was right-side-out, let alone just how much the physical withdrawal has been burbling. Watching the performances at the uandme showcase reminded me of that surge of vitality - the rush, that sweet spot when everything functions perfectly and your will is in line with your body, the music, the audience and your partner. Hitting the last Blue Moon milonga and performing at the formal last week were the apertifs, but now what? Anyways, this happened last spring and eventually ebbed as I got more involved in school and less solvent. But as one quarter ends, it's time for the usual resolutions: more dance.  Where/when and how though? My lawschool schedule ends me up in bed by the time most of these events begin. Money isn't exactly something flowing through my fingers.

Tango:  I have two steady tango partners ("steady" like we practice on a semi-regular enough basis to stretch the definition of the term "steady" just shy of the ripping point, not like we're like tango-boy-friend-and-girlfriend-and-boyfriend, although I guess some might quibble that this is what dance partners really are)... anyways, I am ruining the rhythm of what I'm leading up to. So to start again: I have two steady tango partners - Jon (pronounced Yawn) and Yannis (pronounces like you combined "yawn" and the -ice part of "Janice"). Other leads have offered to sponsor me for various lessons and practice spaces, but unfortunately timing has never quite supported it. Others have taught with me, but we've all gone our separate ways. Besides, how could I find a partner with a suitably similar name?

Jon (featured in my user picture) and I have known each other since both were just beginning and have practiced on and off together for the past two and a half years, eventually culminating in my teaching stint at the 8th Style (on hold with school being the way it is). I hit him up to do a demo at the Blue Moon, since David, my old teaching partner is no longer teaching there and Molly still prefers to MC over doing the demo performances herself. It was his first performance, so he was absolutely thrilled. We didn't practice much (an hour at Dance Underground the day before after over two months of not dancing together) and it was far from clean, but I think we both had cause to be pleased. I love performing: the energy! the spark! the total ignorance of the non-dancing audience!

Yannis and I met at my first tango class in *the big city* many years ago when Seattle might as well  have been Oz in terms of tango.  I was one of a very large class who was picking up the milonga traspie and so he commandeered me for the rest of the class, taking me out of the customary tango rotation. After I stopped with that class series, we saw almost nothing of each other.  We didn't actually start practicing together until some time last year, but after this we took some neuvo and milonga classes at the Century together. We practice at his gym - oh so many mirrors. Since I'll be doing some mediation at the small claims court in Shoreline, I'm planning to pick back up at least a weekly session with him.

Watching myself today, I was surprised at how much had stuck with me. I'm pleased with a number of things: my control, my posture, my feet on the floor, those oh so flattering mirrors that gym rooms always seem to have. So getting back into things, I want to pick just a couple of things at a time to focus on.  My front boleos are the first on that list - I sickle and/or flex my foot which really ruins the line.

Tango Game plan: practice with both partners every week if possible (depending on schedule). Try when I have the cash to make it to at least one

Then there's blues and ballroom. Blues... Eh, blues is so much fun, but at the end of the day, it's social. You get good when you do it a lot. Better when you go to all the parties and couch surf from festival to festival. And if you can, you figure out a great homeostasis that lets you dance with all your favorite steamy little partners and make it to all the right parties. To some degree I feel like the dancing can become secondary when you get more involved in this community. I wish I'd been able to take up the teaching proposal I got last summer, but since I'm kind of out of the social loop right now, I'm expecting that to largely remain the fun thing I do from time to time, probably with my boyfriend and strictly for kicks (kicks that leave only little bruises though).

Ballroom is so expensive. I don't know how to get out what I put into it, but I only say that because I haven't had a recent spate of pure competitive adrenaline coursing through my arteries - it's like crack! A lot of my reasons for drifting away from this discipline remain: particularly my perpetual inability to find a suitable partner and the impecunious rates for the private lessons I so require. But avoiding attrition would be nice. Ballroom requires sundry scads of body control, as the different dances demand different techniques... and the more versatile my repetoire, the wider my range of options for expressing exactly the perfect physical thought. If I could maybe schedule one or two privates a month, just focusing on drills and practice in the school gym between classes, I think that would be a good start. That's still pretty pricey, but it could be worth it for me down the road. It would be great if I could video tape my lessons or practice sessions (by great, I mean excruciating, of course).

And you know, christmas is right around the corner, so if you're still looking for a good gift for me... well a ballroom partner would be a great one.