DanceSportBC and horseback riding lessons
So last night I went to a previously undiscovered delight known as Vancouver's Robson Square DanceSport Summertice series. It happens for the summer every Friday night at Robson Square in the heart of downtown Vancouver and it's a must for any ballroom dancing fan! From 8-8:30pm, there's a lesson for beginners held by professionals, then a 30-minute general dancing, followed by a 30-minute performance by professionals and their students.
It was fabulous! The lessons were so much fun! Everybody's wearing all sorts of clothes---from jeans and sneakers to dresses and heels---and the guys and girls all line up facing each other with the instructors in the middle during the demos. Then when it's your turn to dance, you pick whoever and just go at it! The music was great, the atmosphere was vibrant, and people were so clearly there to have fun. It really made the romantic in me turn to mush when I saw the various couples dancing, especially the really cute elderly couples who can still take to the floor like the best of them! I was just watching since it's my first time there, but if I wasn't loaded down with so much stuff (went straight from work), I'd have jumped in.
And the actual professional performance---wow! The costumes were stunning, the dancing was elegant, and the waltz just brings all that's sweet in romance to life. Man, the students were especially encouraging---makes me hope that even somebody who's rigid and boyish as me can possibly move that gracefully after disciplined study.
Ahhhhh----I'll definitely go next week. This time, I'll prep up more.
And today, went for my very first horseback riding lesson. Okay, so it's not so much horseback riding as it is horse tacking up (I didn't get to ride the little,er, big, horsey! *pouts*) . I have completely forgotten how huge they are and how intractable. But oddly enough, after brushing him off and picking manure out from his hooves (ugh, the smell was gross and to be digging stuff with a pick made me feel nauseous at the idea of injuring the horse), somehow I ended up paying $200 for the privilege of doing it again five more times. I'm wary about becoming bored since really, all I want is to get on a horse and gallop with it for hours; not the whole 'this-is-a-trot-and-that-is-a-canter' stuff. But the academy churns out champion dressage riders and I'm starting to think that maybe I should take this up as a serious commitment.
Well, we'll see. And yes, next time: wear boots---there's way too much dried manure, hay, sand, and itchy plants to walk around in sandals.
Now to go to bed---I think walking that kilometer to the ranch made me pull a groin muscle, either that or it was the stubborn horse who kept yanking its foot from my grip.
It was fabulous! The lessons were so much fun! Everybody's wearing all sorts of clothes---from jeans and sneakers to dresses and heels---and the guys and girls all line up facing each other with the instructors in the middle during the demos. Then when it's your turn to dance, you pick whoever and just go at it! The music was great, the atmosphere was vibrant, and people were so clearly there to have fun. It really made the romantic in me turn to mush when I saw the various couples dancing, especially the really cute elderly couples who can still take to the floor like the best of them! I was just watching since it's my first time there, but if I wasn't loaded down with so much stuff (went straight from work), I'd have jumped in.
And the actual professional performance---wow! The costumes were stunning, the dancing was elegant, and the waltz just brings all that's sweet in romance to life. Man, the students were especially encouraging---makes me hope that even somebody who's rigid and boyish as me can possibly move that gracefully after disciplined study.
Ahhhhh----I'll definitely go next week. This time, I'll prep up more.
And today, went for my very first horseback riding lesson. Okay, so it's not so much horseback riding as it is horse tacking up (I didn't get to ride the little,er, big, horsey! *pouts*) . I have completely forgotten how huge they are and how intractable. But oddly enough, after brushing him off and picking manure out from his hooves (ugh, the smell was gross and to be digging stuff with a pick made me feel nauseous at the idea of injuring the horse), somehow I ended up paying $200 for the privilege of doing it again five more times. I'm wary about becoming bored since really, all I want is to get on a horse and gallop with it for hours; not the whole 'this-is-a-trot-and-that-is-a-canter' stuff. But the academy churns out champion dressage riders and I'm starting to think that maybe I should take this up as a serious commitment.
Well, we'll see. And yes, next time: wear boots---there's way too much dried manure, hay, sand, and itchy plants to walk around in sandals.
Now to go to bed---I think walking that kilometer to the ranch made me pull a groin muscle, either that or it was the stubborn horse who kept yanking its foot from my grip.