So much for a relaxing weekend...
I had intended to get a lot of research done this weekend.
Instead I spent pretty much the entire weekend either dancing or with friends. Oops.
Friday was the Stanford Viennese Ball, which was much fun. I ran into many people I knew there (somewhat surprisingly as I don't actually *know* that many Stanford people, but then we had sort of a Berkeley infiltration, and people that I have met randomly from various and assorted dance and/or bab5 parties. So I was certainly not lacking for dance partners, which always makes dances fun. Also, excuse to get all dressed up and look pretty and so on. And I got to dance many waltzes and swings and hustles and the occasional west coast swing (b/c the guy I was dancing with hates chacha, which was, really, fine by me as I love WCS even though I know very very little of it).
Must learn Bohemian National Polka.
I think the best moment of the night, however, was being poked into entering the Viennese Waltz "contest" -- while I protested that I didn't have a partner, I asked a friend of mine (whom I actually haven't seen in ages, but who is much fun to dance with) to dance with me for the contest. We proceeded to get second place (the couple that won were organizers... no bias there. :-P) and had many people coming up to us afterwards telling us how we were so much better and totally deserved to win. Hee.
Sore feet by the time I got home, but totally worth it.
Though Saturday's dance was much more technically oriented -- group class notes, then 1.5 hours of picking a pro's brain about standard. And getting to dance random lines and figures and so on with said pro.
I really appreciate the DS seminars; I have always felt that teaching something helps improve one's understanding of it -- it's great to have an intuitive understanding for oneself, but understanding things from the point of view of a teacher is great for me because of notes I can easily repeat to myself, and also gives me ways to communicate to my partner what I need from him.
Then lesson, which was lovely because there were things in my dancing that I knew felt odd/wrong but wasn't sure how to go about fixing. So now I know how to stop feeling like feet and head are not moving properly in relation to each other, which is good. This is actually not a problem in most dances, but has been in certain walls in quickstep, so help was ... well, helpful.
And Saturday night was the monthly Allegro Invitational, which had a number of UCBD people (among others) in attendance. Which made for a lovely group merengue (aka the dance of human knots), and provided me with very few opportunities to sit down. ;-) Also part of the evening was a real life example of why I claim social viennese waltz to be a death wish. As I was dancing a particular Viennese, my partner and I stopped because of traffic issues. We proceeded to have a vigorously whirling couple crash into us and fall over (the thought of which makes me laugh, even though I suppose it really shouldn't), only to have yet another couple trip over them. Probably not entirely comfortable for those involved in the crash... but amusing nonetheless. Schadenfreude, anyone?
Then Au Coquelet and chatting until 4:30 in the morning. Friends are good. :-)
Sunday was devoted to friends, old and new -- lunch at Naan 'n Curry, practice (which went ever so well... our dancing is getting ever more centered and subtle. Steve is starting to see how a "small" shape in his hips will let me create a much bigger shape in our top, and we stay more stable. So, slowly, we are not moving and shaping so much from our shoulders, which is quite lovely.), then dinner and pub trivia with chimerically, dag29580863 and shallwedance_. This was followed by a game of pool which I played abominably -- managing at least once to hit the cue ball off the table, and another time it went up on the edge of the table and rolled along its "rim" for lack of a better word before dropping back onto the actual playing surface. Now, if I were able to do any of these trick shots intentionally, they would probably be rather cool. However, as I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, they wind up being sort of entertaining evidence of my incompetence.
Much fun, however.
Not exactly the restful weekend I'd planned. But well worth it.
Instead I spent pretty much the entire weekend either dancing or with friends. Oops.
Friday was the Stanford Viennese Ball, which was much fun. I ran into many people I knew there (somewhat surprisingly as I don't actually *know* that many Stanford people, but then we had sort of a Berkeley infiltration, and people that I have met randomly from various and assorted dance and/or bab5 parties. So I was certainly not lacking for dance partners, which always makes dances fun. Also, excuse to get all dressed up and look pretty and so on. And I got to dance many waltzes and swings and hustles and the occasional west coast swing (b/c the guy I was dancing with hates chacha, which was, really, fine by me as I love WCS even though I know very very little of it).
Must learn Bohemian National Polka.
I think the best moment of the night, however, was being poked into entering the Viennese Waltz "contest" -- while I protested that I didn't have a partner, I asked a friend of mine (whom I actually haven't seen in ages, but who is much fun to dance with) to dance with me for the contest. We proceeded to get second place (the couple that won were organizers... no bias there. :-P) and had many people coming up to us afterwards telling us how we were so much better and totally deserved to win. Hee.
Sore feet by the time I got home, but totally worth it.
Though Saturday's dance was much more technically oriented -- group class notes, then 1.5 hours of picking a pro's brain about standard. And getting to dance random lines and figures and so on with said pro.
I really appreciate the DS seminars; I have always felt that teaching something helps improve one's understanding of it -- it's great to have an intuitive understanding for oneself, but understanding things from the point of view of a teacher is great for me because of notes I can easily repeat to myself, and also gives me ways to communicate to my partner what I need from him.
Then lesson, which was lovely because there were things in my dancing that I knew felt odd/wrong but wasn't sure how to go about fixing. So now I know how to stop feeling like feet and head are not moving properly in relation to each other, which is good. This is actually not a problem in most dances, but has been in certain walls in quickstep, so help was ... well, helpful.
And Saturday night was the monthly Allegro Invitational, which had a number of UCBD people (among others) in attendance. Which made for a lovely group merengue (aka the dance of human knots), and provided me with very few opportunities to sit down. ;-) Also part of the evening was a real life example of why I claim social viennese waltz to be a death wish. As I was dancing a particular Viennese, my partner and I stopped because of traffic issues. We proceeded to have a vigorously whirling couple crash into us and fall over (the thought of which makes me laugh, even though I suppose it really shouldn't), only to have yet another couple trip over them. Probably not entirely comfortable for those involved in the crash... but amusing nonetheless. Schadenfreude, anyone?
Then Au Coquelet and chatting until 4:30 in the morning. Friends are good. :-)
Sunday was devoted to friends, old and new -- lunch at Naan 'n Curry, practice (which went ever so well... our dancing is getting ever more centered and subtle. Steve is starting to see how a "small" shape in his hips will let me create a much bigger shape in our top, and we stay more stable. So, slowly, we are not moving and shaping so much from our shoulders, which is quite lovely.), then dinner and pub trivia with chimerically, dag29580863 and shallwedance_. This was followed by a game of pool which I played abominably -- managing at least once to hit the cue ball off the table, and another time it went up on the edge of the table and rolled along its "rim" for lack of a better word before dropping back onto the actual playing surface. Now, if I were able to do any of these trick shots intentionally, they would probably be rather cool. However, as I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, they wind up being sort of entertaining evidence of my incompetence.
Much fun, however.
Not exactly the restful weekend I'd planned. But well worth it.