Slow Waltz + Foxtrot = Slowfox

Our Monday's practice started with me being pissed off to Nic. I cannot believe he went to the Opera Salsa on Sunday without me and he even had the nerve to brag about it! Nic just laughed at me and my angry looks I gave him. I don't even know why I was so mad about it, I guess I am still worried about not being good enough dancer to be his dancing partner, that he would change me to someone better when he gets the chance. Well anyway, he said the thing was amazing so I am definitely going there this Sunday. He also met some great dancers who might give me some good tips! We also planned on going to Coronita's Salsa party on Friday, one another Salsa party and Rueda practice on Saturday. Mm, cannot wait for the weekend!

On Monday Nic finally taught me the basic steps for Slowfox.  I actually thought that Slowfox was one of the Standard ballroom dances but it is not. I wonder why they even dropped the dance out of the competition program in the first place! Slowfox is one of the five Standard competition dances (do not trust Wikipedia on this, it is wrong!). After dancing for a while I said, "this is like combination of Slow Waltz and Foxtrot". Well, at least the name Slowfox now makes sense to me! Not surprisingly Slowfox, or Slow Foxtrot, is developed from Foxtrot in 1920s in England. The dance is a difficult one and for that reason it is taught only at advanced level. As Nic said, dancing Slowfox is like dancing on top of clouds: a continuous and non-stop, soft and sliding up and down movement over the dance floor. The steps are long and the dance includes wide turns, and therefore Slowfox needs lots of space to dance. So this is not a dance for crowded dance floors!

I must say I really fell for the dance. It has some kind of royal or elegant feeling that makes you flow in the air. First the basic step sounded complicated but it really helps that we have been dancing Slow Waltz and Foxtrot before. The rhythm for basic step goes slow-slow-quick-quick-slow-quick-quick-slow-quick-quick and we definitely need to practice that more to be able to synchronize our movements.

I tried to find some good video of Slowfox but did not find any good ones. So instead you can try to get the feeling with this music:

Midsummer Dancing.

Vehkakoski dancing stage.

Juhannustanssit, Midsummer Dance, is one of the many traditions of Midsummer Party in Finland. Actually I have never been in juhannustanssit before but last weekend I finally had the opportunity to have that experience. I went to Vehkakosken tanssilava, a beautiful old dancing stage build in 1957, situated next to Lake Vehkajärvi. Its round new dance floor was made of birch and it was perfect for dancing. Even though the area has only few inhabitants the place was super full which means that many people come even far away to dance there during Midsummer. Our cottage just happened to be in a walking distance of it! What I was surprised was that there were many young people dancing there; I always thought that dance events like these were only for middle-aged or older.

In the Midsummer dance evening there was Kaija Pohjola and Jaska Mäkynen playing quite traditional Finnish dancing music, mostly Foxtrot, Tango and Waltz, and the dance floor was so crowded you couldn't help bumping into other couples. The good thing about a round dance floor was that everybody could go around into one direction. Bad thing was if you couldn't follow the crowd. Since I didn't have Nic with me, I was the one who was teaching. My pair did learn fast though and he was especially good with bendings! What a nice night that was.

Before I left to the cottage for Midsummer Nic cooked me birthday dinner (Nic is an exellent cook I must say!) and we also watched the movie  Dirty Dancing. Yes, it is quite embarrassing to admit that I haven't seen that movie before, but anyway, I loved it. And since I had a strong guy and a lake in the cottage I wanted to try the Dirty Dancing lift. Wow, it is so hard! I recommend wearing a T-shirt or things might get quite slippery! Yeah, it was fun but I wouldn't try it on dry land. If someone knows good tips for doing the lift, let me know!

Midsummer fire and Finnish nature, ah!

Quickstepping.

We had maybe the most fun practice ever yesterday. This is how dancing should always be: loads of laughter and heaps of fun. Well maybe our efficiency or concentration wasn't the best, but in addition to enormous pleasure from dancing we had a good abb workout!


As we always do in Monday's practice we started with some technical training. This time Nic tried to teach me how to tense my middle body and spine so that later I would be able to make my movements fast by releasing and increasing the tension. The idea was to imagine my spine moving to the opposite direction where I wanted to go, that is backwards when I'm taking steps forward and forwards when I'm taking steps back. After a while I think I got the idea how to take steps forward but going backward is so much more difficult. I am not sure if I was using right muscles but I seemed to get the best results from using my lower abbs while trying to stretch myself upwards. I managed to get a feeling that something is keeping me from moving my hip from back, to the side and forward. I must admit that my movements were still too tense and sticky but I think I did well for the first time. Somehow I really like doing technical exercises because I feel like I can an idea how the movements are supposed to do right.


This time we also danced Quickstep for the first time. What a fun dance it is! The basic step for Quickstep is quite close to Foxtrot mostly because Quickstep is originally evolved form Foxtrot and Charleston during the 1920s. As most of the dances we do, also Quickstep is one of the five dances in International ballroom style (Standards), but the American competition program doesn't include Quickstep. It has the fastest tempo of the ballroom dances, about 50 beats per minute, and the music is usually jazz or swing. The dance is English in origin and it was standardized in 1927.


What I came to notice was that Quickstep is a dance you cannot practice in a small space. The steps are wide and you move long distances in a short time. We were using all the space in our small ballroom to dance around. The basic rhythm for steps is slow-quick-quick, and you move up and down by bending your knees and rising up to the balls of your feet. Quickstep also includes hops, runs and steps with lots of momentum and rotation, but that is, of course, for more experienced level than where I am now. However I found even the basic steps really fun and energetic way of dancing. It also raises the heart rate up, so it worked as a nice workout too. Too bad Nic doesn't know too much about Quickstep but maybe he can get some tips from his dancer friends.


Quickstep is also a fun dance to watch as you can see from this video from IDSF World Standard winner couple from 2009:

This week I'm turning 25 and having a small birthday party. The bad thing about this is that we have to skip our Wednesday practice. This means a whole one week break to dancing! I wonder how I am going to manage with that.

Dancing With a Star.

Last night I went to Coronita's Salsa party "Club Latin Beat" with my friend and couple of his friends. Dj Lucho did again good job with the music, though this time he played a little bit too much Bachata to my taste. My friend haven't really been dancing Salsa and it was nice to be able to teach him the basic steps to Salsa, Merengue and Bachata. He seemed to enjoy the dancing and later told me that I was really good teacher. I found it quite hard to teach a guy because it is the man who leads and I cannot teach how to lead. It is so much easier for the ladies just to follow what the man does (well ok, sometimes it is hard to follow a guy if he doesn't know what he is doing!). Anyway, I think my friend got the basic idea and was already doing quite well with Merengue after a while.

This was the first time I went to a Salsa party without Nic and I used that opportunity and tried to dance with other people. I realized that I know only one way of dancing Salsa. I was quite confused that even the basic steps can be so different and I had hard time trying to realize how they should go. I also had now more time to observe others dancing. There was one couple who caught my eye. I think they have been dancing together for quite a long time and, boy, they were such a good dancers! When I was watching them I kind of wished my dance partner was there. Nic would have loved to try to do better than they did! Actually he would have beaten the guy far and away but I have still a long way to the level where the girl was. Well at least I tried to follow the girl to learn something from her.

Just before the place closed one Nicaraguan guy (I think he was from there) asked me to dance with him. I had followed him dancing earlier so I knew he could dance well. When we started to salsa he was like "wow, slow down girl" and wanted me to make my movements really smooth and small. He said he has always found it hard to dance with someone who has been in a dance school because they make everything so exaggerated. He asked me just to listen to the music and focus on the person you are dancing with. I liked that he wanted to teach me something new but then again one part of me would have wanted just to have fun and dance. Just when I was getting into his dance style it was time to go home. Well, maybe we can dance again some other time!

I don't know what I did last night while dancing but this morning my left hip was hurting so much. I am hoping it is not anything serious and goes away before tomorrow's Opera Salsa. It would suck if I had to keep a break from dancing because of this.

Zero to Hero.

I learned something totally new in yesterday's practice: Samba walk. I must say I am quite proud of myself because I improved my walk really fast inside 30 minutes. First I felt like the exercise was a joke because I looked so ridiculous trying to take long steps forward as Nic told me to do. After laughing at myself for 15 minutes I begged Nic to tell me how the hip is supposed to move to be able to get the bigger idea behind the walk. And then at one point, suddenly, I just got it and did at least 100 % better than in the beginning.

So how do you do Samba walk then? This is the impression what I got: You take quite long steps forward and while doing that put your balance down and to the front leg. The front leg should be bent and back leg straight. When moving the balance to the front leg you move your hip forward and to the side. Now when you start moving your back leg to the front, you start the movement with your hip first. Doing this, the other side of the hip will automatically move backwards. All the time you should have a feeling of a soft and smooth bouncing. The beat of the walk is quite fast it is actually easier to keep your balance when going fast.

Btw, here is a video I found on YouTube of Bryan Watson and Carmen Vincelj dancing Samba. How cool is that?!

Anyway, after succeeding in Samba, we shifted to Standards. After dancing Slow Waltz for a while I got frustrated about one mistake I keep on repeating every single time even though I know I am doing it wrong. I also felt like I needed just to do some basic steps because I struggled with the heel step with my Latin shoes, so I stopped and started to practice on my own. I talked with Nic today and he said this was a point when I moved to a next level. This is a level where I can evolve only by figuring out things by myself. Nic will still guide me through this level but he cannot teach me most of the things.

Maybe it was because my improvement, but Nic suggested us to have one more dance practice per week during the next one and half months. I was thrilled about this! Every Wednesday I have been thinking that how can I survive until Monday without dancing. I hope I can get us a practice time from our practice place.

Tomorrow I am planning on going Salsa clubbing to Coronita with one of my friend. I'm looking forward dancing with someone new. Not that I wouldn't enjoy dancing with Nic, no, but I want to see if I will be able to follow different kind of signals. Maybe I will learn to become a better follower since Nic is always complaining I don't let him lead!

No Shaky-Shaky, Bouncy-Bouncy.

Last week I took some back steps again and also our practice didn't go as planned. On Monday Nic had something special in his mind for that time's practice. Unfortunately Nic's special plans were ruined by the Pilates group we met before, and this time it was us who had to give up. I was so pissed off about the situation because our practice was badly interrupted only after 30 minutes of dancing. I had a feeling I really needed to work my body so after being evicted we decided to come back after the Pilates group was finished.

So, what Nic had in his mind was something he called "Hot Dancing". It never became clear to me what this meant but at least we were sweating after practicing exaggerated Samba steps for a while. I tried to catch on the hip movement to Samba steps but I ended up trying too hard too early so Nic ordered me to stop moving my hip and just concentrate on the Bounce Action. 

Also on Wednesday we practiced Samba and I struggled doing cucaracha with my shoes. It was one of those days I felt like I did everything wrong. It is so frustrating when you know exactly how you should move but your body just refuses to do as you wish. I don't know if I was tired or what was wrong but it just wasn't my day.


Yesterday's practice, however, went already much better. We practiced Rumba walk and cucaracha with shoes on and I did at least 100 % better compared to last week. Funny how sometimes everything is so hard and another day you don't have to do that much to do well. I was also glad that I was able to dance almost full two hours with my shoes on without having lots of pain. I guess I am finally getting used to them!


After practicing technique for more than one hour Nic asked me to pick a dance just to have fun with. I picked Cha-cha firstly because it is a dance that simple cheers me up and secondly, we haven't danced that for a long time. I think I have "hated" most of the dances in the beginning but never Cha-cha. I learned a new move called a New Yorker that is a combination of three fast turns. It was so fast I ended up falling to the floor! It doesn't help that our ballroom's floor is super slippery. Well, good point is that it is a good practice for better dance floors.


I am sorry that lately I haven't been updating my blog so frequently! Now that I am only working during the summer I am hoping I will have more time for dancing and writing about it. Maybe this Sunday we will also finally have time to go to the Opera Salsa and see how it is like.

Finnish Tango.

Last Wednesday we went to the Kaupunkitanssit with Nic to learn some Finnish Tango. The weather was perfect and we were definitely the only ones to find our way there. It was nice to see so many enthusiastic people enjoying the sunshine and joy of dancing.

But first some background information about the dance. Tango being originally from Argentina, Finns have developed their own, Finnish version of Tango dance as well as Tango music. Tango was introduced to public for the first time in 1913 by Toivo Niskanen ja Elsa Nyström, but it was dance teacher Inkeri Kare who launched the idea of dancing Tango with Foxtrot steps, and this style became stable after 1930's. In fact, Finland might be the only country where Tango is danced like this. Since the steps were quite simple, the rhythm slow and the beat easy to hear, Tango became an idealistic dance for beginners.

During the 1980's Finnish Tango, especially Tango music, started to attract lots of business activities. The fact that Tango was actually danced with Foxtrot steps didn't, however, sound that glamorous so the dance was marketed as an independent dance style. As an result, attempts were made to differentiate Tango and Foxtrot from each other and a range of different proposals for Finnish Tango were born. Even though some of these different styles of Finnish Tango will drop, Tango is still rather heterogeneous collection of individual ways to dance than a clear and uniform dance style. Therefore Finnish Tango is quite new dance and still going through its developing process. Unfortunately nowadays Finnish Tango is regarded as a difficult dance and it has lost its role as an easy starting dance in dancing events.

Tango Dancing in Tangomarkkinat.

Also Finnish Tango music has developed into its own version that is a combination of original Tango, Slavic melancholy and German march music. One special characteristics of Finnish Tango is that the chorus' rhythm changes to Beguine that is more Rumba like rhythm. One sign of the popularity of Tango in Finland is a Tango festival, Seinäjoen Tangomarkkinat, that is organized every summer and is one of the biggest summer events in Finland having more than 100 000 visitors every year.

We learned only the very basics of Finnish Tango but the dance is definitely different from ballroom Tango. Basic steps goes slow-slow-fast-fast, as in Foxtrot, but the tempo is slower, steps longer and you keep your balance lower. For each slow step you almost stop for a while and kind of drag your feet along the way. I found it hard to keep the ballroom Tango stance when dancing Finnish Tango so I guess I have to forget that too. As I said, we didn't go that far with the dance and I would have wanted to keep up dancing for a bit longer after the one hour of teaching.

After the Tango we decided to skip our Wednesday practice because we were heading to one Salsa party later that evening. The party was held in Caisa Cafe and Terrace in the centre of Helsinki. It was some kind of birthday party of someone we didn't know, but the entrance was free and we hadn't been dancing Salsa for a long time so we wanted to check it out. What I liked about the place was that it was divided into two different spaces both of which had its own music and dance floor. It was quite hard to dance outside though since the floor was made of tile and didn't glide. Inside the DJ was cool and played nice mix of Latin music in the beginning, but in the late hours he turned more to disco Salsa that I don't fancy that much. The place was full of people speaking Spanish/Portuguese and the atmosphere was warm. If I went there alone I might have felt an outsider since it felt like all the people knew each other there (well, surprise if it was a birthday party!). Anyway, in total it was a fun night and I think I learned again some new moves from watching others.