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.