Too Much Dancing?

Last weekend was full of dancing and having fun. On Friday I met some of my work colleagues and I drag them along with me to Coronita's Latin Beat club. I wasn't surprised that they didn't stay there for long but I had Nic there to dance with me. I almost left with my colleagues though, when Nic was paying more attention to other girls than me while we were dancing. If you go out dancing with me, you go out dancing with me. I made that quite clear to Nic after what he changed his behavior back to normal. We had to leave the party already around 1 am though because my hip started hurting again. This time I stopped dancing immediately when I felt there was something wrong because I wanted to be fine for Saturday and Sunday.

So, Saturday we went to the Opera for one Rueda event organized by Salsa Borealis. Rueda is a Cuban type of round dancing of Salsa. It is danced with pairs but the dancers form a circle and the dancing pairs changes constantly. There is a one person, a caller or a leader, who calls out the dance moves pairs are supposed to perform. The names of the moves are mostly in Spanish (like dame una, enchufla, sombrero) and I even though I tried to memorize the names, it was too much for the beginning. The moves included spins, clapping and different kind of ways of swapping partners.

Neither of us had ever danced Rueda so it was really hard trying to catch up with the others. There was an instructor teaching the dance but he proceeded so fast we weren't able to keep up with him, so we decided just to watch the others and learn from them. Everybody seemed to have lots of fun and I wish I will be able to join them some day soon when I'm less confused about the different moves. Nic didn't seem to like Rueda that much though; he said he is not a group dancer. The weather was perfect for dancing outside, sunny with a nice breeze from the sea, and once in a while we danced couple of Salsas. There was an after party in Caisa Cafe but I had to skip it because of my sore hip.

On Sunday I finally made it to the Opera Salsa and it was as awesome as Nic had described. Lots of people were just hanging around, having picnic and dancing every now and then. I really loved the venue and the atmosphere there, and we were having so much fun on the dance floor with Nic. The people were from lots of different levels so I didn't feel akward as a beginner there. I especially liked one beginner couple I met there. They looked so cute together and were enjoying dancing so much! We even asked them some advice of some cool moves they did.

This weekend is one of the reasons I like living in Helsinki. Where else in Finland you could have so many Salsa parties in one weekend? I wonder if it was even too much because last night I woke up to this horrible pain in my hip. I think the problem is lower back and my spine that isn't used to the kind of movement you do in Latin dances. The pressure has been there all week and I had to keep an eye of my back also in our practice. The last thing what I want is to make it even worse.

Other than that our practice this week was fun fun fun. We danced lots of standards (I wonder if Nic choose to do so because of my back problems) and did some cool stuff, like dirty dancing lifts. I found it hard to dance Slow Fox and Quickstep one after another because somehow I was mixing the steps. Not much technical things this week, except Wednesday a practice how to make lady solo (spin) properly.

This Saturday we are going to 24h Salsa Party to Pihlajasaari. The idea is to spend a day and night in the island and, of course, dance all day! I cannot wait!