Dance Frame.

- "Where were you during that dance?"
- "I don't know. Somewhere."

I know where I was. That was me ten months ago.


Thank you for being my dance frame. I needed to find that feeling again. Even though it is hiding, it is still there.

Kick Off To The New Year.

A break from dancing showed me how hard work dancing can actually be. I was planning on going to a Salsa party last Friday evening but I simply had to listen to my tired body and skip it. It has been a while since I have been that exhausted: I came home and couldn't do anything else than lie in my bed. When I was dancing every day I never got this feeling, which might not be the best thing. From now on I have to let my body rest better than that.

This year's dancing started with Mr A. on Wednesday. I could really feel the dance break in all of my moves and following. It is scary how fast you can go out of shape! This time we actually concentrated on something and danced mostly Slow Waltz, Cha-cha and Rumba. Since videotaping my zoukking has been a great way of improving I wanted to see how my standard stance and stepping looks like in a video. Fortunately it didn't look that bad, and it didn't even give me that kind of shock I got from my first Zouk video. We ended our practice with pretty intensive Rumba (by this time we had attracted some audience from people coming to a common practice, so of course we had to give them a small show!).

On Thursday evening I wended my way to this year's first ballroom dance party to Otaniemi where some of HOT Dance's dancers had organized a dance floor, sauna, music and some food for the rest of us. It was the perfect timing for this kind of party: the dance classes haven't started yet and many (including me) had this week free from studies and work. It is always a sign of a good party if I end up dancing five hours without noticing the time pass by! It was a good thing that I happened to practice Bugg lately with Mr A., because the playlist was quite concentrated on Bugg, Fusku and fast Foxtrot, and I am finally getting to feel comfortable dancing these dances, yay! Here is some pictures from the party (thanks dad for the new camera by the way!):

I had practices with Michaelo on Friday and Saturday and we did something pretty cool: we made our first own figure! In addition, we went through a figure from Mr Dragon. We have been taking videos in almost every practice now and they show that we both have improved so much lately. After Saturday's practice we headed to HSA's 1st Anniversary party to HSA's dance studio and continued dancing Zouk there. There were some beautiful dance shows in the party and lots of good Salsa dancers, but unfortunately not enough leaders. Somehow I just didn't enjoy the Salsa party that much so I ended up dancing with Michaelo most of the evening (a thing that other zoukkers didn't seem to appreciate; well, I don't blame them, I would have been pissed off too if someone occupied him all the time!).

My first dance week ended to Sunday evening practice with JV. We did some leading/following exercises which I found pretty useful especially after dancing a lot with Michaelo. What I have learned is that it is good to dance with different kind of dancers, so I am lucky to have three practice partners who all have really different styles.

My January is going to be busy busy busy with my new job and university studies so I might not update this blog every week. You know, I would rather spend my time dancing than writing about it if I have to choose between those two!

Last but not least, here is some pictures from my dancer friend's birthday party from Monday. See, we dancers do other things together than just dance (like talk about dancing, watch dance videos and talk about those and... well, that's about it).

Christmas Holidays & New Year's Promises.

Every New Year I make three promises for the next year. This time all of my promises were somehow to do with dancing which might tell how big part of my life dancing is nowadays. The end of the year also makes me to think the year that has passed and all the changes it has made to my life. One huge thing was, of course, that I started to dance; a decision I haven't regretted since.

I have had exceptionally long Christmas holiday this year, three weeks in total, and it has also meant quite a long break from dancing, especially compared to my recent dance pace. I always need some distance to my ongoing life to be able to see if that is really what I want to do. The last two months before my holiday was packed with dancing, I mean I did dance almost every single day! My first one week break from dancing after this made my body feel shocked. It didn't feel good to sit around, relax and do nothing. I felt like I had too much energy and had these huge carvings to do an intensive workout or whatever that makes me physically exhausted. I also missed dancing and arranged couple of dance practices for the next week. These feelings made me think if I really want to be this addicted to anything, even dancing. Do I really want my life to spin around dancing that hard? Is it me who still has the control?

I have been thinking my plans for dancing in the coming spring term. I know I will continue in HOT Dance's Thursday's intermediate and advanced courses, but I'll skip Wednesday's beginner classes. Mondays I will dedicate to deeper stretching and relaxing, Tuesdays will be booked for Michaelo and Havanna's Salsa/Zouk parities, and Wednesday evening would be a good time for dancing ballroom with Mr A. On Saturday I'll have another practice with Michaelo and maybe I'll join some of the Zouk classes in HSA. Sunday evening is time for Zouk practica and maybe a practice with JV. Hey, wait a moment, this would mean five dancing days per week, and I was dreaming of starting also something new, like ballet... So did I learn anything during my holidays after all?

I think something what I did realize was that I slowly started to take dancing too seriously. I want that there is more than just dancing in my life. I don't want that my friends keep saying to me that they don't ever see me anymore because I am just in dance practices or dance parties. I don't want to have a feeling that I don't have time for anything or anyone new to my life. I don't want to lose the feeling of joy and happiness that dancing can give me. Those feelings were, after all, the reasons I started dancing in the first place. I've learned that it is a good thing to have some breaks from dancing to be able to see the reasons why I started dancing and keep doing it. It is not because dancing rules over my life, but because it gives more fun and happiness to it.