The last couple of weeks have been so full of everything that I haven't had time even to think about updating my dance feelings here. Last week was full of those though, and tomorrow I'm already leaving to Prague for a weekend long Zouk Festival. Yesterday I made a good decision to reduce my stress levels by reorganizing my study schedule for the spring, so I'll have time also for longer updates.
There are so many things going around my head that are to do with dancing. Last week I had couple of good conversations and those made me think about my recent reactions and feelings to dancing. I also had some great dancing practices, like Thursday's Tango class where I felt like I gained an insight to better following. I also learned the basics to Swingsamba, a fun and energetic dance danced to a fast Samba music. Wednesday's Zouk class left a nasty bruise to my right arm and convinced me that I really have to learn to spin properly. My thoughts are still finding their right place inside my head, but I feel like I'm on the right way to a deeper relationship to dancing.
Okay, I'm off to my evening lecture now (and my Zouk class after that), but I'll take my camera with me to Prague and let you know all the highlights of the festival when I come back.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
My dance roller-coaster has slowly started to go up. I must admit that I dug quite deep this week, as many noticed from my previous posting, but now I'm feeling a lot better and already looking forward to next week's dancing.
This week I managed to go to three dance parties: Tuesday to Havanna's bachata night, Thursday to Cuba's Tropicoco party and Friday to Pohjalaisten Tanssikerho's ballroom and folk dance party. Thursday I was super tired after my dance practices though, so I mostly skipped dancing there. Havanna's Tuesday nights have been more and more quiet lately and Cuba didn't fill up on Thursday either. I wonder where people go dancing nowadays. Let me know if you find out!
Wednesday's and Thursday's dance practices went good. I especially liked F&A's lesson which focused mostly on followers' body movement and control. In addition to the regular practices I had a Tango practice with one dancer from HOT-Dancing courses on Saturday. He had taken an intensive course on Finnish Tango and wanted to practice some things they went through there with me. I took his offer with a will since I haven't been dancing Tango that much and it is a dance I really want to learn more. I felt like I got a lot from our practice especially when it comes to stepping technique. I noticed that my stepping is quite good when I move forward but going backward doesn't go that smoothly. I also have a tendency to take my steps too early. I hope that we will find some more time to practice together so I can try to fix some of the problems I'm having in the technique. It is great to notice the things I have to concentrate to. If I don't know my weaknesses it is hard to know how to overcome them.
Today I had a hang over practice with JV. My friend had a birthday party and we ended up partying hard and late last night. I was really close cancelling the whole practice after waking up at 3pm and feeling not that energetic but I'm glad I didn't: after the practice I felt a lot better and it was a great practice. Taking F&A's classes have helped me tremendously to put my focus on certain things I have to work with in Zouk. I know what I have to do different but I just have to get those things to my body's memory by repeating them again and again. It was also nice to notice how much JV has been improving in Zouk lately. F&A's teachings are already showing outcomes in many zoukkers!
I think that next week I won't have time for social dancing that much but maybe it is a good thing to take one week easy before Prague's Zouk festival in the end of this month. Only couple of weeks to go, can't wait!
"I really enjoyed dancing with you" might be the best thing to hear after dancing with someone. When I heard that last night in the dance floor I realized how good it made me feel, and also that I haven't been getting that kind of feedback for a long time. I think I found out the reason why I haven't been enjoying dancing that much lately: a lack of positive feedback.
I appreciate when someone advices me what I should do different in my dancing because it really helps me to improve, but if the only reactions I get are negative I cannot help thinking that I must be doing everything wrong. It might also have an influence that both Mr A. and Michaelo expressed me last week their intentions to move over to other dance partners. So is it really so that I am doing something terribly wrong?
Yes, there are hundreds of things I still need to learn and yes, I haven't been progressing that much lately, but no, I don't think I've started to do something so different people suddenly started to dislike dancing with me. Sometimes it just would be nice to hear someone else saying me that! I realized I have been starting to worry about if the people I dance with are not enjoying my dance company, and this is why I stopped asking anyone to dance with me. I have been stying passive beside the dance floor thinking if someone wants to dance with me he comes and asks me to dance. I don't know if its just that I've been looking so lonely out there or if there are dancers who actually like dancing with me, but I haven't been left alone.
I have to say that I am not that keen on the atmosphere where all people do is criticize others dancing and makes lists of people who are crappy dancers and who even crappier. I'm sorry if I got this wrong but I thought dancing wasn't a privilege of only perfect dancers? If you don't want to dance with the dancers you think are crappy, just don't. But while doing so don't take away their enjoyment and push them down with your spiky comments. What I think would be better, though, is to concentrate on the things others are good at and encourage them to develop those.
I admit that sometimes I forget to give positive feedback myself and I should work on that. I bet there is no one who wouldn't like receiving some positive comment after a shared dance. So next time you liked dancing with someone, why wouldn't you just tell him/her that?
When last week was awesome when it comes to dancing, this week has been a descent from that peak. I have had a feeling that I'm not going anywhere and that suddenly my dancing has become horrible. I wonder why my dance feelings have been going up and down so much lately. This dancing roller-coaster effects to my other parts of life so much that I feel unbalanced all the time. How annoying!
When I think of it, the week didn't start that badly after all (maybe it is just this weekend that is pushing me down atm?). Tuesday's Zouk&Kizomba night in Havanna wasn't a great success when it comes to the amount of dancers, but I stayed there longer than I planned which is always a sign of good dancing. I was pleased to dance some Kizomba and think back the things I learned in the Kizomba festival. On Wednesday Michaelo surprised me and came to Freddy & Andressa's Zouk class even though before he had made clear to me he is not going there. The class was exactly the way I wanted it to be: learning the rules of Rio style Zouk and concentrating on the small things that matter. Even the most simple things aren't that simple when done properly! I am so happy I am now having this opportunity to learn the basics right and (hopefully) lift my zoukking to a new level.
Thursday's dance lessons were quite exhausting. First two hours of dancing Bugg almost non-stop followed with an intensive Samba lesson. I was so tired when I got home! Samba isn't one of the easiest ballroom dances I must say, but in the end of the lesson I had a feeling that I was getting into the dance. Since it is so new dance for me it is a good thing that we are having Samba in the advanced class for the next three weeks. Maybe after the month I can finally do social dance Samba!
Hmm, maybe it is better if I just skip the weekend's happenings. All I can say that it wasn't the best weekend I've had. But the good thing about roller-coasters is that after a downhill slope there usually is a rise.
It has been one year now since I started dancing. During that year I have spent countless of hours in different dance floors, met dozens of new amazing people and learnt so much about myself. I seriously cannot imagine my life without dancing anymore. Sounds maybe corny but dancing has changed me. I have had my ups and downs but in the end I am just so happy that I have found something that I enjoy doing so much.
I have traveled a long way from a curious girl to a dancer who knows what she wants from dancing. I cannot say that I am a beginner anymore but the more I learn the more it makes me realize how much I still need and want to learn. In the beginning it was easy to take big leaps, and that gave me a lot of motivation. It was great to make people gasp by telling how short time I had been dancing and to get comments like "no way you have been dancing only for three months!". Well, it doesn't go like that anymore, and sometimes I find myself worrying that I am not getting forward at all. Then I just have to remind myself what is the reason why I dance: for enjoyment and for having fun.
What I find both beautiful and sad about dancing is that the special moments are there just for a short time. When the song is over, so is the feeling and connection that I got during the dance. I can have many great moments but every time they are different. Many say that you should live in the moment and in dancing it is exactly that, enjoying the short moment as much as you can before it vanishes. Therefore dancing can be deceiving: it can hook you up to the good feeling of those short moments, but since they are gone as fast as they came it makes you crave for more. It is so easy to let yourself drown into the world of dancing and forget other things that are important in life. Finding balance has been a big lesson for me during this year.
Even though I have come a long way during this year, I have even loner way to go. If I want to become the kind of dancer I want to be I need to keep on moving forward. Nothing endures but change.
As I told already before, last weekend I got to know to a new dance in a three-day Kizomba festival. During the weekend we had in total 12 hours of teaching from João Rocha and Mafalda Amado who came to visit Finland for the festival. On Friday we started with basics, on Saturday continued to some figures and body movement and on Sunday finished with tarraxinha, Semba and Kizomba with Tango flavor. We were able to put everything learned into practice on Friday's and Saturday's parties. Added with Sunday's Zouk practica, basically all I did during the weekend was dancing! No wonder the days passed past so fast.
What distinguishes Kizomba from other pair dances I've danced, is the emphasized importance of a connection with your partner. Leading in Kizomba is really delicate and soft (if done correctly!), so you really have to be able to listen the lead and synchronize yourself to your partner's movement. You dance really close to your dance partner and most of the leading is done with chest, but also with legs and thighs. In Kizomba its all about small things and movements, so it is not a dance to entertain viewers but a dance to be enjoyed by the dance partners. Because there aren't any big or complicated figures, the body control and basic movement is a key word to this dance. Many are happy just to do the basic steps for the whole dance but then again they need to be done correctly.
What I found to be the hardest thing learning Kizomba from the very beginning was the movement of hips. The basic movement isn't from side to side or eight-shaped, like in many Latin dances, but from back to forward, and this felt quite unnatural for me, especially in the beginning. The steps and figures aren't hard, and I didn't find following that difficult after realizing the points where pay attention to. Actually I got a lot of good feedback about my following from several leaders. Closing your eyes helps with the following and finding the connection. So Kizomba isn't too hard dance to start with, but mastering it needs lots and lots from body control!
As you might know, rhythmically Kizomba and Zouk music are quite alike, and Zouk can be danced into Kizomba music and vice versa. Maybe because the two dances are so different, Kizomba dancers seem to hate Zouk dancers and Zouk dancers have the same feelings about Kizomba dancers. When me and Michaelo danced Zouk before the classes started on Saturday, the teacher switched of the music and announced loudly: "Okay guys, one thing clear: NO Zouk!!" What if I want to be both Zouk and Kizomba dancer? Are both Zouk and Kizomba dancers going to dislike me then? No seriously talking, I really like both of the dances and would like to continue dancing also Kizomba.
Talking about Zouk, I have some happy news to tell: the Finnish zoukers are now having professional teaching here in Helsinki starting this week! Freddy and Andressa moved here to give us lessons, and for now they are staying for three months, but if everything goes well they will stay longer. So yesterday they gave a short Zouk class in Sunday's practica which was crowded. This is such an amazing opportunity to finally learn this challenging dance, so I just had to take it even though the classes are quite expensive, especially for me as a student. But how disapponted would I be if Freddy and Andressa left after the three months and I didn't take their classes? So from this week on I will be taught by professional dancers every week for three months! How exiting!
Last but not least, here is a video from the festival where João and Mafalda show most of the movements and figures they taught us during the weekend.
Before I hit today's Kizomba classes I would like to share a video from yesterday's beginner Kizomba class. Our teacher, João and Mafalda, are just amazing dancers! Look at Mafalda's body control, wow! The moment she started moving she became my Kizomba idol.
The class concentrated to really basic things and was more informative than dancing, but since I haven't taken any Kizomba classes it was just perfect. Every dance is about mastering the basics, especially Kizomba. The only bad thing was that there were not enough leaders, not even when many girls took the leader role. Anyway, I will write some more about the festival after the weekend.
After the classes we had a Kizomba party at Havanna. I started to wonder if I have been going to the place too much lately when the door man suggested me leaving my bag to their coatroom so I wouldn't have to carry it back and forth all the time...
Hello my dear readers! I update this week's feelings only quickly, because I know that dancing will take all of my free time for the rest of the week. And what a dance week it has been! I have left all my practices with a huge smile on my face. It is like an unstoppable dance drive would have taken over me! What is more, the week will keep on going even better since I will attend Kizomba festival from Friday to Sunday.
On Tuesday I went to Pohjalaisten tanssikerho to check out their ballroom classes. They have the same teacher as HOT-Dancing have in their advanced classes, and the minute I walked in he came to me and announced that my level might be too high for these classes. It was great to hear that I am a higher level dancer, even though I am not sure what he really meant by that. At least he was right saying that the level of leaders was lower than in HOT-Dancing, and I could say that there were quite many beginners even in the advanced class. I am not sure if I keep on going there, but I was pleased to learn quite a new dance for me: Jive. Nic did teach me some competition Jive but I never really got into the dance. It shows now that dancing other ballroom dances helps to learn new ones, so it was quite easy to catch the basics. It is always a great feeling to notice own improvement in just 1,5 hours! After the classes I felt like going home but got myself going to Havanna's Bachata night and that was a decision not to regret. Somehow I just got the dancing mood really fast and enjoyed the social dancing a lot.
Wednesday me and Michaelo started to think about our choreography after reviewing some figures and doing some technique practices. I already got a strong vision of it, though I'm not sure if I am able to do all that technically. It felt like we hadn't seen each other for a long time; right, we had to skip the weekend practice but it was only a week without seeing each other! How weird. After our practice I met up with Mr A. and danced random ballroom dances with him. He told me some news that were good and bad at the same time: he had decided to reduce dancing. Yes, you have been dancing too much so I am happy for your decision, but just do not abandon me, will you?!
Today we had Waltz and Slow Waltz in HOT's intermediate class and dance technique in advanced class. It doesn't come as a surprise that I especially liked the technique class but I also like the way you really have to concentrate on your core during Waltz. Today was maybe the first time I was able to follow our intermediate class' teacher properly and he didn't find anything negative to comment. Yay! I also got some good feedback from other dancers and I felt like I improved as a follower during the technique session. It would be great to have more these kind of classes, and I am not the only one thinking this way.
So it has been a great week and I am really looking forward the weekend's Kizomba Festival. I have never been in Kizomba classes and been dancing it only mostly with Michaelo (Michaelo said I am his Kizomba extension!) so I am hoping to get a lot our of the happening. I don't know if it is the springlike weather or what, but I have been feeling really energetic this week and the strong joy of dancing has hit me hard! Whatever it is, I am hoping this feeling is here to stay.
