Life Without Dancing Is Like...

... Food without spices.
... Rainbow without colors.
... Computer without keyboard.
... Love without affection.
... Summer without sun.
... Nightclub without music.
... The perfect moment without anyone to share it with.
... Blueberry muffin without blueberries.
... Credit card without credit.
... Skating without ice skates.
... Sex without an orgasm.
... Forest without trees.
... Crying without tears.
... House without a door.
... Friendship without trust.
... Candy without sugar.
... Social media without users.
... Having cheese without good wine.
... Money without value.
... Sky without stars.
... Living without never being in love.


There is just that something missing.

Assume Nothing, Dream Big.

Last week was an exception to my normal dance full life. I think the last time I had as few dancing as last week was on January! Well, I hope my hard work with my law books pays off and I'll pass the exam I studied so hard for. On Wednesday and Thursday I had to do some zoukking though or else I would have gone crazy, and Wednesday's Zouk class did save my otherwise horrible day. Seriously, I felt like hitting my head against the wall before the class. Its amazing how dancing can change my mood completely. On Thursday I went to meet some zouk-newbies to Polijazz's dance and hang-out event. I tried to teach Zouk to a total beginner and since I have no idea how the leaders' steps go (or how to lead for that matter!) my teaching went like "okay, lead me here when I'm about to step with my left foot here" and "yes, that feels like you're doing it right, good!". Pathetic. Now, many of you leaders who have been telling me I should learn to lead must be saying I told you so, but you know I first have to master following before stepping to the other side! And after all I was able to teach him the things I wanted.

On Friday I was planning on going to a Salsa party but I felt more like clubbing. I have learned that if I go out dancing when I don't really feel like it my mood usually don't change during the night and I end up feeling like an outsider. So instead of dancing I went to see some dancing: Finnish National Ballet had this 1,5 hour free ballet performance in the Senate Square. It was so packed I was lucky to find a seat, but definitely worth going to. They had at least dozen of short choreography from classical ballet to contemporary dance and many tasters from the ballets they were having during the spring term. Not surprisingly, my favorite piece was a romantic pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, ah! By the way, the Ballet is going to have the same performance in many other Finnish cities so you can still go and see it yourself!

Saturday was an exciting day because the FinZouk performance team had their premiere in HSA's dance party. It was the first Zouk group choreography ever performed in Finland! Great job everyone, it was so beautiful and the audience loved it! I loved seeing everyone so excited about their performance. It made me think back to my first dance performance last December and all those big feelings I was having back then. I videotaped the performance but I'll post a better quality video here later. The evening's party was also great even though the place was so hot it was like dancing in a sauna! Seriously. Here are some pictures I took from the other performances they had in the party:

The performance team had another show the next day in the World Village Festival and also I jumped in to dance some freestyle Zouk with them. My Sunday evening was spent in the Opera, dancing Salsa and hanging out in the sunshine but before that I had my week's only dance practice, this time with Big O. He gave me amazingly good feedback from my zoukking. This is exactly what I need to improve: someone to push me do things differently than what I'm used to. For example, he noticed that I'm stepping some of my steps too early. I have no idea how I have been able to follow the lead while doing this all the time! Life is full of surprises.

Music Makes Me Lose Control.

I'm addicted to music. I don't go a single day without listening to music. Whenever I wake up or come home the first thing I do is open my laptop and put on some music. Whenever I feel happy I put on energetic and fun music, and if I feel down I play really sad songs. My friends must have been used to my comments like "why there is no music?!" when I pop up to their place. It feels weird to be in silence.  I guess listening to music would go but I have a tendency to sing and, of course, dance to the music. I can't really help it, my body just starts moving! Good thing that I've never owned a mp3 player so I don't start dancing in a bus or somewhere people would think I've gone crazy.

At the moment I'm listening to Bachata and hoping that tomorrow evening would come fast so I could go dancing Bachata to Havanna. I'm also looking forward meeting N Girl tomorrow and hear all about her Zouk trip to Amsterdam (jealous!!!). She better teach me everything she learned there or...well, I get more jealous!

Now I can feel how badly addicted I am when I'm having my day off from dancing. I feel so restless! Well, this week I have to concentrate on my Friday's big exam and take it slow with dancing. Good thing is that this weekend is going to be full of dance parties. I'm also hoping that some dancers would show up to World Village festival for couple of random dances (wink wink!). Ohh, weekend come quickly pleaaase...

Oh btw, I'm having my birthday party together with Michaelo on June 29th so reserve that from your calendar. We are going to perform our first choreography there so you don't want to miss it. We started to work on that couple of weeks ago and, trust me, it is going to be awesome! Now we just have to find a good place to dance, chill, party and have crazy fun. Let me know if you have any good suggestions.

Photos by Jukka Laurila from HOT Spring Party.

Mission(s) Accomplished!

This week ended up being a good dance week even though it first seemed to become quiet. Actually Monday was the only day I didn't go dancing. As always, I spent Tuesday evening in Havanna's dance floor and Wednesday I had Zouk practice with Michaelo before my Zouk class. Thursday was a national holiday so I was able to arrange two dance practices for the day, both of which went really great. Friday I had Finnish Tango practice and also went to a free Kizomba class to Alppila Latin Social. On Saturday I gave a dance lesson with Mr A. to bachelorette party group and on Sunday evening I danced surprisingly lot Salsa in Opera. Not bad at all, right? Also, on Saturday evening me and Michaelo decided to give it another try to our let's-get-drunk-evening after faling badly the other time, and this time it was a success. So the week was not only full of dancing but also gave me some good discussions about dancing.

The bachelorette party thing was a fun incident. The group were going to lavatanssit later that evening so Mr A. taught them some Foxtrot and Fusku. The girls were a bit more concentrated on their sparkling wine than dancing and had hardly any dancing experience so it wasn't the easiest group to teach. But at least I had lots of fun as they seemed to have too. After me and Mr A. gave them a short demo I realized that one year ago I would have watched our dancing the same way the girls did, hoping that I would be able to dance like that. I have come so far during this year and I have to say that I am pretty proud about that. I still have a long way to go but one year ago I would have never guessed how much I've already reached.

I thought it was funny that the only question coming out from the bachelorette party group was that what do I do if I find out that the guy I'm dancing with gets a hard-on! Strangely, I have never really thought about that. Well, I'm not going to go deeper into that topic but instead post some pictures from Alppila's Kizomba class:

On the Opera Salsa I got a surprising comment about my dancing. This girl I've never met before came to me and asked if I was a dancer and said that she loved the way I danced Bachata. "I would have paid to watch that kind of dancing" she added. How happy I was to hear that, especially when I haven't been taking any Bachata classes! Lately I have also been getting comments from people who recognize me from this blog. "You're the dance blogger!". How celebrity-like feeling!

I'd Rather Dance With You.

Last weekend was supposed to be a dance free one because my mum and sister came to visit me (and there were no weekend dance parties in Helsinki. Again, second weekend a row! I'm getting worried about the city's dance scene...). However, here I am, my thighs actually hurting from dancing. I met up with N Girl and Eazy on Saturday for Zouk ladies styling practice that I found very useful. We went through the videos we took from Prague's ladies styling classes and Andressa's workshop, and concentrated to the basic things. It was great to have the girls there to give some feedback and explain how they do the things I have problems with. I felt like I now have a better idea of my body work. Thanks honeys, let's do this again some time soon!

Pretty girl <3

Later that evening I went to Zouk Social to HSA. Before I went there I was a bit worried how the evening would turn out because there were no one else than JV from my "regular" zouk leaders coming, and usually I dance just with those leaders. This was actually a good thing because now I had to dance with new people (and they had to dance with me because there weren't that many people, ha!), and I had so much fun! I was really happy to find good connection with some that I hadn't had that before, yay! I now notice how much I have learned during the last few months I've been taking F&A's classes. My body work had started to look like I'm actually dancing Rio style Zouk and not something that reminds that. My following has also gone a lot better I think. And it is not just me who has improved but all the people taking their classes. After a while we'll have great Zouk scene here and a lot new dancers. How awesome is that!

On sunny Sunday evening I found myself in Opera Salsa. I didn't spend that much time on the dance floor but enough to keep me warm in the gradually cooling evening. It is going to be so nice when it gets a little bit warmer, hmmm. I don't know if its the weather or what but I've noticed that all I've been wanting to do lately is dancing. No motivation for studying tax law what so ever. Today I watched my calendar and felt bad not having enough dancing there for this week. Well, maybe I'll figure something out. At least I can always force someone to have a dance practice with me!

POT Sping Party.

A month ago I had never been in Smökki and last Thursday was already the third time I went to a dance party there! This time it was time for POT's spring party and I absolutely loved the evening. Even though I know there are going to be lots of possibilities for social dancing during the summer I am going to miss these kind of parties. They had a live band Hurma playing, and of course I had to test their dancing skills. As a result I can say that they can play music a way better than dance. But they do know how to play well.

I got this idea I would take a picture of every dancer I dance with and would comment their dancing here, but then I thought that after a while no one would dance with me again! And how weird it would be to ask for a picture after every single dance... Besides, dancing with someone depends on many things, not just how "good" dancers they are. So here are just some random pictures from the evening.

 

My one and only Mr A.

Yum!

Who are those weird dancers over there? Oh, the zoukkers...

Notice the interesting sounding dance styles like moshaus or hiidas valssi.

I must say that in my opinion POT's spring party was a bit better than the one HOT had. The band worked better and I also liked the DJ's choices even though some songs were quite challenging to dance. It might just be that I had really good dancing feeling that night and I had many great dances and also got some new good connections. I danced so much that I was completely exhausted when I got home. I think I was really sound asleep that I didn't move a muscle because when I woke up it was hard to feel my body. At least I slept well! Thank you for the organizers!

Happy B-day JV!

It was weird that there were no dance parties last weekend in Helsinki. Fortunately JV threw a birthday party in Smökki where all his dancer friends had a possibility to dance Zouk, Kizomba, Salsa, Bachata and other dances. Firstly I have to say my huge thanks to JV for the great party and secondly big congrats for reaching thirty! I had a great dance feeling and really good time.

"Hey let's take a picture before my hair gets all messed up!"

Happy birthday JV!!

Me & JV, how cute we look!

Okay, they look even cuter together.

All the leaders got Hello Kitty party hats.

I don't wonder why people have this false idea that we're dating with Michaelo if we can take this cute pictures together! We have been even planning to make a Facebook relationship status saying "NOT in a relationship with.." if that was possible just to make it clear to everyone.

Speech!

Yes, this is just Pepsi we're drinking on our way to the city...

After the party we hit the city and continued dancing and partying in Milliklubi, after which we had an after party at Big O's that lasted until the morning (btw, thanks for the yummy breakfast Big O!). I can't remember the last time I was partying the whole night throuhg and I can tell you that the feeling I had on Sunday wasn't the best one! At least I made it to the opening of Opera Salsa in the evening and managed to dance couple of Salsas. After the Opera I spend rest of the evening hanging out half-sleep at N Girl's couch with a small group of dancers that I invited with us. I have never been a kind of group person but I have a feeling that this summer I am going to have my own tight group of dancer friends to hang out with. I really like that feeling.

[Edit] I forgot to add JV's birthday roda, so here it is:

Recovery.

Last week I went to a workplace welfare training sessions that my office offered. They had a range of welfare related trainings, like mind, physical, recovery and career trainings but I decided to take nutrition training because I felt like I needed to check if I'm eating well and balanced enough taking into account that I do dance quite a lot. When I go dancing I don't want a lack of energy to keep me from going on, and that is not always easy thing to achieve. For example, it is hard to follow a rule like "eat every 3-4 hours" when a dance practice lasts four hours (like last Thursday) or when I go dancing to a dance party for the whole night. What I also find challenging is to find healthy and nutritious snacks to have during a busy day when I don't have time to eat properly before dancing.

I don't think of dancing as a form of doing sports. Before I started dancing I used to go to gym or aerobic classes many times a week and I loved doing hard work outs where I could push my body to its limits. I gave up my gym membership last summer when I noticed that dancing is taking so much of my time it didn't leave time for working out. Right, dancing has replaced the work outs as a form of doing sports, but my approach is totally different: I used to work out to keep fit, but I dance because I love dancing and also because dancing is a big part of my social life nowadays. However, there is no denying that dancing can consume a lot of energy and thats where proper nutrition steps in.

When I go dancing the time can fly and before I notice I have been dancing non-stop for three hours. The best parties are the ones where I don't leave the dance floor before I realize I need to take a short break to drink some water and check if my make up is still in the right place. If someone wanted to lose weight I could say s/he should start dancing because it just takes you with it. I am not the only one whose body had changed since I started dancing.

My friend suggested that I should take a heart rate monitor with me when I go to a dance party. Not a bad idea at all! I have no idea how much energy I am actually consuming or how high my pulse raises. I always have a feeling that I am not doing that much but there must be something behind those wet t-shirts I find wearing after dancing. Maybe it is because I got used to hard work outs and sore muscles that it is hard to think dancing as something I should also give my body time to recover from. If I think the last couple of moths, I have been dancing at least 4-5 times per week on average and I don't even want to count the total hours I've spent dancing! It was a good eye-opener when the coach in the nutrition training was calling dancing a physical training from where my body needs to recover from. After all, I want to keep good care of my body so that I can keep on doing what I love - dancing.

Well, I was happy to hear that my eating habits are pretty good and that I am having a balanced diet. What I should pay attention to is to have a good source of protein and carbohydrate in the meals I'm having before and after dancing. So no more crashing straight into my bed after coming home late from a dance party but first some energy for my body to start recovering and to get ready for the next dancing session.

Vappu!

Wohooo, what an awesome Vappu day I had! Just look at this atmosphere:

What a perfect day it was! Lots of sunshine, dancing and happy people. Great start for the summer!

By the way, I fell in love with Salsa again! So you'll definitely find me in Opera Salsa events throughout the whole summer.