Last year's Dance With Dancers event was so great that I just couldn't skip it this year either. It's a dance event organized by the Finnish National Ballet in Alumnisali in the Opera. The night includes lots of different dance shows plus a band and a DJ to make the audience dance in between the shows. This time there the audience were treated with ballet, contemporary dance, pole art, competition dance etc. Great night and I was even able to dance some Zouk with Michaelo there! A definite must-go for next year too.
So, what has been going on in my dance life this fall? Well, I haven't been able to dance as much as I have done before. I had to stop my regular Zouk classes and settle just taking some F&A's drop-ins every now and then. This month my Australian friend come to visit me, so its been even more quiet time for dancing. One new thing that I started on September was Voguing, and those dance classes have definitely been my Wednesdays' saviors! Voguing classes are really my only regular dance classes I'm taking at the moment so there is a huge change to my previous 3-4 dance classes per week rhythm. I am already seeing the negative results of this change: I am now stuck to my current level and not proceeding anywhere. The ones who continued with F&A's classes have already created a gab between those who left the group.
I also feel like there haven't been that many chances to go social dancing this fall. I was really looking forward the Zouk Sunday practicas to start again but there has been some problems with a place to hold it. However, now we are gathering every Sunday at 6pm to Kisahalli, so come to say hello to me there! There hasn't been much dance parties either and of course I was out of the country when Finzouk had the 2nd anniversary Zouk party in Helsinki. The best dance parties I've been this fall have been HOT's parties. Well, there would be many Salsa parties around but I still haven't found a Salsa dancer inside me. Maybe I should go to some Salsa classes or something.
Another thing is that taking the intensive Mzouk course might have affected my Rio style in a negative way, a least until now. So all in all, if I'm thinking of my technique, it hasn't been a good fall at all. Then again, I have been able to shake off some of my self-criticism when most of the chances for dancing are most simply for pleasure and not for learning technique. In this sense this more quiet period might have done some good for me after all. It has also shown that there are other lovely things than dancing out there too - something I sometimes seem to forget when dancing takes over me.
After the FREACA competitions I started to wonder with Michaelo what's next. Practicing for the competitions was a good and motivating target for our practices but since either of us are now taking regular classes, having one-to-one practices with no new material to work with sounded quite useless. We came to a conclusion that we would still have time to make a choreography before I leave, so he arranged us to one dance event to perform it. Its going to be a busy two months to work with the show for December though! (Well, actually Michaelo already made a first draft of the choreo while I was traveling in Portugal.) So at least these practices will bring some more dancing to the rest of the year. Also I'm really excited about the Zouk festival in Helsinki next month. I know it's going to offer the kind of dance parties I've been waiting for.
Yesterday I actually had quite a nice dancing night in HOT's party. I was supposed to go there just for couple of dances but stayed until the end. I was feeling somehow surreal on my way to the party but dancing helped me once again to get my mind off from my mixed and confused feelings. Dancing is such a great and fast way to escape reality. Fast but treacherous.
Till the end, here you can find a video of me dancing in one of the Sunday practicas: http://youtu.be/1Ue2ZtEwIZ0.
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