Excuse Dancing.

You know the feeling when you are supposed to do something not that exciting, let's say study for an exam, you always find out other things you "have" to do, like doing dishes or cleaning your apartment. Lately, I must admit, I've been doing some excuse dancing. You see, since my rental contract runs out in the end of this year I still have one “small” task to do before my Christmas holidays: to pack all my belongings and take them along with me to my mum’s place in Jyväskylä.

Lots of dancing things happened last week even though I was super busy with finalizing my studies before the exchange, the most significant being of course the Zouk show in salsa school Baila Baila’s Christmas party.  Even though my performance wasn't the best I could have done, I'm still really happy how it went. No performance can be perfect, there is always something to improve. I’ve got some feedback that it stood out in a positive way from the other shows and that it looked professional. The best feedback I've got have been, however, that we were able to express the feelings strong. One of my friend even said that she almost cried when she saw the video!

What comes to ballroom dancing I spent my Thursday evening last week in HOT's classes: first two hours of free dancing followed with a two-hour class of Lindy Hop. Geez, swing dances are so hard for me! I almost gave up in the middle of the class but then I reminded myself how important it is to step out of my comfort zone every once in a while. That paid off and in the end of the class I was finally able to get a small hang out of the dance. After the class I even got a surprising question: "You must have been dancing Lindy before, right?" Also HOT's Christmas party on Friday was great, as expected. This time it was held in Otaniemi and we had a live band, Hurma, playing music for us. The evening went as usual: I went to the dance floor and five hours later I noticed it was already time to go home. So unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the party this time.

Last Sunday then again, we had the last Zouk practica for the year. We had a reason to celebrate not only because how great the year 2012 was zouk-wise but also because F&A had been granted a permission to stay in Finland. I am so happy for them! And happy for all the Zouk dancers in Finland! It is amazing to have these professionals here to teach us. In addition we had a Jack and Jill competition that was super fun!

Cheers!

The tough judges.

The finalists...

Who all became winners! Congrats!

This week... well, I was supposed to pack but I haven't even started! Somehow I managed to book dance practices for each evening: CI/Zouk on Monday, Tuesday Zouk practice with Carlos, Wednesday leading and ladies styling with Gaga and Thursday practice first with Mr A. and then with Big O. Uupsie! And soon I'm heading for last ballroom dance party for the year. Its going to be a busy day tomorrow!

No regrets though. Dancing is the best excuse there is.