Dancing Habits.

No one can say that I’m not open to try new things: last week I took my first ever Popping, Hip hop, Locking, House, Contemporary dance AND Ballet classes. Quite an achievement for one week isn’t it! I also went to couple of Fustra classes to find those tiny core muscles so important in dancing. Ouch, says my body and no wonder it does so: in addition to all the dance classes I had four Zouk practices (thanks Gaga, Michaelo, Carlos, N Girl and Big O. for those!) and finally Zouk practica on Sunday. Not mentioning Tuesday night in Havanna. As a balance, this week my dancing will be reduced almost to zero since I’m going to be out of town for most of the week, so I wouldn’t be expecting new postings about dancing for a while.

I have to tell you about this cute dance studio I went and fell in love with,Tamara Rasmussen dance school in Cable Factory. The school's main teacher is such a lovely person! The first thing she did was memorizing my name and making sure I feel welcomed and comfortable. Even though it seems that she is absorbed into her teaching, she is constantly observing all the students. Many times she came to me, pushed here and there to correct my stance or movements and didn't forget to encourage. "Yes Riikka, that's it! Very well done!". All classes started with simply walking around the classroom, but to walk correctly can be harder than you think. Feel all weight on my foot, push from the back foot, concentrate to the hip, find the balance, be ready, relax and breathe free, I kept repeating to myself. In the end of the class she turned to us, smiled warm and said: "it was such a nice class today, thank you all for making it so pleasant!"

What I liked most about last week was that trying totally new things made me realize some dancing habits I have especially in Zouk. You know, some of those things you just always make, maybe even without noticing. The problem can be that you don’t know what else to do so you just stick with the old and safe things. Or maybe your muscle memory is just stronger than your will; we all know how irritating that can be! Inspired by the new dance styles I tried to get something from them and put them into my Zouk dancing. Right, maybe many of them didn’t work but throwing my dance habits away for a while was quite relaxing and fun. I should make a habit out of challenging my habits!

Do you have any dancing habits?