Twentythree.

And so Michaelo went back home, reminding me once again how short time I have left: 23 days to be exact. He was replaced by my best friend and soon also my family is coming over. Now is the time of my trip to go sightseeing in and around Brisbane that I have been saving for my visitors. Its going to be lots of adventures and unforgettable memories! Unfortunately, all this will mean a lot less dancing. With Michaelo it was easy, because he is as much dance addict as I am, but taking a non-dancer to a dance party... just doesn't work. It means either that the non-dancer will be super bored while I am in the dance floor or that I will feel horrible not being able to go to the dance floor while keeping company to the other. One thing is for sure though: I will need my dance fix every week or else I'll get restless. I just have to make sure my friend has something to do while I go and dance my heart out. It is not that I don't want to spend my time with her, but that I'm simply addicted to dancing.

Okay, lets get into the topic of dancing and something that many dancers do to improve: private classes. During the two years of dancing I have never done a private dance class. I've had plenty of one-on-one dance practices but never a real private. Last Thursday changed the situation, but I didn't settle just for one: I had my first private as a student as well as a teacher!

Luckily, I was able to exchange the prizes we won in the Zouk competition to a private from Kadu and Larissa and make it happen before Michaelo headed back to Finland. We were both pretty excited about the class, taken that these teachers were the first Zouk idols we both had when starting dancing Zouk. I remember us watching their videos together, being amazed of their technique and precise movements. And there we were, going to their private that we won from a competition organized by them. You can imagine the child-like wide smiles on our faces.

I don't know how privates usually go, but what I wanted out of it was corrections and 'cleaning' of my Zouk technique, not any new movements or figures. The feedback we got was really positive and there weren't any major issues to correct. Kadu spoke well especially of our musicality. However, we both got some good tips of some smaller things we could pay attention to. It was more talking than dancing really, which I found good because we can practice the small details later together now that we are aware of those. I got at least two new things to concentrate on that I haven't realized doing badly before. It was also good to learn of their styling that is in some parts quite different to Freddy and Andressa's. All in all, very successful first private and I have already been trying the new things out while social dancing.

What comes to the private as a teacher, one dancer contacted me to give him a Kizomba class after dancing with me in DouDouLe. I wanted to give him a good start to the dance and asked Michaelo to help me with the class. I'm very happy with the results he made and hopefully gave him motivation to keep on learning more, even though unfortunately we won't be able to have another class with him. Wow, my first dollars earned as a dancer, how cool is that!

Another thing about teaching Kizomba happened last Wednesday when me and Michaelo organized a Kizomba evening at my place. As I have been saying before, I have been missing dancing Kizomba in Brisbane and I think that the approach to the dance here is wrong in a sense that the focus is somewhere else than in the connection which I regard as the most important thing in Kizomba; it is like two bodies moving as one. The evening had great turn over and our living room was filled with eager and well-motivated dancers. We concentrated on the fundamentals and tried to make the people to understand the feeling and basic movement of the dance. Everybody seemed happy with our approach and I had a feeling that everybody really wanted to listen carefully what we were saying and teaching. After the class we had couple of hours of free dancing and I simply loved the view of my living room full of couples concentrating on their connection, eyes closed and soft smile on their face. Later many of the attendees have been coming to me saying that these kind of home Kizomba evenings should become a regularity, because they loved the evening so much.

I don't know if it is the awareness that I am leaving soon, but I now seem to get even more out of the social dancing. Last Friday the Brisbane Zouk dancers were spoiled with choice when there were three parties to go to. It is great to have a choice but it meant less dancers for each party. I went for Zouk and the City party at Normanby hotel which wasn't that huge success, but I nevertheless had many amazing dances there that were a stand out from the hundreds (or more likely thousands) of dances I've had here. Also Saturday's 50/50 party included some mind-blowing dances with many dancers. You know, those kind of dances after which you are just speechless. I also had my first really great Zouk with Kadu for which I was super happy about. I haven't had sore feet from dancing for a while, so I must have spend quite some time on the dance floor during those nights, even though it didn't feel like that at all. Amazing dancing nights, simply amazing.

There is one thing I must criticize though, and this must result from the awareness that I am leaving soon. There are many dancers I want to dance with and especially now I don't want to miss the last chances to dance with them. In Saturday's party there were many moments when I was clearly going towards someone to ask him to dance with me, when another dancer suddenly grabbed my back and stopped me. In this kind of moment it didn't matter who it was stopping me, but it was hard to enjoy the next dance with him because of the way our dance started. For me it is really hard to say no if asked for a dance, but it doesn't mean that I'm a fare game whenever walking free in a dance party. If I need to get a zip of water or have a short break, I do it clearly by walking away from the dance floor, avoiding taking any eye-contact and placing myself somewhere as far away from the dance floor as possible. If I am clearly making an eye-contact with someone I'd like to dance the next song with, and walking towards him, it doesn't mean that anyone who is faster getting a hold on me, would be entitled to have that dance instead. I have even been taken away after I started the dance with someone else ("hey, I think its my turn now, if you don't mind" - well, I do!). Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I can spend the whole night in the dance floor without asking anyone to dance myself, but there should be some manners, don't you agree.

So, 23 days to go. Another 23 amazing days.