Snow Coast Swing 2014.

The last couple of months I have been learning to take big dance steps because in Zouk leaving enough space between your feet gives so much better balance especially in the movements where you tilt your body in some angle. So this weekend I had to keep on repeating myself constantly: small steps, small steps. You see, I had my first WCS weekend for the year, Snow Coast Swing in Tampere.

I haven't been doing anything for my WCS this year: no classes, no practices, no parties, no youtubing, nothing. Some of the WCS dancers have been organizing regular parties in Helsinki so actually I would have had a chance to at least go there. But the whole dance somehow took a back seat in my dance life and I slowly started to forget why the dance got me hooked in the first place. I had forgotten it so badly that I wasn't really that excited about the weekend beforehand, but the weekend was the best reminder I could have gotten at this point. Good classes, nice socials, new and old friends and couple of those great dances in the dance floor that just makes your weekend worth the lack of sleep. It is always nice to see own improvement in a short period of time and I feel that I went at least a bit forward with my basic technique.

It is not nice to jump from more advanced dancer to the beginner level, and the fact that I still can't do WCS's basic step even in an unremarkable way, drives me nuts. I try and try, think and think, but no. But to be honest, and I don't mean to be cruel, I'm not the only one here in Finland. It is really awesome that there are a lot of people in the events like these, but the truth is that most of us are still quite lost. Lost in a sense that when you look the general view it looks so messy. However, it is great that we have opportunities like these to learn also from dancers outside Finland. It is not that I would say that I'm better than others but I've been in a scene with good WCS dancers in Brisbane and we're oh still so far from that. Anyway, easy does it.

I learned couple of good things to keep in mind when dancing WCS, most importantly that less is more. In our Zouk classes we have been learning to make big movements, use the whole body to those. Sorry, doesn't work in WCS. Better to keep everything calm and simple. Move only one part of the body at a time. I need to clam down my hands, calm down my body and hips. Maybe for the first time I had a object for the evening's dance party. I decided that I would try not to do any crazy movements, just concentrate on keeping the movement like a tranquil sea. Setting one goal like this is, by the way, a good way to get something into your basic dancing if you keep the goal in your mind the whole party.

The addictive part of these kind of events is that they make you want more. So, anyone willing to register with me to the FinnFest West Coast Swing Festival in June?!