Two Strangers.

Since that night it was clear we needed to dance again soon. So we did.

My lucky day, Friday the 13th. My heart was beating faster than normal when I walked to pick him up. Smile. Hug. Long hug.

We didn’t care it was a Kizomba party that night; we zoukked it up. Only few dancers showed up – great, more space to dance, we both noted. First dance since then and we couldn’t hide our smiles. After that, there was no one else. Connection, laugh, play, joy. Long talks ‘till early hours. Who is this stranger with who I connect so perfectly?

Breakfast, our first practice. Amazing brunch, nap, another practice, dinner. Sleep-eat-dance kind of a day, just the way we both imagine a perfect day to be like. Like our own private dance festival weekend. Conveniently, a beautiful Valentine’s Day zouk party just happened to be on town. I couldn’t stop dancing with him in my mind even when dancing with others. Our special connection was too obvious to hide. Last dance and there was no doubt with who we both wanted to dance it with.

Slow Sunday for sharing our thoughts of dancing and dance stories. Way too much in common. Off to yet another practice that turned out the most fun and inspiring practice ever. Suddenly the stranger didn’t feel like a stranger at all.

Off to work half-sleep – it seemed we had too much to talk about. Testing our dance connection in a tango class. Wow, we just work together. One more dance party where we could go crazy. And crazy we went.

It is just amazing what dancing can bring into my life. The weekend was so much more either of us ever expected. A beautiful start for a beautiful friendship between two dance-holics. Freaking intense.

Thank you Daniel. For the dances, the perfect moments, your openness, the laughs, for making me feel that everything just makes sense in this world.

Spring Season.

I had quite a kick off to this dance year by going to two dance weekends in a row: first to III Zouk Libre festival to Warsaw followed with Snow Coast Swing event in Tampere. What an amazing time I had in both of those! Especially Warsaw's trip was somehow just perfect... Better not to even get started about it! Here are few pictures caught from me dancing in the festival (credit goes to Berg Chabot):

Also the spring season for dancing has started well and there are now no need to worry how to fill up my evenings. I must admit, though, that I was a bit greedy with my dancing and practice schedule for this season. My weekly training program now looks like this:

Monday: two hours of Argentinean Tango in Tangokoulu
Tuesday: 1,5 hour WCS class in Rock’n’Roll Dance Club Comets and two Zouk classes in Rio Zouk Style
Wednesday: partner acrobatics practice followed with 75 min jazz dance class in Helsingin Tanssiopisto
Thursday: two Zouk classes in Rio Zouk Style

In addition, I got myself a gym membership in SatsElixia where I'm going 2-3 times/week (mostly morning workouts since all my evenings are "quite" full with dancing), and I also want to keep up with my weekly yoga practices. Then, of course, there are the social dancing evenings that I cannot miss, now regularly also on Thursdays in addition to Mondays (+ Zouk practica on Sundays). Not forgetting the weekend dance events that happen every now and then like it already did twice last month…

Now when I look at this little plan I have managed to make, I cannot help but to think: will my body really like to have this much activity on regular basis? Surely, dancing classes are not really that physically demanding, but nevertheless it should be good to have proper time for resting too. I don't want to spend half of the time getting sick of not having enough time for recovering and sleeping! Maybe the gym card was a bit too much…? And what about that other life I’m supposed to have? (oh I guess I forget to mention that I also have a full-time job nowadays?)

Yes, it might look a bit intense. However, I made a conscious decision to devote as much of my free time to dancing this year as needed to push my dancing forward. You see, something pretty exciting might just be coming my way this year ;)

By the way, since now I have been writing here under a nickname but I think it's time to throw that away. So hi, my name is Riikka, and I'm a dance addict. Nice to have you here to share my passion with.