Zouk with the Rio Zouk Style Team on August!

Hey everybody, it has been a while! A lot has been happening lately (like my four-week dance trip to Brazil), but I'll write some feelings about those later on. Now I wanted to share with you a couple of zouk events taking place this month for which I'm getting pretty excited about: I'm teaching both zouk workshop and a drop-in with our Rio Zouk Style Team in few weeks time.


Beginners Zouk Workshop on 8 August 2015 from 2pm to 5 pm at Etnofitness (Vilhonvuorenkatu 11 A)

The 3-hour workshop is designed for those who would like to get started with Brazilian zouk or who would like to review/improve their zouk basics. I'm teaching the workshop with Sonja from our team and we are going to go through the basic elements you need to start dancing zouk. The workshop  is a great way to get a kick start for the autumn's courses and will get you started to hit the dance floor on dance parties.  No previous experience from zouk is required, however, we will modify the workshop according to the level of the attendees.

Remember to register for the workshop in www.riozoukstyle.com. More information can also be found from the Facebook event.

Zouk Drop-in Class on 12 August 2015 from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Etnofitness

I'm teaching this drop-in class with Antti from our team and it is targeted for beginner/improver zouk dancers (some basic knowledge is required; perfect for dancers from spring's fundamentals or team A courses from Rio Zouk Style Academy). As the name says, just drop in to Etnofitness at the time above, no registration is needed.

In the drop-in we are going to work with some movements that you can use in those "non-beat" sections of zouk music and with smooth transitions from basic step to these movements. More information from the Facebook event.

All the profit from these classes are going straight to the Rio Zouk Style Team, so by participating to the classes, you will not only improve your own dancing but also support your local zouk team to cover some training etc. costs. We are all in the process of learning to become dance teachers and very eager to share our knowledge as well as help beginner and improving dancers to polish their zouk. All feedback and wishes are warmly welcomed. I'm sure we will all have crazy fun time in the classes.


Also, if you have friends who seem interested of trying out zouk, please invite them to the beginner workshop. The more zouk dancers we get to Helsinki, the merrier the scene becomes, right? I hope to see many of you in the classes!



P.S. Remember to follow my dance updates on Instagram!

Moments.

My life, as it is now, is made of moments.

Moments of happiness. Moments of excitement. Moments of wonder. Some moments of wistfulness and confusion. Moments of joy. Many moments of dancing.

Right now, there are only those precious moments. No big picture, no plan for the next one; just one moment here and other one there. I pick up my phone and, quite often, browse my calendar filled it up with my moments, unconnected with each other. I get delighted: ah, there is a perfect spot for one more. If not for the calendar, would my life be completely unorganized? Or empty? Or dictated by routine?

At this age, they say, you should have a plan, should have a house loan, should know what you’ll become when old(er?), should walk into a certain direction, should settle down. Shouldn’t build your life barely on some random moments. But what if those moments make me feel alive? And what if I don’t feel like settling down? And who are they anyway?!

So many things I want to do, see, experiment, learn! So many people to encounter, get to know, listen! So many moments to create, live though, get surprised with!


Oh, you are one of those overdoers.

Am I?
Am I?

I wake up every night without a reason. In the morning I feel so musty, like I was out partying late, and need to take a long shower to wash that feeling away. Hot and cold repeatedly into my skin. I conscientiously strive for an early bedtime; yet the same repeats every time. Does this mean something isn’t right?

What, then, isn’t right?

I should dance more to find it out.

Dance News and Updates.

The year 2015 goes forward with a fast pace and since far it has treated me really well. My life has been pretty active with all the dancing and some other cool activities that have been keeping me moving. When I add to the equation some very busy days at work, there haven’t been much energy left for my writing. However, if you’re willing to get more frequent updates about my (dancing) life, check out my Instagram profile @riikka_eveliina where I’ve been posting weekly some of my dancing moments.

Okay, I have some news to share! Firstly, and most importantly, I’m going to Brazil for 4 weeks during my summer holidays!!! I’m so super excited about this because I have been wanting to go there for such a long time already! Actually I thought I wouldn’t have the chance to go there for the next couple of years, but then Daniel suggested I should go with him and, well… how could I say no to that?! First of all it will be great to have someone to practice with (and share the costs of privates) but I also feel safer to travel there with a guy than by myself. It is going to be an amazing trip, I tell you! Lots of training coming up for the summer.

Secondly, I got myself a dance tattoo! I have been wanting to get a tattoo for years now and finally got it done. It turned out exactly the way I wanted: beautiful, delicate and simple. I ended up with “live love dance” since those represent kind of the three basic things for me that need to be order in life: to live in each moment, to love more each day and to keep on dancing until the end of time. I have been in a dance and exercise ban for a week because of the tattoo so I can’t wait to start moving again. I even went to a Zouk party not being able to dance! Can you imagine me in a dance party without dancing? Yeah, me neither...

Thirdly, yesterday was a big day for me: I managed to make my first proper split! Woohoo! It might not sound that groundbreaking but for someone who has been trying to get there for years it's a great feeling. Now I just got the other side to catch up the more flexible one...

I also have some updates that I haven't yet shared here. One thing that I have got addicted during this year has been my pre-work morning workouts. Before I had an assumption that I didn’t have time to have a gym membership because basically all of my weekday evenings were (and still are) spent in some sort of dance classes. However, my colleague inspired me to try out going to gym before work, and I can tell you that good exercise, hot sauna, cold shower and breakfast (which is served every morning at my gym) is maybe the best way to start off a day! At first waking up early and dragging my still half-sleeping body to gym was a bit of a struggle but now if I skip my morning exercise I feel less energetic and focused at work. As a cherry on a top, I have some great colleagues who motivate me even more to set that alarm a bit earlier to meet them at the gym before we get to the office.

What comes to my dance classes, I think I managed to choose quite a perfect mix of them for this season, though maybe one more solo class would have done good for me. I’ve been really enjoying my jazz classes and also been extremely happy with the technique-concentrated WCS classes. However, this dance season is actually coming to its end already: my WCS classes ended this week and there are only few more weeks left for Zouk. I was thinking of taking couple of summer courses before Brazil – how else could I spend my evenings if there wasn’t any dancing?

In addition to the dance classes I have been doing some acroyoga / partner acrobatics regularly with one of my friend during this year and I have been loving it so much. We've had a short break of our practices, though, because of his injury few weeks back and I already miss our session really badly. Please get well soon, okay!

One of our acro practices at Kisahalli.

During the last few months I've had the pleasure of having Daniel visiting here couple of times to hang out and to have dance practices with. Such a nice thing to have someone like him in my life! We've also had some visiting Zouk teachers coming over to Helsinki: Kadu and Larissa had a great workshop weekend few weeks back. So, every time someone asks me what I have been up to lately, the answer is quite simple: work, dance and workouts – and loving every second of it!

RE: Thoughts about dancing and sense of solidarity

Dear Mr. X,

Thank you for your long email message the other day. Not only did the things you wrote made me feel extremely delighted but you also sparked off good thoughts about dancing within me. Your description of me when I dance (and especially when I dance with you) was so beautiful that I had to keep on going back to it again and again. I never thought that our dancing made such a big impact on you nor did I know how much it made you reflect. I also really enjoyed reading the stories about your dancing experiences and what was the reason for you to start dancing.

You said that now the biggest question mark in your mind is that why do I dance. You further raised up an interesting question whether dancing has an absolute or instrumental value; that whether the absolute value is, rather than develop one’s skills in dancing, to experience something together with other people, in which case dancing would only provide (the best) tool for that? Do we practice our dancing skills just to improve and become better or is there something else behind it?

I have also pondered around these same questions, though maybe from a bit different angle. I have asked myself many times the same question that is now in your mind: why do I dance? Why do I put so much of my time, effort, money, tears, patience, energy and heart into dancing? A short answer would be that because dancing makes me oh so happy, because I love doing it, but that’s not really the ultimate answer, is it? I can’t really give you a proper short answer because, as I see it, the why includes variety of elements that together make dancing such a beautiful and dear thing for me.

As you pointed out, the physical act of dancing releases endorphins and other hormones that give the brain an instant reward. However, in my experience doing physically more demanding activities gives a bigger dose of those hormones in a shorter period of time, thus if this was the thing I was looking for, I would rather spend my time in the gym (the after-workout glow is definitely the motivation to get myself to the gym). Partner dancing, especially the kind that includes close embraced dance hold, does add its own twist to the physical side, though, with a pleasant contact to another human being, and I can’t deny that this wouldn’t be one of the reasons I enjoy dance styles like Kizomba and Zouk. At least for me, being physically close to other people is some kind of a basic necessity of life (read: I love hugs) and partner dancing responds to that need.

The above mentioned would probably be some of the absolute values of dancing for me, yet another (and more significant) being the satisfaction of self-improvement and a feeling that I’m able to be good at something if I put my effort into it. When it comes to dancing, the improvement factor is easy to keep up, for example, by trying out different dance styles and there sure are plenty of styles out there to try out! Dancing is extremely good for developing body awareness and body control, because you need to use the whole body from head to toe. Learning to gain control over yourself leads surely to some sort of feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment.

These factors I would, however, consider as secondary (yet not irrelevant) reasons for me to dance. I must agree with you that the primary reasons to dance come from the factors that could be regarded to have instrumental value for me. Maybe you have noticed that the most common topic I write about is a dance connection? Well, it’s not a coincidence. I find it absolutely beautiful that two people from different backgrounds, maybe from opposite sides of the world even, who doesn’t know each other at all, can come together and understand each other through dancing. Dancing is some kind of universal language that connects the dancers all around the world.

In addition of having a common language, dance floor also has its own social rules of how to approach or communicate to other people. It can go exactly as you described: dancing provides “an excuse” to connect with other people in a way that it otherwise would be regarded maybe awkward, unnatural or at least unusual in other social situations. If I approached an unknown person outside that dance floor and immediately, without hardly changing a word, would get physically as close as in partner dancing, it would most likely to feel weird and probably be interpreted in a whole different way (taken into account that usually the dance partners are the opposite sex). Similarly, building a friendship with a dancer can include an extra level of connection: the communication you create during your dances.

Not only dancing can be a way of meeting new same-minded people but it can provide a great tool of getting to know the other person different from verbal communication. As I have written before, sometimes it feels that a three-minute dance with someone can tell more about him/her than a two-hour conversation. One reason for this, I think, is that people tend to drop their every-day masks, self-defense shields, roles or whatever you could call them, when dancing and thus more easily reveal their real selves. Finding out about that real self behind the social masks can be a difficult task but that is what at least I’m interested of when getting to know to someone. On the reverse of the coin is that it is easier for me to drop my masks and be totally myself. It is a very liberating feeling.

What comes to factors that concern more of me internally, one significant reason for me to dance is that dancing helps me to be present in the very moment. My mind shuts up. My worries disappear. There is no future, no past, only the moment in hand: there is only that dance. Surely there are other ways to live in the moment (and that is what I strive to do all the time in every situation) but when I dance I don’t need to do any other “tricks” I sometimes need to get my mind away from the past or the future. Also, while dancing I have experienced many moments when I've felt like my mind, body and soul are in harmony with each other and that feels just wonderful!

Last but not least, dancing is definitely a way to express myself. It can provide a way to handle whatever there is going on inside of me; let it be joy, sorrow, excitement or hatred. It is a way for me to explore my artistic side, to get inspired, to be musical and to express whatever the moment brings out from me. Music has always been a big part of my life and I love the feeling of the music being “inside” of me when I dance. I guess the need of self-expression lies in every one of us: some draw, some write, some sing – I dance.

As you can see, the answer was nothing but short, and I could probably go on with the list if I put more thoughts into it. The list will also most likely change during time: even on one day the main motivation to dance is different form the following day. However, I guess the point is that the reason for me to dance is multi-dimensional, though in most cases dancing is a way or a tool to experience something, for example a sense of solidarity with other dancers – something that you described as instrumental value.

Surely, these are just my thoughts and other people must have other reasons for them to dance. I'm very much interested hearing your further thoughts about this. Why do you dance?


I’m looking forward from hearing you again,

Riikka

Dancing Is To Create, Not To Reproduce.

Have you noticed that after you have been dancing a while the same dance style, you have a tendency to stat repeating yourself again and again? At least I have that tendency. There's like thousands of things you can do with your hands and yet I end up doing the exact same styling for each turn. How boring is that?! Similarly, there's thousands of variations of dance patterns and yet I constantly hear leaders (including me when I lead) go: if I dance more than couple of dances with someone I get bored of my own repetition of dance figures. So how do you prevent yourself (and everyone else) of getting bored?

The thing about social partner dancing is that since you change your dance partner constantly, you can repeat the same things over and over again without getting too frustrated of your repetition, because the same things feel different with different partners. The new partner is the new element in your dancing and thus you can fool yourself into thinking that you're being innovative with your dancing even though in the reality you still put that hand to exactly to the same position every single time. Sure, there's nothing wrong with that signature styling of yours, but how about trying something new every now and then?

I got a nice wake up call of my repetition tendency when practicing with Daniel few weeks back. Not only did he tell straight to my face that I should do something new (and kindly reminded me of that as many times as needed for it to get through) but also the way we danced together made me want to explore some new possibilities I had been ignoring before. To be honest, I can't remember the last time I felt so inspired when dancing. I noticed the increase in my inspiration levels when dancing with other dancers too, though my playful attempts to do something out of ordinary seemed to be sometimes regarded strange or amusing. However, this made dancing feel more fun and yet made me think of more ways to move to the music.

Coincidentally (or maybe not?) the following weeks we had quite a different zouk classes; it was not the normal let's-work-on-this-figure/technique, but about finding inspiration. As they put it: if there is a tree full of leaves we can shape it to different kind of forms, but if there are no leaves, there's nothing to shape. I must agree that cutting the raw edges out from a dancer's own way of moving and interpreting the music is a way easier task than trying to put something totally new there; no one can really tell you that this is the way you should interpret the music, nor there is only a one way of doing that. It's how the music (or something/someone) inspires you to move - and that inspiration needs to arise from inside of the dancer.

So what made me suddenly feel so much more inspired back then? Maybe it was the playful atmosphere we were able to create in our dancing that opened my eyes to the fact that dancing is not a serious thing, but rather an exploration or a play between two dancers to create - not to reproduce - something in that very moment for that specific song. Too often I have been worried of making 'mistakes' with interpreting the lead and that has drawn much of my concentration from interpreting the music. On the contrary, if something went 'wrong' with Daniel, e.g. I didn't understand his lead in the exact way he was trying to tell that to me, I could see him getting excited about the situation and of what new possibilities that situation could offer. This attitude made me feel liberated to try out whatever came into my mind since there was no need of being worried of making 'mistakes' - it was just part of the game. In this way we could dance together literally for hours without neither of us getting bored because we both constantly wanted to try out new things. Some things worked while others didn't, but who cares? The point was to get inspired and have fun with it.

One thing that has previously proven to work for me to find more inspiration, it to try out different dance styles. Every dance style has its own interesting tricks, stylings and way of movement and those can open your eyes to some modifications and creations of your own. Not long ago I got a comment that WCS has changed the way I listen to music while dancing not only WCS but also Zouk; or when I was taking voguing classes I constantly tried to put some elements of that into other dance styles. It is like adding vocabulary to your dance dictionary.

Have you heard of the quote 'to be inspired is great but to inspire is an honor'? Certainly, the best compliment I've ever got has been that my dancing has inspired someone. It sounds like a good dancing goal, doesn't it: to be an inspiring dancer both for myself and for others.

Redefining Myself.

Last weekend I travelled to my first foreign WCS event to Neverland Swing 2015 held in a small Dutch city called Veenendaal about an hour train trip from Amsterdam. I won a full pass to the event from a J’n’J competition in the Swinging Xmas Party Weekend last December and thus had a good excuse to travel again to Holland for dancing. Another good excuse was to meet up with my best friend and to spend some quality time together in the beautiful city of Amsterdam.

The event was pretty small scale, having only one workshop day, two parties and roughly 50 attendees, but it had a nice cozy feeling in it and actually this kind of friendly atmosphere is the reason I prefer smaller events to huge ones. The level of the dancers was also closer to my own and maybe this is why I felt more comfortable on the dance floor – sometimes being in a lower level compared to most of the dancers makes me feel I should be somehow better than what I am (a bad habit I should definitely get rid of). The workshops were thought through nicely, each class supporting the next one forming a good continuum, and concentration on the dance technique was something that supported my own learning the best possible way.

It is very useful to define some kind of goal for a dance weekend, even if it was just to enjoy the social dancing to the max. This time I decided that I was going to put my concentration during the whole weekend to my basic technique – I was not going to practice stepping variations, hijacking or things like that. There are some specific things that irritate me in my basic WCS dancing, such as my anchoring and stiffness of my arms, and those are the ones I’m trying to fix during this dance semester. Thus, I was mostly 'just' following and not even trying to mix things up so that I could learn first to follow well before adding in some spices. Because of this decision, at some points I felt like I was being a boring (or uninspiring) follower because I didn't do much variations or suggest anything.

However, being a 'boring follower' didn’t prevent me from winning the level 2 J’nJ competition (thank you my lovely German dance partner for the dances in the finals!!). To be honest, I was quite surprised about the judges decision because I didn't feel that I was contributing our dancing with anything special. Maybe the judges were paying more attention to the team work this time? Anyway, it felt nice to have this kind of encouragement to keep on working with my basic technique and following; apparently I'm heading to the right direction. As a prize I got to be part of the teacher’s show (someone must have the video of me dancing there - I need to find it!) and further I won yet another full pass to the next foreign WCS event: West Coast Swing Insomnia in Slovenia on 1-4 October 2015. So apparently I need to continue travelling for WCS (not that I would mind!). Who's in?

Why I wanted to write this post was actually to write down some feelings I went through during the event. I think that for the first time I felt that I was being part of the crowd, that I could identify myself as a WCS dancer. That was a nice feeling. I've always liked everything WCS has to offer as a dance style but felt a little bit like an oddball within WCS dancers. Maybe I have been identifying myself so strongly as a Zouk dancer that it has put my confidence in WCS down. Or maybe identifying myself as a Zouk dancer has been my excuse of sticking in the beginner level in WCS. Whatever the case it might be, I find it quite interesting that I notice this only now after dancing WCS for quite a long time!

So, from now on I would rather like to identify myself simply as a dancer, not some-specific-style-of-a-dancer because identifying myself as a Zouk dancer has obviously already restricted my improvement as a dancer (even though it might have contributed to my improvement as a Zouk dancer). Same goes with identifying myself as a partner dancer, something that I have been definitely doing – I don't want the identification as a partner dancer to restrict my improvement as a solo dancer because in the end it will restrict also my improvement as a partner dancer. You define yourself. As simple as that.


So, here we go:

I am a dancer.

...

Hmm, I like the sound of that.

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.

Hunting for the Perfect Dance Picture.

The few following days after a dance festival are quite exciting. Not only because you’re still living in the dance bubble you went into during the festival or that you are getting FB friend requests from the dancers you enjoyed dancing the most, but also because of the dance pictures that are slowly but surely appearing to social media. I love that many dance congress organizers nowadays bring photographers to their events to memorialize the amazing dancing moments the participants are having in the classes and parties; it is the best kind of a souvenir to bring home from a dance festival (in addition to your amazing memories of course).

When it comes to Zouk, however, a perfect shot is hard to get. There is always this fear that something really horrible will come up and hopes that this time the photographer did an amazing job with you. If you were lucky enough to get the photographer's attention from hundreds of dancers, oftentimes there is some kind of “flaw” in the otherwise perfect picture: awkward body posture, not so flattering angle, weird hand positioning, hair in the face, some strange facial expression, bad lighting or an extra person on the way. It is not only that the dancers have to dance so that it looks good but it is also a matter of split seconds for the photographer to get the right timing for the picture. Maybe this doesn’t apply to the guys as much but usually at least we girls would like to get that beautiful and sensual shot of ourselves burning the dance floor, preferably with an amazing leader who also looks great in the picture (though not stealing the whole attention from us). You know, the kind of a shot you will save as your phone’s background picture so you can stare at it before you go to sleep.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, may I present you (drum roll) my perfect dance picture taken by Robert Malecki from III Zouk Libre festival:

[Edit: Unfortunately Mr. Malecki, unlike other dance festival photographers, didn't want me to publish any of his pictures here in this blog, but you can view the picture I'm talking about through this link.]

Not only the picture itself look stunning but this is actually taken from a dance after which I knew, even if it was from the first party, that it was going to be the best dance of the whole festival. It was the kind of dance which admiring dancers would gather around to watch the magic happen and which would draw also the attention of the photographer, as luckily happened this time. It was the kind of dance after which I couldn’t stop smiling widely until my cheeks hurt. It was the kind of dance people would come to comment and compliment on later during the festival. But most importantly, it was the kind of dance that truly connected two dancers and inspiring music into a beautiful and enjoyable moment that, as luck would have it, was immortalized as the perfect picture I have been hunting for.

(And yes, I did save it as my phone background picture.)

Made to Dance Together.

I need to write about this dancer. You see, I think we were made to dance together.

When we dance, there are no limits. When we dance, there is magic around. When we dance, there is no time, no others, no have-to-be's. When we dance, we don't want to stop.

And when we finally do stop, we look into each other with amaze, not fully knowing what just happened. We just know that it was something exceptional.

I still remember the astonishment I felt after dancing with him for the first time around two and half years ago. We were both quite beginners at that time and we seriously had no idea how we were able to do all those things together. Every time I think back those dances we shared a waive of happiness runs through my body and I can't help to smile. I didn't mention him specifically when I wrote about the weekend we met but this feeling I described back then came undoubtedly from dancing with him:

"On Sunday's party I felt like I was invincible, like I could do anything, that my body didn't put any limitations to my dancing."

After our first encounter it took more than a year until we were reunited on the dance floor. First he didn't recognize me but I could see it from his face that it all came back to him as soon as we took the first dance steps together. To my surprise after all that time he still remembered exactly how I felt in his arms by wondering whether I had become taller; yes, I had started to wear heels. However, it was not until the last summer we really re-explored our magical connection – it was some late hours in Breda's congress when we couldn't stop for an hour or so. Needless to say those dances changed my evening upside down.

You can maybe imagine my heart skipping a beat last weekend when I noticed, to my very pleasant surprise, that he happened to be in the Zouk Libre festival with me. Our dance deepened little by little that weekend ending with a grande finale on Sunday night (or rather the early hours of the morning) – it was the kind of dancing I’ve never experienced before. We went into a journey of exploration, tested the limits of our bodies and our common dance style, laughed our heads off, had moments of great sensuality, reacted and counter-reacted to each other’s movements, did crazy lifts and tricks either of us had never even seen before… We continued for more than an hour until he realized his return flight was about to leave soon – I don’t know for how long we could have gone on if it wasn’t for that. The first thought we both had after that night was that we need to dance again; the exceptionality of our connection was too obvious for both of us. This time we won’t wait for another year: we will be dancing again soon, that is for sure.

Thus, if you see me smiling wider than usual during the weeks to come, I might just be thinking back that night and wondering if it really happened.