Assume Nothing, Dream Big.

Last week was an exception to my normal dance full life. I think the last time I had as few dancing as last week was on January! Well, I hope my hard work with my law books pays off and I'll pass the exam I studied so hard for. On Wednesday and Thursday I had to do some zoukking though or else I would have gone crazy, and Wednesday's Zouk class did save my otherwise horrible day. Seriously, I felt like hitting my head against the wall before the class. Its amazing how dancing can change my mood completely. On Thursday I went to meet some zouk-newbies to Polijazz's dance and hang-out event. I tried to teach Zouk to a total beginner and since I have no idea how the leaders' steps go (or how to lead for that matter!) my teaching went like "okay, lead me here when I'm about to step with my left foot here" and "yes, that feels like you're doing it right, good!". Pathetic. Now, many of you leaders who have been telling me I should learn to lead must be saying I told you so, but you know I first have to master following before stepping to the other side! And after all I was able to teach him the things I wanted.

On Friday I was planning on going to a Salsa party but I felt more like clubbing. I have learned that if I go out dancing when I don't really feel like it my mood usually don't change during the night and I end up feeling like an outsider. So instead of dancing I went to see some dancing: Finnish National Ballet had this 1,5 hour free ballet performance in the Senate Square. It was so packed I was lucky to find a seat, but definitely worth going to. They had at least dozen of short choreography from classical ballet to contemporary dance and many tasters from the ballets they were having during the spring term. Not surprisingly, my favorite piece was a romantic pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, ah! By the way, the Ballet is going to have the same performance in many other Finnish cities so you can still go and see it yourself!

Saturday was an exciting day because the FinZouk performance team had their premiere in HSA's dance party. It was the first Zouk group choreography ever performed in Finland! Great job everyone, it was so beautiful and the audience loved it! I loved seeing everyone so excited about their performance. It made me think back to my first dance performance last December and all those big feelings I was having back then. I videotaped the performance but I'll post a better quality video here later. The evening's party was also great even though the place was so hot it was like dancing in a sauna! Seriously. Here are some pictures I took from the other performances they had in the party:

The performance team had another show the next day in the World Village Festival and also I jumped in to dance some freestyle Zouk with them. My Sunday evening was spent in the Opera, dancing Salsa and hanging out in the sunshine but before that I had my week's only dance practice, this time with Big O. He gave me amazingly good feedback from my zoukking. This is exactly what I need to improve: someone to push me do things differently than what I'm used to. For example, he noticed that I'm stepping some of my steps too early. I have no idea how I have been able to follow the lead while doing this all the time! Life is full of surprises.