Zouk Devils&Friends Summer Weekend.

Ready to go!

When I sat down to the airplane going to Barcelona on Friday, I realized that I was traveling to my first dance festival/congress abroad since 1,5 years. I have been to dance events in the country where I have been living at that time, but it really surprised me it has been that long I had a proper dance festival trip. When I started dancing Zouk I traveled to a dance festival or congress every two months during my first year, and it is not unusual to travel for dancing that frequently, at least if I look at my dance friends. So there I was, traveling to Mataro for the 2nd Zouk Devils&Friends Summer Festival. I was accompanied with two pretty dance ladies from Helsinki who I must thank for organizing most of the practicalities - and infecting me with their enthusiasm of the trip! They were also excellent company for the trip from the beginning to the end, thanks girls!

Mataro's festival is quite unique dance festival because the organizers' idea is not to bring in big names for countless of workshops, but to create an environment where dancers can get to know each other both on and outside of the dance floor. The daytime is left mostly free for relaxing, sightseeing and hanging out in the beach, and therefore most of the zoukers headed to Tsunami Beach with their bikinis, sunscreen and, of course, Zouk music (read: beach dancing!). I must say that this made the whole trip feel like a nice holiday compared to tight scheduled workshops+parties combination. Good conversations, relaxed atmosphere, great music, nice dances, awesome weather... bliss! Also Friday night was spent in Mataro's cheerful town festival instead of dancing. Nice idea, though I, being a true dance addict, would have preferred to have a dance party.

 

 

Going to dance abroad after such a long break cruelly revealed that I have been dancing in my comfort zone for too long time. When you only dance inside your own dance scene, you easily get used to the common style dancers have inside the scene. This is exactly what happened to me. In Helsinki most of the Zouk dancers have similar style to dance and that was the case in Brisbane too. Surely these two places have slightly different styles, but both styles are strongly based on the 'pure' Rio style of Zouk. When I went to Brisbane it took a while to adapt to the locals' way of dancing and I needed to go through the same small adaptation phase when I got back home. However, Mataro's festival included multiple styles of Zouk and there were surprisingly few Rio zoukers, which made me struggle a lot more that I expected.

I haven't had a feeling for a long time that I'm a bad dancer. I usually feel really confident when dancing and I also know that I'm far away of being a bad dancer. Still, in Saturday's party I found myself blaming me for being a bad dancer, horrible follower and crappy partner to dance with. I felt like I was in hurry all the time: I didn't have time to finish my moves, do my styling nor even to step. I didn't have time to breath and I couldn't relax at all. No one asked me to dance. Why, I was thinking, why I was feeling like this? Why was I feeling like a bad dancer?

I was dancing out of my comfort zone, that is why. The leaders had a different way of leading that what I had get used to. Different, not wrong. However, I tried to dance the way I had used to, tried to stretch my movements when there was no time to do that, tried to be a light follow when the leader wanted to create counterweight. I simply struggled to adapt. I ended up craving for more embraces, more body movements, lighter leads, slower phase, less crazy head movements and all the other things I usually get. With that attitude it was no wonder I didn't get into any kind of a dance flow. There were few dances when I felt like I was actually dancing, not surviving, but those were not enough to lift me up to a higher dance level. I was not feeling down, mostly because of my dancing conference, but I couldn't say that it was a great dance party for me either.

The next day I was talking with my Finnish friend about my experience and she shared the similar feelings about the party. I then realized that this was actually a great opportunity to learn something new while simply social dancing. I had forgotten that social dancing in the dance parties used to be the time when I learned the most when I was a beginner - now social dancing has turned to be a time to enjoy and do what I already know. So I headed to Sunday's party with a different mind setting: if I feel like struggling, I'll take it as something new to be learned!

 

Many say that it is the last dance party of a dance festival that is the best. Dancers have gone in some kind of festival mood, they are too tired to show off any more, there is more space on the dance floor and you already know with who you liked dancing with in the previous parties. Sunday's party wasn't an exception to this general rule. It had a great start with 30-something minutes flow, I had some awesome time somewhere in the middle, and a beautiful ending. Though I can't report that I had some really exceptional dances, I sure had a great time. Yet another prove that you can yourself decide whether you're going to have a fun night or not!

After the festival we headed to Barcelona for few days to go around the city and also to visit Spiral Dance dance studio and join the festival's after party. A perfect ending for my little dance holiday! The two other dance addicts continued to Berlin's Zouk congress while I was feeling exhausted enough from the six day trip. Don't tell me I'm getting old...!