Dancing: actually thinking about technique

Last night was less physically challenging in terms of dancing, but definitely more mentally challenging. I’m not sure if my focus was off or just different now that I’m a little more comfortable.

Belly dancing introduced two new tricky moves, the hardest of which were the vertical chest circles (probably not the correct term). We had our normal instructor back, and I’ll admit I was unimpressed — this was my second class with her, ultimately, and I found her sarcasm rather, well, flesh-tearing. I’m doing okay at memorizing the sequence of moves, but making them look good is tricky. Luckily, I have choreography notes and the song from the instructor, so I’ll be drilling this week.

Hip-hop was hard the same way. We did a really fun warm-up activity: we practiced about four sets of 8-count moves travelling back and forth across the floor. Then we turned that into a sequence that could be done in rows (no travelling). Then we did ’em in rounds. So the instructor started, and when he finished his first 4-count, I started (alone), and when I finished my first 4-count, the woman next to me went, and so on. It was one of those things where you stare at the floor (rather than the mirrors) so you don’t get discombobulated. It was awesome.

In practicing our regular song, though, I got hung up on the new moves, too. It didn’t help that he changed them from last week to make them harder (*grr*). When I got home, I sat right down and drew me a whole sequence of stick figures with beat counts so that I could practice today and the rest of the week. Last week I found myself remembering short segments of the choreography, but not how to string those segments together.

I’m not certain if I’ll want to keep doing belly dancing. I’ll give it the rest of the month, of course, but I’ll think hard about re-upping.

Last night’s dancing did inspire me to go out and run in the chilly, chilly weather, though. Bit of running, bit of strength work, happy Tuesday.