How are your practices going?

[Cal]

Honestly, the nerve of some people. As I was practicing in the small, grungy racquetball court, a teeny-bopper opened the glass door, walked in, and told me that she’s going to use the corner at the far end to practice her ice-skating jumps, and she won’t be in my way.

I told her, uh – no, you’re not going to practice your jumps while I’m in here. I’ve got the court reserved for another 20 minutes, and even if I didn’t, it’s too small a space for sharing.

So, she sort of flipped her hair with a sarcastic “Well. Thanks anyway”, and presumably went to look for another spot. But not before she had a word with 2 of her friends, who then sat right outside the glass door, staring at me while I practiced.

(Um…kids….what I’m doing is a performing art, you know that, right? I’m used to people watching me dance. And, I’m an old lady who Leads, so I am totally accustomed to being given the stank eye. So….’ya really think I’m going to be intimidated if you stare? Really??)

Of course, I didn’t say that to them, but, good golly! I should have picked up my racquet and started swinging away as I was working on my Woodpeckers and Scatter Chasses.

 

[brianl]

I had a fantastic practice this week. For the last 6 months I've been cutting weight and I'm happy to say that I'm now as light as I was when I was 22. I do mostly yoga and some light strength training combined with intermittent fasting and while it's been a slow process I'm very happy with the results. The fact that I love to dance is such a great motivator to stay on my plan and keep working.

I'm really starting to feel the impact of being lighter, particularly when dancing Latin. In Standard, (particularly Quickstep) it's so much easier to fly across the floor. It's probably all in my head but my legs feel so less tired after back to back rounds than they did a year ago when I first got back into Ballroom.

The only annoying part is having to buy new clothes...

 

[Cal]

The Y is on its holiday schedule, and a lot of the group classes are cancelled until the new year. So, yesterday, I went to the Y branch with the Exercise Studio and spent 90 glorious minutes with the floor and mirrors all to myself.

I took my time and worked through all Standard dances as both Lead and Follow. I worked on various components, double-checking timing, room alignments, postural alignments.

I felt really good when I left.

 

[Cal]

Yesterday, I went to practice at the racquetball court location. I had to ask a teenage contemporary dancer to leave the court, as I had it reserved. She had been working on some spins, and she watched me for just a couple of minutes, I think because she was hoping that she could propose that we could “share” the space without getting in each other’s way. But I think she quickly realized that wouldn’t work. (I don’t like having to kick out another dancer, and if we were in an exercise studio space it wouldn’t be a problem at all – but… alas…..)

I worked through the “Alternate Starts” for each Standard dance. I have only one Alternate Start for Waltz, VWaltz, and Quickstep, so those are pretty straightforward to manage. But I have two different Alternate Starts in Tango and Foxtrot. I think I’m figuring out which one I prefer in Tango; but in Foxtrot, I like both and I don’t yet find myself getting a vibe for which one is more of the “go-to” option for me.

 

[Cal]

My first practice of the year is complete! I continued working on the Alternate Starts in the Standard dances.

I’m a bit annoyed that my feet have been sore for the last few days, and I think it has to do with that rock hard floor in the racquetball court.

 

[joy]

One of the guys I was practicing with a few months back told me he was going to be busy for a while. So then I reached out to another Lead who is not as advanced. And he said he was working thru the Standard curriculum, and I was up for learning at least the names of patterns with him. So we're practicing this weekend.

And then the guy who had said he was busy, just texted to ask to practice as well. Which was a surprise.

And then I have a friend who is open latin willing to help me out with bronze latin since I may be competing that with Fiesta in March (just for fun), and even tho it's "just for fun" I wanna get some time dancing latin under the belt.

And I also have a WCS practice partner and we've been meeting regularly.

So that is 4 practice partners scheduled this month so far.

It might be a bit much, but I love dancing. I love large quantity of dancing. Thankful.

 

[Cal]

One of the guys I was practicing with a few months back told me he was going to be busy for a while. So then I reached out to another Lead who is not as advanced. And he said he was working thru the Standard curriculum, and I was up for learning at least the names of patterns with him. So we're practicing this weekend.

And then the guy who had said he was busy, just texted to ask to practice as well. Which was a surprise.

And then I have a friend who is open latin willing to help me out with bronze latin since I may be competing that with Fiesta in March (just for fun), and even tho it's "just for fun" I wanna get some time dancing latin under the belt.

And I also have a WCS practice partner and we've been meeting regularly.

So that is 4 practice partners scheduled this month so far.

It might be a bit much, but I love dancing. I love large quantity of dancing. Thankful.

I cannot describe how GREEN I am with envy!

 

[joy]

I cannot describe how GREEN I am with envy!

I would happily practice or dance nerd out with you as well if we were close by! <3

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

dance nerd out

Among the many things I love about DF is the introduction of new words and acronyms into the language.
Examples:
nerd out (verb)
dance nerd out (verb)
leadsplain (verb)
3mc (noun)
TDNWMH (declarative statement)
(thank you @j_alexandra for those last 2)

 

[AnyNameYouWish]

I worked on drills for better smooth balance and rhythm hip action and had a couple light bulb moments. When I was at the studio Friday I brushed up on figures which didn’t go great after a week off! Took a bit to get warmed and I learned dancing is a pretty perishable skill. But other than that it was nice to get back to the studio. Except I found out my Instructor is leaving the studio so super bummed about that. Have to call tomorrow to find out who’s taking over lessons.

 

[joy]

Among the many things I love about DF is the introduction of new words and acronyms into the language.
Examples:
nerd out (verb)
dance nerd out (verb)
leadsplain (verb)
3mc (noun)
TDNWMH (declarative statement)
(thank you @j_alexandra for those last 2)

The first time I met Fiesta in person was at a USA Dance event in New Orleans. We danced nerd out for hours in the practice space. It was glorious.

I recall something similar with you ;-) Hours and hours of talking ballroom. <3

 

[raindance]

I worked on drills for better smooth balance and rhythm hip action and had a couple light bulb moments. When I was at the studio Friday I brushed up on figures which didn’t go great after a week off! Took a bit to get warmed and I learned dancing is a pretty perishable skill. But other than that it was nice to get back to the studio. Except I found out my Instructor is leaving the studio so super bummed about that. Have to call tomorrow to find out who’s taking over lessons.

Sorry to hear your instructor is leaving! It sounded like you really have enjoyed working with her. I hope your next dance teacher is an even better fit for you!

 

[AnyNameYouWish]

Sorry to hear your instructor is leaving! It sounded like you really have enjoyed working with her. I hope your next dance teacher is an even better fit for you!

I’ve only been doing this for about 4 months so she was my first/only instructor. The others seem great and I’ve danced with them at parties, never done lessons though. I’m just super bummed. It’s hard for me to make connections with people and we seemed to have a great teacher student chemistry. But of course she has to do what she needs to do for her career. I’m pretty sure I’ll click with whichever instructor they put me with but I will be letting management know she did recommend an instructor that might be a good fit. Back to practice tomorrow afternoon, hopefully the manager will be in early so we can discuss moving forward.

 

[Cal]

The good news is that I spent about 2 hours at the Y today practicing my Modifications to the Alternative Starts in the Standard dances, Rumba Cross in Quickstep (as both Lead and Follow), and the timing of a Foxtrot sequence. And, now that my neck is no longer pulling([hurray!) I tested out some pivot sequences in Waltz and Tango to see what the ability to use some extra of head weight can do – wow!

The bad news is that the Racquetball Boys are pulling bully-boy tactics again. After the first guy complained to me when I went into my reserved court, I assured him that I had indeed reserved it. After the second guy barged into the court and got in my face and told me that there are lots of other spots I could use, I told him to complain to management. Then I picked up my cheapo racquet and carried that around while I danced. Every so often, one of the Racquetball Boys would stand outside the court and glare at me, trying to intimidate me to leave early. (Didn’t work.) When I left practice, I stopped at reception to see if maybe there are now other rooms that might be available (no, there aren’t). The receptionist told me that a couple of the Racquetball Boys actually did stop and complain about me and made her check that I had really reserved the court. The receptionist said that she told them that as long as I’ve reserved the court, I can use it for dancing, fencing, meditation….whatever.

Well, the Racquetball Boys must have finally figured out how to use the app for reservations, because when I went into the app to make my next reservation, it looks like all 3 courts have all been reserved for the preferred time slots of the Racquetball Boys for the week and through next Monday. You can make reservations up to a week in advance, and I’ll bet that it’s the Racquetball Boys who have been busy block booking. There are about 6 Racquetball Boys, so they can rotate their names through the reservation system and squeeze out everyone else. It's maddening that they can game the system that way.

…….sigh……...

So, I’m searching again for other practice spots.

 

[David_In_CA]

The good news is that I spent about 2 hours at the Y today practicing my Modifications to the Alternative Starts in the Standard dances, Rumba Cross in Quickstep (as both Lead and Follow), and the timing of a Foxtrot sequence. And, now that my neck is no longer pulling([hurray!) I tested out some pivot sequences in Waltz and Tango to see what the ability to use some extra of head weight can do – wow!

The bad news is that the Racquetball Boys are pulling bully-boy tactics again. After the first guy complained to me when I went into my reserved court, I assured him that I had indeed reserved it. After the second guy barged into the court and got in my face and told me that there are lots of other spots I could use, I told him to complain to management. Then I picked up my cheapo racquet and carried that around while I danced. Every so often, one of the Racquetball Boys would stand outside the court and glare at me, trying to intimidate me to leave early. (Didn’t work.) When I left practice, I stopped at reception to see if maybe there are now other rooms that might be available (no, there aren’t). The receptionist told me that a couple of the Racquetball Boys actually did stop and complain about me and made her check that I had really reserved the court. The receptionist said that she told them that as long as I’ve reserved the court, I can use it for dancing, fencing, meditation….whatever.

Well, the Racquetball Boys must have finally figured out how to use the app for reservations, because when I went into the app to make my next reservation, it looks like all 3 courts have all been reserved for the preferred time slots of the Racquetball Boys for the week and through next Monday. You can make reservations up to a week in advance, and I’ll bet that it’s the Racquetball Boys who have been busy block booking. There are about 6 Racquetball Boys, so they can rotate their names through the reservation system and squeeze out everyone else. It's maddening that they can game the system that way.

…….sigh……...

So, I’m searching again for other practice spots.

Ugh, that sucks.

If you think they're not actually using the courts, you could go and complain if they're not at the courts during their reservation, maybe. OTOH, if they actually are all using the courts... Just as fair as you reserving them, I guess. I don't know how you manage to practice on a game floor, tbh. Isn't it really sticky? My knees would be aching.

Good luck on finding a better space!