sigelphoenix

I was being so good about keeping track of my dance class experiences here, and then I pretty much forgot for the month of December. :P

So let's see ... I finished the beginner salsa class, and it was a lot of fun. During the final session, I danced with my instructor M, and she took all the bits we'd learned and threw them at me in different combinations. By the end of our rotation I'd taken it all and not missed a beat, and she said "Yeah!" and internally I was saying "YEAH!!!" XD I definitely want to take her level 2 class, though it's offered quite frequently so I might hold off and do other classes first.

I also finished re-taking beginning Argentine tango, and I'm going to give that a break for now. When I danced with instructor M in the final session of that class, I did not manage to do all the moves she threw at me. :P I don't want to give up on it, but it just isn't clicking with me very well. Hopefully, as I take more classes and get better, I'll reach a point at which I can come back and try it again with more success. Right now, I'm trying to commit a lot of basics to my muscle memory, so trying to add the peculiar basics of Argentine tango is just too much for me.

The introductory ballroom class I started at the beginning of December just ended last week (though I missed the final session), and it really did kick my butt. Instructor C told us in the first session that she would give us more information than we could really process or remember, and she was true to her word - telling us all about how we should make this or that step, and why we hold our bodies this way, etc. Some instructors might just say "step here and here" and save the details about how to hold your body or move your feet until later (instructor M did a bit of this, though she still taught us plenty of technique). So when we did waltz, even though I've already taken a class (only 4 weeks, admittedly), I was unexpectedly challenged - suddenly I had to pay attention to the rise and fall or how to rise to the left in hold.

The class was really about the basics, and not about getting a solid grasp of any one dance. I did like getting a taste of foxtrot and cha-cha, though. We also did west coast swing, which I've done before, but a different variation than I'd learned. I think I'd like to learn more cha-cha sometime.

This month I'm taking a beginning waltz class from C. The first session was a bit quick, because all of the students had had some waltz instruction before, so I'm hopeful about how much I'll learn.

When we first got Kershach, he used to be more of a cuddler. He was always too fussy to be much of a lap cat if you picked him up, but when it was clear you'd planted yourself in one spot for awhile, he'd often show up.

This was often the case when ratzeo sat down in front of a video game, even when it was one as loud and violent as Dead Space. ( The evidence, from 3 years ago )

He's gotten pretty skittish over the past couple of years (ever since we got Drannor and he realized his grand self-image as an unstoppable badass was incorrect ... but he seems to really love Drannor so I don't feel too bad). Most of the time he'll leap off our laps in terror if we try to put him there. Only once in a blue moon is ratzeo or I graced with the presence of a lap!Kershach.

Just now, though, Kershach sauntered up to ratzeo and settled himself in his lap. Incidentally, ratzeo had just sat down to start up Dead Space 2. Because space horror with screaming alien monsters is ... comforting?

I don't understand my cat.

I've been somewhat lucky in that, over the course of the four beginner dance classes I've taken through the university, I haven't really had my feet stepped on by partners. But tonight, on the first night of a new class at a new venue downtown ... I seem to have made up for all that missed time. >_<

I wouldn't actually mind too much - we're beginners; it happens - but my feet were already a bit sore because I'm breaking in my new shoes. (If you're curious, these are the shoes - they're character shoes, rather than actual ballroom or Latin shoes, which the local dance shop recommended because they are lower in both heel and cost. I am a liiiiittle worried that I got a size that's too small, but I'm crossing my fingers that they just need to be broken in.)

Anyway, the class itself was pretty cool. It's an introductory course to social ballroom, covering four dances (foxtrot, waltz, cha cha, and swing) over five weeks. So, not very in depth. At the beginning of the hour, I had a moment of worry that I might've wasted the not-insignificant amount of money it cost to register, since the instructor emphasized how little content we would cover, and how rudimentary the course would be. In the end, though, I'm glad I'm in the class. As we were covering the basics (foxtrot was tonight's dance), the instructor talked constantly both about what our bodies should be doing, and why they should be doing those things. She did acknowledge that a lot of that information would not stick, at least on this first go-round, but I loved hearing it - I really like building an understanding of why something works the way it does, and I do believe this part of the learning will make me a better dancer.

As for the other two courses, salsa is really fun and I'm going to take the next level in January; Argentine tango continues to kick my butt and yet I'm still somehow compelled by it. :P

This week was actually pretty full, because the intro course is offered at a place that does monthly courses, whereas the salsa and Argentine tango classes are scheduled based on the school calendar; so for this week and next week I'll be taking three classes each week. Whew. But, at least I won't go class-less over the school break and totally get out of practice.

I think I've felt terrified at the beginning of each session of dance class I've attended. I still do it, obviously, but there's always that surge of "What do you think you're doing here?" at the beginning.

(This was probably exacerbated by me watching the beginner hip-hop class that takes place right before my class starts, and waffling between, "I could maybe try doing that" and "ooh, that looks hard, I'd just make a fool of myself.")

That being said, Argentine tango went well tonight. I'm getting better at following, in that particularly devilish kind of following AT requires, which I think you can boil down to, "You don't have any idea what's coming next, HA!" I still had a lot of stops and starts with my various partners, but I think I am understanding how to respond to their leading - and thus responding - better overall. I danced with one guy who had taken the same class with me last session, and he led a move that we learned last session but hadn't yet gotten to this session (ochos) - I was caught off-guard and didn't pivot like I was supposed to, but I did actually turn and step in the places I was supposed to, just because my body responded to his lead.

It's funny; this stage of, "I generally know what my body is supposed to do based on what the lead does, yay!" came immediately with waltz, but I'm still clawing my way to it in AT. :P

Happily, some of our leads were students from the instructor's intermediate AT class, so they were stronger and smoother leads than the beginners (nothing against them - and I really noticed improvement in one of them - it's just fun to dance with people who know better what they're doing). There was one guy who, when I took my turn with him, made me feel like I was actually doing the dance I'd seen and admired - slow, but controlled, with bursts of sharp movement. There was a nice quality to his leading - it wasn't that he shoved me around, but more like there was a hairsbreadth of mild/gentle leading to show me what to do, so that I could go with him when he moved more firmly and we hit the step in a sharp, showy way (well, it'd be showy if I were more polished). This gives me hope that I still have the potential to learn the really "boom! pow!" kind of AT that I like to watch.

On the one hand, work made me want to cry today.

On the other hand, I went to salsa class and one of the leads told me I was the best dancer he'd danced with all night.*

I also bought my first yarn (I've been learning to knit on tools donated to me by shadawyn) for my first scarf, which I'm knitting for ratzeo.

Now if only I could be as happy at work as I am outside of it.

*Unfortunately, because he was trying not to announce it to the rest of the class, he sort of said it into the back of my hair, which made my personal space sensors go off. Lucky for him, my reaction to being startled like that was not to headbutt the offender.

I've always wanted to learn how to dance. I've made a go at learning a couple of times - in elementary school, my parents put my sister and me in traditional Chinese dance lessons for a couple of months; in high school, I took a west coast swing class; and in college, I went to lindy hop lessons given by a campus club. But I was just dabbling - I never thought I could actually get good, because I never thought of myself as a "dancer." I just assumed that "dancers" were people who'd taken ballet/jazz/etc. since the age of 6, and would forever and always be dancers, and the rest of us just weren't. I certainly wished I could be, but I was too sure that my age/clumsiness/introversion/inability to wiggle my hips meant that I shouldn't try now. And one thing I've always been good at is talking myself out of things, especially when it comes to convincing myself why I should try something new.

In possibly one of the cheesiest and most prosaic stories of inspiration ever, I started reconsidering my attitude when I began watching Dancing With the Stars. Here I was reminded of the grace and glamour that originally impressed me about dancing, all with high-budget glitz and a good bit of reality TV drama besides. And on top of that, the premise is that non-dancing celebrities get intense, one-on-one training in order to become dancers - celebrities who are already adults, usually have little or no dance experience, and often learn to become elegant and sexy dancers (or at least pull off some elegant and sexy performances).

So that's when I started thinking about it, but like I said, I'm good at talking myself out of things, so I sat on that feeling (and just fed it bits of wistful self-doubt) for two years. But last month, I started taking some classes through the University's community course offerings. And I am still doubting myself and/or feeling terror at my lack of talent at times, but I'm doing it anyway.

(I feel like part of my motivation is the approaching three oh - I'm 27 in a month, and I want to take advantage of my youth before my body starts to feel the creaks and cracks of age. And it's not like I won't be able to do anything after I turn 30 - I realize I sound a little silly, and I think it's the right of anyone of a certain age to laugh at someone younger who is facing a _____life crisis. But, it is true that getting older does not make physical activities any easier. Even if I'm not as flexible and energetic as I was at 10 or 15 years old, I want to focus on what I can still do. I don't want to focus so much on how I "wasted" my adolescence that I hit 30 and then wonder why I wasted my 20s.)

( First set of classes )

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, mostly because I'm on vacation this week and ratzeo and I randomly decided to spend it with holed up at home with a stack of dvds from Scarecrow.

Actually, the kick-off to my movie binge was seeing ( Captain America: The First Avenger )

Since I became solidly enthusiastic about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, next I saw ( Thor )

To complete our viewing of the Avengers-related movies, we rented ( The Incredible Hulk )

We also rented ( The Losers )

This morning, we watched ( Monsters vs Aliens )

Also in our Scarecrow haul are RocknRolla (also on starbird's recommendation, though I have to admit that it jumped up my priority list after I noticed that Idris Elba was in it ...), Blade Runner (because neither ratzeo nor I have seen it, even though it's a sci-fi classic), and Nine (to scratch my musical itch).

Stay-cations are awesome. :D

The rest of the post is definitely worth reading, but the main point is that pithy and powerful title. This is exactly why I have no confidence in men who announce that they would beat up a rapist they saw jump out at me from the bushes - I am vastly more likely to be raped in a home, by someone I know. Not only are such men likely to be useless to actually preventing any sexual violence; since they think those are the only targets, they're usually ignorant of - if not outright hostile to - the idea that there are other, more numerous and insidious, rapes to prevent.

(Also, if you aren't already reading Ami Angelwings, I recommend you do so. Don't let her netspeak fool you into thinking she isn't a sharp writer.)

David Tennant causes me to (continue to) wrestle with the question of: Is he sexy in spite of being ridiculously silly, or because of it? Also, am I desperate enough to see this movie just to see more of him in guyliner?

Alex Kingston is simultaneously adorable and sexy in a Craig Ferguson interview (prior to season 6, no specific spoilers). I found the video here, and box_in_the_box helpfully included a link to this advertisement for the Rampant Rabbit that Kingston mentions. Now, I know I'm a sheltered USian and Europeans are used to television that isn't deathly afraid of sexuality, but ... I wonder if this actually aired on television, and if it did, that's AWESOME.

Here are some more adorable and silly interviews with Craig Ferguson, this time with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. This whole cast just seems ridiculously fun.

There is a lot (a looooot) I could complain about regarding the temporary office space we moved in to, as well as the remodeled office space that will await us at - supposedly - the end of the year. But rather than dwell on that, I want to talk about the good things and revive my defunct happy-5 list practice:

1. I have office plants! I never really got the appeal/need for them, until we moved into this depressing basement cubicle farm (oops ... no complaining, right). kiwikiwi started making plans for decorating off the bat, and that's definitely more productive than wallowing, so I followed her example. I now have a peace lily, a bromeliad, and a pink quill, all in adorable teacup-shaped pots. They're supposed to be good in low-light conditions, so I'm crossing my fingers that they'll survive the basement.

2. Someone brought in an espresso machine. I'm pretty happy with the makeshift lattes I make using this and this, but it might be fun to learn how to make real espresso and real steamed milk.

3. It's kind of (really) annoying that the open cubicle farm layout means I can hear everyone talking ... But, on the other hand, I've had two conversations this morning that involved me overhearing a conversation and being able to jump in and say, "wait, I know something that will help!"

4. Due to various events (graduation, orientation, retreat), we have a plethora of leftover bagels and cream cheese. I loooooove bagels and cream cheese. And yes, this one is temporary, but food makes me happy so it's going on the list.

5. I found out that we have herons nesting on campus, and I'm going to go see them on my lunch break. ♥