25) Learn To Do The Tango

I've never been a fan of organised activities or clubs, so it came as a bit of a surprise that I enjoyed joining the dancing community for a brief six weeks. Of course I love people watching and there were, it has to be said, quite a lot of characters to watch! In particular I loved the fact that every week, we witnessed the Olympic champion limbering up, before each session and the fact that he had homed in on his favourite participant and stuck with her (literally!), towards the later part of the lessons - I didn't even get a look in!

The most annoying aspect of going to these sessions, is that you need a regular partner. The first couple of sessions, we had to share the dance instructor between us. This was made easier, towards the end, as some people had drifted away and a couple of lessons, I got the instructor all to myself. But it's that feeling, when we go from dancing separately to dancing with partners, when you stand, waiting for someone, anyone to ask if you want to dance with them, that I didn't like. Very reminiscent of being back at school and waiting to be picked for a team in gym class.

So six weeks later and for a very bargain £30, I can now dance a basic Tango, which I am very pleased about. At some point in the future, I may go back again and see if I can push to an intermediate level, but for now, I'm quite happy, if only I could get rid of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow out of my brain!

The Dance Class Part 5

Can you believe that I've been at it for five weeks now? No, neither can I. Of course I am referring to my tango lessons! I was a little wary of going this week due to the fact that I'd missed a week and that I would be completely lost, but fear not, they don't appear to have learnt a lot more to the routine, so I managed to cope fairly well.

We've now learnt four different bits to the tango, that we put all together and well, I was alright with the beginning and the end, just the middle bits that I'd completely forgotten by the time, it came to dancing it!

Mr Olympic champion appears to have his favourite dancer and stuck with her all night. I was left, very much like the fat kid in gym class, waiting for someone, anyone to dance with me, but thankfully the only person left was the dance instructor and that meant I got one-two-one lessons all class!

Next week will be my last week and therefore, hopefully, another task will be crossed off the list!

It All Came Together....

Do you know those moments in life, when something clicks and everything just appears to slot into place quite nicely? I had one of those moments at dance class on Thursday night.

We began with the Samba for a change. Not a fan of the old Latin type dance, prefer the ballroom personally and couldn't get to grips with this one, last week at all. Not so this week. I got the whole rhythm and even managed to get the whole change over pattern (ish!). As for the Tango well, I heart the Tango. The Tango is my new best friend and apart from the odd wrong head movement, I get the whole dance sequence so far that we've learnt. I love the dramatic feel of the Tango and the way it makes you feel whenever you dance the steps.

I've even, gulp, made friends with the guy who warms up like an Olympic champion and had a couple of dances with him. So all is well in the land of the dance and I'm looking forward to my fourth lesson next week.

Lesson No. 2

I know, I know, it's taken me nearly a week to blog again! Even though, I finished 'the book' on Sunday, I've been busy reading 'The Secret History' at every available opportunity, due to the fact the Library wanted it back by today. That's finished now, so hopefully no more deadlines to meet this week and plenty of time to blog....hopefully!

My second dance lesson was on Thursday and the guy that warms up like an Olympic champion is seriously freaking me out. When we partner up, he homes in on the 'spare' ladies. I'm sure he's only trying to help, but he makes me feel very uncomfortable and the only way I can avoid him seems to be, by looking down at my feet and not making eye contact, or alternatively pushing my friend H forward, which seemed to work quite nicely this week!

We have learnt three sections of the Tango now. All of which I can do and I even got a thumbs up from the instructor this week, who I don't mind partnering in the least! However, it does appear that I'm not at one with the Samba and I struggled to get the moves correct. I just don't seem to get the wriggle right. According to H, it's all in the bounce, but I don't think that I'm destined to do Latin and will stick with the ballroom, it's probably safer!