Dancing
Its been 40 days, it does not feel like it, still feel I'm at the beginning, and I hope I am.
I'm going through a process of trying/learning a lot of new things all at once;
- Portuguese
- the job
- coding
- meditation
- forro
Each one is going pretty well, the routine is helping and I can feel myself taking a step forward with each one, although sometimes one step forward is not enough...
I've been going to a few free trial dance classes with a couple of online English teachers also living here. We began our free classes with forro at about 2 on Saturday, myself donning a pair of flip flops, green shorts and baggy purple vest. Mark, a big Irish dude, opting for the more sensible option of trainers. The camp instructor was very enjoyable and made us feel welcome, helped by the small class size of a dozen or so. It didn't stop the nerves altogether though, with my right leg in particular feeling very tense, not ideal for a rhythmic dance.
It's not particularly complicated at the basic level, just very rhythmic and close. We all joined hands and moved in a line before moving into a circle. By 2 minutes a more experienced, later impatient, lady came between us to help us both out. My flip flops slapping the floor with each step, giving away my poor rhythm. The concentration at times was my downfall, thinking about the steps unsurprisingly put me out of rhythm, but with more practice it became more natural.
I decided to ditch the betraying flip flops and go barefoot at the next possible opportunity. We chose partners like a school disco, with the girls rotating around the room every few minutes. The patriarchy is still alive. stay woke. Although the women were definitely the ones leading and telling me what to do, one filling my confidence by counting for me... Mark seemed to be doing a slightly better job, but as we discussed afterwards, there was a few women who seemed to enjoy helping us and were patient and a few who were less amused.
They were all generally helpful though and the instructor took it at a pace which built it all up into the full dance with turns and all. I can confidently say we got there in the end.
We loved it all and descended on a barzinho with our friend Maddy where we spent the rest of the day drinking, maybe a bit too much, and sharing stories and such.
We enjoyed it so much we decided to head to another free trial of the midweek lessons at the same place, convincing Maddy to join us.
This was a bit different, it appeared there was a massive increase of people and when it started people just started dancing without instruction. madness.
We joined in, and already my first partner began counting... great. We were quickly scouted out as newcomers, again like inception, and guided over to a corner, away from everyone else, with a few others. We then all had a partner each who lead for us, with brief interludes to be taught. This class was very different, a lot more people, a lot more pace and our corner just danced and figured it out ourselves, or didn't figure it out if so the case. There was lots of laughing, lots of missed steps and a few bruised toes for my poor partner. I had not even attempted the flip flops this time.
But towards the end, certain things began to come back, I was doing the spins ite (ish) and the basic steps lol. Mark seemed to widen the gap and was looking good whilst Maddy was holding her own, although she does say its a lot easier with the man leading, but overall an enjoyable night an it will not dissuade me from future dances. Marks already hunted out another few free classes so we'll head to them pretending to be beginners with a bit more experience each time.
And I'm still dancing at lunch times whilst cooking or pre-shower, or whilst teaching (a requirement in one section when the child says pear) and at these times I can honestly tell you I'm a fantastic dancer...
But I'm actually finding a lot of rhythm and flow in my other aspects of life so I'll take that, if not the dancefloor.
I've also attached a page called soundtrack for a playlist of these that my dad's made, or the songs I'm listening to. Enjoy
