Contra dance and a surprise

[celticdragonfly]

So, I'm up to Saturday, right? Saturday. Groceries. Picking up Maggie's birthday cake for Sunday's party. selenite picking up our babysitter. Then - heading out for contra dancing!

We stopped to pick up fordprfct and kattelyn, since they were coming with us. This was their first time and introduction to contra dancing. At least, that's what kattelyn thought. Certainly it was her first. Little did she know... see, she'd been challenging fordprfct to get in better shape, and I'd been helping him PLOT. This was actually his third time at contra dance. He was learning how and starting to build up endurance.

Back on May 7th, when I posted Last night was contra dancing again, first Saturday of the month. Sadly, I struck out on finding babysitters. But selenite was kind enough to send me on my own - well, he SENT me on my own, knowing I was meeting fordprfct to teach him. He took to it like... like a very out of shape duck to water! He did 4 contras with me the first night. Those video clips I posted of me dancing? He took. By partway through the dancing I could see him doing minor flourishes, and then he was picking up mine - like spinning the do-si-dos. By the end of the evening he was introducing/leading flourishes with me! I was very impressed. The last dance they did was a called dance, where they don't teach it to you first - they just call it, and then they change the dance several times during it - and he kept up!

Again on May 14th, when I posted We went contra dancing with friends - that was fordprfct. The music wasn't so good that night, but he was still learning more, and managed to do more dances, building up endurance.

He'd have kept it secret longer - but they're switching his work schedules. It had been that until the beginning of August, all the contra dances would have been on Saturday nights when he works, when he could just go after work, and kattelyn would be out elsewhere. But that's changing. So he decided to bring her and surprise her. I like being part of surprises, it makes me giggle!

Last night the music was great, they had a big circle of musicians and it was good. selenite was helping teach a newbie and encouraging her, I was so proud of him. I only sat out one contra dance all evening, and that was because I couldn't find a partner. fordprfct didn't do that well, but he was dancing more than he was sitting out. I got to dance several times with selenite, including a lovely dance that had a long swing with your partner :-) We had a dance come up with a Gypsy Meltdown, my very favorite contra bit.

It was fun watching fordprfct tell kattelyn the secret. I've been assured that those sounds mean she's flabbergasted.

Last dance of the evening, I'd had dibs on fordprfct, because I was hoping it would be another called dance, like the last two times, and that would REALLY show off how good he is. Nope, it wasn't. The caller started teaching the contra - and realized wait, this was not working out. Said forget it on that dance. Which I appreciate in a caller! Was trying to find another contra dance, but couldn't - so heck with it, had everyone balance and do a really long swing with your partner, and then they went to a waltz.

So there I was, no last contra. fordprfct hadn't waltzed before, but hey, he'd promised me a dance, he said, and was willing to try to learn. So off we go to a corner, and I'm explaining, and starting to show him the steps - wait, don't try to do it first, just watch my feet - um, wait, you're DOING it. Yes. That. Okay, let's go. And there we are waltzing off - okay, a slightly lumbering newbie basic waltz, we weren't adding flourishes and I'm explaining the details of leading as we're going, and we're putting in some basic turns, and hey, waltzing!

So here I am, not only a BookPusher, but a DancePusher. kattelyn was extremely sore the next day, but assures me that she'd do it again if it was on that night. We talked to Tom and Sarah about it on Sunday, and explained and demonstrated and such, and Tom at least sounded very interested. Whee!

Comments

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

I'm a Dance Pusher too! mastacool enjoys it so much he goes on his own now!