Around six times per year, my dance group’s official TCRG (certified dance teacher) comes over to teach us, through some fairly intensive weekend classes. This is mainly because there aren’t many TCRGs here in Norway, except one or two on the other side of the country, but in order to compete, you need to dance under a registered teacher.
This weekend is the first such visit of the year. Even if I’m not technically at intermediate level yet, I got to learn a new intermediate slipjig today. I really love slipjigs, even if I have a love/hate relationship with my primary slipjig (which I’m stuck with until I place in it), and while I did learn another intermediate slipjig previously, I like this one even better.
Partially I probably like it because I could actually do it. I cannot do it well yet, there are too many new things for that, but I wasn’t all that much worse than the other two, who have already moved up into intermediate a few years ago. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. At one point it was pointed out that I was the only one who pointed (oooh, the pun), even if I’m the one with the bad feet. (If only that had lasted the entire class!)
Also the dance had a lot of fiddly bits, with twists and crosskeys and diddly-dums (whatever they are really called) and other little things, but it also has lots of movement and leaps and overs. I have really grown fond of dances with that kind of movement where you can just go. I used to struggle with it, but somewhere along the way things changed.
Another thing I am excited about (at least I am now, but I was rather apprehensive when she showed us the steps) are entrechats, those jumps where the front and back foot switch places twice before landing. I have never done them before, and still cannot really, but when we used the wall bars to help us practice, I got a few really good ones. I cannot wait to master them.
Really I cannot wait to master the whole dance. I haven’t been too good at little fiddly steps in dances, but you have to start somewhere, and this one is the perfect blend of challenging and natural. I really, really like our teacher’s steps, even the primary dances. I am trying not to get too frustrated that I am still in primary, but after illness and injury and whatnot it’s just the way it is. At least my feet, which are normally very bad nowadays, behaved. I didn’t really feel much pain until just now. For those who wonder, it’s not a dance injury, and resting doesn’t seem to help. Dancing doesn’t seem to harm it either, fortunately, even if I cannot wear proper dance shoes at the moment. I won’t say that I haven’t been frustrated, but I am trying to be patient and at least not let it stress me out. That won’t accomplish anything good.
Well, that was all for today. Tomorrow’s another class, and we’ll see if my feet and head behave. I don’t deal well with not being able to do a step, and sometimes I overthink things. Well, I almost always overthink things, but sometimes I take it to extremes… I’m going to use my new foam roller, then I’m going to read or paint a little and then go to bed. I’ve slept really badly, so I need all the sleep I can get…