![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickSo, Freestyles the Second! Bigger and better than the first.. mostly. :)
I'm still in that sort of.. disconnected with reality stage. Freestyles is over and I am sad (always a big hint that I had a great time!). I have drunk deeply of the Kool-Aid for it is tasty and I love dancing and I love my friends at my studio.
In general, I really feel like we did well. We made a few mistakes, there were a couple of missteps, but all in all I think we BOTH did pretty well. I've now seen video of some of those dances, taken by my dad and.. to be fair, there's room for improvement. I need to learn to stand up as tall as I can and not stick my butt out (which is especially hard with tango, let me tell you!), but... I've come A LONG way in the last few months. And that means I can probably come a long way in the next few months (as I do battle against Cuban Motion! :o Michael has his work cut out for him if he thinks I can learn Cuban Motion!)
I keep mentally comparing to the last (and first!) time I did Freestyles. Last time, I was so FREAKING SCARED! Seriously freaking out. I botched up because I was so scared. Not only that, but I knew a handful of people: Yvonne, Melinda, Jae, Kacy and Rebecca.. and the instructors. I think that's more or less it.
This time, I got nervous, no arguments. A couple of times I was really afraid I'd botch it up, but I made no HUGE GLARING ERRORS. Nothing that made me feel like "OMG. So stupid. I suck so bad." And I've definitely loosened up on my dance. Even *I* can tell a difference between now and last Freestyles.
And I knew ALOT more people.. having gone to a bunch of Thursdays without Kristen, I'd known alot more people by sight if not by name. And alot more people knew me.
Both of these things really made a difference.
I received a number of compliments. Even Kristen's hearing compliments about me. Which is.. nice, honestly. It really builds up the old egos to hear people talk about how I'm a strong lead, a good dancer, etc. And it really reminds me how far I've come. :)
K and I both feel like we just NAILED our Open Swing. We're both very happy with that. I'm also very happy with the Closed Foxtrot we did. :) Tango.. needs some work, but given our limited exposure to Tango, I'm CERTAIN we'll do better next Freestyles. The only two I'm not thrilled with is I felt like I never QUITE caught up with my Open Rumba with Kelly and I KNOW K and I kept tripping up over each other for both Open and Closed Waltz, sadly. Oh well.
Dad got some videos and pictures. Kristen's dad and mom took videos and some of our friends took photos too, so.. with luck, this Freestyles SHOULD be very well documented. :)
All in all a great time! We did well, we hung out with our friends and we had a great time! What else could you want out of a weekend event? :)
Now to concentrate on graduating Bronze I and moving up to Bronze II.
I'm still in that sort of.. disconnected with reality stage. Freestyles is over and I am sad (always a big hint that I had a great time!). I have drunk deeply of the Kool-Aid for it is tasty and I love dancing and I love my friends at my studio.
In general, I really feel like we did well. We made a few mistakes, there were a couple of missteps, but all in all I think we BOTH did pretty well. I've now seen video of some of those dances, taken by my dad and.. to be fair, there's room for improvement. I need to learn to stand up as tall as I can and not stick my butt out (which is especially hard with tango, let me tell you!), but... I've come A LONG way in the last few months. And that means I can probably come a long way in the next few months (as I do battle against Cuban Motion! :o Michael has his work cut out for him if he thinks I can learn Cuban Motion!)
I keep mentally comparing to the last (and first!) time I did Freestyles. Last time, I was so FREAKING SCARED! Seriously freaking out. I botched up because I was so scared. Not only that, but I knew a handful of people: Yvonne, Melinda, Jae, Kacy and Rebecca.. and the instructors. I think that's more or less it.
This time, I got nervous, no arguments. A couple of times I was really afraid I'd botch it up, but I made no HUGE GLARING ERRORS. Nothing that made me feel like "OMG. So stupid. I suck so bad." And I've definitely loosened up on my dance. Even *I* can tell a difference between now and last Freestyles.
And I knew ALOT more people.. having gone to a bunch of Thursdays without Kristen, I'd known alot more people by sight if not by name. And alot more people knew me.
Both of these things really made a difference.
I received a number of compliments. Even Kristen's hearing compliments about me. Which is.. nice, honestly. It really builds up the old egos to hear people talk about how I'm a strong lead, a good dancer, etc. And it really reminds me how far I've come. :)
K and I both feel like we just NAILED our Open Swing. We're both very happy with that. I'm also very happy with the Closed Foxtrot we did. :) Tango.. needs some work, but given our limited exposure to Tango, I'm CERTAIN we'll do better next Freestyles. The only two I'm not thrilled with is I felt like I never QUITE caught up with my Open Rumba with Kelly and I KNOW K and I kept tripping up over each other for both Open and Closed Waltz, sadly. Oh well.
Dad got some videos and pictures. Kristen's dad and mom took videos and some of our friends took photos too, so.. with luck, this Freestyles SHOULD be very well documented. :)
All in all a great time! We did well, we hung out with our friends and we had a great time! What else could you want out of a weekend event? :)
Now to concentrate on graduating Bronze I and moving up to Bronze II.
