What a great weekend!

[cjsmith]

I spent pretty much the whole weekend square dancing. I had forgotten square dancing could be THIS much fun. Yes, both the venues were a bit (okay a lot) too warm. Yes, it took a while to get to and from each of them. But it was all worth it many times over!

Saturday's dance was hard C3B. Either it was invitational (meaning not publicized beyond invitations to specific people) or it was well-described as difficult; I'm not sure which. Either way, we didn't have people there who couldn't do it. It was wonderful to get to do some of that material without getting repeatedly body-blocked by people who really need to study a bit more. The caller called stuff, and we did it. Sometimes, the caller called hard stuff, and we actually got the enjoyment of the mental puzzle plus the physical component. It was terrific fun! This is the way Challenge square dancing should be! The organizer and the callers all got many good comments on the dance, and we're hoping the organizer will be willing to do another one soon.

Sunday's dance was alternating C3A/C3B/C4, and was a celebration of the wedding of two dancers in the Los Angeles area. Rob and I flew down and brought two other people from the Bay Area with us. It was heartwarming to see the community come together to support these people and show our friendship. At this dance, I was bold enough to let myself get dragged into three different C4 squares. I'm still learning that level, and these dancers were very aware of that and happy to be helpful. They were strong enough (and I'm finally getting sort-of-good-enough) that my weaker skills didn't hurt our success rate at all. It was FUN! Wow, I'm really going to like C4. The other folks lied and told me I did great, which was nice of them. :-) Two people even said "Okay, you're a C4 dancer now." Heh. A new and wobbly one, to be sure. Improving quickly, I hope. But wow, I'm feeling good about my progress.

Got home late - couple hours in the plane, half hour in the car. Tired but happy.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Sounds like great fun! (And how do you know they lied? Perhaps you recovered from your missteps so quickly nobody noticed.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they weren't lying outright. They were probably stretching things a little, to be encouraging. :-)

I do think I recovered from my missteps quickly. I doubt NOBODY noticed, but to notice, a person might have had to be watching for it.

I also took a lot of cues from my environment. These cues aren't very subtle, but are rarely codified. Many square dancers can see an outstretched hand and immediately know the answers to "is this for me", "which of my hands should I use", and "are we going to continue to hang on or just pass by after touching hands", but few of those people can teach someone else how they know. The reactions to this sort of thing are fast. Someone who is forewarned to look for this can tell who is giving a cue, who is taking a cue, and who doesn't need a cue but isn't confident enough to give one yet. Probably no one in my square was noticing that I was on the taking-cue end of things alllll the time. But they could have, if they'd been watching me for it.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Glad you had fun and are happy with your progress--go you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! 8-)

[yoak.livejournal.com]

This is such a cool and unusual hobby. I'd really like to see it sometime.

I have vague memories of square dancing from young childhood. Having been ris in hills of West Virginia where it was actually popular and taught in elementary school I had some exposure. My memories consist entirely of having done it and absolutely not at all of how to do it, but I wonder if I were to see it now if it might reinforce some of those early memories. There is always a lot of value in that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

We got some in elementary school, too (suburbs of Boston).

Probably if you saw "Mainstream" or "Plus" dancing it would bring back memories. C4 probably wouldn't, but could be intriguing to see just because it's unusual. I'll take a wild-*ss guess and say there are maybe three hundred C4 dancers in the world.

[gs.livejournal.com]

"Okay, you're a C4 dancer now." Heh. A new and wobbly one, to be sure. Improving quickly, I hope. But wow, I'm feeling good about my progress.

The image of a new born colt flashed through my mind. It's a bit awkward as it discovers its legs, but a few hours later it's running through the fields.

Way to go!t

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! 8-)

I think I know how the colt feels. He's saying to himself "What am I doing? Why am I in this position? What can I do from here? If I tried it, would I crash? What was it I just did, and why did it work? Will it always work?" :-)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

"What is this 'horse sense' anyway? And why is it tingling all of a sudden?"