Dance Season No 10: When it's time to walk away...

I danced for 5 hours on Sunday night - the music at the CurlyWurly Sunday event in Huddersfield was wonderful, the dancers varied and considerate - except for a prat who danced like he was drunk (but sadly wasn't) and wandered across the floor (through the slots and in front of dancers) like he had no self-awareness (which unsurprisingly he didn't). There was a gentleman who declined to dance with our host - how short-sighted is that?

I danced the best I could but throughout I felt I should be giving more. My energy was not sufficient to do my share - I had failed in my first task. A malaise sets in.

By Tuesday it hit a new low. I gazed at the freestyle dance floor and it felt alien. Three or four dances in it felt alien too. What on earth was I doing there?

But the time I was due to dance again I sensed the writing was on the wall for that night. I didn't belong there. I left - heavy hearted at the change in me - assured it would change back. But then since then the assurance has transmuted to hope and I'm not a hope filled man.

I have no desire to learn West Coast Swing or to go off for a few days dancing or drive for hours to a disappointing dance, no desire to compete, no desire to be taught, no desire to tumble into the self regarding cliques or into discourse habitual chatterers. I wnat to do what I used to do but get better at it by hearing the music. But I can't at the moment. No desire to dance: I don't want to be there.

All I can hold onto is that I have been here before: but for now I should just walk away.

Comments

How a Competition is born - making it happen

The birth of a new competition on the Ceroc dance circuit gives me chance to talk to some of those involved to illustrate what it's all about. To kick this off I sent over a few questions to one of the key people in the drive to create Northern Championships, Jamie Stormer. Photo credit: Terry Hills Jamie is a well respected Ceroc teacher and successful competitive dancer. He works for Ceroc Addiction (which covers Shropshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Manchester). This area has become something of a powerhouse of competition dancing and Jamie has been instrumental in bring on new dancers to the competition circuit. A week ago Jamie was competing with great success in Ceroc UK Championships - now he's busy on the final preparations for Northern Champs which I first previewed here . The other day I asked Jamie via email a few questions about this new competition with a view to sharing them with you:- SN: How did you get the idea for Northern Champs? ...

A Social Dance?

A weekend at Ceroc Southport reminds me that modern jive is a social dance...but only sometimes. This account of a Ceroc dance weekend will be my last as the waves of positivity and utter claptrap overwhelm me elsewhere in reviews on the internet and in social media. There were some very good bits to this weekender. I enjoyed it a great deal. Many of the songs in many of the sets in the Boudoir were very good, too few of the dancers did them justice, because there's the problem and here's my take on it. The trend toward slower, simplified music drags dancers down to a place where dancing is merely moving on the beat. Some songs subsist on a diet lacking harmonic complexity, syncopation, melodic line over a dozen or so bars or intricate instrumentation. This low calorie music is not the realm of the 20th Century minimalist composers like Adams and Reich, but a series of predictable notes which sound right even in the wrong order ( pace Morecambe and Wise). Swi...

Réjouissance (or get your dance shoes love)

We might imagine all was well in the centre of Sheffield this Thursday. A city centre funfair attracted lots of families to enjoy something akin to a seaside prom experience a mere 60 miles away from the chilly North Sea. But there were three concerns behind this festive offering: the social, the economic and the public health and they illustrate the position in dance right now. There was a palpable sense of relief and joy for parents to get their kids some break from the reminders of isolation which has so badly effected so many lives. There was some relief that punters were in the city centre spending money in the lucky business in the area. The balance between health/wellbeing and illness were difficult still for some but for many straightforward. It was sunny and hot, an outdoor event and health and safety measures were in place. Of course I don't know how many chose to stay away or had to stay away. How many, I wonder, still stayed indoors ...

Mindpoke dance

Search This Blog