Dancesport Modern A, week 1 of 7

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I am so bloody incompetent it's not even funny.

Right. Now that that's out of the way... This is my first proper termtime visit to a Modern A class, after attending the combined Dancesport Modern/Latin A class intermittently over the vac, and I'm feeling ever so slightly out of my depth. Presently I'm attributing this to the fact I seem to have a steeper-than-average learning curve when it comes to dancing, as well as to missing terminology and prior knowledge on my part.

The first half of the lesson was Foxtrot, mainly exercises. My sense of balance is appalling when I'm on my own, so the walking exercises were frustratingly hard, even though they shouldn't be. It's my inherent non-dancerliness coming out. So. The exercise consisted of combining heel steps and toe steps with the rising and falling and the upper body turning. I'm not even convinced I got the heel and toe steps right. Need to ask someone about those at some point. For this exercise we needed to walk in as straight a line as possible, which I didn't realise in the beginning. Corrected that soon enough, though. Some more practice, and I should almost get to be passable at Foxtrot... Ha.

I thought Waltz would be less frustrating, but it was actually more so. At this point, the regular instructor had to head off, and a dep stepped in (with whom I've had classes before that I've enjoyed). There is where the lack of terminology and prior knowledge comes in. Because I rather foolishly went straight to Improvers last term [1] and had to miss some of those classes, I lack some of the steps the dep was describing as simple. I need to investigate impetus turns and weaves, and work out what the footwork for those is, so that I don't look and feel quite as stupid next time around. The other thing we learnt that I should probably note down here is that one's legs should always brush past each other in waltz, so that the side step is almost a bit more to the back (or front if you're a chap) initially rather than just straight out to the side.

There was also some Quickstep at the end, but I sat that out because I couldn't find a dance partner and was feeling grumpy and frustrated anyway, particularly with one more-advanced couple (whom I have no objection to personally - I was just in a baddish mood at this point) doing stuff that I know I will have huge amounts of trouble getting my head around if I ever manage to learn it. I suspect it was Modern B or C-level stuff, so I shouldn't be too angsty about it, but... Meh.

Hmmm. Apologies for all the negativity in so early a post. It should (hopefully!) get better as time passes.

[1] Having started and dropped out of something like three terms of Beginners' classes due to scheduling problems, I just couldn't face the prospect of one more, so I went into Improvers last term and mostly just about managed.