Continental Rock'n'Roll, week 1 of 4

Preliminary sidenote: went to a ceilidh on Saturday. It snapped me firmly back into dancing headspace.

Today I went along to my first Rock'n'Roll class, with some trepidation beforehand as the website described it as energetic. In this lesson, we learned the basic step (kick, ball-change, kick, kick - comes to a 6-count) and two figures. Felt mildly incompetent during the exercises, but once we started actually dancing with partners I felt a lot better, presumably because I'd had more practice by then, rather than some tremendous aversion to solo technical exercises on my part. Hmmm. Another post for another time, I think.

The first figure we learned was simply swapping places, which I've seen in swing dancing elsewhere, and which was simple enough. The second figure, the Four Kicks, was somewhat more complicated (involving some turning around), but what I need to remember in particular is that you don't turn back forwards until you have kicked once facing backward, and to pull the kicking leg in closely when turning, to make the turning easier. Otherwise, it's pretty straightforward as well.

I think I enjoy this style. The main difference I find do ballroom at the moment is that I don't think I moved backwards once in the entire lesson. Maybe this will happen later, or perhaps it's just not part of the style. As could be expected from the first session of a beginners' class, I missed strong leading, but I think that will improve over time as well. Managed to drag along my friend R., who didn't run screaming, and who has even said he'll come along next week. Hurrah!