Dance like nobody’s watching - just try not to crash into your neighbours ;)

I’m gonna forewarn this might be long.  It’s 1am, I’m writing in my phone, and my brain is fried.   Consider yourself forewarned ;)

So today was another Saturday dance class; one that had been in my calendar for a while.  But wow was it ever the opposite of what I wanted to do this afternoon.   It had been a really brutal week - good, but exhausting.   Like exhausting enough that today was not going well.  My workout in the am def did not accomplish anything useful; I was the supreme opposite of motivated for literally anything; I had SO much stuff to do (most of which, admittedly, I *still* have to do); I wasn’t feeling super hot physically; and the weather was meh, which is actually a win for indoor activities but not for inspiring me to go outside to get to said activities.

Suffice to say, a 1:00pm class when my natural low point of any day is about 2 and I had ZERO interest in getting off the couch.  I could even have justified it with sitting ON the couch: I could’ve accomplished a number of my mental-load tasks that had to happen today.

BUT.  Every. Single. Time. that I’ve even vaguely considered not going, I’ve had So. Much. Fun. that I felt the need to get my ass off the couch.  That, and I knew this class was special for my coach and I’d be a pretty horrible person to not show up when I’d already committed to it.

I dug through my closet to see if I had any other skirts that twirl lol.   A class a couple wks ago I was accidentally wearing one that did and I swear it’s the dance version of a power suit for a job interview.  It amazes me how how you feel about how you look can impact everything.   That particular one though - while it twirls nicely, was WAY too hot for today.  So okay dig through…. And found one that definitely was ordered online at some point, although I don’t remember when or why.  I say this because it was a wrap around skirt which in a store I would never have tried on, but when they arrive in the mail….   Lol and since I chose to spend my entire teenage years at a barn in boots and breeches, it took me WAY longer than it should’ve to get it tied so it sat correctly, didn’t show lines from the other layers, and was structurally sound lol.   BUT, as I expected, it twirled nicely ;).  You know, priorities.  Gave up on any kind of top lol and simply went w comfy.  Baby steps ;)

But now I had a twirly skirt, so I had to go.  Admittedly still not into it when I got there, and my brain was *really* fried.  But chit chatted with some of the ladies and committed.   Now for those who’ve been here for a while, you may remember how excited I (and to be fair, some of the others) were that these classes seemed to be getting easier.  Because coach M says ‘no, they’re not harder, we were just getting better’.  So what does it mean when the class seems *much* harder?!?!?   Lol oh dear.

I will admit at first I figured it was cause I had no brain power left, until I realized much of the class was having the exact same problem.  To which superstar coach on the spot revised an easier version we could sub in instead.  Except, of course, for me it was *not* easier lol.  In fact, it was way harder.  I will admit though that might’ve been at least mostly mental - logically it was much easier, but since I *really* liked the hard one even though I was struggling w it, I didn’t want to get downgraded and, well, mindset already grumpy, I’ll admit I might not have put quite as much effort into mastering it as I should’ve.  Although - fair to me, that’s one I always struggle with although I also usually enjoy it too.

So, moving on, when asked for opinion I was the first to speak (who’s shocked by this?   Welcome to my blog!) but not the only and it turns out the vast majority were in agreement or unwilling to voice disagreement.  But those who usually contribute were all aligned.   Win!

So we tried again until we stated to get it.  The “hard part” (a fun kick/cross-over thing that was a combo of new and fast) wasn’t actually hard for me but the very next step (a lovely slow slide) which seems to be easy for the rest of the world was?!?! lol so close enough;).   Eventually I figured out what I was doing wrong and then that whole thing got much easier (I felt I was always late; turns out adding an unrequired step is frowned upon in dance ;-P) - SQUIRREL: autocorrect changed that to “unrequited step” and I really wanted to leave it cause it made me laugh.  So feel free to sub that in if you like ;)

Moving on, the next adventure was a zombie walk.  Lol I’m so not even kidding.  I finally had to pause with “I understand the steps (I mean it’s literally walking, conceptually I mastered that a long time ago) but what (TF implied but not spoken cause polite people in this crowd lol) am I supposed to do with my arms?!?!  I feel like a zombie!”  Which, yeah women support system - part of why I love this class - was immediately seconded by somebody far more entertaining than I who brought up that she felt like she was in the Thriller vid - complete w a *much* better zombie than mine.   Lol.  Amazing so between giggles and other people doing Thriller impressions I actually got some advice on what to do to improve it.  I’m gonna admit that piece never felt good, but at least I had something to try.

And then.   Yup, we’re not done yet.  For added complications, coach M decided that a class full of middle aged women would be a great place to bring in a body roll.   Alright - hands up, who knows what that is?   Cause if you had asked me, I would’ve said the last body roll I did I was probably in when I was still in single digits and in involved rolling my body down a large grassy hill.   Shockingly, that was NOT the look she was going for ;-P.   Suffice to say, this was where we learned who in the class has actual dance in their history and who does not lol.  I’ll leave it to you to YouTube this one cause this is getting very long and the bath is getting cold ;).  

BUT what was super exciting to me - and it kinda happened in two places - by the end of the class, for the first time ever, I was quite happily and confidently applying choose-your-own-adventure dance.   I have literally never done that.   The skirt helped ;).   It made me smile every time it twirled, which made me far more likely to move my hips ;).   But yeah, that body roll, I will break it down very analytically and figure it out, cause that’s what I do.  But not there or then.  So instead in that pause, normally I’d just kinda stand there awkwardly till we were back to another step I knew but this time I was just on my own happy “make up your own thing” space.   And there were two other sections, both involving turns (one fast, one slow) that same thing - those ones I could do but I was having an awful lot of fun w my hands and arms that has literally never happened before.  It’s the skirt I tell you!

And *that* is why I’m still smiling, even many hours later.    So much fun.  So glad I went.  And no, the rest of the day did not get any more productive, but somehow now it was okay :)