dance at least once a week

I am still hitting the dance floor each week :). The week before last, I was only out there on Wednesday and Thursday though because I suddenly was hit by a very nasty cold. Since I have not been the dancing machine that I was kinda in the habit of being, this last week took more of a toll than usual in the past few weeks. Haha, I guess it is a bit easy to get a little out of shape or something.

Last week I was able to hit up dance related activities on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (yet was out of town and too tired on Sunday to continue the trend).

I am having a real hard time with Salsa lately and am getting more and more frustrated each day. I can not figure out how to get myself to move like the women who are so good. The footwork is no problem, it is the flavor, the movements that really make a dance…and that is what I am struggling with… :S There is one thing I know for sure that will help me with my problem, private lessons and I do not have the money for such things right now and am just learning out on the dance floor.

My dance partner has named me the “Swing Queen” and he is the “Salsa King”, haha. Because that is what seems to be our individual natural abilities. When he first said that, I was like “What?! I love salsa!” Which of course I do :) Yet it is true that I seem to be far more of a natural at Swing. For me that dance is just plain fun. I goof off and don’t think about my footwork hardly at all and I have been learning to play with the music while dancing in Swing. My partner on the other hand has a harder time with Swing. He is Latin himself and can pick up on all the latin dances incredibly fast. He has his own style while dancing that is unlike anyone else I have seen here in Vegas and is incredibly cool!

The two of us have been getting our new friends to come out dancing almost as much as we go out and have been getting more and more new people out on the dance floor. I spend more time dancing with gentlemen who are just now starting out and helping them learn the basics than anything else. It is a great feeling to see that spark of the fire starting in someone who is all of a sudden being enveloped in the love for dance! That moment when you can see that they suddenly had something click in their brain and everything becomes easier and they start to dance instead of to think about every movement :D.

Dance is an amazing thing! It for me is where I feel the most myself. Where I can let loose if I need. When there is only the man I am dancing with, me, the music, and the dance floor. Everything else is gone in that moment!

On a random note, my camera and purse were stolen and so I will not have any pictures to post for a while…

Last night was GREAT! And my very good dance parter was even so kind as to start taking pictures of me dancing so I have a way to remember. He is just too awesome! The pics of me and him didn’t come out very good though, because someone else was taking them, so sadly he isn’t the gentleman in the pic I posted. Though that gentleman is quite an amazing dancer :D.

Ah, it was another double whammy of a night. I hit up two separate places with my awesome friends (it is now becoming a group thing, instead of just me and my awesome partner). With a quick wardrobe change in the backseat of the car, lol! But it seems as if I am on a roll lately, and I think my hips are starting to finally start moving more like a sexy woman instead of a broomstick :D.

At both places I hardly had a chance to take a drink, and I was sooo thristy from all that dancing. Each time I was heading back to the table I would be taken back on the dance floor or if I actually made it to the table one of my fellow amazing guy friends would request a dance (I was the only lady in this particular group, lucky me!).

Oh and I convinced an old friend to come try out swing dancing earlier this week. I was so proud of him because he did it and it is pretty dang intimidating at first! He rocks :D

Wow! So last weekend was the Las Vegas Swing Exchange, which of course I attended and it was AWESOME! It is so cool to dance with dancers from all over the country (mostly people were from Cali who were from out of town though, hehe). I love how each person has their own style! And I have been trying to learn something new each time I dance :D.

I am super excited because I actually found a person who is willing to teach me an aerial or two. I asked him yesterday in the parking lot and he showed me two but I have somethings I need to work on to be able to do it right. Ooh, it is what I have always wanted to learn, and even took a swing class a few years ago that taught some…but was not able to do any because they told me I was too tall and would be hard to maneuver. Dangit! So I have had it in my head that I probably wouldn’t be able to do such things till my cool friend changed my mind. Yay! :D

And also there is a new swing event/lesson starting up in town this week by a very sweet friend of mine which of course I must support! :D. Yay for dancing, yay for dancers, yay for everything! :D

I am going to make it a point to attend swing exchanges in other parts of the country, because this first introduction was so very fun. Also of course I must attend salsa events in other places too :D. Can’t forget the salsa. I just have swing on the brain since my whole weekend was almost entirely swing :D

So today is Saturday, the last day of the week. Have I been dancing? ... YES! Haha. In fact tonight will be my 4 night of dancing this week.

I discovered a new secret this week :). What you wear can make a huge difference on the amount of dancing one does. Sounds strange? Well it is true, at least in my case. I had kinda been starting to burn out a little on my usual dance stuff lately. It is a lot of the same people and when it comes to salsa I usually get asked to dance very little (except by my very good friend who usually accompanies me). I do not have any really good outfits specifically for dancing and the ones that are ok I have been wearing over and over. So on Thursday I randomly decided I needed to make a new additon to my wardrobe (yikes, because I really don’t have much money lately). It was my first official outfit that looks like I dance salsa! I felt sexy and beautiful and ready to hit the dance floor.

There were two separate places I was headed that night and the first is really casual so I wore jeans and tennis shoes and threw my change of clothes in the car for changing into later.

What a huge difference when I wore the new outfit! I danced every single dance except for maybe one or two. Guys were coming out of the woodwork to ask me to dance, or would catch me on the dance floor before I had the chance to head back to my seat. “I have never seen you before, is this your first time here?” was a question I got many times that night which made me chuckle because I am there usually each week. I felt like a star, as cheesy as that sounds :).

Ahh! How wonderful to dance the night away. But my poor body is so tired today from dancing the past couple nights like there was not tomorrow and I am going out again tonight… Hopefully my feet will still keep up with my partners and not be lagging behind to their own slow beat, hehe.

Ahh, I have been keeping up dancing at least once a week every week. There was one week which I will admit that I did not dance, but that was because I was out of town and did not have a chance but I think that since I tend to dance more than once a week it might make up for it. Hehe :D

Last night I hit up the Aruba. It was so incredibly fun! I was there from the free beginner lesson before hand, all the way until the last people were wandering out the door. Last night I was actually getting asked to dance a lot :D. Oh and on a random note I made a point to ask a few times myself (which is huge, cuz that is not something I do).

My swing skills have much room for improvement and I can feel it when I am dancing with a really good dancer, but at the same time I love being out in the middle of the dance floor! No matter how terrible my dancing may be or how inexperienced my partner of that moment may be I delight in that moment of connecting to someone and telling a story of some sort through the dance…

I spent a lot of time dancing in the darker corners with guys who were new to swing and not quite confident enough to get out on the actual floor and I totally love those moments too. It makes me feel special that they feel comfortable enough to try and figure out the steps with me. That they are not too embarrassed or shy away from dancing, that they feel like they can at least try :D.

I met some amazing new friends, ran into old friends I hadn’t seen in quite a while, and got to know some people who I have meet before better. It was great! Sometimes I am the wallflower in life, but there are moments when I am that social, smiley, energetic person that I am inside on the outside :) and last night was one of the rose moments.

Tonight I am planning on hitting up a dance floor of some sort too, which makes for the 3rd night in a row (5th time dancing this week) :D. Hopefully I am improving at least a little :), but if not at least it is a blast (at least for me, I don’t know about those who are dancing with me though, haha).

Wow! So last week I actually ended up dancing 3 times, and have already been out dancing 2x this week with more to go! Ah, and last night it felt as if I were getting back to being me on the dance floor. I am getting my groove back (haha). My favorite quote concerning dance is: “Dance is life at its most sensational moment” and each time I get the chance to take part I am reminded of how true I think that is :D. It tells a story and you are also able to express different aspects of yourself. For instance if I want to be sexy and spicy I can dress the part and do some salsa or other latin dances. If I want to be fun and goofy I can immerse myself in the swing scene. Or if I am feeling especially classy I can go out and dance the waltz…

Living in Las Vegas can be a pain in the rear if you are a young woman who loves to dance. Why is this? Well, because nobody ever wants to go out dancing unless it club dancing (like hip-hop) and I want to tear up the dance floor and get all sweaty dancing salsa, swing, merenge, cha-cha… meeting new people and dancing until my feet can no longer walk. Haha. I do not mind going places alone, but at the same time I do not like to go out alone in the middle of the night dressed up when I feel as if I am a walking target to any drunk sleaze…

Recently I got back in touch with a very good old friend whom I had not spoken to in a while and he expressed the desire to get back into salsa. The past 2 Thursdays we went out dancing and I have the terribly sore feet and blisters to prove it. Haha! But that is nothing, because both nights were incredible!! In fact it leaves me each day with a desire to go out right at that moment again. And once my feet get in shape I will be a dancing machine! Tonight I will probably go out and polish up on my swing moves :)