The Fire It Burns In Me

I went to the Ceroc Blaze event which was excellent fun but other dancers there and some of the classes I went to made me change a fairly fundamental part of my modern jive. I'm yet to decide whether that change is for the better or for the worse. Previously my Modern Jive dancing has been getting fairly slotted but, as of my weekend away, I decided to try and make it as slotted as possible. I've taken a bit from West Coast Swing, that is the follower gets priority of the slot and it is up to the lead to get out of the way. However for more modern jive like rotations I move the follow off the slot but try and insure that she ends up back on the slot when we've finished that bit.

It was attending Marc and Rachel's classes that really inspired me to do this. They are a very slotted couple and watching them dancing only reinforced the benefits of dancing in a slot. I'm not sure, at the moment, whether moving to this has resulted in my dancing becoming a little dull (possibly in part while I figure out what moves really work for this style or not) however things seemed promising. Lots of ladies certainly seemed to enjoy our dance so that speaks favourably.

It was interesting to see how this fitted in on a more regular freestyle night (which I attended yesterday). Most of the time the skills of followers at weekenders are higher; they can adapt to different dance styles better. I was worried that what was possible at a weekender just wouldn't be practical on the less experienced dancers (as a cross section) you'd find in a regular freestyle evening. I was delighted to find this wasn't the case. Some women certainly would rotate (or just move off slot when they returned or span) but it was possible to move them back on slot as part of the dance and it would insure that, generally, you'd always keep the slot.

On another note about the weekender I was really inspired by the spinning skills of one of the dancers there. He could probably do about three spins in the time I can do one (and could do nine or more spins in a dance). I watched his spinning technique when I had the chance and I'm looking forward to practising more. I tried last night and could get a quad spin in (which is probably the higher point of my abilities) but I need to work on it more.

Apart from losing my voice and maybe a little complaint about the accommodation the weekend was really good fun and well worth it. I'm looking forward to my next one.