Venture Out and Jive

It's not the safest thing to walk alone on the streets of Houston at night. Never intended to, but realise that I shouldn't let that restrict my activities in the evenings, for that means I will be missing out many opportunities to do things. So I went out alone yesterday night.

Went down to Rice U. Z invited me to his social dance society's weekly dance class. Me, having never really danced before (excluding school dances), thought 'why not'? Should be fun (and it is). The beginner's class starts at 9pm, G wasn't quite interested, so I went down alone.

Wasn't very smart of me really, come to think of it. I had to cross the road after getting off the rail, with my direction sense somehow dulled, I walked towards a dark street, in the wrong direction. As I crossed the road, someone suddenly emerged from a dark corner and walked towards me. Instinct kicked in, I almost ran across juction without really checking for traffic. Of course, I could have been too sensitive, but always err on the side of caution I guess. That was a little scary.

The dance class was fun. In the short hour, I learnt the basic footwork of foxtrot and jive. Both are great dances. Between the two, I prefer jive. Guess, the upbeat tempo made jive really fun.

Foxtrot was fun and interesting too. Still kind of have two left feet. Haa.. always forgot to shift my weight at the end of basic step, resulting in moving off on the wrong foot. And I anticipate too much, not really following the lead (guy), hence often causing a tangle of the feet when I did foxtrot.

Jive is a much quicker dance. It kind of reminds me of some of the steps in Hwachong's dances, hence came a bit more intuitively for me. I can't quite get the turning steps right, but at least manage to keep in beat after the turn. Haa.

It's really important to have a good lead when dancing. Makes a whole lot of difference. Can make you enjoy the dance or totally end up totally stiff. And dancing is really a good form of exercise. My calf muscles are aching today along with my lateral abdominals! The former I understand, but latter.. hmm... Anyway, I had a good time. Hmm.. would like to try out other dances. Maybe I will find something I really like and do formal classes!