Tour of Leads

Got out of work surprisingly early tonight. Had two non-ICU patients ... transferred one to the floor near the end of the shift, and reported off on the other in about 5 minutes, to the same nurse that I had gotten report from in the morning.

Thus it was that I arrived at Lindy Groove freakishly early. Watched Carol and Tony give most of their intermediate lindy lesson. They were pretty ambitious, having choreographed a routine with seven elements, most of which were obviously new to the dancers in the class. Not very many people got it, and few were able to execute the moves with any degree of smoothness. However, it gave the dancers a lot to work on, which can be a bonus for the ambitious ones.

What follows may seem a bit catty and rude. Totally not my intention, but I can see how it would seem that way. But I am going to talk about the guys I generally dance with. As usual, I'm using nicknames to protect the innocent.

At one point, Grey Beaver (who has to be in his late 40's/early 50's, and always has trouble staying on tempo) lead his partner in the rotation (who must have been in her 20's) in a body roll, and I shuddered. It was just creepy. Not because he was trying to be sexual with her, because I doubt he was. But just because it was absolutely inappropriate with someone he doesn't know well, and ... to be totally honest ... he just looked awful doing it. He isn't as good as I think he thinks he is.

Started off the evening with a few dances with Philly. I always enjoy dancing with Philly, mostly because he still retains his non-LA dancing accent ... much more bluesy, with a surprising bounciness.

A few with Mr. Teacher. He rarely surprises, but is smooth and relaxing to dance with. Plus, we both work with children, and laugh about how surprising they are.

Gene. I'm almost never surprised when I dance with him. But he's so good natured, friendly and gentlemanly. He's also retired, and just loves to dance. His wife rarely comes out dancing these days, but I love to see them dancing together. Rarely innovative, but great swing ambassadors.

Sociologist. He has the most incredible lock turns, strong connection, intuitively dances with the music, and always make me laugh with at least one crazy move per song. It was his birthday this week, and all sorts of follows were crowded around to get in on his birthday dance.

Big Header also celebrated his birthday this week. He is such a fantastic dancer ... just naturally seems to move with the music, be it fast or slow. Unfortunately, he's moving east to be with his girlfriend. Envy the dancers in the prospective city.

Caucasian StretchJ. I asked him to dance a slowish tempo song. It wasn't very satisfactory. Maybe I was too tentative to put my weight into it. Maybe he just isn't as good at slow tempos. It's always nejoyable to dance with him, it just wasn't great.

Had a dance with Joshing. Joshing is a wonderful leader. He likes to lead a lot of footwork patterns. And unlike typical, insecure leads, he doesn't abandon ship if the follow doesn't immediately catch on. Instead, he strengthens his lead, and continues with the pattern until the follow catches on, and then for a good phrase beyond (assuming it fits with the music), so that it gels. He doesn't allow a lot of follow creativity, but he does all the other stuff so well that he's well worth dancing with.

Danced a few with Plumb Cheery as well. PC is obviously shorter than I am, but I really like to dance with him. Like Joshing, PC leads quite a few footwork patterns, and well. He also does this slide slide move which I slide along with ... and I love it.

His Vickness is one of my favorite people to dance with. He's not flashy. In fact, he's so smooth that sometimes he can fade into the background. However, he is a fanastic lead. I never have to question where he want to me be. He's also not overbearing ... when I hijack for a pirouette turn, footwork or body roll, he makes space for me to do so and even comes along for the ride. And, every once in a while he organically leads a move that makes me just smile with the pure pleasure of it all. I also like to watch HV dance with his wife ... they are so tempermentally and physically suited.

Had a few dances with Scrub. Scrub is smart, enthusiastic, creative on the floor and has nice thick hair that is exactly suited to his short-all-over haircut. His problem is that he can be so focused on being creative that he doesn't communicate what he's trying to do ... so I have to concentrate on guessing, which takes away from the enjoyment of the dance. And lately, I feel like he's crowding me, and I don't like it. If I were younger, I might have found it charming. As it is, I'm mildly annoyed, even if slightly flattered.

Danced once with Young Gun. When I started dancing 8-ish years ago, Young Gun was still in high school. An infant with a knack for dancing. So I've seen him grow up as a dancer. He was okay as a high schooler. Gained a bit of weight as a college-aged kid, and is now has lost a lot of the extra baggage, and is quite a superb dancer. Very creative and humorous, seems to intuitively dance with the breaks and highs/lows and phrasing of the music, and always goes with the flow if a connection is missed. He's just exuberant. Great fun to watch, and even better to dance with.

8-ON I danced quite a bit. Don't know alot about him personally. Don't really need to. He's pursuing (a) graduate degree(s) in computers. Came to lindy from Israeli folk dancing. Got married sometime last year. Wataboy introduced us way back when I started dancing, and have enjoyed dancing with 8-ON through the years. 8-ON has great frame, and always likes to try new things. Sometimes he'll try something that doesn't quite work. When I ask him what he's trying to do, he'll explain, and we work on it together until it smoothes out. Luckily, this seems to happen in a couple minutes instead of hours. And, like His Vickness, he lets me share the creativity of the dance. Last night, I was able to do my first triple, connected, pirouette turn ... he saw me vamp up for it, and led me until I was ready to stop. It was marvelous!

Did a nightclub two-step number with Darring. I rarely dance with him nowadays. He likes to try new moves, but sometimes they just don't work. As I said, sometimes I'm not a good follow. On the other hand, sometimes I think he just hasn't gotten the knack of the specific lead, and that's why it doesn't come out as expected, which I think frustrates him. And, unlike 8-ON, Darring doesn't want to work it out, but just rushes on to the next move. I like to dance with Darring, but sometimes it's just not fruitful.

Also chatted a bit with LitheOne. We were missing Terminator. There and then, LitheOne "claimed" hiim for the two of us. If only, if only. Terminator is one of those dancers that works well both in fast lindy and slow blues. He's not the best dancer in either category, but he's good, and has such a nice and easy manner that everyone wants to dance with him.

A few months ago, JoNG's friend E asked me why I wasn't in the Lindy Groove Jack and Jill Competition. In fact, I'd thought about entering, although it's been a while since I did a J&J. And I decided against it because I'm not really a great follow. I like to dance, and to follow, but I don't like how J&J's focus on follows only following. I like to feel like I can hijack the dance for a measure or phrase or two, and that the person I'm dancing with won't freak out or pull me out of what I feel inspired to do, because they didn't conceive of it in the first place. So, yes ... I'll admit to a little bit of selfishness on the dance floor. Then again, follows do so much on the dance floor to make leads look good, that I figure the least the leads can do is to allow a little bit of follow creativity.