Gee, my feet hurt this morning
Jun. 3rd, 2007 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyAfter spending significant portions of Thursday and Friday in the back room urging massive quantities of paper through an aged Ricoh copier for The Project Of The Damned, I didn't feel like sitting home. Instead I decided to check out the Friday Night Waltz session in Palo Alto.
Saturday evening, I attended my first PEERS event, the Space Cowboys Ball, a dance with the theme taken from the Firefly episode "Shindig."
The good news is that all that dancing shaved a pound off of me after the needle on the scale has not moved in more than six months. So I figured, sore feet or not, I would get off my butt and got down to Alameda Point and wander the antiques market for a couple of hours. I scored two pairs of white gloves (one elbow length, one wrist length) for $5. They will be nice to have for dancing - one does not have to worry about sweaty palms if one is gloved. I also found a very cute summer kimono in tip top, clean condition for $25. It may end up being an extra Pennsic underlayer - I will let it out as far as it can go.
I arrived about 15 minutes late because I miscalculated travel time - there was an A's game at the Coliseum that slowed things down a bit.
Tom was teaching cross-step waltz to too many couples in a too small room. On carpet. It was all elbows in there. It is impossible to learn how to do more than one full turn in a row when there is nowhere to go but into a wall. As a result of the bumper car effect I do not think I will ever be very fond of the FNW cross-step mixer choreography. Being the sort who gets twitchy in crowds to begin with, I was Not Happy.
The main room there also feels smaller than the one in Oakland, but not bad. I attempted polka with Jim - I was fine in open position but then he said hold on, we did two turns and I had to tell him I didn't think my left knee would take turns at that speed. Too bad, he's a lovely dancer. Another excellent dancer, a fellow named Lee, danced with me a couple of times, including Congress of Vienna. Danced with a few others, but didn't dance as much as I would have liked. I'd say that there were maybe 25% of people there that I'd seen in Oakland, others I didn't know or didn't know me. It was fun, but I don't know how often I'm gonna make the trek to Palo Alto. It's across the bay and the drive home feels like it takes forever.
Tom was teaching cross-step waltz to too many couples in a too small room. On carpet. It was all elbows in there. It is impossible to learn how to do more than one full turn in a row when there is nowhere to go but into a wall. As a result of the bumper car effect I do not think I will ever be very fond of the FNW cross-step mixer choreography. Being the sort who gets twitchy in crowds to begin with, I was Not Happy.
The main room there also feels smaller than the one in Oakland, but not bad. I attempted polka with Jim - I was fine in open position but then he said hold on, we did two turns and I had to tell him I didn't think my left knee would take turns at that speed. Too bad, he's a lovely dancer. Another excellent dancer, a fellow named Lee, danced with me a couple of times, including Congress of Vienna. Danced with a few others, but didn't dance as much as I would have liked. I'd say that there were maybe 25% of people there that I'd seen in Oakland, others I didn't know or didn't know me. It was fun, but I don't know how often I'm gonna make the trek to Palo Alto. It's across the bay and the drive home feels like it takes forever.
Saturday evening, I attended my first PEERS event, the Space Cowboys Ball, a dance with the theme taken from the Firefly episode "Shindig." Interesting mix of clothes and costumes. I don't have anything Chinese, so I opted for Meiji/Edwardian fusion (left). Didn't think to get more photos but we had everything from Jayne and Wash shipboard grunge to high Victorian, Sailor Moon, V (for Vendetta) who kept his mask on for the duration, a Rebel Alliance type in full Star Wars kit, a Star Trek saloon girl (don't ask, too hard to describe), lots of ethnic clothing, often interestingly combined, even one brave young lady who wore the Fluffy Pink Kaylee dress.
Dancing in paddock boots felt weird. Excellent support, but heavier than my usual ballet flats. Good band, Bangers and Mash, but crummy acoustics in that hall. Not sure if this is usual for PEERS turnouts but there seemed to be a lot of beginners because I waltzed with some fellows that had never waltzed until that night, which is OK, I smiled, I counted out loud and made other encouraging noises and hopefully they felt like they had fun. Got to dance a couple waltzes with some very good dancers too, including Francis, Merrin's friend whose name I am blanking on and the very, VERY tall young man I saw at Gaskells who partnered me for Congress of Vienna. Also did a couple of set dances, including "Inara's Cotillion" with Jeff. Yes, when you get a dance geek who is enough of a fan to burn grooves in a DVD to figure out the choreography, these things happen. One wonders what English Country dance or dances the Firefly folks originally swiped it from. There was another reel-like dance which probably has a real name, but was given something Firefly themed, so I have no idea what it actually was. Fun, though.
I could've done without the guy who sorta began clinging to me and talking my ear off. He was one of the waltz beginners, I'd seen him Friday at Palo Alto, so he's done one night of cross-step waltz and no normal waltz - which meant we stood in the middle of the dance floor for one dance doing quarter turns and dodging other people. I didn't MIND that. I minded that he kept popping up next to me and clinging - without asking for another dance.
My only other complaint about the evening - more dancing, less shtick. Whenever the band would take a break, several Firefly characters would show up and do something or other. (It usually involved shouting which is not always the same as acting.) You want to demonstration dance, fine, do one, not three in a row. You want to sing "Hero of Canton," OK, but you could ALSO be using band break time to teach a set dance. Though the bit with Wash and the dinos asking each other to dance was chuckleworth. "And we shall call it 'This Waltz.'"
They're doing a Mikado themed ball in September. Better order some more tooth black.Dancing in paddock boots felt weird. Excellent support, but heavier than my usual ballet flats. Good band, Bangers and Mash, but crummy acoustics in that hall. Not sure if this is usual for PEERS turnouts but there seemed to be a lot of beginners because I waltzed with some fellows that had never waltzed until that night, which is OK, I smiled, I counted out loud and made other encouraging noises and hopefully they felt like they had fun. Got to dance a couple waltzes with some very good dancers too, including Francis, Merrin's friend whose name I am blanking on and the very, VERY tall young man I saw at Gaskells who partnered me for Congress of Vienna. Also did a couple of set dances, including "Inara's Cotillion" with Jeff. Yes, when you get a dance geek who is enough of a fan to burn grooves in a DVD to figure out the choreography, these things happen. One wonders what English Country dance or dances the Firefly folks originally swiped it from. There was another reel-like dance which probably has a real name, but was given something Firefly themed, so I have no idea what it actually was. Fun, though.
I could've done without the guy who sorta began clinging to me and talking my ear off. He was one of the waltz beginners, I'd seen him Friday at Palo Alto, so he's done one night of cross-step waltz and no normal waltz - which meant we stood in the middle of the dance floor for one dance doing quarter turns and dodging other people. I didn't MIND that. I minded that he kept popping up next to me and clinging - without asking for another dance.
My only other complaint about the evening - more dancing, less shtick. Whenever the band would take a break, several Firefly characters would show up and do something or other. (It usually involved shouting which is not always the same as acting.) You want to demonstration dance, fine, do one, not three in a row. You want to sing "Hero of Canton," OK, but you could ALSO be using band break time to teach a set dance. Though the bit with Wash and the dinos asking each other to dance was chuckleworth. "And we shall call it 'This Waltz.'"
The good news is that all that dancing shaved a pound off of me after the needle on the scale has not moved in more than six months. So I figured, sore feet or not, I would get off my butt and got down to Alameda Point and wander the antiques market for a couple of hours. I scored two pairs of white gloves (one elbow length, one wrist length) for $5. They will be nice to have for dancing - one does not have to worry about sweaty palms if one is gloved. I also found a very cute summer kimono in tip top, clean condition for $25. It may end up being an extra Pennsic underlayer - I will let it out as far as it can go.
