Desperate housejives

Three weeks down and the new moves are coming as thick and fast as the clumsy puns. Another fun class, and a couple of new additions to my boogie repertoire.

Last week we’d been shown that this week the men would be doing there first real foot movements and picking up a spin. Having never quite recovered from treading all over Laura Gadsbey in a school play, I was a little nervous about this. As we assembled and prepare to begin, it quickly became apparent that this week the men far outnumbered the women. For a while it appeared that some gents may have to take on the female role and be led through the moves, but this plan was rejected. Instead, we just had to take it in turns with a partner and then wait your turn on the next rotation. On these occasions I took the opportunity to do the moves anyway, with an invisible partner whose toes would remain safely unscathed. There was a new guy next to me and he got on my nerves by chucking in lots of additional spins and turns. Cocky git.

There was no recapping to begin with and we started straight away with the close hold. This was followed by four simple forward/back steps, before leading the female into an overhand turn, return and then into some of the good old bouncey hands. I was told by Julie (teacher) to be less afraid and more assertive with my close hold and steps.

At the interval we were given flyers about the next ‘Hula Boogie’ night at South Pacific, on Sunday May 21st. Anyone interested in sampling my moves at close quarters, give me a shout. We were also told about the recommended course CD. A collection of classic jive cuts for us to practice with. At £4 you can’t really go wrong and I’ll be picking one of those up before the end of the course. Again, get in touch if you would like one… Some music to practice to would definitely be happy now that I have quite a few moves to remember. A partner to practice with would be even better though…

With a beer down me (but safely within the legal drink jiving limit), I got more confident. We began with some more bouncey hands, leading into a flat hand push turn and return. As my partner completed her return and faced me again, I then had to do a turn of my own, walking under my raised left arm. Follow this up with another over arm turn of the female into a close hold and then you’re off into forward/backward steps. [I appreciate that this probably doesn’t make for thrilling reading but it’s serving the purpose of helping me remember what I’ve learned].

Once this had been practiced a couple of times, we added the moves from the first half and put them together. It was a genuinely good feeling getting them all in the right order and executed neatly (although I still struggle when we’re not counted in and I have to work out when to begin on my own). My pre-class concerns were unfounded. While I’m not exactly Bruce Forsyth just yet, I really think that I did pretty well tonight.

Hurrah!