Save the last dance for me.

On Friday I attended my last dance class.  Belén, our dance teacher, decided we were going to do something different.  Instead of the usual dancing, some of us stood in the middle of the room waving batons around our heads while some of us beat time on African drums.  I felt foolish swinging the baton around and so I was more than happy to swap and sit down with the drum and bang out a few choice beats.  Belén explained that if we could beat out a rhythm with our hands then we should be able to transfer the same ability to our feet.  To be honest I did find it easier to keep rhythm with my hands.  I suppose that is because of my experience with playing guitar and piano.  Many times in class I have been frustrated.  Although I understood what was being asked of me in a certain dance step I had great difficulty in actually doing it.  I knew what I was supposed to do but my legs wouldn’t follow; my brain and legs were not connected. 

 

Thankfully now after four months of dance lessons I have a better sense of rhythm in my feet.  This became apparent to me one evening in the flat when I was cooking.  I had the radio on and Chris Rea was playing.  It was his song ‘On the beach’ and as I stood there stirring the onions and mushrooms I was tapping out the beat on the kitchen floor.  After I while I realised that the beat was a cha cha cha.  Instinctively I stepped back with my left foot, first count uno, second count on right foot, dos, left leg back to centre, count cha cha cha.  Slight push through the woman’s left hand, right foot forward, uno dos, cha cha cha.  I left the spoon in the pot and practiced my twists and turns in the kitchen with an imaginary partner; move the hips a bit, not too much, un dos cha cha cha.  Chris sang and I danced.  I returned to my mushrooms with a large smile on my face.

 For me, the dance classes with Belén have been one of my best experiences while here in Spain.  Ballroom dancing has been something that I have thought about doing over the last six or seven years and I’m so glad that I finally got to do something about it.  I will never be much of a dancer but at least now I have an idea of how it works and I can appreciate how demanding it can be both mentally and physically.  It is an excellent form of exercise and very enjoyable when performed properly.  I learned that dancing is not just a case of throwing your legs around willy-nilly in time to the music but a complicated set of forms and postures.  I also learned that a lot of the work is done by the man.  It has been said that Ginger Rogers, when commenting about her dancing relationship with Fred Astaire, remarked that she did just as much as he did but backwards and in high heels.  This may be the case but when dancing ballroom a woman has the luxury of being led around the dance floor.  Belén explained to us that a man must dance, he must direct the woman around the floor and avoid collisions with other dancers, he must decide when turns are performed, he must keep time with the music and he must adjust his body in order to fit in with the height of the woman.  A woman just has to dance.  If a woman is dancing out of time the man must dance out of time too and try to slowly bring her rhythm back into the beat.  If he insists on dancing to the beat while she isn’t it will look and feel wrong.  Therefore, when dancing the man must think of his partner first and the music second.

As an exercise in explaining how a man must lead when dancing I had to dance with another guy in class.  We took turns at being the lady.  When I was the lady I had to close my eyes and simply follow what the man was dictating.  I realised then, with my eyes closed, the importance of the man’s role.  While he was turning to the left I was still stepping forward and disaster would ensue.  This was because he was not leading me properly.  It is funny how doing something with your eyes closed can be a real eye-opener.  Most of the information is dictated through the hands and arms.  When a couple dances there must be some tension in their arms.  While they embrace each other, the slightest push or pull by the man indicates to the woman the direction of the next step.  When there is the correct amount of tension this signal will be communicated by the merest of muscle flexion by the man.  It may simply be the slight squeezing of one hand or the gentlest of pushes felt through the arm or in the case of the tango the man can use the palm of this hand on the woman’s back to indicate she must swivel to one side and then the pressure from his wrist tells her to swivel the other way.  All very ingenious, practical and logical.

After class some of my fellow dance students were happy to pose for photos and some were not so inclined.  All of them were happy enough to go for a drink afterwards in the bar around the corner.  We spent an hour or so together chatting and then everyone had to leave.  There were hugs and kisses all round as they wished each other well and promised to come to classes again in July or August.  They all wished me well with my studies and hoped that if I were ever back in Oviedo that I would pop into the class to say hello.

That was Friday.  The following day I hopped on a plane to Valencia to see my brother.  I felt I needed a change of scenery and to be honest the constant rain in Oviedo was getting me down.  I have three weeks before my next exam and I have a hell of a lot of reading to do.  I think it would be better to do it while sitting in the sun and enjoying the warmth of the Mediterranean breeze.  Therefore I plan to stay with Gary over the next three weeks, with a possible sortie to Tarragona to say hello to Emma again.  As I write it is just gone midnight and I am sitting out on the balcony looking down at the swimming pool surrounded by palm trees.  It is warm and the air is still and I can feel my body starting to relax.  I anticipate a good night sleep tonight.

 

 

If you are ever in Oviedo for a length of time you should think about taking up a few dance classes with Belén.  She teaches a wide variety of dance styles including belly dancing, African dancing and of course Ballroom Dancing.  Here is a link to her website which gives all the information you could possibly need.

http://www.belennovo.es/academia.php