Dancing queen

young and sweet, but not 17!!!

LOL. So, a friend of mine has talked to me about a dance class he had been going to for a while. It's totally drop-in, so you go whenever you want, and pay for each class individually. They focus on one style of dance per month (I think) and each week they do different moves for said style of dance. I had talked with him the last week or so about going, and finally just decided I would go today. Apparently he hasn't been in a while and having me to go with him gave him a little more motivation to go again.

So, I got there and he had warned me from the beginning that street shoes weren't allowed, so I decided I'd just do it sock-ed. I guess that's fine, but when you're dancing around, that can get pretty rough on the balls of your feet with no cushion underneath, which I found out and will elaborate on later. They did polka today. I was a little disinterested when I heard, but figured that I had come to dance and that's was I was going to do, doggonit. It actually ended up not being so bad.

My problem is that a lot of times in partner dances, I am the one who either knows more about the dance or is picking up on in quicker, so sometimes it's hard to take a lead from someone who is understanding it less. There were several guys there tonight who ranged in ability and experience level. Like I said, I had never polka'd before, but I picked up on it quickly and when I knew we were supposed to "flip" (switch directions by turning 180` mid-dance) and I wasn't getting the lead to do it, it was hard to just keep going rather than initiate the "flip." On the flip side (pun intended), when I had a partner who did know when things were supposed to happen, it was difficult to switch modes and just follow their guide.

But, I had a good time. It was a lot of dancing/hopping/galloping on the balls of my feet, which reminded me horribly of my overpronation. What that essentially means is that the tip section of my big toe does not bend up the way it should to take a correct step. My whole toe is rigid and so the whole toe bends up. Try it with your thumb. Put your thumb out horizontally even. Push up on the tip of your thumb with your opposite hand's index finger. See how just the tip bends up? That's what a toe is supposed to do. If we're still using the thumb to toe analogy, push up on the knuckle of your thumb. See how the whole thumb went up? That's what MY toe does. So, in order for me to be able to walk, instead of walking with a straight gait (lol, I'm a poet and I don't know it :D), I have to walk so I roll off the inside part of my toe to end the step. Usually it's not a huge deal because when I'm walking, the toe is doing about 1/5 of the work for the step. But when I'm dancing and the step is reduced to the ball of the foot and the toes, that means the toes are doing 1/2 of the work now. Since I don't walk correctly to begin with, you can imagine how much my toes liked carrying the brunt of the responsibility. So, my big toes are staging a revolt at the moment. At least my nerve problem is not bothering me for the most part. :)

So, anyway, on to the actual fitness part of the entry. We were there about an hour and 50 minutes. Some of that was spent taking water breaks, watching the instructor and honestly just sitting out because in the second hour they had "free dance" and I didn't know the steps (i.e. tango, waltz, etc). So, I'll split the difference and say 55 minutes of true dancing. I think that actually gets me to my 3 hour goal for the week! It actually puts me 10 minutes over, I just checked. Yay!