Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Blues-ing

Tonight I won the blues Jack and Jill at dance Revolution.

But what's a Jack and Jill, you ask? Leads and follows are randomly paired, dance together for a couple of minutes, randomly paired, and dance again. It's a test of social dancing skills that goes best if you're both a good dancer and matched with a good partner, and when everyone in the contest is of a similar level; it's difficult to showcase skills with an inexperienced partner, even if you are an experienced dancer (this is particularly a problem, I think, for follows).

Add blues in to the mix. Blues is a close dance that can be uncomfortable on many levels when not done correctly (balance/support issues, personal space issues, personal space of specific body parts issues) but is absolutely amazing when done well (think: melted chocolate and long hugs).

So suffice it to say that there were a couple of (ahem) interesting dances tonight, and a moment in which I thought, oh no, why did I enter a blues Jack and Jill with a bunch of inexperienced leads? (Let me clarify: most, though by no means all, of the leads in the "Traditional" category were newer dancers, but I am really excited that they've learned blues and had the guts to enter the competition in the first place. That's awesome, and I hope they continue in that. But I've already explained the uncomfortable part, so you can understand where that thought came from.) But the "Anything Goes" category (guys could enter as follows, girls as leads, or both as whichever) was smaller and had leads I was comfortable with (actually, we switched partners three times, and twice I danced with women so we actually stole the lead back and forth within our minute of dancing). So I won that division, and got a few bucks as a prize. Not bad for a night of already fantastic dancing, and I was also happy that people complimented my DJing.

Side note: Ryan's in town for Thanksgiving--she lives in New York these days--which also makes me really happy.

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