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No. 10145
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I'm the forever alone Swing Dancer from the last thread. I just wanted to tell you guys that your words helped, and I am in a better place now. Last weekend my parents visited me, and though the resulting talks were a bit painful they did help me a lot. I still have a lot of the insecurities and bad feelings, but I'm happier now.
So I'm going to talk about dancing, because it gives me so much joy and makes for fun storytimes.
So my college's swing dance club meets once a week. It's the beginning of the semester so we have a lot of new people, but have been getting a very good turnout and regulars (in the past people would show up for one session and not come back).
So because there's a lot of new people, I'm one of the more skilled members, but I'm patient with people in general. Besides we have fast learners and the club president has short lessons each time.
But then there's this ONE GUY. He takes the cake for the worst lead I've ever had. I don't know what it is, I try to instruct him and lead him in the right direction, but he can't even do the East Coast basic, let alone Lindy Hop. He's got the most stiff, awkward movements I've ever experienced in a dancer, and I've danced with awkward as fuck people. He's like a ball-jointed doll who's afraid his limbs might pop out of their sockets. Posture and proper tension in the arms is important, but there is no place for stiffness in swing (this isn't ballroom, after all).
I Tried telling this guy that he needs to place his weight on the balls of his feet so he has a bounce in his step (THIS IS SUPER GODDAMNED IMPORTANT HOLY SHIT). This is how the conversation went:
"Okay, so jump for me three times. Do you feel how the weight is on the balls of your feet? And how your knees are bent? That's how you want to be."
He stands on his toes "like this?"
"No, you don't want to stand on your toes, but you do want your weight shifted forward."
Still standing on his toes, bobbing up and down awkwardly. At this point I grab a really experienced dancer and ask for help, since he's helped me with my own shit in the past.
Awkward guy is still on his toes. "she told me to stand like this."
We ran out of time before the experienced dancer could explain everything (awkward guy didn't want help, kept saying he could do it on his own), because it was the last song of the evening. I have no idea how to even handle this situation. I generally like instructing people, but this guy man.
Also, fuck Buffalo's schizophrenic weather. It was in the 90s for the first few weeks, mild, then cold and dreary and rainy for another week, and now it's back to being hot again.
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