We have just returned from the second USA Dance Cruise and are refreshed and excited about dancing, as expected. We even learned how to make lemonade.
Actually, the first night onboard the cruise ship, there was a dance. The dance floor could have been a bit larger, and the dancers could have been more aware of others on the dance floor. To its credit, the USA Dance staff and instructors repeatedly reminded us all that social dancing requires a different approach from performing. For example, at the start of a rumba lesson, instructor Mary Simler Evans demonstrated some of the dancing that can and does lead to a different tension from that feeling when the partnership frames are joined in a delightfully performed pattern. Instead, she called them “lemon” patterns.
Also, they say that dancing is a partnership between a leader and a follower, but on shipboard, with 40-mile-per-hour winds whipping up the swelling seas, there is a third component that can provide a gentle (or not-so-gentle) lead into a pattern not anticipated by either partner. The seas also provide for what instructor Mary Simler called a “lemonade” lesson. We’ve all heard how life can be better if we make lemonade from the lemons we encounter in life.
In one of the foxtrot lessons on the cruise, instructor Nathan Simler, who happens to be Mary’s brother, focused on the use of a left rock turn and a hesitation step to be used when the line of dance is blocked. Seems simple enough.
I imagined that I was waltzing down the line of dance with my partner, and the couple on my right was parallel with me. I noted that they had just done a natural and looked like they would then dance the reverse, perhaps moving directly into us, especially if I did the natural that I planned next. So hoping no one was too close behind me, I changed into a developé, and they went on down the floor. Now I could do the natural and take their place in the line of dance.
Another advantage of going on annual cruises and other dance events is that we can measure our progress. This year, I felt much more confident and comfortable as a result of the many hours working on my frame and posture in my lessons with Monica. Fran felt her balance had greatly improved, and she, too, has felt the improvement she has worked to achieve.
Being with other dancers is a nice feeling, and so many of those we met on the cruise immediately became friends. Our common pleasure on the dance floor opened the door to delightful conversations. And I learned something. Do you know why the right turn in the waltz is called the natural? Because turning clockwise is natural. Counterclockwise, or left, is reverse. Now it makes sense.
We’re home and getting back into the routines of our lives. See you on the dance floor.
