Last weekend, I attended Swingin’ in the Rain (the Liège one, not the one in the USA). It was great!
As usual, auditions were looming, and nerves were flaring. My approach: pick a level where I would expect to be in the top half of the class. I figured if the teachers thought me too good a dancer, they’d bump me up. They didn’t (and rightfully so, wrote he ruefully).
Classes were fun. We had some great figures with William & Maeva (although I heard some grumbling from other levels about them), focusing on some standard figures that I always wanted to get down a bit better. Their final class was focusing on momentum. Downside: somehow, 99% of the possible pitfalls (and, therefore, advice) I remember is for follows :s
The classes with Giedre and Mindaugas were very nice – I love the cosy atmosphere they create. During their classes, I found out I have a tendency to compensate for a follow if I miss her energy. Not Good! Being aware is step one. Funny thing: this will defininitely happen if the follow is stopping by herself, instead of waiting for a lead. In these cases, I will definitely make things worse… Uh-oh!.
Finally, classes with Helena & Sep (who was substituting for Andy) were cool. Of course, we just had had Sep over in Lux, and since he was asked to substitute 3 days before, he did fall back on quite a few things from the Lux workshop. But: examining things afresh turns out to be very instructional! In the beginning, we focused on doing a swing out, but then in a relaxed way. I felt that I was so much more using the follow’s energy, instead of compensating :)
Sunday evening, about to head back with Sjouke, part two began. Sjouke was deliberatedly waiting for everyone to be off. Then we got into the car, and it wouldn’t start… O_o!!
We called Jana, who obligingly turned around and we tried seeing if it was the battery, and trying to jump-start it.
I thought it wasn’t: there was airflow from the fan, and dashboard lights, and so forth. At any rate, we were unable to find out how to connect the batteries (couldn’t find the plus-pole of Jana’s battery). As I had an urgent deadline, Sjouke told me to go with Jana, while he’d call the Belgium Automobile club for roadside assistance. We did so. Long story short: Sjouke had to route his request for aid via Luxembourg (he’s a member of the Automobile Association there, but of course not of the Belgian one), they came and it was the battery. Eventually, Sjouke came home and I made my deadline.
Lesson learned: starting the car requires a humongeous load from your battery – apparently easily 100 Amp (at 12 Volt, that would be 1200 Watt). So if you ever need to jump-start a car: first charge the dead battery for a while.