Hi everyone! I come to you in much better spirits than last week.Thank you to everyone for your kind words about that little debacle.

This past weekend was another Holly-patented whirlwind of dancing events. Let’s recap, shall we?

Friday was ballroom practice and then a West Coast Swing dance courtesy of Mr. Steve Ryan. A whole mess of university friends attended, I had a particularly awesome dance with Steve himself, and despite being exhausted I enjoyed myself greatly.

Saturday marked the first big performance for my SU Ballroom Team. Sarah’s Guest House, a Ronald McDonald-like charity with Upstate Medical, invited us to dance at their annual charity ball fundraiser. The event was ‘Roaring Twenties’-themed (as apparently so many are this year) and so we performed the Jive I choreographed last year, as well as this year’s Tango.

It went well! I’m pleased. The floor was a bit small, but the Tango dancers made it work, and I’m thrilled to have had the piece debut in the world. It’s a departure from my usual formula for SU Ballroom pieces, and I quite like it. Have a look below and see for yourself!

The one thing that worked less well were my little speeches. I had been told to fill up 20 minutes, ten for each dance, so I figured I would talk a bit about dance history as pertaining to Swing/Jive and Tango. I did research and everything!

But, sadly, when it came time to talk, all the ball attendees were milling around, getting food, looking at auction items, chatting, and generally not paying attention to me. I like to think of myself as a decent public speaker, but clearly it did not work on this occasion. Ah well!

Sunday I crawled earlier out of bed than usual to attend a special workshop hosted by the indomitable Maria Ford. My West Coast Swing training has been spotty and haphazard in a lot of ways, and it was fantastic to spend several hours drilling basics and discussing technique fundamentals. I’m never going to be *just* a West Coast Swing dancer or even *mostly* a West Coast Swing dancer, but I love learning and I love practicing.

Have a lovely Tuesday–hopefully the weather is more forgiving than the 3 inches of inexplicable April snow where you are. -__-