Irish Dance Obstacle Course

Tonight's class was yet another toughy. I mean, I had everything, EVERYTHING working against me. I am an "old", fat, former heart patient, current flu sufferer and chronic insomniac, who is working on 3 hours of sleep, a sick boyfriend infecting me, a 1500 calorie diet and joints that are creaking and popping a lot more then a 25 year old's should be. Add in work going into high gear and I just wanted to curl up on the floor and die.

BUT I DID IT!

Once again - I always feel like a spaz case whenever we are drilling up and down the floor (for like 20 minutes straight!) and I have to stop and take intense breathers while the kids just bounce back and forth, never stopping, never slowing down. OY!

And that is another thing! It's like an Irish Dance slalom course out there. I am trying to do my threes and leaps and there are one or two super wee (I suspect age 4, maybe 3) girls, while not being distracted enough to go look out the windows with some of the other, easily distractable girls, are JUST distracted enough to not watch where they are going. So, I am swerving all over, dodging oncoming dancers, merging in and out of lanes as it were,  trying to avoiding kicking a toddler in the face! No sooner would I leap out of the way of 4-year-old-looking-over her-shoulder, then seven-year-old-on-a-sugar high comes flying out of no where.

But yeah, despite allll that, decent class. My light jig is definitely solid now. No more doubts on that one. Time to start polishing technique on that. Have to go over with the TC a move on the second step. In my old school's step (which is practically identical, cause, lets face it, a light jig is a light jig is a light jig) It's a straight jump up, in a "switch", pretty much, but everyone else seems to be doing a "point", as in more of a jump/kick/point your toe. TC hasn't corrected me, but some clarification would be good. I did get used as an example to one of the younger boys, cause my timing is good. What can I say, I've always loved light jigs. Too bad they don't count for much.

And surprisingly enough - I didn't forget my reel!! We were lined up, I was second in line. Breathed a sigh of relief when we weren't going in twos, that was for certain. But as the only other girl in the class over the age of 10 went before me, I was singing the steps in my head, and I guess it just clicked. I went up, did the step, even remembered to bow! YEAAAH reel! 

Hardshoe . . . wasn't quite as solid. Of course not. When I am dancing with the older kids, who can actually watch what I am doing and question why this ancient klutz is stumbling through their hornpipe with them, and I actually want to impress them (at very least not embarrass myself!) I can't get my shit together. The toddlers who wouldn't notice if I was the Barynya rather then a reel, I ace the class, Go figure.

But still, veni vidi vici and all that. It's not that my hornpipe is bad. It's that I can't get it to speed. Slow it down while I am dancing in a corner, sure, no probs. Throw me in a line with two other girls and it LOOKS like I am doing the barynya! I won't beat myself up over the treble reel just yet. For two classes in, I am doing ok, considering I keep slipping back into my old steps.

That's it for tonight folks. I am curled on up on the couch, drinking tea, resting my poor, tired bones and watching Hoarders. Ohh, the guilty pleasures . . .

Slainte, gang.