Suki meowed at me all night, keeping me up, while saori chan spent the night working in studio for her pinup today.
I drove her back home so she could take a quick shower and went back just in time to catch the GAC meeting. We were reminded of the crucial importance of finding replacements for our positions, as elections are in march.
For studio, instead of a desk crit for work we havn't started yet, we drove down to the Pulitzer art museum designed by Tadao Ando. We used the rectilinear and tall galleries and narrow plaza for an understanding of the Uffizi and the notion of scale, with the method of drawing them in one point perspectives. For some reason, we've been dealing a lot in studio with perspective drawing- it seems to be a fixation for Z. He was going to initially propose that we do all our books by drawing by hand, and our last class was basically constructing perspective drawings in the field. (our books turned out great, by the way, they looked fantastic together with the coordinated covers).
After studio, I went back to work at my desk and my friend Silvino dropped by and asked me I wanted to come out Swing dancing with a few friends. I said, Sure! Saori was going to be structures class until 9 anyway, and I've actually been itching to dance again for some reason. Loss of dignity as I ase I guesss. So I grabbed a bite to eat, picked up some stuff for Saori and then headed out with Emily, Silvino, and Natasha. Silvino and Emily are like me, just kind of doing it for kicks, while Natasha apparently loves to go out and dance, so she was happy that she could rope us in for the night out. And I do mean out. Way the hell out out, damn near out of town beyond the 270.
The dance hall is marked by a big white "Bud Light" sign and is basically just a big dance hall with a dance floor, a stage, and a big basement for practice. It could have been a senior citizen center. The average age of the people who were there to dance looked to be about sixty. We paid our $9 (a little expensive), got our name tags and went downstairs. There were already two other couples down there, for the beginner session. Our instructors, Pat and Tony, were good teachers, and we learned the absolute basics of the "Imperial swing" which is basically a six-count dance step, a "glide" which brings the partner in front and away, a turn, and a return. The steps weren't that complicated although I get tripped up with the turns sometimes.
I was complimented on how well I was leading the ladies I was dancing with, and I thought once again back to junior year in ASU, when I took salsa with Jen. She was an extremely type A girl who wanted to be in control all the time, so I learned to develop a really commanding lead while dancing, which has served me well since then in dancing.
Anyway, after about 40 minutes, they released us upstairs where there was a bar and a dance floor. The bar was fantastic, like a bar you might find in the middle of nowhere in the midwest. The menu on the wall reads
BEER
cup $2
bottle $2
pitcher $7
And of course they serve two great American semibeers; bud and bud light. Actually, I can't really taste the difference between the two since one has a hint of beer taste, and the other, half of a hint.
So we grabbed a pint and headed up to the dance floor where there were a bunch of folding tables around the large dance floor. They had the music going, laser lights on the ceiling, DJ booth, and actually about fifty people out on the dance floor and sitting around the tables. We watched the first one and sipped our beer. Seems like everyone was in their late 50s-70s. Everyone seemed to know each other too. The elderly DJ would also take breaks from the booth and come down and dance as well. They played a wide variety of music actually. Everything from swing to waltzes to Maroon 5's "Moves like [Mick] Jagger" oddly enough. Lots of different dances. Four-play, river waltz, line dancing, the country two step, and other varieties I'd never heard of before.
Dancing with my own count is one thing, dancing to music is something totally else. I havn't learned the steps well enough to let my intuition take over in balancing the footwork with the beat, so I'm constantly screetching to a halt as my footwork falls apart and worse, I'm not leading well either since I have no idea what the hell I'm doing out there. So its kind of awkward.
Practice, practice.
I was better at the salsa dancing (well, after the semester long class in it, I should remember something!) so that was fun as well. Might go out saturday and do some dancing with the salsa club.
It was really funny, people were so excited to see us (young folk, new folk) that we were constantly being asked to dance. Even the woman cleaning tables took Silvino out on the dance floor for a spin and she could really boogie. And EVERYONE told us that should come back. And bring more friends.
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