Wishful Thinking

[ladysprite]

I have a love/hate relationship with dance movies. I adore watching them - the plot is almost entirely superfluous, but the costumes and the performers and the music all just fascinate me. Unfortunately, they also leave me in a seething ball of envy wishing I could dance like that. Somehow, in dance movies, all a girl needs to suddenly become a phenomenal dance princess is a pretty dress, a lot of makeup, and a week or two with a spiffy partner.

In real life, apparently it doesn't work that way. The most important thing my six weeks of waltz and swing lessons this summer taught me was that six weeks is nowhere near enough to learn even the basics of waltz and swing. I've reached the point where a patient and talented partner can push me around in something vaguely resembling a stylish manner, but that's not what I want. I want to be aware of what I'm doing, and I want to be an active participant instead of a prop. Admittedly, being a prop is still heaps of fun, but I want more.

Someday, when I'm independently wealthy and can work when I want to instead of when I have to, I'm going to take all the dance lessons I want. I'll start with waltz again, though I think I'll leave swing to be learned on the fly - the little bit of ballroom, dance-lesson swing I've learned just seems too formal and not wild and passionate enough. And then... I don't know what comes next, but I want to learn it all. Regency and contra and tango and rhumba and everything. I suppose I'll eventually get tired, or my feet will fall off, or I'll decide that I've had enough, but right now it's hard to imagine that.

So many things to learn, so little time....

Comments

[umbran.livejournal.com]

... though I think I'll leave swing to be learned on the fly - the little bit of ballroom, dance-lesson swing I've learned just seems too formal and not wild and passionate enough.

Each person learns differently. For me, having taken the exact same lessons, I've figured that what I need is more lessons. Lots more. I think the only way I'd ever be able to develop the wild and passionate swing would be to take lots of lessons, get the formalities set in my head, and then work them over.

Swing dance, to me, seems like poetry. I'll need to learn the rules very well before I'll be able to improvise. You, however, are not me, so YMMV.

Please forgive me...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I've reached the point where a patient and talented partner can push me around in something vaguely resembling a stylish manner, but that's not what I want. I want to be aware of what I'm doing, and I want to be an active participant instead of a prop. Admittedly, being a prop is still heaps of fun, but I want more.

This waltz goes out to the one I love
This waltz goes out to the one I pull behind
A simple prop to dance in three-four time
This waltz goes out to the one I love

Tango-oh.......rhumba-ah-ha.....

[larksdream]

Somehow, in dance movies, all a girl needs to suddenly become a phenomenal dance princess is a pretty dress, a lot of makeup, and a week or two with a spiffy partner.

She also needs to take off those glasses. *g* (I love dance movies too. Even the really dorky ones. Which is all of them.)

I've found that private lessons, while fiendishly expensive (at least where I just moved from, haven't checked here yet), can really be worth the money. Where do you dance?

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Robert Duvall's Assassination Tango?  He wrote, directed, and stared in the movie about an aging NY hit-man who goes to South America for an assignment.  While he's waiting for things to happen, he flirts with a dance instructor.  The film is more about the world of tango than the assissination, so I'd say it's a dance movie.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Remember that the people who dance in the movies did nothing but practice for weeks, if not months...