Monday 14 November 2011

Embrace (dialogues) part 2

Interior, Practica

Hedgie
Ok, I just want to try this because if I understand what it is, I'll be able to do it or not do it on purpose instead of accidentally. I'm going to do it normally first.

- Dance -

Mr. Hu
Yep - ok - this is what you normally feel like.

Hedgie
Right, now I'm not going to move anything, but I'm going to try doing it another way.

- Dance -

Mr. Hu
Oh!

Hedgie
Is that the kind of thing we were asking about? It might be a bit exaggerated.

Mr. Hu
Yes, that's it. Change it back!

Hedgie
Ok, just a sec.

- Dance -

Mr. Hu
... yes, that's back to normal. Wow. That's totally different. Show me again?

- Dance -

That's quite disturbing. You feel like a totally different person.

Hedgie
I was still following you, though. I wasn't not following, I mean, I wasn't having any problems following, that I was aware of.

Mr. Hu
Yes - you were - you were doing everything, but, in comparison, it felt totally disconnected. What are you actually doing? I can't see any difference at all.

Hedgie
Ok, we're standing like this. And the way I think of it in my head is ... my arms and head are the same, whatever is comfortable and seems to work for the partner, it doesn't really matter.

Mr. Hu
Ok

Hedgie
The way I do it is - I go fuzzy - I want to blur the boundary between your nervous system and mine. And then - I want to to be really, really curious about what's going to happen next. So I go curious and I go fuzzy-fuzzy ... I want my point of concentration, where my mind is, to be in there, about where your centre is. Now, I'm guessing that what happens is, people dance like it makes sense to dance in classes, which mostly isn't like that.

Mr. Hu
Hang on a second. Let me try doing that too.

Hedgie
 ... okay.

- Dance -

Mr. Hu
Oooh, that's really interesting. I like that, a lot. I'll try that next time I'm following. But I really like it when we both do it.

Hedgie
I'm not sure if I can tell the difference yet, let's stick with it and see how it goes.

Mr. Hu
If you do that and somebody is trying to wrestle you ... it'd be a disaster. So, you turned it off ...

Hedgie
I hardened the embrace a bit, hardened the surface, brought back the boundary, and concentrated sort of more behind myself. Doesn't prove anything general, but at least I feel like I understand what's working for me now. I hate it when stuff just changes randomly for no reason.

Mr Hu
Don't do it again.

Mr V [a visiting acquaintance interested in the discussion]
My girlfriend used to be like that, everybody would tell her how beautiful her feet were, and I was, "your feet? What about ME? Oi! I'm over here!". And she, like, she'd totally missed the point. And then I got her to try [some exercise or other, can't remember what] and she got it, and she went, "Oh!! ...  I'm not sure I'm OK with you feeling like that with all these other women." But then she got over it and she danced a lot better, she feels really nice now.

Hedgie
Fair-minded woman, obviously.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's an interesting post and I'm surprised no-one is commenting. Just one thing - can you clarify what you mean in this sentence: "Now, I'm guessing that what happens is, people dance like it makes sense to dance in classes, which mostly isn't like that." I don't quite follow it.

msHedgehog said...

Hi,
I mean that I think it would be hard to do what I was just describing, in most classes. Most of the time, in the kind of class that most of my readers would regularly take, at least one partner is attempting something they can't easily physically do yet (if they could, they wouldn't be taking the class). And you're stopping and starting all the time. If you try this under those conditions, I think it's quite likely to exhaust you and put you in a bad temper.

Also, usually the point of the class is something else, and everyone is concentrating on whatever that is.

Of course it would be possible to have a class that had this particular thing as the "thing you can't do yet". Nowadays, I know of quite a few people who address this sort of thing directly in classes, with varying degrees of success.

msHedgehog said...

... and additionally I mean that it wouldn't necessarily occur to someone to add something in the milonga that they've never used in a class. (Sorry - realised I had only answered half your question!)