Day 13. Private 2 Being Selfish

Today we continued working on small stuffs. First thing was to work on leading woman front ocho and walking out of it. We spend about ten fifteen minutes on different variations of it, adding different color.

I danced with Javier a few times. Javier said Andrea was too good at adapting to the leader. He was wearing boat shoes with flat bottom. So any fault on my movement he felt it. Well, he is no Andrea but certainly better than most of the women I have danced with. After a few adjustment, he actually loved my embrace. Andrea got a kick out of it by watching us dancing. " muy lindo" because we both wore blue jeans and white t-shirt.

What I learned was to slow down more and not to rush the woman. I knew that it was my problem as I had been feeling it in the dance. Not natural as Javier would say. As I got more comfortable, the tension was getting less. Most of the things that they mentioned I fixed it the next song.

The only thing I needed time to digest was what Javier said and I read it from Issac's blog before: follow the mind of the woman. How not to lead all the time. He mentioned that I was always going after the woman.

"Are you married." He asked.
"Nope"
"Solo, an individual. Then why you listen to the woman all the time. Do you have plant at home?..." "What do you do?"
"computer" I answered, didn't get into detail.
"Now I understand, your computer is your wife. Entiendo todo." We all laughed.
"Don't make me quit my job." I told him and Andrea translated.

But seriously I understood what he meant. It was not being sexist nor macho. It was about liberating my dance, so that I could express myself and dance my own style. I had put too much into trying to lead every step. I was still at the stage on leading and following.

Now I should go to the next level: have a conversation, not just listening or speaking. It will take time for me to be able to do it naturally. It will take a equal partner to understand that. At least I know what the goal is, so I can go after it.