currently listening to: aventura y monchy y alexandra
i can't figure out what the lineup is for earth live on july 7 at shanghai stadium. the promoters are fucking with me and leading me to believe that AFI might be in shanghai, which would be the equivalent of going to heaven on a first class train. i think they are not, tho. vegans can't exist in china.
went to a salsa class tonight. there were about 9 of us, and most of them were beginners, but it was such outstanding fun, anyway. i danced a lot with the teacher - some fanatic latin-dance german guy who's actually an engineer but moonlights as a dance instructor - and started learning how to lead, so i could dance with the girls. my first time learning to lead; it's such a good skill to have. i learned how to lead the hammerlock and inside and outside turns, which are basic, but something i've been needing to learn. the instructor kept referring to the moves in spanish (with a strong german accent), which throws me off because i only know the english (ballroom) terms for everything.
at the end of the class, he taught us the bachata, which is from the dominican republic. i think i've done it before in clubs, just didn't know what i was doing, but the music is friggin addicting. it's got this ping-y quality that i immediately became obsessed with, so i asked the instructor for some artist recommendations and i'm happily listening now. aventura and monchy y alexandra, for those who want to check them out.
the bachata is a simple 4-step side-to-side movement, but all we learned today was basic and left and right turns. dance classes could really stand to be three times longer sometimes. i think from now on i'm going to avoid studio classes and just go to the clubs. from what i've seen, the salsa classes at studios tend to cater to very beginners, and unless i'm highly invested in teaching a beginner to dance (a very willing beginner, ahem), i think i'd just have more fun in the clubs. however, there's something nice about being taught the basics in a small class environment and in a very regimented way. dots your i's, crosses your t's.
what else... spent the day writing this article. the salsa class was really more a cry for help - spending all day writing tends to sink me into a certain zone and mood where i can't properly socialize and spend too much time staring into space with my hands in my hair. cyn's the only one outside of my family that has seen me immerse in this self-depression in order to be productive, and i think i may have scared her a little, how distant i am. if i didn't before, i now understand why writers are such loners and tend to hole up in remote places in order to work on their stuff. you need solitude and, to a certain degree, you need to depress your own emotional state.
might try a tango class on wednesday. i did that one class in hong kong with allen, but it wasn't a proper lesson so i'd like to tackle it, conventional style.
getting sleepy... for once i'm attempting to go to sleep before 2 am, so here i go. night night, peoples.
No comments:
Post a Comment