Dance musings

I'm having a bit of a dilemma at the moment about how best to carry on with my dancing. I'm obviously going to keep going to my ATS class, but I'm not sure about going back to Egyptian/Cabaret for now. I'd like to do two ATS classes next term (basics and beyond basics), so a third class would probably be too much (both time-wise and financially). The plan I am tending towards at the moment is doing my two ATS classes and practising my Egyptian style at home with DVDs. Once I feel I don't need to attend the ATS basics class every week then I can consider starting egyptian classes again. I also think using DVDs will allow me to focus my learning on areas that I know I need to improve on. The weird thing is I feel kind of angsty at the thought of neglecting egyptian style in case I get worse at it! I suppose as long as I keep doing technique drills, I can only get better. I just have to be disciplined, which means getting over the desire to flop down on the sofa as soon as I get home from work.

Last night was the final class in my ATS basics course. I think I am getting a good handle on the basic moves but another term (or two) should help consolidate them. The highlight has been discovering that I can actually play zils while dancing! I always hated doing zils in egyptian class but as it's such an integral part of ATS I couldn't really escape them. I've found the less I think about playing them, the better I seem to get on! We also did a bit of leading and following last night, which was fun (and scary at the same time). I felt like my head was going to burst when I was leading, as I was thinking about hips, arms, hands, zils and leading all at once - eek! I really need to practise transitioning between moves at home, so I can get more of a feel to what works and what doesn't.