Tag Archives: swing

September! 30 yoga classes, 24 dance classes, 12 dances, and lots of friends

 

atomic ballroom

Happy October! While I didn’t get as much reading done in September as I wanted, I did a lot of other things. I took 30 yoga classes in 30 days at Purple Yoga, which was fun! When I realized I was close, I decided I could totally do it. And it was easy!

dancing

I also got the New Student Special at Atomic Ballroom, giving access to unlimited classes for a week. I took 24 dance classes and went to 12 dances, including evenings at Atomic Ballroom, Folly at Dapper Day, and dancing in Downtown Disney. You can see a lot of wristbands in the photo at the top. Alicia took this great photo one of the nights we went to Atomic. Yoda tried to squeeze into the photo too.

Atomic

I don’t know who Cynthia is, but I’m stealing Luke’s Snap since I’m in it too.

I tried 6-Count Lindy Hop, 8-Count Lindy Hop, Salsa, Country Two Step, West Coast Swing, Country Line Dancing, Collegiate Shag, Bolero, Foxtrot, Milonga, Argentine Tango, Cha Cha, and Charleston classes. I already like Lindy Hop, and it’s still my favorite, but I found that I really enjoyed Argentine Tango and Country Line Dancing too – all for completely different reasons. Oh, and I might have tried to belly dance too. There’s totally no video. Thanks gem, Anela, Luke, and new friends for making the week fun! I ran into old friends and acquaintances and met a lot of new, cool people at Atomic too.

And I did squeeze in two tragedies by Euripides and some of The Aeneid as well as picking up Super Mario Maker. My body’s ready for tomorrow’s vacation! Time for Michigan with Duncan! I’m going with him on his yearly trip, leaving Friday and returning a little over a week later. Plans include a cottage, dinner with old friends, Canada, Niagara Falls, and Detroit – a nice combination of staying busy while also resting. Let’s go!

 

ATOMIC Ballroom

Months ago, I heard a question comedy-advice podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me from a girl wanting to convince her boyfriend to take swing dancing classes with her. Usually the brothers will have mixed answers and spend about 10 minutes with a question. They completely, flat out told her not to do it and spent about 45 minutes doing so. Never had they been so against something, and never had they spent so much time on a question. They claimed that it was pretentious and that no one just has that talent naturally. Obviously, they just went and learned it to show off.

When they were all done answering the question, gem revealed that it was her question. I felt so bad about how against it they were that I agreed. I did manage to delay it for a long time, but last night we took a beginner’s 6 count Lindy Hop class at the ATOMIC Ballroom in Irvine. It was a ton of fun! It was absolutely fine that we were completely new to it, and it was very reasonable. It was $15 per person for a 45 minute class that was actually closer to an hour, and the class came with free admission to the dance that was afterward.

I’m incredibly far from being able to say I know how to swing dance, but I had a good time. They have a variety of dance classes nightly and multiple dances per week. We’re planning to go more often. It’d be fun to learn!