The question going through my head is "why is there hardly any dancing?" I've seen very little at events & it all seemed very inhibited. A man did ask me for a waltz at a local function which I was delighted about, enjoyed & pleased that he did ask. But I have to be honest & say it was the tamest waltz I've ever experienced or done in my lifetime. Is it a cultural thing not to 'let go' in public? Have I just not found out about dance places yet? There is of course the challenge of negotiating the Portuguese language which I'm working on but I have been asking a lot of local friends of various nationalities who have lived in the area a long time as to what there is going on in the area regards dance.
So what is it? Am I crazy for thinking anyone will be in the least bit interested? Is everyone too busy?
Or is it a case of the chicken & the egg?
Maybe there is no dancing as there are very few opportunities to learn & absolutely no where to go and dance - apart from a few discos which cater for a limited age group (no ageism intended). So if there is shyness & lack of confidence maybe people just don't. Would they dance if they had the knowledge & experience of a few steps? Time to find out?
I asked a few friends what they thought of me teaching some dance classes, thinking they would fall about laughing. But they were either VERY good actors or just terribly polite (don't think so - I know them well enough to know that!) or ...... they did in fact genuinely think it was a great idea. It took me by surprise when the grapevine resulted in several people coming up to me after a week & saying "I hear you are setting up dance classes? When & where? I'm / we are interested."
Crikey - it is going to take a bit more than a week to learn how to teach. The thought of which was actually doing my head in ........ can I do it? It scared me to death as to whether I was capable & had the right mind set. My multi tasking gene definitely got passed on to someone else as I have struggled to find evidence of me having any in my gene pool. Then there is the challenge I have of what I can only describe as physical dyslexia (co-ordination challenges). Also, I had a sneaky suspicion that there was more to this teaching dance lark than met the eye (I was soon to be proved right on that score!). Hmmmmmm - my other experiences of teaching certainly gave me a darned good indication of the fact that teaching isn't as easy as a good teacher makes it seem. BUT unless I taught some people how else was I ever going to get dancing buddies for Modern Jive, Lindy Hop, Salsa and .........
The other BIGGEE was - How the heck was I going to promote all this without a dance partner & no dancers who can demonstrate the different dances in order to then be able to encourage people to try the dance? People need to actually see the dance being done.
A bit of a dilemma to say the least. But then it came to me ....... I wonder if dancers and even teachers may come out & help in exchange for a holiday? A bit like on the Helpx scheme basis. I'm of the opinion "if you don't ask you don't get" so my dance holiday in Islantilla was a chance to test this idea. And that is when things got really interesting & set in motion something that is now starting to take off like a rocket. I thought it was going to take 1 - 2 years to get this going. WRONG - it has taken a few months. YIPPEE & YIKES - it is really happening.
