What bliss it is to drive in Portugal - a 6 hour journey to the hotel in Spain & not one single traffic jam or roadworks! Dealing with the horrendous traffic is one thing I most definitely do not miss about England. All in all Chris & Wes who run Jivestyle (they turned out to be dancing buddies from Nottingham 8 years ago) put together a great holiday. They made every single effort they possibly could to ensure the dancers had fun & enjoyed themselves. I'm not sure many people fully realise the blood, sweat & tears that goes into organising these things. Having been at the organising end of these things in the past I do!!
With the help of an all inclusive package that meant we had free drinks (not conducive to dancing actually!!) & shared meals everyone attending soon got chatting. Normally at classes & freestyles there isn't much time for chat so having the time for a conversation was a pleasant bonus of the holiday.
By day 2 it really hit home the enormity of what I was trying to do.
Not only do I have to become aware of what the followers do & their steps, I obviously need to learnt the lead role - what their steps are & the art of leading.
Then there is the daunting task of being able to break down the moves, talk the moves through WHILST doing them for both the men & women. Serious multi tasking going on there. The scary things don't end there sadly as one of my worst fears is counting the dancers in to the music & being consciously aware of the beat. I can FEEL it but panic if I have to verbalise it. How the hell do you find the one - where is it, how do you recognise it, does it have pink spots on? Then there are 4's, 6's & 8's so it starts sounding like a maths lesson (I scraped through my O' level to Miss Brown's obvious delight). Did someone mention phasing? What's that?
And then there are the DJing skills - an art form in itself and at times seems a bit like the hand shaking club. Very secretive & hush hush. It soon dawned on me that each DJ has their own 'style' & so they are understandably not too keen on sharing playlists that are unique to them. Oh heck & shucks. Well, you never know some may take pity on me (& yes, they have done bless them). Along the way I am picking up tips which many are generously sharing as to the speciality of putting together music for dancers. And to think I naively thought you just threw together some music & stuck it on an ipod player. WRONG.
And I haven't even mentioned equipment yet. This is the point where I remembered being a techno phob. Have you ever seen all the buttons & dials on DJ equipment - you'd think they were at NASA. I like 2 buttons - one for on & off and the other for the volume control. Swear words come to mind. The nuances of wireless headsets that have regular Diva moments pale into insignificance.
By day 3 I just KNOW I have to be certifiable to be contemplating this crazy idea of mine - I KNOW I must be mad. I haven't even danced regularly for 8 years apart from a few months 3 years ago.
It was teacher Keith Davies & then all the wonderful friends I made on this holiday who stopped me from having apoplexy. I had about 4 private lessons with Keith who was patient, fun, encouraging & generous with advice (as well as being a fab dancer of course). Not for one second did he give me any sign that he thought I couldn't do it. Also, by the end of the holiday many people had given me their contact details regards future happenings in Portugal saying they were keen to come over. WOW.
