Chalmers Dance Society

I'm almost back to my normal sleep schedule. That is, go to sleep at 2am or so. It's rather easier to get over jet lag when I don't have to be up to be at my client's site early in the morning.

A few months ago my house in Santa Fe was robbed. Sara's DVDs and player were taken along with some of her jewelry and a camera (or was it the camera media?). The only thing of mine taken was my mobile phone. I had two; this was the one for Europe and South Africa, or any other place with SIM cards. It also had my Swedish SIM card in it. I had a pay-as-you-go card, which means I no longer have that number.

Today I bought a new one. A low-end Nokia along with a starter pack. SEK 699 or just under US$100. I don't like the phone as much as my old Nokia. The flash light was a surprisingly useful item, and the color screens don't do well in even middling strong light so I can't tell if I has messages. I would like to have my own ringtone (MP3), recorded by the mic, but it doesn't seem to support that. I wonder if there's a way to do that...

At 5:30pm Bea and I were at the Chalmers Dance Society event. It started with a short course in ballroom cha-cha and rhumba. The ballroom dances always seem strange to me. I learned club style, or social style. The cuban motion is different, emphasizing the legs instead of the hips, and the poise seems too contrived. That aside, they dance on-2 while I dance cha-cha on-1. I modify my salsa on-1 to work with the cha-cha step.

There were people visiting from another ballroom club in town, with people who compete in national and international tournaments. I danced with a couple of them. One corrected my style in a way that I found pretty annoying. I dance a *different* style, not a *wrong* style. I danced with another but even when I was dancing on-2, the moves I do are different from what she expected so it didn't work out that well.

According to David (who taught the course) and Bea, rhumba is a cha-cha but without the cha-cha-cha part of the step. I ran into that before here in Sweden. I learned a different rhumba style in the US. Mine is based on a box square. It's been a while since I did rhumba though. I only remember a few things. I find myself switching into tango instead.

More of the people there did Argentine tango and not international tango. The tango music though was mostly international, with a strong march tune to it. I'll bring some of my music over next time.

They also did some gamladans (Swedish folk dancing). I still don't have the turns right, but it's not that hard a dance to pick up. I tried to do some waltz but the three lessons I got from Sara before leaving didn't sink in enough. Oh, and for the class I tried hard to keep ballroom poise and position. Including the arms swinging out.