Creoc Freestyle At St. Neots

Last friday, Raven and I went to the St. Neots Freestyle (Ceroc) and we met up with Ros and John there. It was such an awesome night and I'm so glad we went because we had some of our best dances that night!!

The venue's ballroom, where we were dancing, was completely swatched in fabric. There were all these disco lights and every song's music video was projected onto a screen at the front of the room above the stage. We'd arrived after the beginners lesson, right in the middle of freestyle. Raven got himself a beer - he was, like, 'Yes, beer!' since we can't buy beer at the Cambridge venue without joining the university's club - while I caught up with Ros and John. Their friend who's a Taxi Dancer for Cambridge Ceroc and also named Ros, was there as well. We got in a couple of songs before the intermediates lesson started. That was the cool part.

That night's intermediate lesson was a mix of Ceroc and traditional jive moves with a small pase doble thrown in. Yay jive!! I did it back in Hull and it's so quick and energetic, you always get a really good workout. Michaela was the instructor that night - she's really good - and she started the lesson with a shasse (jive) or triple-step (Ceroc). Raven really liked that move and I loved it because it was jive. While I was doing it, I'd mutter 'one and two, three and four, back step' like how Jess and I used to do when we did jive. (And as much as I love dancing with Raven, nothing is going to beat dancing jive with Jess cuz we're cool like that.) The best move of the entire night had to be the airplane, though.

The airplane is not an easy move, not because of any footwork but because it's a move where the follower (usually the female) has to trust the leader (usually the male) to not drop her. Yeah, you heard me right: not drop her. I won't go into the details of the entire move but I'll try and explain the airplane bit without visuals: basically, the man spins the woman counterclockwise with his right hand and her left. As she spins, she holds her arms straight out and when her back is to the man, he steps in, catches her beneath her armpits and does a lunge to his left. The woman must keep her arms, legs and entire body straight while falling towards the floor in the man's arms. Then the man pops her back up and spins her around clockwise and finishes the move with a return (a turn). See what I mean when she has to trust him?

The lesson went smoothly enough. I'm reckless enough to throw myself to the floor and trust the guys I was paired with to not drop me. One guy almost did but he is a lot shorter than I am so I was half-expecting it anyway, and we caught ourselves so no one was hurt. But in all honesty, there was only two people there that I'd completely trust to not drop me: Raven and John. However, I know John wouldn't do the move with me because we don't know each other that well even though he's a very, very good dancer; it's one of those moves that you'd only do with someone you've danced with a lot and know really well. Raven totally exploited that and we did the airplane many times that night. He knew he could it with anyone who was willing to do the airplane because during the lesson, he was paired up with a rather large lady. He called her a nose tackle, a position in American football and usually the largest defensive lineman, and she really was. Can you imagine her throwing herself to the floor while a man has to catch her? Yeah. If Raven could do the airplane with her, then he could definitely do it with anyone else, let alone me. Funny thing is, we do that better than the Columbian and we only just learned it that night!

And, and, my favourite dancer was there that night! We'd already said our goodbyes on Monday and I wasn't expecting to see him on Friday so we got one last dance together. I call him my favourite dancer because I absolutely love his name: Adriano. Ohmygod, I love it! It's Italian - his parents are Italian - and it's just so sexy. Raven always laughs when I say his name, which I love doing, because I say it "like I want to have sex with his name". *Shrug* It's Italiano and I can't help it, hehehe. Anyway, it was great to seeing him there.

I also got one last chance to watch Ros and John dance. I mean, Raven and I may be legends but Ros and John are amazing. Theirs is only achievable by having danced with one another for years and years and their bodies are completely in tune with each other. It looks choreographed but you know it's not; they are just that good.

Needless to say, it was an awesome night. I think we left around midnight or soon after, along with Ros, John and the other Ros. Hugs, kisses, goodbyes and take cares were passed all around and that was that.