For some reason I can dance better with my eyes shut.

I’m going to assume it’s because when they’re open, they fully occupy my brain with all the visual imput, too selfish or attention-seeking to let my hands and/or feet join in. Once I close them, I’m much more aware of what it is my dance partner’s hands are telling me to do, and I’m much more able to follow his lead. He is also forced to lead better/more accurately, because I can’t see what is likely to happen next and position myself correctly. I am competely dependent on his guidance and don’t(/can’t) compensate for his mistakes 😉 It involves a fair bit of trust, but you kind of have to trust the people you dance with anyway. I also find I don’t have to think so much – my feet go where they’re supposed to by themselves and leave me free to enjoy myself 🙂

Today I kept them closed almost all the way through the evening and afterwards the guys all thanked me and told me it was good leading-training 🙂

For all of you who don’t know: I’m learning to dance Forro which is a very cool brazilian partner dance. If you’ve never heard of it, look it up, and if there’s a club near you offering taster-sessions or parties, go to one. Even if you’ve never really liked dancing until now. It’s a lot less formal than most partner dances, and a lot easier to start. You can get involved with intricacies later. You also don’t need to take a partner with you because you all swap around and dance with everyone.

Anyway. I’ve been dancing at the weekly Forro-parties for almost a year now, on and off, and have recently started proper lessons. Today was lesson day. I almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I did 🙂