again... about the dancing

i'm cataloging my experiences in these bachata classes b/c it's so FUN and freeing and i'm absolutely having the time of my life.

i completed my first set of bachata classes and decided that i'd keep on for the next round. a fun and wholesome Friday night activity. i need more wholesome in my life.

when we started the class, i started off startled.
the sassy instructor put me on the right side of the room b/c i was no longer a "beginner". ha! ridiculous, but true true true.

in this new set of classes, the dynamic has changed. there were about a dozen men and about 4 women, so obviously, there was a great disparity in the sex ratio--to the women's favor, i suppose. we ladies had more practice w/ different dancers and there was a supply-demand thing happening. plus, the men were friendlier to me b/c they assumed they could learn something from me, maybe?

so whoa--the people on the left side of the room considered me to be an 'expert'? i remembered the stumbling and the giggling from the first few weeks--which i will forever continue to do while i learn and learn, but these days, i'm more often stumbling in the right direction while i giggle.

i somehow ended up practicing next to my favorite cutie in the class and we started to 까브려 during the parts of the class where we were just reviewing the basics. he began standing too close and then imitating and exaggerating my movements in the mirror. i stuck my tongue out at him and shoved him away w/ my hip. surprised grin.
these Korean men aren't used to a female body with a Korean face to exhibit such a lackadaisical sense of boundaries. such nonsense. i am really not Korean woman.
bailar conmigo, mi amore!
(mental note: must ask to exchange language w/ this cutie in class at some point.)

the synergistic effect of my falsely induced confidence and the ratio of man-to-woman emboldened my male classmates to engage w/ me during and after the class during the 'free dance' time. every bachata dance and almost every salsa song brought me a new partner.

i found the mechanics of couple dancing quite restricting when i first started, but since i've learned the basics, i've realized that there really is a freedom. to move my hips and body within man's lead and inside the staccato rock steps of the beat. awesome. i am beginning to add and incorporate me into these moves. this feels amazing.

it's been so liberating?--wrong word--but i'm feeling empowered by the fact that i'm learning something new and growing in a specifically measurable way.
how clinical for me to say, huh? but this is who i am/what i am/where i'm at right now.
super fun.