C/W Lessons, Night 1
Jul. 21st, 2005 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerFirst night of teaching over and done, hope it's a start! There were 10 guys there for lessons that mostly were there by 7. I'm sure there will be lots more next week. I knew everyone there.
Had a couple of false starts using my own sound system. I couldn't figure out how to hook up to their sound system at the Ranch, and was having some really odd distortion problems with mine. Hard to figure out in the near dark, too...the bartender said "the overhead lights were all burned out". (That didn't turn out to be the case. The overheads came on about 7:30). But I got it working well finally.
So with my trusty new madonna headset, I spent almost two hours teaching the Basic Waltz, the basic dance partner frame, a couple of Waltz variations, Boot Scootin' Boogie, and Cotton Eye Joe. A couple of Wilde bunchers were there as "angels," which was good...
And of course, there were several around the bar that were being an audience.
VERY happy with the new headset. It's an AKG something 40 model. At only $249, it was a bargain for a walk-in-and-buy-it thing and much better quality than my old Samson that I bought about '91. I was prepared to pay $400...
So, I had to deal with what I FIGURED I'd have to deal with. Although the Ranch wants to have the c/w lessons to boost weekend dancing (and of course drinking...it's their profit), they aren't prepared to do any of that. The manager went to dinner at 6:30 and I don't know if he ever showed back up. They're busy running around doing their bar stuff, and only peripherally aware that there's lessons. It feels like there's an attitude that they're doing me a favor, which is pretty much the opposite of the REAL situation.
Their DJ who did show up at 8:00 or so is an enthusiastic guy and was making several suggestions on music I should use other than what I did (mine was fine). I pleasantly asked why he wasn't teaching the program, and he said he didn't know how to dance. Well, yah. I will give him updates of what I'm teaching every week though, so he can play the music that works for the dances. I know many gay bars have the DJ play the music and they just teach, but after 20+ years calling and teaching, I prefer to be the control queen myself! ;-)
Next week: Basics of 2-step and the Tush Push.
Maybe by week 3, we'll have one hour of new dancer lessons and one hour of review/refresh/practice.
Had a couple of false starts using my own sound system. I couldn't figure out how to hook up to their sound system at the Ranch, and was having some really odd distortion problems with mine. Hard to figure out in the near dark, too...the bartender said "the overhead lights were all burned out". (That didn't turn out to be the case. The overheads came on about 7:30). But I got it working well finally.
So with my trusty new madonna headset, I spent almost two hours teaching the Basic Waltz, the basic dance partner frame, a couple of Waltz variations, Boot Scootin' Boogie, and Cotton Eye Joe. A couple of Wilde bunchers were there as "angels," which was good...
And of course, there were several around the bar that were being an audience.
VERY happy with the new headset. It's an AKG something 40 model. At only $249, it was a bargain for a walk-in-and-buy-it thing and much better quality than my old Samson that I bought about '91. I was prepared to pay $400...
So, I had to deal with what I FIGURED I'd have to deal with. Although the Ranch wants to have the c/w lessons to boost weekend dancing (and of course drinking...it's their profit), they aren't prepared to do any of that. The manager went to dinner at 6:30 and I don't know if he ever showed back up. They're busy running around doing their bar stuff, and only peripherally aware that there's lessons. It feels like there's an attitude that they're doing me a favor, which is pretty much the opposite of the REAL situation.
Their DJ who did show up at 8:00 or so is an enthusiastic guy and was making several suggestions on music I should use other than what I did (mine was fine). I pleasantly asked why he wasn't teaching the program, and he said he didn't know how to dance. Well, yah. I will give him updates of what I'm teaching every week though, so he can play the music that works for the dances. I know many gay bars have the DJ play the music and they just teach, but after 20+ years calling and teaching, I prefer to be the control queen myself! ;-)
Next week: Basics of 2-step and the Tush Push.
Maybe by week 3, we'll have one hour of new dancer lessons and one hour of review/refresh/practice.
