Journal no. 3

really envy my flatmate - she gets very excited about the things she enjoy. and she enjoys doing many things.
last week she enjoyed her first samba class ($15 a lesson).
so this week i went to try it out.

she really enjoyed this week as well, especially the last part.
me, i have mixed feelings.
it's interesting + good exercise, but i can't get the rhythm or strutting or jiggling or fast stuff.  

this week's students were hip hop dancers (2 guys and 1 girl), flatmate, 2 other ladies, and me.
it's supposed to be a "female samba" class, so the guys learnt many female moves and some guy moves.
then the teacher ended by getting us to do the "dance in a circle", where anyone can go dance with someone in the middle and become the center of attention, but the cool thing is that they cut in with flair.

i learnt many things about samba in 1 hour:
it's a dance about showing off.
move the hips, not the legs.
lift the knees and strut.
stick out front and back. jiggle everything.
the rhythm is 3 beats and a "throw" beat (or something).
dance to the beat of the drum and shake to the drum cues.
you can samba without moving your feet.
point the hands outwards (pointing both inwards looks sad)
there is the carnival version, the traditional version, the poor people version, and the rich people version.

the teacher also teaches the taichi class just before the samba class. she also teaches capoeira, i think.
if i had to, my order of preference would be taichi, capoeira, then samba. haha