theater and excitement

Facts learned (or reestablished) yesterday:

UChicago theater is excellent. In fact, theater in general is excellent. In point of fact, since I started considering the problems involved, the objectives of theater, the particular challenges, and so on, maybe two years ago, my respect for the field has steadily risen. A Breckie dude I massively respect directed one, woo! The plays were...superbly interesting, to an extent nothing less than I would've expected from the UofC.

There's no better way to say this: playing with tied-up people is fun for all parties. 'Nuff said.

I ought to cultivate a few more dance partners willing to lead me, as opposed to the other way around. I do almost exclusively dance with ladies, typically because I empathize so much better with women, so I can, say, pick up on when they're dizzy, when they'd actually rather swing than spin, when they want more momentum, when they're running out of energy.

I'm a very aggressive dancer -- I never hold back my energy, I love momentum and speed and spinning and especially moving my partner even faster than myself -- and I've learned, for instance, to always ask just before a dance whether or not my partner gets dizzy. Being able to pick up on a partner's cues is damn useful.

It took me several tries, and at least one person yelling at me, to figure out the headspace for a follower. You have to be much physically looser, ready for another dancer to do any of a variety of things. That's substantially different from leading, where the goal is to make anticipating your own next move easy for your partner, which requires steadiness and a firm grip.

It still takes me at least a minute to change my headspace from leading to following, simply because I have to put my mind in a position where my first reaction to a firm grip is to let it control me. I also haven't learned to control my aggressiveness when I'm following, which -- given how much I like spinning -- tends to result in draining considerably more of my energy in a single dance. My movements are also considerably less smooth as a follower, but that's more an issue of practice than anything else -- that, and the reality that I'm tall enough to make spinning me difficult.

I dance because I love making people happy, and I lead because when I dance with a skilled partner, I can usually succeed in giving them a fast, exhilarating dance, modulo the energy of the band and the song. When I follow, it becomes about how much I'm enjoying myself, rather than about how exhilarated I can make my partner. There's a fair bit to think about here -- I absolutely adore thrilling a good dancer, so clearly as a leader I'm getting something out of it; that much is evident from how much I adore a good partner. When I follow, what is the headspace to appreciate that? To know that my skill, to spin and whirl and bend as fast as they can move me, encourages and excites my partner?

Of the things I need to learn, learning new headspaces is perhaps what I care most about.