Ballroom dancing lesson

I never ever thought in a million year that Hoa and I would be taking any ballroom dancing lesson! The concept of taking dancing lesson seems strange to me at first because I do not see myself on the dance floor doing the ballroom moves but for the past 7/8 years the popularity of the show "Dancing with the Stars" has definitely made ballroom dancing cool, entertaining, young, hip, and so popular in every age group.

As 2008 was coming to an end, we realized that all the dining and wining is taking a toll on our body! Most of us gained a few pound here and there so we have to find an activity beside Tennis to sweat it out and also to have fun...then enters ballroom dancing lessons!

So here we are, three months after we started our first lesson (1/9/09), we have learned the minimum basic on how to do the Rumba, the Cha-Cha-Cha and we are now starting to learn the Argentina Tango for the last 3 weeks.

Here is the group: Maily, dung. me, Phuong, tuan, our teacher Yen, Doan, Huyen, Tuan, Thuy, and Duy. Tuan and Hanh are missing in this picture but they got to the studio a little later.

Huyen and Phuc practicing the Tango steps

Dung is helping Phuong practicing her Ocho steps (figure 8 steps).

Tuan/Maily and behind them Doan/Tuan

Thuy and Duy practicing their steps...

While the guys are learning their steps, the ladies are using the wall so we can lean on it without loosing our balance.

Phuong and I practicing our Ocho steps, a figure-8 traced by the follower's feet when moving forward or backward.

Ocho steps are quite difficult to do without a partner because you have to be able to put your weight on your partner in order to keep your balance.

Another step that we learned is the cruzada (to cross). Basically it is use on steps 4 and 5, crossing the left foot over the right before finishing the step. One way to go from the outside position back to the inside position. Here Yen is grabbing me to do a quick demonstration on the steps we learned.

The lessons are tow hours long and I have to say we all sweating while practicing. Ballroom dancing is definitely a very good exercice!

The Argentina Tango is different from all others Tango because of the kick. Here you can see Hanh kicking her left foot.

Out of the three style of dance we learned (Rumba, cha-cha-cha, and Tango, Hoa and I enjoyed to Tango the most. We are far from a good performance but we can definitely dance a few moves and steps the next time we have a chance to go dancing... :-)