There is a Cherokee fable, "Feed the good wolf".
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson.
He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my
heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the
loving, compassionate one".
The grandson asked him, "which wolf will win the fight
in your heart?"
The grandfather answered: "The one I feed."
While you dance a partner dance, the same applies. When you
are dancing well, you only feel joy and fun. But occasionally, there are times
that the dance is not going well; your partner is off balance and pulling you
heavy, your partner is not paying attention and non-responsive, you are
rushing, or being rushed. A response is by the vengeful wolf, "WTF?".
The vengeful wolf response is like a static noise in the music tune, ruining
nice flow of the dance.
Don't listen to the vengeful wolf. Choose to have fun and go
with the loving wolf.
Especially in some contest settings in which you dance with
someone you don't regularly dance, I heard comments like, "I couldn't do
anything", "He was rushing" and "She was too heavy".
That's the vengeful wolf talking.
Those who make this kind of comments are usually amateur
novices. Most pros are experienced enough to dismiss the vengeful wolf, knowing
the long-term negative effects. Besides, it is different kind of fun to pursue
a "perfect" dance for contest purpose and to enjoy the partner's
response on the occasion. The point is, you can always choose to be amused by
even the occasional oops situations, and
get the most fun out of them.
Last night we were invited to a party. It was a nice
Vietnamese party at a new studio in NW OKC with a large floor space (15x50 ft,
give or take), and the place was packed. A few different live bands played and
sang danceable Asian songs. I did not know Viennese waltz was popular in
Vietnam. It was fun. Thank you for invite.
