Two Dances

This morning we went to Tropic Star for Joe Saltel's A-2 Donut Dance. It's held in a really nice hall, with a great wood floor. We get to dance with lots of our Advanced dancing friends. As you can see, the hall is already decorated for Christmas. Ten squares were on the floor. Joe played around with some any hand swing and mix--pretty straightforward. He also did some as couples zig zag and zag zig--not so easy to see.

One of the couples we danced with was Keith and Gail Lindeman. Her badge says she's a tram interpreter for Valley Nature Center. It turns out that they work at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We chatted for a while. They said most of the park is still closed because of flood damage, but limited tram tours are resuming, and there will be some walking tours into the park. The trams can't go far, because the roads suffered lots of flood damage.

Zeta (in the striped shirt) is undergoing cancer treatments in Harlingen. She dances with George. Also in the square are Max and Susan and Trevor and Karen.

Karen leads line dances between some of the tips. Joe is the smiling caller, who always keeps things light.

Karen models her (very) fringed Western jacket.

Judy and Lois smile for the camera.

We danced the fast tip at the end with Linda and Terry, Max and Susan, and Harold and Dorothy. It's always exhilarating to succeed in keeping up with Joe--and always due to great teamwork. Lots of fun.

We packed our lunch and ate at Tropic Star before driving across the street to Pharr South for Randy Dougherty's C-1 workshop. I asked Randy to workshop step and fold and step and flip. He pointed out that step and flip involves the very same flip movement as flip the diamond. Flippers end up on the line of dance, so step and flip often ends in a Z formation. Step is a smaller move than circulate, too. All very enlightening. He also workshopped some unusual stretch calls.

We got home in time to do laundry. By the time we finished it had gotten much cooler, and our walk was finished in record time. We averaged 3.7 mph. We stopped on our last loop and picked up some more grapefruit. We'll be leaving tomorrow, moving to Bentsen Palm Village.