The songs from the ZIN Jam...one week later...

Last night I finally got a chance to get practice the songs I learned from the ZIN Jam I went to last week. I feel like it took me for-ev-er. I had every intention of working on them on Friday but I hurt my back shoveling snow that morning. Not badly, but enough that I figured it could use a little time to feel like itself again.

***Side Note: When you pay a plow service to do your incredibly long driveway, you sign a contract saying that they will only come out for 2+ inches of accumulation. Accumulation is the operative word. Snow blocking your driveway because of drifting doesn't count. When your kindergartener's class is celebrating 100th Day at school, you do what it takes to get him there.***

So I wound up resting Friday and Saturday instead of practicing and it really was for the best, I know that. It just wasn't what I wanted. I felt like the longer I waited to actually practice, the more I was going to forget. Well, I don't know if I was right, or if it just wound up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Either way though...

Here's the current status of the songs I learned at the Jam:

1) The salsaton - I can't use the salsaton at all unfortunately because I can't get a clean (un-remixed) version from Amazon MP3. I don't know if iTunes even has one, since I don't have an account. This is where being a Windows Phone/Zune user gets tricky sometimes. It's too bad too, because I like the choreography for it.

2) The cumbia - This one isn't smooth at all. I can at least get through it...kinda... My timing is way off on the machete part (which in turn throws me off for other parts) and this just drives me nuts because the Jammer made a special point to tell us what to be listening for in the music as the cue for us to start that part. The worst thing is that I actually can hear it, I'm just hesitating because I second guess myself, and then I miss it. Grr. I'm my own worst enemy sometimes, and I need to stop over-thinking it.

3) Moviendo Caderas by Yandel (feat. Daddy Yankee) - I'm not precisely sure what style this one classifies as. It's the one I remember the best. I've got this one head and shoulders above the others. When I realized that last night, I flipped it and started working on it leading with my left side. I've got a couple transitions to smooth out and I need to work out how I'm going to cue it, but it's nearly good to go. Which is way more than I can say for any of the others.

4) The reggaeton - Probably the simplest one of the five, it only has three varying parts and they repeat in the same order each time. Easy-peasy right? My timing is off on this one too, but I know it's because I'm practically tripping over my feet. This song has a sassy little walk up (forward travel), and the feet crossing over were messing me up and then I was backing up leading with the wrong foot which messed up the next part. This one will come. I have a feeling that the next time I work on this one, I'll have it back to where I had it at the Jam last week.

5) The tropipop - Holy smokes, this one kicked my butt all over the place. If anyone had seen me down in my basement working on this one last night, they would have probably thought I'd never done the song before. It's not just an issue of timing either, it's me reading the notes and going, "Wait...what?" There's one piece I know I forgot completely, that spot is blank so I did the move right before it extra long. I restarted the song three times, and each time I had to pause and redo chunks of it here and there. I never actually did get all the way through it because I was starting to get pretty frustrated with myself. 

Me: Why is this song giving me so much trouble?! It was fine last week!
Me: Let go of it a little, let your subconscious work on it.
Me: The longer I let it go, the less I'm going to remember!
Me: Take a step back, and breathe...maybe get some water...and...I know! Let's do Zoomer!
Me: Yay! I love Zoomer!
Me: Me too!

My inner monologue. Rae told me once that people need at least a couple songs in a Zumba class that they can feel successful at, otherwise they'll get frustrated with the experience and not return. I guess that still applies to me too even after all this time. Switching songs was definitely what I needed to do. That got my whole practice back on track and it was after that when I decided to try Moviendo Caderas to the left which turned out to really work well. And to think I nearly called it an early night because I was in a snit... Ultimately, I finished around 10pm because "One more time." turned into about five more times.

Two things today:
The first is that "One more time." is always a lie.
The second is Keep Calm and do Zoomer. Or something else I guess, if that works for you...you know, if you don't know choreography to Zoomer...