So how is everyone feeling after 4+ months of no dancing? (lurkers welcome!)

How are you feeling after 4+ months of no dancing?

  • Fine, no big deal, don't miss it too much

    Votes: 3 8.6%

  • Fine, I wasn't dancing much before COVID19 anyway

    Votes: 4 11.4%

  • Doing ok / dancing at home / I could go without dancing for a while longer

    Votes: 12 34.3%

  • Not doing that great, I really miss it / dancing at home isn't helping

    Votes: 14 40.0%

  • I'm doing horribly / I'm getting to my breaking point / I'll go to to the first party I can attend!

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Total voters
    35
Sabrosura

Sabrosura

Son Montuno
(Note: this post is intended for those of us who live in places where there have been no dance events since March).

Thought I'd post this to get a pulse on how we're all doing, after what is for many of us the longest break we've had to take from dancing. Here is a quick poll -- lurkers/newbies are also highly encouraged to post here and/or respond to the poll :)

Personally, I haven't danced at all (outside my home) since late February, so I'll soon reach 5 months. The first couple of months I was fine, but in the last month I am really feeling it. Sometimes when I'm listening to a nice song or I see videos of dance parties, I imagine how nice it would be to be dancing again -- and at that moment I can really feel how much pent-up dance energy has accumulated in my body over the last few months of no dancing.

In the meantime, I am dancing to the JustDanceNow app, which is a lot of fun :) You basically log in on your phone, go to the https://justdancenow.com/ site, choose a song, hold your phone in one hand and follow the on-screen animated dancer and "compete" with other users. Thanks to it I've even branched out into learning choreos for all kinds of non-Latin music, which I never thought I'd do :D It's not a substitute for a dance party of course, but it keeps you moving to fun music, making you feel that you're dancing with others at the same time, and you can choose from a huge collection if you become a paid user (which gives you access to 570+ songs, including some Latin ones, for around $25 per year; otherwise you can do it for free for 2 songs a day from a limited selection).
 
Last edited:
Doing OK after 3.5 months, though I will jump at any (safe) opportunity to dance at this point. Six months and I might start experiencing feelings of withdrawal. The phrase "Addicted to Salsa" is apt here.
 
To expand this to include more people, I wonder how many people would feel about reduced social dancing and/or reduced traveling to festivals in the long-term? How ok are you with that?

Also, social dancing abstinence can mean different things to different people. Some people have partners with whom they can dance with at home, so the withdrawal wouldn't nearly be as much as someone who hasn't danced at all with another human.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
To expand this to include more people, I wonder how many people would feel about reduced social dancing and/or reduced traveling to festivals in the long-term? How ok are you with that?

Also, social dancing abstinence can mean different things to different people. Some people have partners with whom they can dance with at home, so the withdrawal wouldn't nearly be as much as someone who hasn't danced at all with another human.
Click to expand...
I miss the girls :) to be honest . I mean dancing with the girls . But safety comes first . So will dance only after this pandemic comes down to very low levels or disappears or vaccine comes . Festivals rocked and i do miss them
 
I decided to invest my time into learning Spanish so I have been listening to a lot of salsa music, but haven't really danced so much. I will enjoy social dancing a lot whenever it comes back, as I know from how I felt during the couple of dances I did have a few weeks back, however I'm not longing for it. I have realised once more how much I love learning foreign languages, so that's my replacement hobby and I'm really happy with that for the time being. What I do miss are my friends who are mainly from festivals and hugs, both normal and post dance hugs.
 
I spent the time away from dancing and gym:

1. Losing 16kg!
When I go dancing / to the gym - I tend to overcomoensate with lots of calories.

2. Rehabilitating my left leg:
I had been struggling with shin splints for a long while, but not going to dance, and not having to recover from heavy squats left me capable of finally focusing on healing, and then strengthening my left knee, and foot.

3. Resetting my basics:
Having to dance around an injury for a while had me develop some bad habits. The time away, "forgetting" motor patterns (alongside my recovery) raised an opportunity for me to start again, and rebuild my technique "from scratch".

4. Taking privates in Zouk:
Not going out to dance clubs spared me some money for privates. I do dance with my Zouk teacher, but other than that - no couple dancing.

*I still practice my Salsa and Bachata technique at home every day.

-----

In addition:

-I overcame my fear of playing the piano (long story short: a few years ago injured my fingers, and since then 2 of them respond "weird". This made me feel depressed every time I tried to approach the piano, and after a year and a half, I'm finally emotionally fine with that!)

-I picked up playing the recorder again.

-I started learning Python.

-I had a...serious fight with an a very good best (not anymore) friend, which made me feel horrible for a month and a half, but now it feels like life just gave me an opportunity to see her true face, and filter her out of it.

-----

Long story short:

-Do I miss dancing? - Yes!
-But these recent months have definitely been good for my growth. :)
-
 
Last edited:
Chris_Yannick said:
I've found those who are fond of hugs never stopped hugging. Only the hug posers stopped giving hugs but they sucked at giving them. The people who also stopped shaking hands were also the people I don't miss getting hugs from.
Click to expand...
Hug-Monster here.
Not seeing my friends reduced my hugging-count down to...NOTHING!

So while I agree with you that I have not become less of a hug-junkie, in practice I do not get to hug at all. /:
 
Dissonant Harmony said:
I spent the time away from dancing and gym:

1. Losing 16kg!
When I go dancing / to the gym - I tend to overcomoensate with lots of calories.

2. Rehabilitating my left leg:
I had been struggling with shin splints for a long while, but not going to dance, and not having to recover from heavy squats left me capable of finally focusing on healing, and then strengthening my left knee, and foot.
Click to expand...

In how many months you lost 16Kgs? I assume since March. That type of reduction would require significant lifestyle change especially your food and diet. For most people only burning calories by exercise won’t reduce the fat. But if you exercise properly your muscle weight should go up I think.

What kind of diet are you following and how much time spend every day on burning calories?

Dissonant Harmony said:
4. Taking privates in Zouk:
Not going out to dance clubs spared me some money for privates. I do dance with my Zouk teacher, but other than that - no couple dancing.
Click to expand...

In the stressful times like these going to the dark side is expected :P :Part
 
Offbeat said:
In how many months you lost 16Kgs? I assume since March. That type of reduction would require significant lifestyle change especially your food and diet. For most people only burning calories by exercise won’t reduce the fat. But if you exercise properly your muscle weight should go up I think.

What kind of diet are you following and how much time spend every day on burning calories?



In the stressful times like these going to the dark side is expected :p :part
Click to expand...
From 101+kg to 85, in 12 weeks, which is just a tad faster than losing 1% of my weight per week...

I got from 90kg to maintaining myself at 100kg+- by eating a lot of snacks on top of my already high-in-calories diet so omitting those was already be plenty.

As I stated before - those were me, overcompensating (a lot!) post dancing / working out, but since I didn't leave house for those anymore - I dropped those.

Obviously I was less active, so losing just as much took eating less in general, but it wasn't intentional at all! I eat when I'm hungry, and I'm not very hungry when I'm spending all-day in bed.

I'm not following any type of "special" diet, and generally, I don't really restrict myself at all. I do monitor my weight, and if it drifts too high - I cut on the unnecessary stuff, and that's it.

My diet is very rich, and high in protein and fiber. On now back to eating snacks, so I'm drifting between 84kg and 87kg, but I'm now experimenting with some home-made snacks to suspense my random craving for ice cream and chocolate, and I believe I can go below 80kg at ease.

I definitely lost muscle mass; I couldn't replace heavy pulling, pressing and deadlifting at home, but I'd say I did maintain a fair amount of in my quads, doing...3-hour-long (yep!) quad training sessions.

Gyms reopened and I regained most of my strength, but they are going to be closed again this week, except now I have some accessories at home. You can't train strength with low weights, but you can maintain muscle mass. :)

-----

-Notes:

1) Most people compensate for calories burned by eating more, or being less active later on the day. Cutting down is about nutrition - first and foremost.

2) Most Salsa dancers around cannot follow light lead, or keep continuous connection; Zouk dances do! I like Salsa music, and I definitely like Cuban Motion...But followers at Zouk events are just so much more fun!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top