Dance! - The Road to Heavies: May 6, 2014. Rootsj rootsj... clack! clack!
After work is done, I grab my jump-rope to try and skip a couple of ten times while wearing my heavy shoes. After that I practice trebles.
While doing a few skips I notice that I hardly feel my toes. Not like they are sedated or sleeping, but the lack of pain surprises me.
Enthusiastic I take another 40 skips to be totally surprised I'm not in pain at all. I take on the treble immediately after that and for about 10 minutes, I keep 'dancing' the same distance, to walk back to my starting point after trying to treble for a number of tries.
Little progress: much harder then I thought!
Well, I quite suck. The very fine ridge-like structure on the floor is relentless and exerts a clear 'rootsj rootsj roorootsj' sound in my attempts to kick my feet out and in again and jump on my other leg. In doing so I also touch the floor with my heel.
Wow! Did I underestimate this! This is so much tougher then I thought and it comes down to millimeters when I need to hit the floor. Just a little bit too far out or too long and I get the rootsj-sound that troubles me and letting go of my feet too early results in no sound at all.
And then.... it happens
Even so, I keep trying, still surprised though about the fact that I even find my heavy shoes to be comfortable footwear, something I really did not expect.
After about 15 minutes of practice, it suddenly happens. From the 'rootsj' sound it suddenly turns into a clear 'clack-clack clack, clack-clack clack, clack-clack clack' sound and I'm slowly doing something that strongly resembles a treble.
After that, exhaustion probably takes over and I can not get my feet to produce the same sound again.
After seeing a lot on television and what I noticed in class and now experience myself: a trained dancer seems to be using every beat to the floor to get more power out of it, like every step on the floor is like stepping on a tensioned spring, which gives you an extra jolt up.
I notice that myself now. Just like pulling my leg in and hitting the floor with the tip, gives some extra momentum to step over on my other foot.
After messing around for a short while, I end my practice. But never did I feel so sad taking my heavy shoes off. They were never so comfortable and never ever did my toes feel so happy.