I’m in Oxford for a couple of days at the Oxford Swing Festival, which makes me sound like I’m some sort of expert. Far from it. I’ve been to a dozen or more lessons and went to a couple of dance events before Christmas. I still consider myself to be just slightly better than an absolute beginner, so it was very odd going somewhere where I didn’t know anyone and I wasn’t confident about what I was doing.

Why go? Well, tomorrow and Sunday there are workshops and I’ve signed up for the beginner classes. I reckon that the more I hammer home the basics, the more confident I’ll be. But there’s obviously more to it, which I realised this evening. The lessons only get you so far and you still have to go out to the social dances to actually get any good at it… which I appreciate I’ve been told many times before. Chatting to people tonight, it’s obvious.

Planning ahead, this might mean the occasional trip into Manchester, Liverpool or Preston to get more experience.

Tonight’s social was in the Oxford Deaf Institute. They have a large dance floor – which was necessary because there must have been about 200+ people in there.

To start with, I felt like a bit of a petrified wallflower. Didn’t know anyone, and everyone who was dancing appeared to be awesome. I had a feeling that no matter how hard I tried, I could never ever get to be as good as those dancing, it just looked impossible. However, I finally got up and gave it a go with a few partners.

The differences between them were fascinating. One or two were great to dance with… they were patient and understood that I was finding my feet and the dances seemed to flow. Having said that, it may have been a bit pedestrian for the follower. It turned out that they had been dancing for 3+ years. Another follower who had been dancing for about a year was a lot more demanding and consequently it was a whole lot less fun. Plus I had a few dances with someone who had just started herself. That was probably hilarious to watch, and was enjoyable, but was the most difficult because it took a lot of trying to lead.

Still, it was good to cross the rubicon of asking someone to dance – even if I didn’t feel like I could do the dancing bit terribly well. The workshops tomorrow should be interesting – especially finding out which of the awesome dancers are the ones doing the teaching.

In terms of other exercise – I went to the gym before heading down to Oxford. Not a long session by the usual standards, but still half an hour of getting through most of the planned programme. I also walked half an hour from the B&B to a restaurant called Quod Brasserie, taking in some of the more delightful back alleys of the city while trying to use up the time.

It turns out that it’s a 10-minute walk straight walk from the B&B to the town hall where we saw Frank Turner play last year. Five more minutes to Quod and then 15 minutes looping around the block to try and make up the time. However, the food was tasty and it made the walk worthwhile.

So what was a very tentative and slightly anxious start to the evening turned into a pleasant way to spend the time. They’ll be at it until 3am, but there was no way I could stay up that late. Tomorrow will be a long day.