After a busy Spring and Summer of sailing (see
Sailing With George and Vicky for details), I felt the need to get back up to Holy Cross for some retreat time. After two "Commodore's Balls" at the yacht club, we were also looking to get started in some more formal dance training. As I noted a week ago, a perusal of the upcoming retreat options at the monastery
website provided the answer to our prayers.
DISCLAIMER: If you're getting this by way of Google next year and considering the Ballroom Dance weekend at Holy Cross. Know in advance that they're NOT going to teach you the "Funky Chicken". (I always get that one messed up, and was hopeful it would be covered... It wasn't.) ;)
Continuing on...
Friday's trip up to Holy Cross was uneventful and surprisingly fast. Vicky insists that was because I was snoring through a good part of it... hopefully that was while she was driving. I remember getting onto the Thruway from the Parkway and then approaching the exit.
Anyway, we arrived and were greeted by Laurie and found our way to our room. We were in "St. Peter Damian" which had a nice view of the river. Looking out I noticed that a ship, The Clipper, was anchored out in the Hudson. We spent the afternoon roaming around the monastery, checking out the gift shoppe and then settled into a comfy couch in Pilgrim Hall to read. before heading to the chapel for Vespers.
After supper, we had our first Ballroom session. The floor in the "St. Gregory" meeting room was transformed into a "Masonite" dance floor, and we met our instructors - Joe and Julie Donato. They run a ballroom studio across the river from the monastery (here is their
website). We also met our fellow retreaters... Charles & Elizabeth (nearest to Vicky in the photo below) and Jeff & Darlene (at the far end of the row of chairs). I had no "dancing" photos from Friday night's session, but we worked on the basic box step and covered how to waltz. I left for Compline feeling like... OK, I can do this for a weekend.
I slept well... waking much later than I normally do, but waking up to an incredible sunrise as the sun just peeked out beside the Vanderbilt Estate before Matins. Breakfast followed (I'm not spending too much explaining life at the monastery this time - read some of my earlier posts for details), and we didn't really have any dancing sessions until after Eucharist, so I had some time to get some scenery shots. I will note that this visit had the largest amount of river traffic... maybe I'm just paying more attention to it. The Clipper remained anchored for the whole weekend, but a couple of other ships and barges went by as well.
After the service, we had another dancing session.. this time moving onto 4/4 rhythms and adding in something called floorcraft, which is how you move as a couple around the dance floor. This is where my brain started going TILT!!! - it's not as easy as it looks (at least not for this beginner). More than once I found us dancing in a corner because I couldn't figure out the way to get us turned around and headed in a different direction. I also noticed that we were "backing up the circuit" a few times.
Jeff & Darlene were positively elegant and Charles & Elizabeth also graceful had more background than us. (My dance resume includes three "lessons" in 8th grade gym class and... well that's about it.) Afterward Julie showed us a nice way to relax our backs before we headed to Dirunum and Dinner.
After a brief rest, we resumed at 2:00. This would be our longest session, and we covered more floorcraft, some elementary spinning (mostly of the room... inside my head) and added traveler steps (the chairs in the center are to get us all moving the same way around the floor).
Joe & Julie are demonstrating something here, but I forgot it. I think it was the finer points for your stance during the Foxtrot.
Here they're teaching the ladies the steps involved in spinning.
And there was plenty of time to practice. Every once in a while, things seemed to click and it started feeling right. Usually then Joe would introduce something else.
Finally, after a cupcake treat and almost 3 hours of this, it was time for Vespers. We had no evening session (Joe and Julie had a performance and ended up dancing for another 4 hours). My knees were killing me at this point and after going down the stairs for Vespers, we stayed down until after Compline was over. As I returned to our room, I looked out on the river and saw that Orion was rising just by The Clipper so I had to get a photo.
Sunday morning was a typical Sunday at the monastery. Matins, Breakfast (DON'T miss breakfast on Sundays), break and then Eucharist, which was a little more involved than a typical Eucharist, but not as big as Christmas morning.
For today's session, Sister Shane joined us (she is a priest from the group of Episcopal nuns that are forming on the grounds of Holy Cross). We learned a lot of Latin during this session (which I had in High School, but "Aqua Velva" and "Magnavox" wasn't going to help me here).
These were actually easier from my point of view because they involve dancing in place and you don't have to think so much about how to move around. We learned some "icing" to put on top of our cake foundation (such as spinning, etc.). It was a really fun session and both Vicky and I had the giggles during it and afterwards...
... we finished the session just moments before Dirunum.
Now regular readers - both of you - might recall that Diurnum is the service that involves a lot of silence. Giggles and silence don't mix well. We arrived with a few moments to spare and sat in the back by the entrance to the chapel. The chapel floor was replaced a few years ago and there is this small... bump... where the old and new floors don't quite match. The first person who stumbled through the opening shook their head and said "that happens every time". Followed by several other people who stumbled... and said the same thing. Vicky found that humorous and was crying trying to keep from laughing out loud knowing the service was about to start.
I always enjoy the silent prayer, though today I suddenly had a weird "falling sensation" during the silence. It passed quickly and I didn't think any more about it until the drive home when Vicky asked me about it. She claims I started snoring - I swear I was praying. She also claims she didn't push me, though now I'm wondering. My apologies to the brothers... I hope our exuberance (and my snoring) didn't interrupt your service.
After the service was over, we waited briefly in Pilgrim Hall, then had Sunday Dinner with our new friends before packing up, sending our luggage down what has to be the oldest elevator in this area, and heading back south to NJ.
