123. VIDEO: Donkey dance lessons

Here’s another project that Gus is throwing himself into with, well . . . gusto:  dancing the chacha with me.  Having learned to stop crowding him and get out of his face, I ask him to step backward by giving a cue and waiting, allowing him to respond within his own personal time-space continuum.  Arms akimbo, I tilt my elbows forward and cock my knee to ask him for a backward step with the same-side front leg; when I tilt my elbows backward and lean my body away, he’s to step forward toward me.

We also do a side-by-side chacha, which we began by exaggerated slow-walking and honed into a back-and-forth terpsichorean two-step.  So far, Gus needs the arena wall alongside him to keep him heading straight; the chances that we’ll ever progress to using the whole dance floor seem slim.  But it’s starting to look pretty good along the wall, and when we add a pole on the ground, our audiences have been known to gasp.  

It’s still extremely slow going, but the precision is improving steadily.  And Gus, for reasons passing understanding, absolutely adores this practice, offering to back up at any opportunity and practically dragging me to the ground pole to repeat the game.  So I have faith that we’re developing into a partnering powerhouse, on our way to winning Dancing With the Donkey Stars.