Cinderella Shins

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Night club-2, Bolero (sort of)

Hovers: 1

When I was doing the arms and back workout with Jeff yesterday, we did assisted pull ups and drops on one of the machines, and for some reason my shins are really sensitive to that thing you kneel on, and I always end up with bruises afterwards. Jeff was giving me grief about my "princess shins," hence the post title. It seems like Jeff said an unusual number of really silly things yesterday (for those of you who know him, obviously not atypical), but as usual many were not publicly quotable material.

Yesterday's practice was a little ho hum; short, and not terribly intense, but it was still helpful for sure. We were both getting a little burned out on the slow metronome exercise, so after a little of that in waltz, we worked on some "trouble spots" in waltz and tango, and I think figured some things out. Apparently I've been rushing my shaping on the left whisk and contra check, so we worked on that, and I think it improved. I've also personally been very conscious of my fallaway-reverse-slip-pivots, and I think they are going smoother for me. We also spent some time on the back open promenade in tango, which is a really tricky figure to balance. Turns out we were rotating the upper body too much on the last step and not enough on the second, when we should have been rotating/checking, and then straightening/checking. I've also been really bad about leading my own head shape on this one, and this practice I discovered that I was basically doing my right shaping independently since Jeff had decided to give up trying to lead that check for the time being. That would explain it! I had just been yelled at by a certain teacher...you know who you are, for not turning right there, and so I was trying to do it no matter what I felt, and it was backfiring.

Speaking of tango, Jeff has some pretty cool tango music. Tango is one dance for me where having really "in character" music makes a huge difference in my performance. I know it shouldn't affect me that much, but it does. Actually, the same goes for almost any dance, but in tango I notice that I am clearly less "polite" with it when we dance it to certain music. One of our favorite tangos is actually from a video game! The Pirates IV one is getting up there on the favorites list too.

We will be taking a practice break tonight and will be back in the game sometime this weekend, but stay tuned since we are making some overall blog updates, such as posting bios, photos, and other fun stuff. I am particularly proud of our "competition results" page...quite impressive if you ask me!