The Recovery

Dances:  Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Chest and shoulders at the gym.
Number of Bug Bites:  7

Last night's practice was kept pretty short.  The camping trip I had been on had me pretty wiped.  Between the predatory tubing down the river, the junk food, the bug bites, and general lack of sleep, I wasn't in very good shape to practice.  But like any good student of dance does, I found the time and motivation to do so.  After a good chest and shoulder workout, practice began.

This practice started off a little unusually with Sarah and I dancing to metronomic waltz.  Honestly I was impressed at how much we have both improved in terms of our balance together.  No longer are we falling from one figure to the next.  Now it's only a few select figures that topple over.  I think the key factor there (other than just practicing like crazy and getting used to each other) is the leg workouts.  It feels like those workouts have really paid off.  The rise and fall now requires minimal effort as does the slow and painful Tick-Tock Timing.  So all good things.

After the waltz we dance through the foxtrot a bit.  Again, the same result.  Everything feels more balanced.  After last weeks refresher course in metronomic foxtrot our timing was improved.  Again, the leg workouts are paying off here.  It feels like foxtrot really taxes the quads pretty hard.

Last but not least was tango.  Overall it is catching up to our waltz and foxtrot.  I'm still struggling to keep my topline level, but the first half of the routine is greatly improved.  It feels like Sarah isn't getting dragged along anymore as well.  Now we'll need to work on the other half.

One GIANT focus I have now is straightening out my promenades.  As I've mentioned before, I have tendency to tip downward out of them.  I think this is a product of the social dancing leading I do.  It's a much easier lead to just dump the woman into promenade.  It also ensures that she crosses her leg in front rather than behind.  But alas, it's no good for competitive dancing.  I'll need to come up with a new fool-proof plan to lead women into promenade.