Dances: Night Club, Tango, Foxtrot
Hovers: 0
Our latest practice program specified that we work on the "boring" side of our tango, and when he heard that, Jeff knew immediately what I was referring to. It's our second long side that begins with a promenade link, and then goes into a couple of reverse turns, lady outside, and a basic-but-not-basic reverse turn, contra-check, and natural twist turn with rock ending. We call it boring because for most of the flow we're just moving down the floor in essentially basic walking action sort of steps: "Quick, quick, slow...quick, quick, slow....quick, quick-and-quick, quick, slow..." So I thought we needed to work on making this part sharper and cleaner since it is so bare and doesn't look that exciting the way we dance it.
We tried dancing it stopping sharp on the slows and holding them as long as we could, but I just started giggling uncontrollably when we finished and Jeff didn't get what was so funny. I just thought it felt and looked silly, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The tricky part was trying to figure out what part is isolated and stops short, and what part keeps the smoothness and continuity so we don't look jerky. I think the body has to keep moving somewhat, while the feet stay sharp. Anyways, a little after that Jeff also thought we looked ridiculous and said we'd better try something else. I agreed. It was a good test of balance though. I found that I have a tendency to get pretty backweighted on that section, so I worked straightening myself out.
In the end, we realized that we just need to be less sloppy with our technique, but essentially keep doing what we've been doing. The key will be delay the steps more rather than freeze longer on the slows. I guess I had been inspired when I saw this video clip of some of the top couples dancing basic tango steps like our "boring side" and still looking amazing. Check out Victor and Anastasia at 1:17 in this video. He makes the steps we're dancing look like open choreography...but duh...he's Victor Fung:
We ended with a little bit of foxtrot. Unfortunately a lot of the finesse is missing for me this week due to my injury, so things aren't as smooth. I am hoping that soon I will be back where I was so that we can start making more progress.
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