Slow, Quick, Quick to the Left, Slow, Quick, Quick to the Right

Dances:  Cha Cha, Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-Step
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Legs at the gym.

Tonight's workout was pretty average.  I am continuing to push my leg workouts harder and harder as I have seen such great improvement in my dancing due to it.  Sometimes I wonder how I should go about preparing for my first, or any for that matter, competition.  Should I not workout for the week prior to it?  Or should I just lighten the load?  Perhaps skip a few days?  Maybe this goes without saying, but I've noticed I seem to dance MUCH better when I've had a lot of days off.  Not sure if it's because of the mental or physical rest.

The Feather Step and Three Step in Foxtrot were on our schedule for today.  We wanted to work on the rotation in the upper body for each of these figures, and of course the transition between the two.  It's actually because of these two steps that I feel no beginning dancer should study International Standard right off the bat.  The learning curve is far too steep and I suspect would suck all the fun out of dancing.  Don't get me wrong, I think International Standard is the way to go, but American Style Smooth definitely has it's place.  The learning curve of Standard is really only cut out for those who are more serious about dancing right from the get go.  While in Smooth is more socially based so you can ease your way into the waters.  Though I think eventually you should make the switch over to Standard.

Back to the Feather and Three.  Sarah and I immediately noticed how back weighted I got when dancing these two figures.  It's really weird, but I'm seldom back weighted.  Not sure why I feel like I need to be for these two steps.  We'll have to work on it some more for me to straight it up.  Next issue was the torso rotation for each of the figures.  Left side forward for the Feather Step then resetting to neutral, and then to right side forward for the Three Step.  All of that has to happen smoothly.  There are many differing opinions as to how and when the rotation occurs, resets, and occurs once more.  I tend to like to stretch it out over the length of the step.  So imagine two bell curves in a row.  Overall I think we do pretty well with these two figures.  We still have a long ways to go, but I think we're ahead of the curve.  They don't call the Feather Step the "Million Dollar Step" for nothing.

Next we flipped it around (as I found out a while ago) and worked on the Extended Reverse Wave.  Somehow it feels much easier to me other than the fact that I'm stepping backwards.  So I'm guessing something is wrong with it.  I hope not, but that's usually the way it goes.  We'll find out once we get to open level.  For now, I'm just going to have fun with it.