Double Wide Long Side

Part: Follow

Dances: Nightclub 2-step, Waltz, Tango, Viennese, Foxtrot, Quickstep

Hovers: 0

Last night after a focused and fairly efficient workout, we headed in to practice and warmed up with our usual nightclub 2-step, and followed that up with the round. After our salsa experience on Friday, Jeff had some ideas about carrying over some characteristic salsa moves into our nightclub, such as the lady's swivels (not sure what the official name is). Funny thing is, at Century, he was busy trying to incorporate our nightclub 2-step moves into salsa, though sometimes it was just a bit too fast to be entirely smooth. Still, it's fun to try.

The round was next. The video we danced this one to was paced just about perfectly; it had short breaks between each dance, and none of them were quite as long as our routines. The only downside? We didn't make it to the hover, of course.

The focus of practice was quickstep, and again I thought we should work more particularly on our last long side. It's a combination of a natural spin turn, back locks, quick open reverse, and the whole thing ends with a tipple chasse. It's not bad, really, but it could be a lot smooth and more in sync. Actually, this isn't a very hard section at all, but it's one where some basic fundamentals of shape and partnering can make a huge difference in how smooth or bumpy it feels and looks. There were a couple of steps that Jeff feels I rush, and there were some outside partner sections where I was pretty sure his elbow goes back behind his frame line, and then we get too "double wide" when we go outside. I also know I have a tendency to over-shape to the right especially on quick open reverse, for example, resulting in a mismatched frame, so I was trying to level that out and stay more consistent overall. I'm not sure what Jeff worked on, but whatever it was it felt a lot better to me after a few times. I think he ended up dipping less into the shapes and kept things more level, or at least that's what it felt like. Either way, it was good.

We ended practice with the favorite Beegie Adair Moon River waltz. I was freezing yesterday for some reason (maybe because it was cold?), and the only part of practice that warmed me up was the round! It really is winter now, and I think I'll have to start taking note and wearing long sleeves for practice, unless we plan to dance rounds all night.