Fluke Dancing: When You "Accidentally" Nail It

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep

Hovers: 1

Yesterday evening was our final review day. Jeff was threatening to come down with a cold and I was really tired, so practice had less energy than normal, but we did manage to work on a few things. Jeff feels quite confident now with all of the choreography, so we worked on the back open promenade in tango, because the shaping and rotation felt off, and then going in and out of promenade throughout that whole tricky section. Something was strange about the oversway too. Basically we reviewed those sections lots of times, slower, and faster, and tried to get a feel for where we each needed to be. Sometimes I went too far outside partner, so I worked on staying closer so he wouldn't lose me and so I wouldn't get stuck, though sometimes his right elbow would get too far back and I had a hard time staying where I needed to be. We had to laugh though, because it seems like whenever I bring up some problem or issue I'm feeling with the lead or his position, Jeff protests that there's nothing wrong and dances it just to prove it to me, of course fixing whatever the problem was in the process.

Then he'll say, "See? What's wrong?"

And I'll return, "Of course...NOW it's fine. What did you do differently?"

And he'll say, "Nothing. It's always been good."

Whatever works, right? I can usually tell by a certain mischievous glint in his eye that I actually had been on to something...but of course he can't admit that. Then again, last night, Jeff thought it appropriate to remind me of that one day when we decided that once and for all we'd fix our fallaway-reverse-slip-pivot of doom in waltz because it was so awful, only to nail it time after time...proving that I'm not a good judge of these things. But we both knew and admitted that section was awful and that day was a sort of a weird fluke, so after laughing about our sudden and unexpected bursts of good dancing, we got back to tango.

Jeff thought it would be a good idea (or funny, or mean, or something) to see how low into the knees he could go in preparation for tango with me in frame. He kind of forgot that I also have pretty strong legs and that tango frame is kind of hard to hold up when you get that low...needless to say we both ended up sitting on the floor laughing as the whole thing collapsed, providing an entertaining spectacle for the foxtrot class right next to us.

We also reviewed a bit of quickstep and foxtrot choreography, just to make sure it was fresh in our minds, and ended with a foxtrot, by my request. Though not the most lively and energetic practice, I think we've been making a good first week of it after such a long break. Tonight, it's Aria's weekly practice party!