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.

Back to Basics

Part: Follow

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

Hovers: 1

Last night I was woefully late for practice due to my participation in a much longer than anticipated but beautiful Requiem Mass for the feast of All Souls at my church in Seattle, and Jeff was heroically patient about it. Next time, I'll know to revise my schedule. It was a full night, since I also got a really good workout in just after work as well. Jeff also had worked out hard on the usual leg day self-torture.

After dancing a not-so-energetic cha-cha warm up while one of our Latin dancer friends was practicing, we danced our round. This round was definitely the longest we'd ever done, with virtually no breaks between dances. It was hard! We almost died at the end of the quickstep, but I think it's a good sign that we made it through. We'll need to practice our endings for our dances though, because we just kind of broke apart at the end of each one and walked away from each other trying to recover our breathe, which is not the most graceful way to finish. One thing at a time though.

For practice, we worked on the most basic figures in foxtrot, but also the most challenging, it seems: the basic feather and three step. It was about rotation, control, and figuring out where our weight was at any given time. I think we both have a tendency to be back-weighted; Jeff sometimes feels me pulling him forward, and I've always felt that his weight is farther back than most other guys I've danced with. I'd so much rather it be there than too far forward though, because at least we normally tend to counter-balance each other pretty well. What we sacrifice is a lack of control. We also focused on the same issues in the extended reverse wave, which, as Jeff "discovered" recently, is the reverse of the feather three combination. It's definitely much more difficult, but we felt that this was a very productive practice as it helped us get more in touch with some of the fundamentals of how we're moving as a couple and how well we are driving and over our feet and balanced, and other essential things that we sometimes don't remember to focus on because of other more pressing problems in the routines. Maybe we should try something similar on a regular basis for all of our dances.

Jeff mentioned a couple of times that he feels me pulling him along to some extent, and that he thought I was falling into my steps. I'm pretty sure I wasn't falling though because I had quite a bit of floor pressure and felt like I had control of my heels landing (and not until they were together, either), and he did stop mid-step several times to test it, and I didn't fall and stopped with him, so perhaps it was the backweightedness that he was feeling.

This led me to think, and to wonder it would be fair to say that to a certain extent a good and powerful follow will provide most of her own movement, as long as the direction and amount of energy to go with are clearly communicated to her. From the lead's perspective, he might feel that, rather than pushing her around, he's driving her around...giving the directions and shape to the movement. On the social floor, I think Jeff and most leads rather like a somewhat lazy follow, who essentially relies on the lead to provide everything, not only direction, power, and shape, but also her movement, rotation, and extension (if she can even have any). While it's comfortable for the guy to know that she can't do anything without him...it seems to me that kind of relationship is less of a partnership of give and take and less likely to result in clean, efficient, and powerful dancing. Yes, it is a constant struggle to find that harmony and balance where the two are performing equally and with power, but in their respective roles, but I think that is something you will rarely find on the social floor, and something that is not going to feel totally comfortable for quite some time. Granted, I'm not the most docile follow you ever saw...not by choice, but because I have a lot of energy of my own that takes practice to channel. But I think that at some point we'll see that, while I'm probably never going to be the social follow Jeff can drag around the floor and essentially throw and dump into various figures, I will be able to provide an energy, power, and control in movement that a less independent follow would likely never have. I say will since I am still only on the journey there.

Practice last night concluded with a nightclub 2-step. As we were dancing, a young guy came into the room and was watching us dance for quite some time. He left, but then as we were leaving the room he approached me and said he recognized me from one of the other studios in the area. It turns out it was one I've never been to so I must look like someone else, but we ended up talking with him about dancing at the gym, and the style we dance, and found out that he used to teach at a local studio at one point. He kept telling us to 'fess up and tell him where we taught, for some reason he wouldn't believe at first that we aren't instructors! In any case, it looks like we may have a new practice buddy. That room is becoming a virtual dance studio!

Short Round

Dances:  Rumba, Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep
Part:  Lead
Workout:  chest and shoulders at the gym.
Flavor of the Day at the Gym:  Poop

Today's workout was going well until I ran into a particularly unpleasant patron.  The Cable Cross at that gym is one of the popular machines used.  It's constantly in use and there is usually a line to get to it.  It doesn't help that this gym only has one of them.  I had finished up all my other routines and left the chest flies for last.  Usually I like to do them first, but since the machine was in use, I had to move on.  So I asked this guy how many sets he had left and he told me he'd be about 5 more minutes.  No problem.  I just did abs in the corner and waited.  While waiting another gentleman came up and asked if I was in line.  I said yes and that he's welcome to work in between my sets.  So we waited.  Ten minutes passed when the guy on the machine turns to us and says "You know, just standing there isn't going to make me go any faster."  What an asshole.  Luckily I kept my cool and politely informed him that the two of us had finished everything else we had to do and had nothing else left.  He then ignored us and continued his workout.  I can't stand inconsiderate people.  In the end I took up two machines in the other room and created a makeshift cable cross to finish my workout.  I'd also like to point out that it smelled like poop today at the gym.  I know that sounds childish and funny, but unfortunately there is no other word I can find to describe that smell.

After a quick Rumba, to which Sarah freaked and nerded out about the music to, we picked out a video for our round and it began.  For some reason though, this video was edited VERY tightly and that meant we only danced about half of each of our routines.  Not what you're going for when you're trying to build endurance.  But that's ok.  At least it let us know what it feels like when the pacing is such.  We'll be ready for anything they throw at us after this.

Tango was next.  Our Back Open Promenade into Outside Swivel is VERY inconsistent.  It's tough getting two checks, in opposite directions, in the space of two quicks.  I focused on making sure my alignments were correct as well as going straight back into the second check.  If I don't, Sarah ends up falling on top of me.  Once we get to the outside swivel though, everything snaps back in place.  I wonder sometimes if our Outside Swivel needs to be bigger or more prominent.  I'll have to ask Simeon or Kora about that next time.

We ended with some lead and follow Foxtrot.  Not the best leading work I've ever done.  I kept getting into bad states where I would just repeat a few figures over and over again.  I guess everyone has brain farts from time to time.

The Pelican Dance and Back Open Promenades

Part: Follow

Dances: Rumba, Waltz, Tango, Viennese, Foxtrot, Quickstep

Hovers: 0

We warmed up to a rumba last night, and Jeff laughed at me because as soon as he turned on the "Pelican Dance," a random music pick that we hadn't tried before, I recognized it as a theme from the Polovitsian dances in Borodin's "Prince Igor Suite" and got all excited. I've loved that little piece ever since I heard it for the first time at a symphony concert many years ago, and I thought it would be great to dance to.

Then it was on to our round, but for some reason the competition clip we danced to this time was cut very short, so we barely made it half way through each routine. We didn't mind so much though, except that it meant no hover. I'm sure Jeff was thankful for that though.

The focus of practice was the back open promenade into outside swivel section of our tango. Our balance there is not consistent and the checks don't always happen, and when they do they aren't as clean as they should be. We did work on this section a bit, and went through it quite slowly a few times, and that went pretty well. I was working myself on keeping my feet more under my body, as I have a tendency to let my foot and leg fly out when we finish with the promenade link, though it's something I need to work on in general, as my foot placement could be much cleaner, especially in tango.

It was hard to tell at the end whether we made much progress with this section; I guess it's still just an awkward feeling part for me. After the tango, we ended with a bit of lead and follow foxtrot. For some reason last night I kept feeling our connection sliding around; I'm not sure why, but it seemed more of a problem than usual. Jeff also commented about our foxtrot that I often rush (or so it feels to him) coming out of the curved feathers in the weaves that usually follow, but I think that is how it feels to him because I do tend to drive into some pretty long steps there and they are probably too long given that he is going backwards and given the position we are in relatively speaking.

Tomorrow...probably more quickstep. Are you surprised?