Frozen Yogurt and Nachos! And dancing, too, I guess...

Part: Follow

Dances: Most of them

Hovers: 2?

This is the dance party post for last week, which has to cover 3 parties! I missed the Thursday practice party since I was out of town at a wedding (which actually involved ballroom dancing!), but Friday was salsa. I didn't dance much at this one, and the party ended a bit earlier, though Jeff and I did get one salsa in. I had a good time trying to lead in the class prior. I'm not the best lead you ever saw, but I try to at least be confident about it...it's one of the most important things for leads, I think.

Saturday night there was a great turnout. My younger sister came with me to check out the studio and test the waters with dancing, so we did the intro to tango class together, with me leading. Apparently my frame looked like a squiggle (according to Jeff), and I still had some kind of layout going on in my frame, but I thought I was doing okay. The ladies were going where I wanted and I was clear with my lead, so that's a start! Then came the dance party. Now that Jeff is connecting with more and more students and becoming established as a teacher and known for his skillz...he gets commandeered a lot more often and that means I get to dance with him less. It's to be expected though. In the end I think we danced a Viennese Waltz or two and a nightclub 2-step. My sister, as may be imagined, was a bit intimidated by the dancing because she really doesn't have any experience outside our living room at home when we used to mess around. She also didn't think she'd get asked to dance. Boy, was she wrong! I kept trying to get her to stop hiding in a corner and stand out where she'd be more likely to get asked onto the floor, but every time I came to get her, someone would be leading her out onto the floor. It was pretty funny. She may have danced more than I did! Afterwards a whole group of us went out for frozen yogurt, which is close to becoming a post ballroom party tradition at Aria now. It's just the best though, after dancing for three hours when you're hot, tired, and hungry.

Sunday night was West Coast swing. It was a pretty light turn out, but there were a number of students in the class, and I joined the class to learn a few more steps. I did get to dance a few dances though during the party itself. One thing that is tough for me with this dance is that the leads are so subtle; a tiny flick of the wrist can mean a lot more than I'm used to it meaning, and I'm not familiar enough with anything advanced to be able to just do it at a mere subtle suggestion. I like the feel of it though, especially the connection and the weight into the floor the looseness and tension at the same time. Jeff and I ended up dancing a nightclub 2-step too, since those are usually interspersed a bit with the West Coast swing. Afterwards, a group of four of us went out for happy hour and had some delicious nachos, which I kind of regretted the next day, but which were so good at the time.

The Slow Test

Part: Follow

Dances: Foxtrot

Hovers: 0

Practice on Wednesday (last week), was to focus on tango, and I had thought perhaps we should work on fleckrels too. Jeff vetoed both options, however, saying that the fleckrels for now are a lost cause, and tango needs "professional help," namely, let's-not-try-to-fix-anything-without-a-lesson-first. So since I put foxtrot down for our warm up, I suggested we go back to our old super slow foxtrot practice. It's always hard, but always good because we can tell where exactly we are with certain figures and how much control we have. Plus, the improvement after practicing this way is usually pretty obvious. This time we didn't have the metronome to give us tick-tock timing, so Jeff just set the speed. It's actually better practice for me without the metronome, because it forces me to follow his timing. It turns out that there were a couple of spots where hefelt I was rushing, so once I was conscious of it I really tried to hold back and wait for it, and he said it felt better. Then there was the section coming out of the zig-zag (for which we have a mutual loathing) where I always felt like I gapped terribly and mess up our frame, but after playing around with it I figured out that I just need to think about keeping my right hip forward and connected as I go into the telemark, and it works out great. I love it when I can actually find a solution to this conundrums. All in all, a good practice session. We did get a few looks from other students practicing and taking lessons, but maybe they'll catch on! It's one of our best practice techniques, for sure.

Quickstep and the Running Right Turn

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, Quickstep, Nightclub 2-step

Hovers: 1

Practice on Tuesday began with a waltz run through of sorts to get us moving, and then it was on to the dreaded quickstep. I thought we should work on the rumba cross and exit therefrom, but we ended up reviewing a lot of different parts of the routine, more for the sake of cementing it in the memory than working on a particular section. We did eventually get to the rumba crosses though, and the part that Jeff always complains about is the running right turn that follows them; he thinks I don't understand the timing or something. I understand it and try to dance it with him, but the issue for me is the heel turn there. For some reason I never feel like I should be doing a heel turn there, so I kind of have to force it because I know I'm supposed to, so Jeff was trying to figure out if he's not leading a heel turn the way he should. I even had a moment of self-doubt and consulted the grey book of wisdom to see if that figure actually did require a heel turn, but of course it did. By the end of practice though it seemed to be more in sync. Again, it does seem that our quickstep is not quite as bad as it used to be, so that is encouraging. Getting it to work on the social floor though is always the challenge, because it seems to be less conducive to mix and match than some of the other dances.

Fallaways and Contrachecks

Part: Follow

Dances: Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango

Hovers: 0

Monday we started back in with the practice plans. After "warming up" with a slow foxtrot, we were set to tackle two figures that I perceived as problems; the fallaway-reverse-slip-pivot (aka fallaway foot finish), and the contra-check, both figures in tango and waltz. Jeff was laboring under the delusion that there is nothing at all wrong with the fallaway reverse in our waltz (or tango for that matter) and that it's feeling pretty good. While I admit that it is vastly improved since we started, I still feel like we fight each other a bit on this figure and that we don't quite align properly when moving through it. Also, doing a fallaway reverse as a lady out of the wing position is no picnic...I have a much longer distance to travel to stay with him that he does, being on the outside of the turn and starting out in wrong side position. Jeff did agree that wing does not help matters, because, as he said before, "Nothing good comes out of wing!" We also reviewed the figure in tango, which wasn't bad, although apparently Jeff still barnacles a lot, or let's me slip to far behind (according to Kora who happened to be watching).

We also worked briefly on the contra check. We needed more rotation and less dipping, and of course, balance. No dumping the lady! So we tried it a few times with Jeff putting me into that extended position and that leaving me there to see if we were both on our own balance. It seemed that we were, so that's good. I just need to work on slowing down and timing my extension so that I don't use it up all at once, but instead "save some of the best for last," so that it will look I just keep stretching out and out until we are ready to come out of the figure. Naturally, Jeff can facilitate that by also going into the figure gradually. Now in tango, of course, this is not how it works. We have to hit it fast, and hit it right the first time; there is really no time or room for adjustment.

We ended practice with a nightclub 2-step. (What else?) Given our new practice situation, we're finding ourselves working more on small sections of our dancing and dancing less through the whole dances to music. This is probably very good from a practice stand point, and then again, we do get to dance around the whole floor with music at dance parties, so we're not missing much.