Tango Group Class into Waltz

Part: Follow
Dances: Tango, Waltz, Night-club 2-step
Hovers: 3?


Wednesday night we were practicing simultaneously with a tango silver level class, and since Jeff needed to review the routine, we interspersed our practice with bits of the tango routine from the class. We caught on pretty fast, but I kept messing up the four step change. It's a simple step but I didn't feel like it was obvious from the lead. Kora gave me the disapproving finger for that one. For practice though, we worked on waltz. Jeff's says we're ready with waltz, and I think it is our best dance. We worked primarily on getting in and out of wing position. It's awful. I can't feel where I'm supposed to be going out of there, and Jeff is trying is hardest to make it unmistakably obvious about whether we're going into a double-reverse or a fallaway-reverse-slip-pivot (also known in Jeffish as "fallaway-foot-finish"). He was doing a pretty good job of leading it, but it's just really hard for me to figure out what's going on when I'm over there on his left side. Our hovers are still vastly improved though. Jeff is so proud of them.

There was one funny exchange where something Jeff led felt really different, and I thought that maybe it was a double-reverse even though it didn't really feel like one at all, so I did one kind of at the last minute, and then exclaimed, "What was that?!!!" Pause. "It was like a double-reverse...but...not."
Jeff was incredulous: "But it WAS a double-reverse! Busted!" He thought it was hilarious that I first asked what it was, and then answered my own question, after having danced the right step, albeit a bit off time and late. His lead was clearly in the right. Simeon and his student nearby had to join in the laugh on that one.

We ended practice with nightclub 2-step...what else? Jeff usually humors me on that one; he's learned by now how much I dislike ending practice on a sour note, and it's usually after dancing one figure particularly badly that Jeff announces the end of practice. As a compromise, we usually end with something like nightclub 2-step to reset ourselves.

Harmonica Foxtrot

Part: Follow

Dances: Foxtrot

Hovers: 0

Tuesday we worked on foxtrot. Our foxtrot is feeling pretty good; we're more controlled than we used to be (due to slow practice, no doubt), but I think our CBM (counter-body-rotation) still needs work. We happened to be practicing during a foxtrot class, so they were playing this fun kind of cute foxtrot music that features a harmonica. Jeff wants to play the harmonica, and even took a break from practice at one point to look up where he could find harmonica lessons locally! Jeff did say that I wasn't following well that evening, which was probably true. I was really stiff from my workouts and hadn't stretched as much as I normally like, so I didn't feel as loose and pliable as usual, probably. 

Practice was a bit shorter, Jeff was tired and so was I, so we left it at foxtrot for the night. 

Quickstep: The Other Problem Child

Part: Follow
Dance: Quickstep
Hovers: 0


Since I last posted, we've had a couple of practices focused on quickstep, with the usual weekend parties in between. Quickstep, along with our tango, is a problem child. Jeff and I find that the smooth slower dances come more naturally to us. We have relatively good control at slow speeds and big shape that lends itself well to wide sweeping and slow figures, but we lack speed and the perfect alignment and balance that make a good tango and quickstep possible.

For quickstep though, unlike tango, it's not so much the general technique that is our problem; it's more the speed. It's tough to execute that much shape and that many steps with the correct footwork and body position in that short amount of time, and for Jeff, it requires some really quick thinking as he determines what needs to happen in a split second. For my part, I have to be able to respond immediately without making something up out of thin air...either feeling the lead late or just plain back-leading can be disastrous.

Mainly, we just ran through the tougher spots plenty of times to get really comfortable with the transitions and iron out the shaky parts. Sometimes, the problem with the speed is more a matter of confidence. It's those moments when you know you're going into a tough figure and you have that doubt about whether you'll make it or not that can make or break a figure, so we need to at least get that confidence that we can at least get the execution under control. I think with quickstep it's getting better though.

Tippy Tango

Part: Follow

Dance: Tango

Hovers: 0

So tonight it was tango. As much as I didn't want to, yes, we really need to work on it. Jeff didn't complain this time; I think he knew it was true too. Now in tango, I feel that our big downfall is our position and frame. The tango frame is different, and I don't think we've mastered how that fits together. Our standard frame for the rest of the dances tends to be passable, and it doesn't look terrible from what we can tell, but the tango just doesn't work too well. For me, my left elbow always seems too high, for Jeff, it just breaks in promenade. Also, I think he's still of the mindset that his elbows both need to be parallel, which is normally the case, but in tango, my elbow should complete the line as it wraps around his, meaning that his elbow should be slightly lower. Then there's our issue with our hips kind of getting away from us as we dance, instead of keeping them under the body and forward towards the partner. We both have a problem with this, I think. 

For practice, we basically worked on our trouble spot area over and over, slowly. Those figures are awful to dance slow because so much of how they are accomplished is through momentum. At one point we ended up in fallaway and couldn't get out, we were just so locked into position and grounded that we couldn't figure out how to get into the pivot without rising or doing something illegal. But slow practice is still good; it's especially helpful for seeing where the balance is off. And for us, it's off in a number of places, a lot of them my fault. Today I was trying to get further out left in Jeff's arm because his lowering of the arm gave me more space and allowed me to kind of wrap myself around and Jeff. Normally I'm pretty upright in tango, and comparatively speaking (with the other dances), I don't think that's a huge problem, but I do think I need more stretch to the left. The trick is to do it without disturbing the hip alignment. No barnacle!

We ended with a run through of our tango routine to Jeff's "top secret" tango. It's a piece of music that you won't find anywhere else, at least anywhere dance related, and he's kept it off the party playlist as kind of a reserve weapon. Our buddy Peter (also a teacher at Aria Ballroom) was the only one left, so Jeff wanted him to hear it. That ended our practice for the night. More tomorrow!