Sign of the Cross

I really should be better about updating this after every session rather than at the end of the week. There is just too much to remember. I work on a lot and by the end of the week it all gets jumbled. 

Lessonz - We began with the Eight Step Mohawks. I need to slow this down and really work on keeping my feet neat. It's distracting how I'm doing it. We worked a bit on Cross Strokes both forward and backward to try to get me used to holding and extending the free leg behind me longer before crossing over. The cross itself is nice and proper but I really need to extend and hold for much longer than I think I need to so that it looks prettier. We moved on to Power Pulls. The backward pulls need more of a rip and the forward pulls need more stamina as they tend to slow down rather than maintain. One exercise he gave me was to do each side down the length of the rink rather than switching feet at the midway point. The progress I've made on these is pretty minimal but at least they don't feel scary anymore. Finally, 3 turns. Ugh. He broke off the bottom part of the pole harness and had me do all four sets holding the pole so that there is more coordination between my upper and lower halves. This was much harder than just doing the turns on their own but once I put the pole away, the turns were easier to do. I'm sure that's the point in this particularly torturous exercise. I still don't have the LBO 3 turn. I swear, I'm buying a bottle of champagne when I finally get it. It will definitely be worthy of celebration.

Dancez - I actually feel pretty ready to test all three Preliminary Dances. There is a test session coming up on December 4th so that means that I would have to register on November 20th (a week from today). The last time I ran dances with Christopher I was able to do everything at a level where I could pass the test except for the cross behind steps on the Rhythm Blues. However, during my practice yesterday, I spent a lot of time working on just the end pattern on that dance in order to build muscle memory and maybe some confidence. By the end of the session, I was able to run the full Rhythm Blues pattern at speed including the cross behind steps! Woot! So, what I need right now is to run the full patterns with the music with Christopher partnering me. I would feel much better about registering for the test if I had some full run throughs of each of them. Hopefully, the dress I ordered from Brad Griffies will get here in time. If all goes according to schedule, I should be getting the dress about a week and a half ahead of the test so, although I wanted to stone it so I could sparkle on test day, I really don't think I'll have time to do it. I know sparkle isn't necessary for testing but that's where I get my power from, lol.