Feelin' Swingy

 Lesson today and we looked at Pre-Bronze dances some more. With the exception of the end pattern of the Fiesta Tango, I think this new set of dances is coming along. I even feel like the Swing Dance is much much better compared to Monday's lesson!

Swing - Just a couple of corrections. He had me dance one pattern by myself first before we partnered it. The first 3 turn needs to be "dancier" I guess, meaning my feet should pretty much be next to each other during the turn. Then, the swing roll needs to go around the  inside of the hockey circle before I begin with the chasses. On the chasses, I am not picking my foot up enough so we fixed that. Everything else looked okay enough so he put the music on so we could partner it. I did better coming back into waltz hold during the end patterns so yay progress! It still needs work but I'm starting to get used to the feeling of waltz hold!

Fiesta Tango - Ugh, this is not my favorite. We partnered the whole thing for the first time and it was kind of a mess. I have to hold his hand differently (thumb grip?) so that we can do the end pattern properly. The whole switching of the arms during the end pattern is difficult when I'm also trying not to trip myself or others with the footwork. I also feel like we are skating this at two different speeds (mine being the slower of the two, obviously). 

We didn't look at Cha Cha because, honestly, that one doesn't need that much more work to get it up to snuff. But! I think he thinks I'm doing well enough with progress on all of my dances such that he suggested starting to teach me the patterns for the next set. I told him I would like to wait another month before moving ahead and, when we do, Hickory Hoedown needs to be the first one he shows me because that looks like a fun time :)

"Stop pushing me away"

 Friday lesson - So much SWING! We spent pretty much the whole lesson working on the Swing Dance per my request. I feel like I am doing well enough on my own when I practice it solo but I need some work on the waltz hold and the placement of both end patterns. The good news with this is that he said my chasses and swing rolls are pretty decent. The bad news, I'm really terrible at coming back into waltz hold after the end patterns. At one point, he said "stop pushing me away" because I had a straight left arm that blocked him from coming back into waltz hold. I have anxiety about touching people and people touching me (which makes ice dance super interesting, lol) so I'm not surprised that my basic instinct is to block him from getting as close as he needs for a proper waltz hold. Overall, the dance is getting there but I really need more practice with partnering on this. 

Monday Lesson - A couple of hours before my lesson, I got my first Pfizer vaccine for COVID. Yay! Except...by the time I got to the rink, my arm was really sore and I was hella fatigued. All I wanted to do was lay down somewhere and sleep. Needless to say, I was not at my best during our lesson. We worked on the flip jump (again) and I think at this point he wants to just have me start over with this jump and break it down bit by bit from the beginning. When I do the "pick and draw" exercise, things look good. When I add an actual jump onto the pick and draw, I fall back into bad muscle memory habits. So, he has challenged me to do 500 pick and draws (picks and draw?). He wants me to do at least 10 per practice until I get to the point where I can add the jump rotation without it looking wrong. Next, we worked a bit on the 8 step mohawk. The "bad side" outside mohawk is really bad. I'm stepping wide and it looks frantic so we picked a hockey circle and just worked on the turn and holding that edge after. Again, this is another one of those things where I'll have to do over and over slowly to break bad habits. 

That Monday lesson was one of the worst I've had in a while. I really hate how my brain understands a concept but I cannot get my body to do the thing. I'll just have to work extra hard to fix some of these things. Sigh. 

3 Turn Hell

Before I write about yesterday's lesson, I need to acknowledge what happened in Boulder. While I was at the rink skating along unawares, a gunman opened fire inside of a grocery store and murdered 10 innocent people just up the highway from where I was skating. This marks the 7th mass shooting in 7 days in this country and I am speechless. More and more, I am ashamed of my country and what happens here. People are selfish and cruel and intolerant. My heart is with Boulder and everyone affected by this senseless tragedy. :( 

Practice - I felt a bit lost without the pressure of running programs but I decided Silver Moves always need work so I started with that. Welcome back to the grind! My 3 turns have gotten better but I'm still having an issue with controlling my upper body after the back 3s. 

Lesson - After a short debrief about the competition and a quick discussion regarding plans for next season's program, we got right to work on 3 Turns per my request. With the exception of the last 5 minutes where we worked on Power Pulls, this was the entire lesson. We started with FO-BI turns and those are "passable." I think he's focusing now on the little details with these, mostly placement of the free leg before and after the turn. Next, we moved on to the FI-BO turns and these need more work in terms of upper body control. Oddly, the LBO 3 turn is more in control than the RBO 3 turn. I just think it's funny how I struggled with even getting the LBO to turn at all and now it's better than the one I've been able to do for the past year and a half. Finally, Power Pulls. They don't have power and they don't pull, they swerve. So we worked on the up-down movement for a bit before our lesson was done. 

Program Musings - I think I've got everything settled now in terms of what I want. I just have to send Christopher the music for approval and cutting. I'm excited about this one! More details to come :) 

Triple? Double Golden Buffalo!

 OMG today was a long day! My goal was to get a Triple Golden Buffalo (the medals have buffalos on them and I wanted gold in all three of my serious events). For half the day, I actually had the Triple Golden Buffalo but...things happened (*cue suspenseful music*)

Preliminary Solo Pattern Dance - This was my first event today and for some reason I was shaky from the start. Before I left for the rink, I ran both pattern dances to the music in my hotel room and I was having some balance issues (and I was on solid ground!). When I got to the rink, the shakiness was still there. I'm not sure it was nerves as I didn't feel terribly nervous but I also didn't sleep very well last night so that could have been a factor. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. There were only two of us competing (me and my unicorn sister/club mate/Christopher's student) so either way I was going to make the podium. But I really wanted to do well for my first competitive dance event. I didn't bomb or anything but the shakiness was noticeable when I stepped on warm-up ice and it carried through to the actual event. First up was Rhythm Blues and I skated okay. I wasn't happy with my performance. I felt like I could have been deeper in my knees for the inside swing rolls. But I did well enough to win first for that dance. Then, we both had to wait 20-30 minutes to skate the Canasta Tango. I thought maybe this would be a good time to relax and let some of the shakiness die down. It didn't. When I skated my Tango, I was shaky again! This time, my unicorn sister took first. So, here's where it gets confusing. When we got our medals, the lady working the table only saw the results for the Rhythm Blues so I got Gold and unicorn sister got Silver. We were told this was the final result. When we came back later in the day, we were told that we actually tied because I won the first dance and she won the second (and we had exactly the same ordinals but for two different dances)...so we both got gold. THEN! We were brought back to the awards table because they made a mistake earlier and didn't do a tie breaker. So, unicorn sister got Gold after the tie break and I got Silver. It makes my triple golden buffalo a double but you know what? My unicorn sister skated really well today and she absolutely deserves Gold. There is nobody better I would rather it be! Here is the link to the Rhythm Blues and here is the Canasta Tango.

Okay so, that was drama, right? I'm not even done with today!

Adult Bronze Freeskate - Guys, I think this was the best I have ever skated this program! I got Gold! All first place ordinals too! Woot! I got into position and really let myself feel the music. I might have felt too much because I was a little weepy getting off the ice. This music ("Fix You") is just a little too relevant right now with my cat so sick. The emotions worked in my favor because this is the first time I have ever skated with genuine expression. From the judge's POV I was just selling the program but in my heart, I know I only have maybe a few more months with my cat (whom I've had for 17.5 years). So yeah, I was legit a mess. But...Gold! This was the event that mattered the most to me :) Here is the link to the video.

Survivor - So since all 7 of us registered for the event are all part of the unicorn tribe, we collectively decided that we didn't want to be judged. We wanted to celebrate ALL of us! So we asked the referee for permission to skate this event without judges...and they said YES! OMG, it was a blast! No judges meant we could just skate for fun and pure joy. Coach Jill put on her unicorn onesie and the rest of us wore our Unicorn Tribe shirts, black leggings, unicorn scarves, and unicorn horns. We put on some fun music and Jill lead us through a warmup and the unofficial survivor event. Jill timed us doing the three moves and, at the end, the winner got a special unicorn trophy, no medals. So much fun! 10/10 would do again! Even the event organizers took video and pictures! It was a true act of solidarity and joy for adult skating. This is what it's all about!

So, to tally things up: 

Adult Bronze Moves in the Field: GOLD

Adult Preliminary Solo Pattern Dance: GOLD SILVER!

Adult Bronze Freeskate - GOLD

Adult Survivor - Cheryl won the trophy but we were ALL winners!

Cody Spring Classic Day 1

 Well, day one is in the books and it was a success! 

Practice ice - I signed up for a 15 minute practice session and it really wasn't enough time. I got some stuff done but it was a really quick 15 minutes! I did a few laps to warm up and then ran through the two MIF elements I was going to compete with and those were fine. With my remaining few minutes I ran through both dances since I knew I wouldn't get more than a five minute warm up on them tomorrow morning. Before I knew it, they were calling us off the ice. Yikes. 

Bronze MIF Event - We never got starting orders so I wasn't sure which of the three of us would go first. Wouldn't you know, it was me. Damn. Since I had never done a MIF event before I was especially nervous going first because I wasn't sure how the judges wanted me to skate the moves. Like, do all three of us do the Circle 8 and then we all do the 3 turns? Or do we each individually do both moves? And what order do they want them in? Luckily, Coach Jill was there and she investigated for us. So yeah, the judges wanted us to each perform the Circle 8 followed by the 3 turns. It felt like a test session in a way because it was so quiet while I was performing but there was a crowd cheering for me so it felt more like a competition and, therefore, less scary. I performed them well and I ended up with GOLD! But...I had some really tough competition so, as well as I did, I knew that it could go either way between myself and one of my other competitors (an RMFSC team mate and we are both students of Christopher so we were trained well!). Here is the video for the Circle 8 and here is the one for the Power 3 Turns.

It was a nice kickoff to the competition for me but I still have three events I have to compete in tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous about dance and I'm always nervous about free skate. At least my final event tomorrow is "survivor" and I can just have fun with it. Ugh, I'm already tired thinking about tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Cody (WHYoming)!

 Man, I'm beat! I just got checked into my hotel in Cody after an 8 hour drive and a surprise hour and a half practice (more on that in a bit). 

Final Lesson - Yesterday, I had my last lesson with Christopher before leaving for Cody. He caught me working on the Fiesta Tango so we started with that. Mostly, he would like to see a sharper snap together with the feet right after the mohawk and then a "squat & lift" (AKA lilt) throughout the end pattern. He didn't say anything about the cross behind step so I think that might be okay. We moved on to my competition dances. I think he's okay with things although he mentioned a need for more sharpness on the Canasta Tango. Rhythm Blues looks okay too. I ran my freeskate before our lesson and that was nice as well. I think I'm ready. 

Cody! - Wow, Wyoming is a whole lot of...nothing. I mean, there was one part of my drive that was absolutely lovely (I took the scenic route through Bighorn National Forest and wow!) but the rest of the drive was a lot of meh. I arrived in Cody at 4:15pm and decided to swing by the rink before checking into the hotel since it's right around the corner. But when I got to the rink, I saw a car belonging to one of my unicorn sisters so I decided to step in for a bit and catch some of her practice. I walked in and almost all of my unicorn sisters were there! UNICORN PARTY! They convinced me to grab my skates out of my trunk and join them. After sitting in the car for 8 hours, I wasn't sure if my body was up for a full on practice (not to mention I wasn't wearing the right bra!) but I figured it would be good to at least get a feel for the ice before I compete tomorrow. I ended up staying nearly the whole two hours! I worked on everything! There was a sign-up list for program music so I chose one of the three programs I'll be skating. The Canasta Tango! Don't ask why I chose that one and not my freeskate. I was brain dead from the drive, I guess. I ran it and it was fine. One of my unicorn sisters is also a coach and she said to "be sassy like a cat." I'll just pretend I'm my cat. She's the sassiest! The rink in Cody feels small? When I was practicing my freeskate, I felt like I was running out of room. Weird. Also, it's HOT! I was legit sweating after practice! Gross. 

So, tomorrow I have a 4:30pm practice and then I compete Bronze MIF at 5:45pm. Woot! I'll update tomorrow. But now, REST!

Not Too Shabby

 Today was my second to last practice before I leave for Cody so I tried to pack everything I could into the one hour that I had. 

Bronze MIF - I ran through the two elements that I'll be competing with, the Circle 8 and the Forward Power 3 Turns. Both of these moves were my two highest scoring moves when I took the Bronze Moves test a year and a half ago so I'm not particularly worried. I do them as I have always done them and they are pretty decent. 

24 Program Challenge (17/24) - I mean, mathematically speaking, I'm not going to be able to finish the challenge. Despite running my program every time I was on the ice, I missed a whole week of running it during the week that I was preparing for my dance tests and I missed this past Saturday and Monday when all of Denver shut down due to a blizzard (we got 27 inches of snow!). But....I ran my program a lot! More than I ever have in the past! And today? I ran my best program to date! Ugh, it felt hella good! I'm ready to show those judges what's up, lol. 

Rhythm Blues - I ran my two dances in the order that I will be skating them at the competition so RB was first up. It went well. Dammit, I just cannot remember to smile though! I've got body expression for days thanks to Christopher's choreography but I've been hiding half of my face behind a mask for so long that I'm not sure I remember how to smile on demand. 

Canasta Tango - I tried more facial expression this time trying to be all sassy at the beginning but that's where it stopped. Once I got started with the pattern, no smiles. I really hope this changes at the competition. Christopher won't be there to remind me though so....who knows what I'll do.

Overall, this has been one of the best practices I've had in a long time. This is a competition of firsts and lasts, though. My first out of state competition, my first ice dance competition, my first time competing in MIF, my first competition without my husband, and my first competition without a coach. This will also be my last time skating my "Fix You" program, and (hopefully) my last time competing at the Preliminary level for Solo Dance since I hope to pass my next three dances before I compete again at the Colorado Springs Invitational. So, yeah, it's bittersweet. 

FO-BI FI-BO RB CT

 Practice and lesson today. Not much to report. I'm just trying to fit in as many practices as I can until I leave on Thursday for Cody. 

Movez - For the first time in, like...ever? I was able to do an entire pattern of FO-BI 3 turns without a foot down! Even my struggle side felt okay today! Yay! I think progress is happening. I wish I could say the same for the FI-BO 3 turns. I tried to do the whole pattern as I would on the test but there were many "foot down" moments especially on my weaker side. But, hey, it's getting there. I can't complain. I worked on my other moves but I've been focusing a lot on the 3 turns since they need the most work. 

24 Program Challenge (16/24) - This was actually a decent run through. I got a little forward on the camel and had to quick switch it to a scratch spin but the scratch had about 8 revs so I wasn't too upset. When I finished the routine and looked up, Christopher was there watching. He ninja'd me again, lol. He had me do the spiral into flip jump into camel again and it was better. My flips are still gross but I'm really trying to slow it down and not force rotation. It may not improve the technique right now (or maybe it is?) but it looks a little more relaxed. 

Dancez - Then we got right to work on the two dances I'll be competing with. We started with the Rhythm Blues. After watching me run it, he said I could put my starting choreography back toward the other lutz corner a bit to give myself some room for the intro steps. He's right. I did feel a bit crowded. He also told me that there is a slight bend in my free leg on the swing roll. I don't seem to have this problem when I do the swing rolls in the Canasta so I'm not sure why I'm doing it here. Something I'll have to remind myself to do when I'm skating this for the judges. Overall, it was nice. I just really have to sell it. Performance matters in ice dance! We moved on to the Canasta Tango. The music I chose for it so much fun! I feel sassy! He would just like to see really sharp movements but overall I think he thinks it's okay. 

He mentioned at the tail end of our lesson that he thinks I'm a much stronger skater than I was back in October. Yay! That was just the kind of thing I needed to hear. I work my ass off on the ice to try to accomplish things that come naturally to some of the younger skaters. I'm really happy he is noticing that! 

Dumbing it Down

 The Cody competition is next week and I don't think I've ever felt as unprepared for a competition as I do right now. This is mostly because we just finished the choreography for the Canasta during our last lesson so I only have a period of two weeks to perfect the routines. Ugh. 

When I'm running the dance programs at home, everything is perfect and I'm hitting my marks. I even have some sassy expressions. But man, that just does not completely translate to the ice. All expression is gone and I'm fighting to get my arms to coordinate with what my lower half is doing. I also discovered that the ending that Christopher gave me for the Canasta is pretty much impossible for me. When he taught it to me last week, we were doing it slowly so I could get the choreography. Then, the session was over so I couldn't practice it at speed that same day. Doing it on the floor was fine but when I tried it at speed during today's practice, I almost died! The Canasta is pretty speedy so coming out of the pattern at full speed and going right into an Ina Bauer (on my bad side no less!) into a pivot and final pose is terrifying. I made a mental note to ask him to dumb it down for me when we had our lesson. 

24 Program Challenge (15/24) - All was well but I need to vent for a bit. There are some really small skaters on the ice almost every time I practice. Three kids in particular that basically spend their time playing together instead of actually practicing. I'm pretty good about staying out of their way but when I'm running my program I don't have that luxury. One girl saw me get in my starting position and decided that was where she was going to put her spin. So, when I did my little turn around at the beginning of my routine, I almost ran in to her. I almost ran into her again during the wind up to my final scratch spin. This is not the only time this has happened with these kids. They have absolutely no consideration for anyone else on the ice. I know Christopher has already spoken to their parents about their behavior, but there hasn't been a change. It's dangerous, actually. Not to mention I haven't had a clean run-through of my program in like two weeks because I keep having to abort elements to not run into them. Again, this is another reason why I feel utterly unprepared for my competition next week. I just want one run through where I can focus on my program instead of where these kids are. Sigh. Venting over. 

Lesson - We spent the first half of the lesson working on the flip jump. I made some minimal progress in regards to not forcing the rotation but it's still happening. I really hope one day I'll just have that aha moment and the technique will be good. Alas. The second half of the lesson was spent on changing the ending to the Canasta. Instead of the Ina, I'll be going into a lovely attitude spiral into some sort of pretty glide into the final pose. So much better! If I had more time, I would have stuck with the original choreography and just learned how to get it up to speed but I have 9 days. NINE! Yikes!

Tango my Choreography

 I skated Monday, Tuesday, and today but I'll just do one big post since I was slacking this week on updating the blog. 

Monday Lesson - We continued work on the "Stay with Me" Rhythm Blues. Mostly, he made sure everything had an arm movement and he choreographed a nice little ending for me too. It's such a different feeling putting arm movements onto this dance when before my only arm movement was the Killian Hold. It's lovely choreography though and I'm excited to show it off in a few weeks. We had some time at the end of my lesson so he spooled up the music I chose for the Canasta Tango so he could see me skate the pattern with the music. When I was done, I skated back to him and asked him what he thought of the music. I could tell he was struggling to say something nice. I admitted the music wasn't the best. It had Latin flavor but it's definitely not a tango. I told him I only chose this music because the music I really wanted was too hard to cut (I really wanted to see if I could cut my own music this time). I finally gave in and told him I'll send him the good music and I'll pay him to cut it. Sigh. 

Tuesday Practice - I worked on ALL.THE.THINGS!

Wednesday Lesson - Today was all about the Canasta Tango! Oh, it's sassy! I'm really liking the choreography he gave me for the intro. I feel like some kind of rockstar bull fighter. He's still working on cutting the music (there is a ton of conflicting information regarding how many patterns need to be performed which, of course, affects how long the music is in duration. It's a lot to go through). But, he was able to just play the music over the speakers anyway since the cutting will happen at the end of the music rather than the beginning. I'll be skating to "Querer" by Cirque du Soleil. I really have to add the drama here! I've never been great at acting but I imagine ice dance, more than any other discipline of skating, calls for some. Scores will rely heavily on how I present the dance and express the character of the music. And this music has loads of character!

24 Program Challenge (14/24) - I ran my program all three days. They were all just okay. I think I've been letting it slide a bit as I focus on ice dance. For sure, I'm having more fun with the ice dance stuff than I am with the free skate. That's telling.