Pre-Bronze Dances - PASSED!

Today's the day! Test Day! Aghghghgg!

Practice Ice - The club gives us a free 45 minute practice ice for testing. The problem is that it's at 7:00am and I don't test until right around noon so there is a lot of waiting in between practice and the test. That's fine. I had some friends taking other tests throughout the day and I wanted to be there to support them. Practice started out rough. My body knows it's a test day so it does the whole "legs no workey" thing that it likes to do. Frustrating. But, after about 10 minutes things started to work again and I started to relax into my practice. I was able to run all three dances with the music and things seemed as they usually do. I didn't feel too worried about testing them. I felt prepared enough. 

After practice was over, my husband and I trekked over to Starbucks for some much needed coffee and settled in to watch everyone test. 

Off-Ice Warm-ups - As it got closer to test time, I did some off-ice warm-ups and tried to "Zone" but my Spotify wasn't working. It would only play for one minute and then cut out. I reverted to putting on my dance music and running through my tests. Big mistake! I started to overthink the timing on the end pattern of the Fiesta to the point that I thought I broke it. Nothing seemed right anymore. Panic! The steps were still there but the timing wasn't!

On-Ice Warm-ups - We got a 5 minute warm up and Christopher and I were able to run one of the dances with the music. I can't even remember which one it was but it didn't suck so I started to feel a bit better about things. 

Alright, here we go. Test time! For each dance, I'll put my comments followed by the judges comments in italics. Also, my husband took video. Watch if you dare. Sorry about the cringe factor, lol.

Cha Cha - This was the first dance and I was thankful for that. This felt okay. My legs got a little shakey coming around on the first end pattern but it seemed like our unison was good enough. I remembered to smile throughout the whole thing. Here's the video.

• Judge Debbie: Very shallow edges in spots. Slightly rushed on end pattern. Lacks expression. Score =0 (Pass)
  
• Judge Susan: Correct steps, some on flats. Unison with partner. Pattern a bit flat. On time. Lacked expression. Score = 0 (Pass)
  
• Judge Leslie: Little oops at #9 first pattern otherwise all steps ok. Unison secure. Timing ok. Some Cha Cha feel present. Score - +1 (Pass)

Swing - This was next and I was actually excited to skate it! This is my favorite dance of the three and the one that I was hoping to do well enough to pass with honors. According to the judges, however, this dance is actually kind of garbage. Only 2/3 judges passed me. That was a huge reality check for me. How could I have been so wrong about this? Christopher said it was good and I felt good about it but the judges marks showed something completely different. Sigh. Here's the video.

• Judge Debbie: Wide-stepping throughout. Very shallow edges. Rushing free leg swings. Lacks Waltz expression. Soften knees. Score = -2 (Retry)
• Judge Susan: Correct steps but chasses must have free foot lifted up, very low on yours. On time. Smooth expression. Score = 0 (Pass)
• Judge Leslie: Chasses a little walked. Edges could be deeper. Ok timing. Some expression. Score = 0 (Pass) 

Fiesta Tango - Ok, out of all the dances, this was the one I was most panicked about. Honestly, I was prepared for a Retry on this. However, I passed and I feel guilty about it. One of the judges really didn't like this dance and I kinda agree with her. I don't think I would have passed me either. Here's the video.

• Judge Debbie: Flat edges. Not doing proper mohawk. Progressives steppy. A little rushed on end section. Lacks Tango expression. Score = -4 (Retry)
• Judge Susan: Steps correct but some are very flat, try for more knee bend. On Time. Lacks sharp steps and crispness. Score = 0 (Pass)
• Judge Leslie: Steps 11 and 12 not clearly done and steps 1 and 3 could be better. Other steps ok. Timing ok. Some Fiesta feel. Score = 0 (Pass)

 

Parting Thoughts - I think I've been a little deluded about my dances. I really thought they were good. I expected the Fiesta to be pretty awful and thinking back on it, it really wasn't completely ready to test. I should have spent another couple of months polishing it up to work out those kinks. But man, I really wasn't expecting the Swing to be so bad! I'm trying to make myself feel better by thinking about the fact that the judges were really brutal on everyone today. There were at least a few skaters that I saw that were in tears over the surprisingly bad scores they got. But I can't put this on the judges being brutal. It's their job to be picky. I just have to go into this next set of dances with a renewed sense of my abilities. The feedback they gave me (as harsh as it was) is really helpful. It tells me exactly what I need to work on. For instance, expression. This counts for 1/3 of the total test score and I'm consistently not meeting expectations on this. Clearly they want more from me than just smiles. Expression is a full-body thing. I just need to figure out how to be better at expressing the feel of the dance. Another thing is that, as curvy as I feel my lobes are, they really aren't. I need to put more work into making my edges deeper. They should be so deep that they rip loudly enough for the judges to hear. So yeah, Dance is hard, ya'll! It's more than learning the steps and being on time with the music. It really has to look completely polished and full of expression. I have a lot of work to do on the Bronze Dances. Ugh.