Ice Dance Clinic Recap

Today was the Ice Dance Clinic hosted by my club and it was a good time. I learned a lot, got to meet Keiffer Hubbell, and got lifted!

Effort vs Ease - We started with a discussion on effort vs. ease. Every element we do in skating must have a balance of both of these things. Too much effort results in tension (which can lead to injury) and too much ease doesn't engage the core enough to perform the element properly. I know this but having it phrased this way is something I'll remember and keep in the back of my mind when I work on the trickier elements like Double 3s or Brackets. Twizzles too!

Interpretive Choreography - Expression and how you interpret the music is huge in ice dance so we worked on exercises to help us really engage with the music. They were animal themed and the first exercise was to watch the Hummingbird Dance from So You Think You Can Dance (one of my favorites!). There are so many ways to interpret being a flower or being a bird that go beyond the typical movements. We were given some time to work on choreographing ourselves to music to tell a story. In this case, we are a hummingbird who wakes up hungry, finds the nearest flower to get a drink of nectar, but then gets chased by bears for some reason (kids came up with the story, not me). The final part of the story is the joy of freedom from finally escaping. After about 10 minutes, they asked for volunteers to skate their piece. I raised my hand knowing that they never call on the adults to do these things but...they picked me! I think this was the most expressive I've ever skated AND later when we were having lunch, Keiffer told me he was really impressed with my solo. Yay!!!!

Yoga - We did an hour of Yoga before lunch. 

Lunch - As per usual when we have a special guest, they end up sitting at the adult table during lunch. I can't blame them, kids can be a lot sometimes and it's nice to eat with people your own age. Lucky us because we got to ask him all kinds of questions. He was intrigued by our Alpha Unicorn Tau jackets so I made him an honorary unicorn and gave him a, AUT sticker. Welcome to the herd, Keiffer!

Off Ice Spins and Lifts - We met off ice after lunch to talk about dance lifts. He taught us two lifts that he was going to put us in. The first one is an inverted lift and the second one is a cantilever lift. He showed each of us how to get into the lifts and we each had a turn getting into the lift with him on solid ground before we took it to the ice. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. 

On Ice Spins and Twizzles - We spent some time on ice working on twizzles with Brad and Spins with Keiffer and Brad. Let me tell you, partner spins are really weird and tricky. I was paired off with my friend Ruth and we struggled so hard hooking into the spin. My main problem is, as always, I'm impatient and if one person does something wrong, the whole spin goes to hell. I didn't stay in the entry edge long enough before the spin therefore, we weren't able to get it to work. Alas. 

On Ice Lifts! - I was slightly nervous about this but he's a champion ice dancer so, I trust him. He didn't drop me and I had a lot of fun. Here are pictures of me in both lifts. 

Super fun day and I'm very appreciative to my club for hosting this!