Today's Russian used in lesson:
Shtoe: What? As in, "You're explaining something to me while skating away from me, with your face turned away me. What did you say?"
zzdes ee-lee' tahm : Here or There? As in, "You usually start the dance at the test end of the rink, but we're standing at the other end of the rink. Where do you want to start? Here or there?"
Boh'-zhe moy: OMG! "OMG! Are you okay?"
Not only did I fall. I fell twice. In dance hold. I hang my head in shame.
We're now working on the Canasta Tango, and the Rhythm Blues, with music. Boh'-zhe moy!
Wow, are they a lot faster than the Dutch Waltz! Not scary fast, but don't stop and think fast. This is my problem as an adult skater, I tend to want to think while I'm skating. Am I on the right edge? Did I get the beat right? What's next?
After I fell the first time, Dance Coach lectured, "Don't think about your timing! Think about your skating! Dance is too fast to think! You must feeeeel the dance!" I feel the ice when I fell a second time not 2 minutes later "Boh'-zhe moy! Do you have your pads on? Yes? Good. Again." So, I stopped thinking about the dance, and started thinking about my skating. What delights are there in the Canasta Tango and the Rhythm Blues to not think about?
In the Tango, there's the wicked cross roll to swing roll transition on the end pattern, and (although they're easy to do, they're hard to make pretty) slide chasses'. For the slide chasses', I just sort of stuck my foot up in front, but I'm then lectured about how the feet need to be side by side and there has to be some kind of dance thingy there that I've completely forgotten what Coach said. Tango Expression, I think. No, I don't know what that means. Snap the chasse? Shake my booty? Don't know. I suppose I have future lectures to find out about.
The Rhythm Blues has many little fiddly bits in addition to the Evil Step Behinds. There's lilt in step 5, and a step later there's a cross over and hold with the under push extended. Sort of a low end Jenkins spiral. Plus alternating inside swing rolls. It's a delightful little dance filled with many opportunities for failure.
The only thing that's not annoying in today's lesson is the music. I like the Tango and Dance Coach is in love with the Rhythm Blues music. Every time he starts the music and steps out of the hockey box, he pauses until the brass section does its little mwah mwah flourish, and he does a little shoulder dance. I think the Blues music sounds like stripper music, but I'm in the minority. At one point I looked out at the other skaters and saw that everyone, including the other coach, were all doing moves to the Blues.
There was an incidental lesson that I learned today; Skating on Freestyle is more exhausting than public ice. I thought it would be the other way around. As near as I can rationalize it, we spend a lot more time waiting for a space to clear on public, while in freestyle, we just keep going the whole time. Thus, I get little rests every few minutes. That doesn't happen on Freestyle.
We finish off with some work in foxtrot hold. These are usually just exercises in the basic steps: crossovers, chasses' and cross rolls. "Someday," Coach says, "You'll do the Rocker Foxtrot." We've been working on the easier pieces of the Rocker Foxtrot (I do not have a rocker). "Even with the mohawk sequence?" I ask. Dance Coach gets a look in his eyes like a man with PTSD. That mohawk sequence must be something! Boh' zhe moy!
Ha! Those cross behinds in the Rhythm Blues are scary at first. But won't it be cool when you get them? I liked both of those dances. You are right that some of the music used does sound like stripper music! You can always pick which music you want to skate to, though. Keep on!
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