Mohawk Mambo and Three Turn Tango

Mohawk Mambo and Three Turn Tango--those sound like great dances, don't they?  But what they are is the feeling I had after my lesson with Coach Cruella.

I felt like dancin'.

How I feel about my mohawks

 The last little bit of the Mohawk has slipped into place, and I'm comfortable with them now. My problem was that when I was practicing, I was checking at the wrong point. Without Cruella there when I practiced, I wasn't catching my error. Once she fixed that she made me chant my way through a mohawk just to prove I had conscious knowledge (as opposed to mere physical sense) of what I was supposed to do through the mohawk. I think this verbal step through is a good check on a student's knowledge. I had to do it for the instructor when I was learning to jump out of planes. It really cements the steps in your head, and reassures the coach that you are conscious of all the steps, as opposed to just getting lucky during lesson.

Then we switched to FI3. I hate these. I've had so many close calls that my practices were next to the boards. And eventually, after having the short chunky ones, I got out of the habit of practicing them so they disappeared. Cruella  had me doing big, sweepy ones inside 15 minutes. Okay, she had to steady my back hand but it was a light touch and I barely need it. But there was no wobble, no forward bend....no panic.

After 5 or 6 good solid, sweepy ones, I covered my face with my hands, shaking my head in disbelief. "Do you know how many hundreds of dollars I've spent on these?" I said, dropping my hands.

Cruella gave a sympathetic smile, "When [a former student] told me of your 3 turn problems years ago, I told him to have you contact me."

I looked up, "And I did! But that love god of a husband of yours kept getting you pregnant!"

We both got a laugh out of that.

I don't feel like I have them solid yet. I have them where I'll start practicing them again, and work on them independent of a coach. Still, looking good! But what ties my mohawks and FI3 together? It's that inside edge.  I never had strong ones until I learned good edge control from Cruella. I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm much, much stronger than I was before.

 Anyway, here's where I feel I am on the Three turn as expressed as a tango. An old tango. Not an exciting one, but still it's a Tango!

I'm just starting out again on FI3 (c. 1915)