Challenge Dance

I am ashamed.

I can't skate to the beat in ice dance.

Oh, I know the meter (waltz, tango, blues). I can hear the beat. I just can't skate to it. I'm always half a beat behind.

So, while I was at Lake Placid, I stumbled across a technique to help me out with my ice dance timing issues.

I skate a dance to the wrong song, in the wrong rhythm.

Yes, I'm a rebel. A wild child of ice dance. The hippy dippy skater.

Whoa, dude, like skate to the wrong music, like y'know, wow, man, like really, really wow.
(Yes, we did talk like this in the 60's)

I wanted to practice the Canasta Tango, but they were playing a waltz on freestyle. So I skated to it. You really have to concentrate when you're swapping stuff around. Then I did it to the Blues. Then other waltzes. I was getting better at getting on the beat, because I had to really, really think about what I was doing.

It's not hard to swap the steps for the preliminary dances to music it's not designed for. What steps are there? Swingrolls, progressives (crossovers), chasse's. Except for the step behinds in the Rhythm Blues, the dances are pretty interchangeable.  I asked the Amazing Coach about it for the upper level dances and she thought it might be possible with some small adjustments here and there.

Anyway, I demonstrated this with the Nasty as done to the music of the Dutch Waltz to some of the ice dancers who know my dread secret. I expected to get some critiques from them, but instead I got applause. Whether that was for my technique, or because I was finally on the beat I don't know. Considering my difficulty with the Nasty, it was a nice gesture.

Anyway, to all you ice dancers out there. How 'bout a round of Challenge Dance. Can you do the Dutch Waltz to a tango? Or the Rhythm Blues to a waltz beat?

PS: It absolutely drives Dance Coach crazy when I do stuff like this. He wants everything laid out, in order, with proper structure. 

We do dance the way dances are meant to be done!

Lilting Blues

The Canasta Tango Official Dress Rehearsal was today. Dance Coach had me get on the ice for 5 minute warmup then go into the 'test' to see how I handled it. I handled it just fine.

But I had 30 minutes of walking plus 20 minutes of yoga/pilates to get it to work. Warmup is always important.

The dress I picked plus the red lace bolero was deemed a success. Several people asked where I got the bolero--"I ordered it from England," I said, which caused jaws to drop. Nice people who had never spoken to me before on freestyle came up and complimented the outfit.

I give credit to the girdle. Don't tell anyone.

Then Dance Coach decided I needed to practice the Rhythm Blues. Now this dance has the Evil Step Behinds on the end pattern. But I can do those.

*

I can do those in my sleep,

or partnered by a sheep.

Or dancing with a ram,

while knitting socks with spam.

 *

Anyway, what I can't do is, I can't do Lilt.

Lilt is supposedly easy. You stroke, extend the free leg, hold it straight, go down in the knee, come up, and do a crossover (or progressive). I think I do it correctly. Down, extend leg and hold as I come up, and do crossover. OMG. The.Yapping.  Apparently, I'm not holding the leg straight.

So I hold it straight.

And it's still wrong.

Dance Coach demonstrates what he wants done, as opposed to what I'm doing.

Yep, still do it wrong. Again.

Looked at lilt in the RB in videos, and that's what I think I'm doing. But apparently, I've got some unconscious hitch, or flex or tic, or timing error. I guess this means I have to resort to Hell.On.Earth....getting Dance Coach to video  me. 

Here's a nice video from 2007.

Lilt at seconds 22-23 on first pattern--who can get that wrong? Oh, me.

Run Down to the Nasty; Starting the Swing

So two minor disasters today.

First, I missed the deadline for the test application by one day. Ugh. So I had to pay a late fee and drive over to the other rink to drop the application off.

Second, my blades are at the end of a sharpening. I can barely hold an edge. Fortunately, as I told Dance Coach "I'm getting them sharpened tomorrow."

As  usual,  Dance Coach goes immediately into his typical Mr. Suspicious third degree interrogation. It must be a Russian thing. Maybe it's in the genes. The Cheka, NKVD, KGB, FSB have a lot to answer for.

"Who sharpens your blades?"

"I have them sharpened by Mr. X"

"Who?"

I was coy. "He does Evan Lysacek's blades, and used to do Johnny Weir's, so I guess he's good enough for me."

Dance Coach gets a laugh out of that. Then he starts pumping me for Mr. X's location. So, score one for me.

With the dull blades (the right one is completely dead) I just can't get any depth on my edges in the Canasta Tango. It takes three times to get a clean pass.  I don't want to tell you the lectures I got. I finally said defensively, "You know what they say, bad dress rehearsal, good performance."

From the furrowed brow, frown, and piercing eyes on Dance Coach's part, apparently they don't say that in Russia.

We did start on the Mohawk pattern in the Swing Dance. Of course, the mohawk is on my weak side.  Still, I'm able to step through it without a. falling, b. embarassing myself. "Not awful, needs work." Dance Coach said. I threw up my hands in disgust at them. But although they're a tiny bit hoppy, they have nice crossed tracings and I maintain posture throughout the turn.  So, 'not awful, needs work' is probably true--along with the unstated 'needs more power'.

The problem is in the back swingrolls. I'm supposed to turn my head to the opposite way to the leg that's swinging. And swing my leg. And skate backwards.  And do it again on the other side.  After a couple I feel like this.

I'm pretty sure this is not an approved Swing Dance position.

Two week countdown to Canasta Tango test! Crossed fingers the sharpening is all I need!

A Semi-Perfect Day

Ever have one of those perfect days where your skating skills are 'on', the ice is perfect, the coach is in a good mood and happy with your skating? Then stuff goes wrong?

Let's call this kind of day "God's Little Joke." And I went to early morning confession before going to the rink, too. I just seems so unfair somehow. I was in a state of grace and a kid still managed to skate into me.  Dear God, doesn't being first in line for confession count for anything?

It turns out we have a non-US elite skater training for his nationals at the rink, so the ice has really been nice for the last couple of months as the rink ups its ice cut game. I don't know if this little suburban rink has plans to be a training rink, but it's nice being the beneficiary of good ice. When a freestyle skater and I stepped on the clean ice for public, we both went, "Oooohhhh."

Then the public showed up. First thing first, a 'man of size' took two steps on the ice and slid right through the center ice. Fortunately, when I told him that area was reserved for advanced skaters, he was nice enough to spend the rest of the session plowing into helpless little old ladies and kids around the perimeter.

I then warmed up and practiced my mohawks. After a half dozen duffers, I suddenly could consistently get them with the nice crossings (on one side), so there's hope for m yet in the swing dance. I was in heaven---sort of.

When Dance Coach shows up he runs me through a few warm up exercises, then we go directly into the Canasta Tango.

We did 6 run throughs.

Only two were any good. Here's the reason four of them weren't:

1. Blocked by a couple who decided to  abruptly stop in our path and kiss. Slam on the brakes.

What? Are we in your way? Sorry.

2. Avoiding traffic, I was headed straight to a cone. Dance Coach went right, I went left. We were so locked in hold that his superior weight and strength pulled me back and I bounced my head on his shoulder. "I should have kicked it out of the way," I said. "Yes, you should have." Dance Coach agreed. With my luck that day, it would have blinded the rink guard.

 3. A kid ran into Dance Coach, bounced off him, stayed on his feet, crossed in front of us, then immediately ran into me. And stayed on his feet.

This is the only explanation

4.  Five or six hockey boys decide to have a play fight in our path and they were too big a crowd to skate around or through. "Run 'em down," I joked under my breath. Dance Coach laughed and pulled up instead. The never even noticed. Oh, to be male, 11 and invincible.

I don't care if your mother loves you. GET OUT OF THE WAY!

 The other two run throughs went pretty well. The only comment from Dance Coach was, "You're not showing Tango Expression." With gritted teeth I gestured at the crowd, "Trying not to kill someone."I need those laser eyes on the crowds ahead of me every second. I don't dare not look up at the ceiling like Tango Expression dictates. What if I had skated into that cone?

This could have been me!

Still, God gave me some sweet mohawks today! Swoon.

Shocking the Neighborhood

I got off freestyle today, and unexpectedly ran into Dance Coach. Maybe it's the Russian tonality of his voice, but whenever he runs into me at the rink outside of lesson it sounds like I'm being grilled by the FSB.

"What are you doing here?" he asks with suspicious undertones, as if I'm smuggling state ice dance secrets out of the country.

"I took the day off to practice." I take a seat to get out of my boots and smile at the woman seated facing me across the narrow lobby. She's my age and looks timid and hesitant. I turn to Dance Coach. "I practiced the Nasty and the Blues. I think I have them down." I bend down to untie my boots.

Dance Coach mock arrogantly says, "We'll see about that tomorrow."

My head snaps up. I give an exaggerated gusty laugh. "Oh-ho-ho! So is this evil Russian ice dance coach talking? 'You talkin' to me?'"

We banter back and forth like this for a minute, settling some rink business about some boots I need to pick up and my music, then Dance Coach leave to change into his coach suit. I shove my boots into my bag, and glance across the short distance to the older woman facing me. I swear, she has a look of horror on her face as I walk out of the rink to put my boots in my car.

When I come back to pick up the boots Dance Coach brought in for me, I see him speaking to the shy woman.

Oh, God. She's his student! And from her shyness, she must be a new student! And she's witnessed the two of us bickering like crows, no wonder she had that look of horror on her face! She's wondering what's she's got herself into!

Final Rundown to the Canasta Tango

One of my many, many skating nemesis is back edges in waltz hold. There's a trick to getting a curve in the turn that I wasn't able to master until this week. In previous posts I explained how Dance Coach would use his right hand on my back to turn me like a side of beef, because I simply couldn't get my leg-body coordination to work.

Then this week, I was able to turn my upper shoulders, while holding my obliques and transverse abdominals strong. This puts some curve in the edge. After a  backwards set of edges in waltz hold while skating through the scary crowds at public, I said, "I can feel I've finally got the back edges down don't I? You're not turning me. I'm skating it myself."

Dance Coach towers over me. "That's very good. You are able to tell what your partner is doing."

I beam up at him in return, happy with the compliment. "I used to show horses. I'm used to feeling what a horse is doing, and they can't talk to me. Same thing in dance."

I can see a twinkle in Dance Coach's eye. "So you compare me to  a horse?"

I missed an opportunity to score major points with Dance Coach. I really, really should have said, "You are a stud."  You know, I'm kicking myself right now. Instead I muttered something about horses and balance.

We ran through Canasta Tango in the usual Canasta Tango Obstacle Course. Bad weather outside so people came to the rink for public. Let's just say I'm getting really good at skating around people. When we come out of the second pattern with the presentation glide, Dance Coach says, "You are not skating with Tango Expression. Head up, chest out. You don't need to smile, is Tango, but you need to keep your head up." He demonstrates so that he looks like he owns the ice. That all eyes must be on him.

"Right, right," I said, "I need to skate like a slut. Chest out, head up." Dance Coach remembers this comment from a few weeks ago and rolls his eyes.  We do the Tango again, and I get a pat on the back for my 'expression'. Then I tell him, "I've ordered a dress for the test."

Free Flo Ballroom Dress by Bodywrappers

Mr. Authoritarian rises to the surface. "I must approve the dress. Do you have a picture?"

"I'll send you one. I'll put some red lace at the neckline. Make it all tango hot."

Dance Coach makes one of his dry jokes, "Oh, yes. If there is a male judge, you must flirt with him."

Next time round the pattern, I give the imaginary judge in the hockey box a wink and an air kiss.

It was just a bonus that the box was occupied by 13 year old boys. They stayed well away from me for the rest of the lesson.

Aaaargh!!! That old lady air kissed me! Aauuuggghhh!

The Thrill of Speed

Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.

--Hunter S. Thompson

At the beginning of the lesson Dance Coach said, "Today, I shake you up."

 

I hate moments like that.

Fortunately, once he explains, I'm all smiley face. All he wants to do is alternating crossovers in Killian hold.  I do these solo  all the time. 

Then comes the shocker. He wants to do these at speed. And not what I think is 'speed', but what Dance Coach thinks is 'speed'.

My idea of speed

Dance Coach's idea of speed

And ladies and gentlemen, I nail it. 

It's taken a year plus, to get to this speed. It's not 'kid speed', or 'competitive speed', but Dance Coach told me it's much better than 'adult speed'. And it's speed with good edges and posture. Where this ends I don't know. Maybe here:

I'll have blades of dilithium crystal

The only amusing thing is, Dance Coach skates me to the very end of the open space, then since he's on the inside, he peels off to the center, leaving me to work out how I'm going to stop without slamming into the boards. Technically, I suppose I'm supposed to skate like a nice little partner, and stay with him.  But as he releases me from hold, just holding lightly onto one hand, I just stop how I want. There's probably a rule for this, but /shrug/ if I've been told it, I forgot it.

Did I ever tell you I have this funny looking stop at high speed? Drag one foot into a two foot turn, slide backwards and do a backwards stop. I can't stop on a dime, but I'm in absolute control of where I'm headed.

The first time Dance Coach ever saw me do this, his jaw dropped. Now he just ignores it. Today, he skates me into the corner more than once and I don't have time to do my beautiful T-stops. Crossovers, swingrolls, waltz holds, I turn and stop backwards. I hit the wall once, but I do  my best to make it look like a casual slide into the boards, so I can pause gracefully with my hands resting on the edge, to glance up at him and ask, "What's next?"

I'm in complete....control

Canasta Tango is looking good. We do a single pattern to warm up, then the dance as it would be for the test.  No yapping. Dance Coach is looking awfully smug, so I guess I'm living up to his expectations.

Then Dance Coach says, "I think we may have you do a little entrance into Tango."

I'm so excited, I can't wait. I can really ham up a Tango. "So, where's my music so I can practice?" The test is in less than a month and I paid him a month ago for the music cut. We had this conversation two weeks ago and there's only 4 practices left.

For once Dance Coach looks sheepish. "I forgot. You need to remind me."

I'm now supposed to text him and remind him. I guess I'll send him the picture and message below.

Please, don't forget to cut my music

 But, still, I'm all excited about skating entrances to my dances. Excellent! Something to have fun with.

And I have speed that's much, much better than old lady speed. Lookin' good!

Photos from my Ice Dance Lessons

Canasta Tango

Here Dance Coach demonstrates "Tango Expression" in reverse Killian hold. Note the tango hauteur and wonderful posture that bespeaks years of professional training in projection of not only skating skills, but attitude and style of the dance.  Normally in hold he looks ahead, the turn of the head here is because he is speaking to me.

Here I am demonstrating the chasse' from the Canasta Tango. This is one of my earlier attempts. You can see I'm keeping an eye on Dance Coach's expression. My posture is better now, and my upper body carriage is much stronger.  The lean to the right is completely gone, and I carry my head in 'the ice dance way'.

Alas, I'm still this fluffy.

Rhythm Blues

Dance Coach demonstrates the inside swing roll from the Rhythym Blues.

What can I say, OMG, that extension. 

I'm having a bit of a problem with the pattern down the side of the boards. Although I have the step behinds on the end patterns, the crossovers on the side feel a bit like this:

I hate that 'lilt' in Rhythm Blues!

Biting My Tongue

"You need to hold on to me harder." Dance Coach said.

It's been decades since a man said that to me, popped into my brain but I wisely decided it wasn't the time for even mildly naughty jokes, so I just said, "Okay." We'd been skating in Killian and I'm occasionally casual about the strengh of my pressure on his hand on my right hip. Dance Coach likes my left arm straight and firm across him, and my right hand strongly pushing his hand onto my hip. I  like to just lightly rest my hand on his, which is a no-no. He wants strong connections.

This week, he's all yappy about my power. Or my speed. Or my ability to keep up. At one point in the lesson he abruptly skates away from me while talking. I call out, "Whoa, slow down." He glances over his shoulder, "No, you speed up."

I narrow my eyes. "I'm elderly!" I whine as I try to catch him. All I get for that is laughter.

I Canna give you more power, Captain.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, at this point I have to assume that now that the whole 'more power' thing is raising its ugly head yet again, he's emphasizing my holds because when we're skating fast, I'm pretty much a side of beef being driven around the rink.  Okay, that's an exaggeration. But I intuit a strong hold makes it easier for Dance Coach to lead me in the dances and keeps me tucked in neatly in the right position, so he can stop me from falling in the event I catch a toepick.

Or my legs collapse in exhaustion.

We zip through the first half of the Canasta Tango on public then a kid runs into him.  Dance Coach  recites the Russian alphabet under his breath to keep from swearing as we skate back to the starting point for the CT.  When he explains this to me, he asks, "Don't you have words like that in English? So you don't swear?"  I didn't have to think about that. I was brought up in a strictly non-swearing family. I've got dozens of non-swearing  expressions. I pick out a couple. "Geeze Louise." I said, "And Fudge." As I step into Reverse Killian hold I hear him murmur, "Fudge. I get that." I take a deep breath before he starts counting. "I never use it, of course." There's a snort from Dance Coach; if I'm frustrated I've been know to tear off some fearsome full metal jacket swear words.  This always shocks him. According to a skater I know, who is a fluent Russian linguist, Russian men don't like to hear women swear.

Too late.

The second Canasta Tango, at first only one rep, goes smooth as silk. There's absolutely NO YAPPING! I even get praise for my presentation glide. The third time around, we do the dance in full test pattern. I briefly see myself in the glass. I'm not 'hinching', and during the presentation glide my butt's not sticking out.  I takes improvement where I find it. Even when I can't see myself, I know my posture is right because I can effortlessly push my shoulders back lightly into Dance Coach's supportive left arm.

I have to give Coach Cruella some credit for that posture improvement. While Dance Coach has told me how to get my posture and practiced with me; Cruella manhandles me into the right position.  Cruella just reaches in while I'm skating, shoves my hips around and makes blunt woman-to-woman comments about how to place my chest that no male coach would ever dare do. So, one guy/one woman coach, working out for me.

We do a few more elements from other dances. I am able to do three turns in waltz hold consistently, and my forward and back edges in waltz hold rate approval and only one comment--"sit down on the edge, more". Okely-dokely.  

So, I didn't learn anything new today. But I got approved to test in August.

Finally.

I'm going to nail that dance.

You don't speak Russian-you bark it

For my ice dance lesson Dance Coach came hurtling away from his young Russian speaking student, his face super-Frowny, and he started barking at me in Russian. Wow! Did he sound mad!

First thing to cross my mind? He's read my blog.

But, happily it turns out he wasn't mad, Russian just sounds that way.

Russian sounds like this

I learned "Push". Which sounds something like "Tahl-Chuck." and there's another word--russian speakers please forgive me--I think it's Tahl-chuck-kae-suh. That is apparently some variant of "Push".

I eventually want to know all the skating words in Russian, but lesson time is not it. For one thing,  his Royal Meaness is all over keeping me moving --- fast.

Don't have Power with a capital "P"? Want some? Get a coach 30 years younger than you are.

I'm stroking, and tahl-chucking my little heart out. He's just gliding along after me, being pleasant.  After 18 months of this, I hardly feel the strain and don't get out of breath.  Just don't ask me to do something new. And thank goodness he doesn't.

He just gets pickier.

Now he's working on my cross-roll on the Nasty.  He makes me do cross-rolls up and down the rink, during public. I have edges, I have rip(!), I have teeny-tiny little curves. There's probably a check-list of things I'm not doing right to boot that he hasn't got to yet. So far, if I don't know what's on the check-list I can feel comfortable and gain confidence with my skating. I appreciate that Dance Coach doesn't tell me every little thing I'm doing wrong. That would be devastating.

We run through the Nasty a few times; scaring children and teenagers. I feel bad about scaring anyone under 10. Scaring teenagers though, that's a bonus for learning ice dance on public.  Then we switch to the Rhythm Blues. This charming little dance has the evil step behinds on the end pattern. Not a problem. Coach Amazing fixed those. Evil Step Behinds are now my best element in the dance. What is killing me is the lilt/crossover, crossover and hold pattern.

We do the RB a couple of times, then third time is not a charm. I do the lilt and cross. Cross aaannndd hoollldddd. The hoollllldddd doesn't hold.  My right leg rolls to the left. The left leg that is supposed to be extended like a pretty little china figurine of a dancer, just keeps going like an Amtrak train headed for the boards. I boot out on the left leg and can't do anything with the right leg except head face first to the ice.

Not happening

Fortunately, Dance Coach decides to imitate a small civil engineering team; he hits the brakes and hauls me upwards. My first words? "Are you okay?" Honestly, he should just step back and let me fall occasionally. I fall when he's not there.

We do it again, and this time I at least get the steps right without another disaster.

The horn sounds and the resurfacer doors open as we're working on Foxtrot hold. I ask, "So what's the Russian word for 'stroke'?"

There's a long pause. Like a 15 second pause. Dance Coach stares at the ceiling while he thinks. Finally, with great hesitation Dance Coach says, "Strohk."

Right. Just like 'stroke', but angrier.

Silence of the Coach

 

There were long periods today when Dance Coach just stood there staring at my skating.  Silence absorbed him, descending around us like fog on a snowy day. 

That was really annoying. I missed the yapping.

He likes to have me start a lesson with fast crossovers around the circle. It's not a bad routine: speed, edges, posture, kneebend. The third time around the circle in silence I skidded to a stop, "What? What?" 

He pulled his lower lip and sighed. "Not bad." Then, "But, get your free leg higher, and hold the stroke longer."  A few crossovers later there was another sad sigh. "Not bad."

This is so typical of coaches. Silence is the sign I'm not  doing anything wrong--for my level.  I don't think it's a sign I'm doing everything right.  I'm just now getting the 'hold leg up higher' comment. Obviously that was always a problem, but I wasn't at the level where I could do it without falling forward on my face. Now I am. So, I'm getting 'tweaks', not 'remakes'.

We progress on to other elements in the Canasta Tango. No comments about 'hinching' (Dance Coach's made up word to cover 'hinging' and 'hunching'), no sharp cracks about "Control, control!", no throwing up of the hands in horror.

Then I caught a toepick and took a shaky stroke that had a lot of unrestrained wobble but I stayed upright. He was across the rink and swore in Russian. I whirled toward him, shaking my finger at him, "That better not be anything bad!"

For Dance Coach this is amusing. I must remind him of his grandmother telling him off back in Russia. He laughs, "Nothing bad, really."

I wish I could say the whole lesson was a burst of unrestrained joy at the improvement in my skating skills, but after minute 30 I hit the wall. I actually nearly took Dance Coach down while we were doing the two footed swivel step in hold from the  Cha-cha.  I started the wrong direction and my left blade hit his right one. Then there's the usual trouble with my left forward inside swingroll in hold. I can do a fast curve, or a tight curve. I can't do a  fast, tight curve. That thing scares me blind.

Relearned the Rhythm Blues, which I haven't done in a long time. The step behinds were as sweet as ever. The side pattern with the lilt and the hold is going to be my bugbear.

Then Dance Coach played music for me to select a song for the Canasta Tango. I listened to the second one. "That one, Hernando's Hideaway!"

Watch it all the way through. A great Broadway showtune.

No Test in April :-(

Bummer.

The mid-winter publics I normally take lessons on have been just too crowded to practice dances consistently. It was so bad we actually quit lesson early during one public. It was just impossible to even stroke around. So I've fallen out of  practice of the complete patterns. There is a slight chance  that next week, he'll decide I'm ready, so cross fingers. My problem is that once I'm into the second pattern,  my mind goes blank. I'll practice The Nasty during evening public because after this lesson, I actually feel I have it coming together in my brain.

So, I know you're all questioning, "How did your edges look after the edge class?" Well, the edges are okay. But it's the posture that I'm now working on. The two have to go together.

The upper body is 'better', but not enough. I look at myself in the glass and the upper body is nice face on, until I turn sideways. Sideways, I still have a little bend forward at the hips. Not as much as last week, when it burned my eyes on video, but apparently, I FAIL THE PERFECTION TEST! Anyway, there was Russian finger poking of my spinal column. "Arch here. Line up all the bones. Skate pretty."

Yeah, that's gonna happen.

In the ever shifting standards of kneebend, what was acceptable last month is no longer acceptable. "I want you deeper in the knee." Dance Coach says. I felt I was practically in sitting position, and it annoyed me that apparently there is no mercy for the elderly on ice. "I am deep in the knee," I whine. "Where do you want me, here?" I sarcastically get my butt down to knee level. "Yes," Dance Coach says equally sarcastically. I show him the back of my hand and wiggle my fingers in an annoying way. He laughs.

Dance Coach and I have learned together, that it takes me three repetitions to fix something in my brain. And one of those repetitions has to be solo. Not at speed. Not pretty. Just alone. I guess because I'm an adult he expects me to hear the correction once, then do it perfectly from then on.

I wish.

This is where the FAIL comes in for the Nasty. I take three reps to get the 'lead the turn' part of the last slide chasse'. Three reps to get the two pattern down in my head. Three reps to get comfortable with the beginning. After that, the lesson is over and Dance Coach has the Frowny Face. He's not happy at the end of the lesson, but I'm beginning to feel that I have the dance together. Another go-round and he might have had the Not Quite So Frowny Face As The Frowny Face Earlier.

On the other hand, there's improvement going on behind the scenes that he doesn't know about. I'm over the skating backward when I'm alone phobia. I'm doing alternating back crossovers, and back chasse's. Not big, but they're happening. Some day, in the far distant future, I may be doing Back 3's!

Mar 3 Lesson: Coach's Eye ^2

I haven't skated in two weeks, and when I stepped on the ice straight into lesson, I was all over the place. Stiff legs (even though I did warm up and stretching), unsteady, and a load of lacing issues.  But on the supergood side, the rink is now offering freestyle on Saturday mornings so I can get some time in ice dance with the music. Maybe I will be ready for my April test after all!

So let's get the Disappointment out of the way. I may love swingrolls, but I look awful doing the inside ones. Dance Coach told me to get down in the knee more. He started waving his hands and talking about kneebend and flow and blah blah blah dance stuff. I just can't translate this into action. Deeper kneebend where? When?  I said, "Here just video me." and pulled out my iPhone with Coach's Eye on it. This is an app that allows coaches to mark up video and send it to their students. So Dance Coach videos me doing inside swingrolls. When he's finished I go to the View section and see the static thumbnail of my skating. "Oooh, I look good with a ponytail," I say.  That's my last moment of happiness.

Once I view just seconds of the video, I can see the problem. I need to 'sit on the edge'. I'm leaning too far forward, and man am I slow....but my edges are nice. We don't really spend much more time on the inside swingrolls, but my eyes are burning from the memory. The good thing about my skating, is that I don't have to look at my skating.

Kneebend! Kneebend!

Due to the mid-winter public sessions I've been taking lessons on, it's been impossible to do any dances. I've forgotten stuff over the last couple of months and had to go through the dances a few times to recapture the muscle memory. I've read, and know it to be true, that to get muscle memory as you get older it takes a lot more repetition to build it. Stupid  old age.

So we do the Rhythm Blues and the Canasta Tango several times with music and without. I finally get the dances together both in my head and my body. Dance Coach must have been driven to despair,  but when he gets all bossy I just roll with it. This was one of those days where I was satisfied to be on the ice and not falling down. I'm not slacking. I'm skating as good as I can. It just takes me longer to get it.  I'll practice tomorrow and see if I can get those swingrolls where he wants them and get the side pattern on the Rhythm Blues. But he did say the Evil Step Behinds were nice.

My one brief moment of happiness was when I caught a look at us in waltz hold in the glass. I was finally skating in the upright position.  Not a lot of grace. Not a lot of flow. But there was no sniping about my posture, no quibbling about my arm and hand positions in hold.  I did take a shot because when I'm back stroking in waltz hold I should be stroking with my foot pointing directly at Dance Coach--pretty much aiming between the legs--but tell me once, and it's fixed.

So I rate this as a Recovery Lesson. I've been off the ice a couple of weeks and this is the lesson where I recover my skills.

I just wish recovery involved a chocolate prescription from my doctor..

It's the middle of Lent. I'm jonesin' for some chocolate.

The student after me is the best boy skater at the rink. Dance Coach looks so relaxed. I guess in the end the best and the oldest, it balances out.

Saturday Lesson: Boot Issues

"Yeow!" Dance Coach swears some long Russian thing as he pulls me up from a near fall.  It's like being hauled up by a winch into a helicopter. "What is wrong with you?"

"Did you hurt your back?" I ask, "You should let me fall, I've got the pads on."

Dance Coach just rolls his eyes. "I do not let you fall." I guess he's a member of the Ice Dance Coach Order of the Sacred Boot. In darkness, under an arch in a spooky square they all get together once a year and take an oath, "The Old Lady Does Not Hit The Ice." And I nearly fell 4 times.

Ordo Sanctus Tabernus
"Vetus domina non ledo glacies"

Unfortunately,  there is a still problem. And it's me.

I'm skating in my new dance boots, and they've started to break in after only 10 hours. That's unheard of for me. Unfortunately, the right boot is enlarging like a yeast raised loaf, I can hardly keep up with it. I've put the silipos pad around my heel and put an extra layer of insole underneath. My right foot is still flopping around like a fish inside. Well, Jessim did warn me in her comments. If it doesn't snow tomorrow I'll take them to freestyle and try it with yet another additional insole in there.

The left boot is a perfect fit. I hate inconsistency. Right now it's like I've got feet from two different people. Unfortunately, my skate tech is away to competitions. It will be weeks before I can get the right boot remolded. Push comes to shove I may have the local sharpener switch the blades to my freestyle boots and default to them.

And despite all this kerfuffle, Dance Coach said out of the blue, "You are much, much better in these boots."

Stuff like this just makes me want to scream!

Nope, not me. But you get the idea.

So the ice was pretty empty except a party of hockey boys in the fateful 11-14 age group. Dance Coach caught them and told them not to come in the center. Apparently he either impresses or scares them, they would skate right up to the blue lines and do a dead stop then turn around. Maybe it was sarcasm but they stayed out of our way.

Since there was open space we did the Canasta Tango and the Rhythm Blues. The CT is okay. The RB is needing work. None of this is helped by the fact that I irrationally feel the right boot is about to fall off.  Yet, I can really get that forward foot way up in the air for the slide chasse' and the swing roll. Too bad I occasionally fall backward.

Moves Coach was on the ice with Hockey Harold as her student, and Dance Coach did his usual act of driving us right into her. I so..o..o don't get this. They're friends, but put them on the ice together and Dance Coach turns 11. They squabble back and forth for a few seconds and it's fun to watch. Hockey Harold and I catch our breaths, then it's off again.

We start progressives. I've got a long way to go. It requires some technique I just don't have yet. We work on my back crossovers, which like so many adult learner's are not my strong point. They're a bazillion times better than they were last year, but not pretty. Some tidying up work on the Waltz 3 in hold; getting ready for the Cha-Cha. Then lesson is over and I limp to the benches to tear my boots off.

Ice Dance is Good for Your Skating: Part 1

The more ice dances I learn, the more respect I give to the coaches and pros who developed not only the dances but the structure of the testing program. Since I'm a system engineer,  I started doing a matrix in my head of the skill building that comes out of ice dance. Then I decided to do an irregular series of posts on what I see are the skills coming out of learning the compulsory dances.

Dutch Waltz-Swing Rolls & Progressives (or Crossovers), Stroking
This is the dance where I felt the emphasis on edges really comes to the fore for a beginner skater. To do the swing rolls you must have confidence in your edges, and the fact that it's a swing roll rather than an edge, emphasizes the independence of the body from the motion of the free foot. At the end, there is a change in the rhythm of the progressive that gives the dance enough variety to keep the new skater alert and keep the dance from being robotic.
Skills: Edges, Independence of Body, Rhythm

Canasta Tango--Swing Rolls, Progressives (or Crossover), Cross Roll, Chasse', Slide Chasse'
There's no real stroking in this dance, but I've come to respect it for what it does for your stroking. Not only do you have some interesting footwork, but to make this dance 'go', I feel you need strong impulse on every single push. Since you're pushing into a different element every time, you have to lead the curves and anticipate how you need to hold your upper body for each new element. The slide chasse' prepared me for those future dance moves where I needed to hold my foot ahead of me and develop the skills not to rock back when I do hold the foot forward. The cross roll to swing roll on the end pattern has some quick changes in upper body required, and anticipation of the next edge.
Skills: Power, edges, anticipation of curve, getting used to the forward foot

Rhythm Blues--In the Canasta Tango the second curve of the dance was a mirror of the first curve. In the Rhythm Blues you have something different with every step with no mirroring. This dance really makes you work on your kneebend and your rhythm (coating of beats). Also, the swing roll on the inside edge is introduced. On the side pattern you have two progressive/crossovers. The first you rise up on the skating leg before you cross, the second you hold the under leg, well, under for two beats. No just sliding through a couple of progressives here. You have a pause before one, and a pause after the other. You now have to break up the rhythm of your stroking, hold and then move on at the right beat. The second of this series, the progressive with the 'hold under' is immediately followed by a step into a FI Swing roll. Although it's never explicitly stated, I think this beautifully prepares you for the wide step in the Cha-Cha.
As for the Evil Step Behinds? Remember the slide chasse' in the Canasta? That slide chasse' prepared you for the forward position leg in the step behinds. Elegant planning. And the step behind itself? Ah, that preps you for the little step up/step back down in the Cha Cha. It also got me over my fear of putting one foot behind the other.
Skills: Inside edges, varying steps, counting the beats, preparing for the Cha-Cha, knee bend.

I spend an hour today on a freestyle session. Every single coach was working with their student on spins or jumps. Not one student was working on any skating skills. Sad. I guess Ice Dance will remain the last bastion of good skating. Certainly the beautiful planning in the compulsory dances could be used by anyone to improve their skating skills. The more I learn; The more I admire.

Ex-cuuuuse Me!

Russian word for the day:
iz-ven-eetch-cha -- sorry: as in "Sorry, I forgot the dance step", "Sorry I fell"*, "Sorry I put my foot wrong."

It was a federal holiday, so Dance Coach and I squeezed in a freestyle session to work on the Canasta Tango to music. The CT and I are not friends yet. We're more like mortal enemies forced to fight together to save the earth in a third rate paranormal fantasy novel.  The steps in the CT are a lot quicker in parts (the progressives), but not to be rushed in the other parts (the swing roll and slide chasse). So, yes, I'm too slow in the fast parts, and too fast in the slow parts.

After the second time where I failed to make it around the second pattern. Dance Coach blew past the Disappointed Voice into Full Lecture Mode. "Why you do that? You know the pattern. You just skated the pattern, why can't you skate it twice?"

"Iz-ven-eetch-cha." I say, "I was thinking so hard about the end pattern, I started it too soon."

Speaking Russian to Dance Coach seems to take the edge off the lecture.  "Okey, we do again."

I feel so manipulative.

My problem with the CT is that it requires strong pushes every single step and the progressives have tighter curves than I'm accustomed to, plus I think Dance Coach is secretly pushing up my power. This means that I have to be precise with my upper body and knee action.  For example, in the swing rolls, I really have to time the shoulder action and the knee action together. In the cross roll I have to get deeper in the knee. In anything in this dance, if I look down even for a second, there's no time for a correction. I haven't had the nerve to practice all this alone at my (elderly lady) top power , but I guess I'll just have to force myself to do it from now on, or I'll never get that end pattern without skid. You could hear the skidding on the end pattern in Moscow today.

Third time's a charm. The only skid was in the cross roll. Now that it's going right, Dance Coach's mood lifts. He starts teaching me parts of the swing dance, and then we go to back cross rolls. I make a face. He's in a good mood. "Tizloy!"

At least all my work on posture has paid off. I no longer hear any comments about "Hold yourself like an ice dancer." No comment, that's figure skating coach praise.

*(And yes, I nearly fell, in foxtrot hold doing something I've done a hundred times. I think it's the upped speed. Gotta practice, practice, practice to get better, better, better.)

Jan 7 Lesson: Canasta Tango Obstacle Course

It was Canasta Tango and Rhythm Blues today, on a midwinter public session. Coach will decide if I test in February, so I'm desperately laying down all the pieces preparatory to doing the dances. He's trailing after me, hurling imprecations about my swing rolls. I got no excuse for those; Apparently, I suffered a brain fart and switched my arms--Unbelievable!

I'm on an inside roll, when I pass near a kid. I don't touch him. I never get closer than two feet away. But apparently, I glared at him with my laser eyes.  If you had a Russian dance coach yelling at you, you'd use laser eyes too. The kid looks at me like a bunny and falls.

My laser eyes

Coach and I kind of glance back at him as we pass. He's up again. Man I wish I had knees like that. At my age, getting up from a fall involves some grunting and a small civil engineering team.

Sad too say, I've turned into one of those scary people on public ice that can pass within inches of other people on public and don't think anything about it.  Since I'm in dance patterns I'm down the sides a lot and not in the center and I pass close to a lot of people. And I look fast to them. I feel good about my skating when I'm on publics.

Unfortunately, on freestyle sessions, it's different. A week ago Dance Coach put me in the middle during a freestyle. "Should I be here in the middle? That girl's in program," I said. "She can skate around you," Dance Coach said. "I can skate around you," the girl said.  "She can skate around you," her coach said.

Great, I'm so slow I get a pity pass from Freestyle etiquette.

Freestyle hand of pity bursting the bubble of my skating ego

The Canasta Tango

Ice Dancing was a social phenomenon in the US from the 20's to 40's. Men and women skated together, to live bands, and there was a form of synchro-like ice dance for charity ice carnivals. But back then, people who learned ice dance started with the Fourteenstep(!) which is now a Pre-Silver dance. You were expected to know how to skate, and have done extensive work on compulsory figures before learning dance.

Ice Carnival 1940's. All Amateur Skaters

It wasn't until 1948 until that warhorse of the beginning ice dancer, the Dutch Waltz was introduced. Four years later in  1952 in the November issue of Skating, the Canasta Tango (even then called the "Nasty Tango") was presented to the skating public. It was invented by James Francis of the Toronto University Figure Skating Club as a dance to develop new ice dancers.

The Canasta Tango has progressives, swing rolls, slide chase's and a cross roll. It's all forward skating, but the steps are quicker than the Dutch Waltz. I'm told that the Canasta Tango requires strong pushes on every. single. step. No slacking off here. It requires good edge control and more power than the Dutch Waltz. Fortunately for me, it's skated in Reverse Killian with the woman on the left. That's my good stroking side.

I've done the dance to music maybe a half dozen times. I didn't have a feel for the steps and the rhythm of the steps until about the 5th time when it finally clicked. I also found that watching videos of other skaters doing the dance helped a lot.

USFSA has an ice dance app on the iTunes App store. It has videos and patterns of the Preliminary and the Pre-Bronze dances. While I wish the demonstrator would not have worn an asymmetrical dress (it occasionally makes steps hard to see on a small iPhone screen), I was able to watch the Canasta Tango in detail over and over as it was performed by a solo skater. I realized I simply didn't grasp a couple of points, and seeing the dance over and over was helpful.  In particular,  I was having trouble visualizing the dance as a whole, and anticipating the edges and stroking necessary to meet the pattern requirements. Being able to use the USFSA app allowed me to review the pattern lay down and see a skater doing the steps.

Dec 30: Whining on the ice

"Boh-zhe-moy!" I exclaim after nearly falling backwards while doing back cross rolls. Coach grabs my hands and stops the fall. Disaster is averted. "My boot is too tight. I can't get ankle bend."

"Don't be whiney," Dance Coach laughs. "We do it again."

I'm having a terrible time today because I pulled a muscle weight lifting, now every time I twist to the right a pain shoots up through my spine.  I spend a lot of the lesson whining 'Can't do that,' to various requests. Still progress is made on the Canasta Tango and the Rhythm Blues. For all the evil step behind is a curse upon skaterkind, once you learn the evil steps, the rest of the dance is pretty fun. The Canasta Tango though, that's requiring more power and edges than I'm used to.

"So, what is Russian for 'whiney or whiner'?" I ask. I have fans, they must have a russian word in every lesson post.

"There is no russian word for whiner. Russians do not whine."

Man, he's just full of jokes today. I'm tempted to ask if Russians discovered America, but that's from the Cold War, and he's too young to get the joke.

In two weeks he'll decide if I test in  February. Two short weeks. Two dances. Rhythm Blues is looking good, but in the Canasta Tango (sigh) there are moments my brain refuses to function right after the second swing roll. At those moments, I look like this....

The canasta tango makes me want to cry....

Surprise Lesson

Russian used in today's Lesson
Stoi-kee -- tough. As  in "Be tough on me Coach."

I went to a public session to practice and passed Dance Coach on the way in. He had a lesson scheduled, but they didn't show up, so I took the session.

"Be tough, " I told him. "I want to test in February. I don't have a Russian word for this lesson, so tell me how to say 'tough' in Russian."

Dance Coach thought a long time on this one. There are a lot of words in russian that mean 'tough'. Tough meat, tough (hardwearing) material, tough problem. I looked up the one he gave me. Stoi-kee seems to mean 'mentally tough'. So be 'mentally tough' on me, Coach. Mmmm, well, may I'd better keep looking for a better word.

We're working on the Canasta Tango and the Rhythm Blues. While I test the Canasta next, I'm doing better at the Rhythm Blues. At the end of the last time we did the dance, Coach said, "You're meeting standard."

"Master's standard." I said, "For the over 50's."

"No, Adult Standard."

Wow. Same standard as a 20 year old. Just, Wow. Of course, that's 'meeting the standard' as long as Coach is calling the steps, but it encourages me that I can do the dance to the standard when test time comes.

Unfortunately, I test Canasta Tango first. There doesn't seem to be anything terribly hard in the dance step wise, until I start to skate it at the right speed. Man, there's all these curvy bits, and I'm not curving enough. Sometimes, I'm not curving at all. Dance Coach say, "You have to help me on that second swing roll, start turning the right direction."

"Just drive me like a truck." I joke, referring to our first lessons last year, when I had little control.

Coach gives a bitter laugh. "This is regime of tough coach. Skate better."

Just great. I asked for it.

Stoi-kee, Ford Stoi-kee