The Ice Dance Industrial Test Process

People used to ice dance for fun, on dates, at all ages.

What happened?

The heyday of ice dance was between the 20's and the 50's. Rock and roll had a hand in killing it. The rhythms just were too popular to ignore and appealed to the younger crowd. The old dance standards died out and ice dancing became stuffy, and too hard, and the bar was raised too high.

And at one time ice dance was ragingly popular! So popular that, ice dance testing was introduced in the US (the earliest testing record is from 1928 in Canada, but the US dance test structure was adopted in 1939). You had to learn the pattern dances, and test them.

By 1941:

"...as dancers became test conscious, they did not want to spend time learning non- compulsory dances. With the focus on new dance  test requirements, the social dances that did not make the test schedule would gradually disappear...Serious skaters are goal oriented. They work on elements that offer a visible  measure of progress, such as a passed test, entry in competition, or the ability to skate a Silver level dance" (Figure Skating History: The Evolution of Dance on Ice) 

So in the fifties, when Rock and Roll took over the music world, young people must have looked at the  time and testing requirements for ice dance and abandoned the sport in droves. They wanted to ice dance for dates--who wants to spend months (years!) learning to ice dance when you can go out on the floor and dance right away! And who wanted to test to go on a date! It was too much commitment! Skating required commitment! The social aspects of ice dance were already beginning to die.

And now, 70 years after testing was introduced what do we have? We have the Ice Dance Industrial Test Process, where you test so you can take more tests.

And hardly any social dance sessions to dance on.

Or any male partners to dance with.

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.

Dance Coach vs the Test Dress

A while ago, just as my lesson was beginning I said to Dance Coach, "Now that I'm not having a test until August, I'm thinking of having a test dress made."

"Finally," Dance Coach murmured, in what I am sure is his 'did I say that out loud?' voice.

I gave him the eyeball. Lots of women just test in slacks. "I have a picture on my phone. Would you like to see it?" He assents so I pull out my phone and show him The Perfect Test Dress.

"Yes," he grunts. "Is okey."

"And I thought, I could fix it so that it matches the theme of the dance." I scroll down so he can see the bolero for the Tango, and the gloves for the Blues, then the idea for the Cha-cha.

And in one of the rare times since I started skating with him, his eyes light up with enthusiasm. "Yes, I like very much."

And it strikes me, he must have the soul of an artiste. So many students just gliding through the dances to pass tests (he had fifteen to partner last test session) and just showing up in trousers or an old freestyle dress, it must become just a job.  The occasional student like me, who wants to play dress up for compulsories, maybe he actually enjoys tooling us around like it's a little performace. Or maybe he's pleased that we show respect for the dance. I guess I'll never know.

Over on www.skatingforums2.com someone asked the question, "At what level in compulsories do you have to wear a dress to match the dance." The answer was 'never'.

Bucking the trend! (Besides, it will give the judges something to look at other than my feet!)

Look at my dress, please, not my extension, toe point, posture, power,....

Learning a New Ice Dance

I found this in my drafts. I'd forgotten all about it. So to tide you over until I'm back, here's a breakdown on learning a new ice dance.

Dance Coach has a structured way to teach me new dances. I assumed this was the only way ice dance was taught until I twice skated with another coach who did it differently. I don't know how other coaches do it, but this is how I'm taught.

My Dance Coach's way.

1.  Learn new elements of the dance separate from the dance.
2.  Skate the basic dance without music just to get the steps in the right places.
3.  Skate to music to get the feel for the dance  beat. Even though I have a strong musical background including instrumental and vocal performance, the first run through with music is always a disaster with the Frowny Face and the Disappointed Voice both making their appearance. (Sometimes, the Deep Deep Sigh too.)
4.  At this point I run into problems. It now takes me about 3 lessons (doing a dance to music 2 to 3 times a lesson) to get a feel for the music and the steps together. I know the elements. I know the steps. I know the music. Unifying them is the problem for me.
5. After I'm sure on my feet, Dance coach adds the fiddly bits and mutters about 'power' a lot and 'lead the turn more' in the corners. This is the point where I get instructions like 'hold for two beats' or 'rise on the beat'. These are pretty easy to learn once I have the rest of the dance down. The whole power issue is never going to go away. It's a constant. At this point the only way I'll get more power is either a time machine gives me the knees I had when I was 14, or I lose 50 lbs. I'll give you a guess which is more likely.
6. Do the dance with all the fiddly bits to music a few times. (and maybe more power).
7. Test

In training this is called chaining behaviors, where the coach breaks down each skill into sub-skills which are first learned; Then the coach chains the sub-skills together into more complex skills.  I used this with my dogs.

--------------------------
Speaking of dog training, I used to train my dogs using a clicker to signal them they were doing the right thing. The other day I found a clicker while I was cleaning out the car (the last dog went over the Rainbow Bridge a long time ago). I was going to toss it away, when I thought of giving it to Dance Coach so he could signal me when I'm doing something right since the music is so loud I can't hear his voice when I'm more than two feet away. But that just seemed too weird. *

What I really need is a two way radio system.

Just kidding.
----------------------------------------
*Except there's a whole skating program built around it. And seems to help little kids and beginner adults.

Move.Smooth

"Don't jerk your foot like that." Dance Coach has the frowny face as he watches me do the Evil Step Behind from Rhythm Blues. If I'm not paying attention, when I  bring the front foot up, I do it too quickly (just to get the thing over with) and my upper body will rock slightly in response.

Ah, yes. Move. Smooth. It's more than just style points. There's actual physics involved.

Since I'm a beginner, up to this point, most of my skating problems have been soluble by thinking about my center of gravity.  It's not until I got to the Evil Step Behind that I run into more complicated concepts.

For those of you pursuing Freestyle, I'd better explain The Evil Step Behind. Think of it as a back cross roll, without the back, or the roll. You skate forward, bring the free foot in front, then gracefully (this is ice dance) move it so it crosses behind the skating foot, to the opposite side, and switch feet so the free foot is now the skating foot. You don't 'roll' so there's not any margin of error of skate placement. This is usually the make or break point for adult ice dancers. And it's in a beginner dance. Fortunately, Coach Amazing helped me past this point with her advice to Point.That.Toe. Now, I have to achieve consistency and 'pretty skating'.

What happens when you too quickly move your foot up ahead of you, either in the first step or subsequent steps? Well, there's a disturbance in the Force. And that disturbance is called jerk. I do not make these names up.

What happens when that front foot snaps up too quickly is that your foot accelerates up, then suddenly stops. The rate of change of acceleration abruptly goes from something to nothing. You get a physical jerk, hence the name.

When you stop that foot too quickly the rest of your body has to respond to the resulting release of force. A beginner skater like me wobbles in the upper body to keep from falling. This doesn't happen when you're standing on the ground, but when you're in skates, you're on the rocker. Your stability is lessened and the upper body is sensitive to sudden changes in acceleration. Even small changes in acceleration such as from a badly done step behind can cause a wobble in the upper body. (More experienced skaters don't have this problem, as they have better body control and years of practice. This is a beginner problem. )

The solution to this is to Move.Smooth. The motion of raising the foot from the ice and bringing it to a stop has to be done so that there's a slow change in acceleration. It should be like stopping a car when your elderly great grandmother is sitting beside you. Don't just 'step on the brake' to stop. Plan that stop so it feels like a soft pillow gently being put on a sofa. Same thing with the step behind. Raise it (increase the acceleration from zero to something), then bring it to a stop in a planned manner. Smoothly.

Interestingly, in the early rocket programs of the 50's and 60's jerk caused the destruction of many rockets. Here's some motivational video of rockets exploding.

Favorite Skaters: Usova and Zhulin

The other day coach complimented me on my swing rolls (both sets of edges!). These seemed really simple when I started, but like other skating elements, as you learn them you discover there are hidden depths. There's the checking with the opposite shoulder, the pointing. of. the. toe, and the knee bend in a flow across the ice. Everything thing has to be timed correctly and you have to maintain a nice edge, good carriage, and power. It's taken me time to put everything together and get to the level of a competent beginner.

In reply to the compliment I said, "I'm channeling Maia Usova."  Pronouncing it the Dick Button way, u-SO-va.
Coach gave me a puzzled look. "Who?"

"Maia Usova, Usova and Zhulin."

Coach Frowny Face said "US-o-va."

What! Dick Button was wrong!

Anyway, these are my favorite skaters to watch for compulsory dances.  Here's my favorite one. Her expression is charming and full of life. His expression is typical Russian male--one of a long line of Frowny Faces. (Hate her dress though, it looks like a negligee'. It looks like it was designed solely with the intent of showing off her tuchus. But if you're a guy, enjoy.)

Those Choctaws and swing rolls and mohawks. Oh, My!

Love their whole presentation, the speed, the carriage and ultimately the ease they show in this dance. Zhulin just does a wonderful job at presenting Usova.

I miss the compulsory dances already. Ice dance is starting to look like adagio dancing with all the ugly extreme holds. The compulsories were what made ice dance a sport. Alas, now it's just judged entertainment.