how are your lessons going? thread II

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Dance Mad Helen said:
After being on holiday and dancing tonnes my lesson was mainly focused on my pesky right shoulder not relaxing in ballroom so I look wonky. It's frustrating because it's that shoulder which is stopping me from getting higher marks in medal tests and recalling at comps and I do not know how to fix it
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Haven't seen video or a pic, but as I am the queen of "popping" my right shoulder while dancing, here are a few things that worked for me:
- set up a little further left, or ask the lead to set his left arm a little wider. I do odd things with that shoulder when I don't have enough space.
- don't think about stretching leftwards (because that might make you twist), but about sending the lower point of your right ribcage forward. I've found thinking about it this way keeps everything in line and creates a beautiful shape.
- pull the shoulder blade (on your back) down, rather than trying to push/pull the shoulder down.
- think about engaging your core and having your arms just sit on top of that solid foundation. Thinking "toned arms" just made me too stiff.
- check whether your hips are even. (A thin coloured belt or stickers on your hipbones + video will help you do this.) If one of them is hiked, this can show up in your shoulder line.

It may take some experimenting to find the image/thought (or combination) that works for you... and even once you find it, it may take a while to make it automatic. (It took me about 2 years to totally fix my issue.) Keep at it!
 
o_O Had a "there's no point quitting now when you didn't quit so many other times" type of day. I got frustrated with myself for not being able to do some things that we have worked on before. More than once. Of course, getting frustrated is not particularly helpful. I managed to not have a melt down and just continued to work on the issues. Pro just kept on making corrections and being encouraging. I hope that while it was a tough day, the work will pay off. Of course I had better be prepared to need more repetition of the same material next time....:eek:
 
Latin today and lets just say there were some memorable moments for jive.
Firstly I got muddled in foot work and ending up doing a weird jump which looked like irish dancing.
Then I was focusing on my feet so much my arms looked like a tea pot as pro put it.
Lastly pro told me to pretend to be stamping on his head to get the the intensity of jive lets just say I did it too well and he will most likely not say that again.

I have a comp in October so jive is slowly getting there
 
Two hours last night. Pull quotes:

Me: "Okay, so this four is the one."

Partner: "The only part of you that went to promenade was your head!"

Instructor: "You have to get your belt out in front of your boobs."

Divided the routine up into blocks, did each block, then did a few complete run-throughs. Did a couple of attempts with music -- seems impossibly fast right now, but that will settle out with more practice. We're making more of an effort this time to try to get technique right the first time, instead of just walking through choreo first to get it memorized. Because of the changes we've made, there are still a few areas where I'm falling back into the "old" choreo.

There are a lot of places in this routine where we're working with maintaining and redirecting momentum. There is one place where we take one step in fallaway in the direction of the back of the room, then I have to a slip pivot behind her, get turned facing the rear of the room, and lead a cross-body lead. As she comes across, I have to make her momentum turn left and then spin on my left foot as she uses me as an axle. The timing just felt all wrong, like everything was way ahead of the beat. The instructor had to convince me that that's the way it's supposed to feel; it's just one big roller coaster from the start of the fallaway until it finishes with a throwaway oversway after a total rotation of about 270 degrees. Conventional ideas of timing and weight changes don't apply. :eek:
 
Rhythm New Guy was out of town on our lesson day this week, but I had a double with Smooth New Guy. 20 minutes on each dance, then all 4 together. He concluded that we should do one set of rounds more often in lessons, particularly what with a competition coming up in a few weeks.... I might hold him to that after the comp as well. It's all rougher than I would like for it to be this close to a competition, but he gave me some good things to think about to help me maintain my frame and our connection. I do it all well sometimes, just not consistently yet, and the waltz in particular can be terrific or a train wreck and (to me) it seems almost random.
 
Lessons have been sporadic due to health issues, but finally had a week with a regular schedule. We focused on all the Latin dances -- and I forgot less than I feared. It's so nice to be back to a regular schedule!
 
Started doing run-throughs with music this week. No pithy quotes as we did two hours and we were busting it for most of that time. Showcase is Saturday week so it's time to get serious. Run-throughs revealed lots of sticking points. Attention to detail... this routine seems to be particularly demanding in terms of position and precise movements; if I put a foot wrong in certain places, there's a domino effect. There are also some aspects of timing that we don't quite have yet. Discussed costuming... I proposed an "out there" idea just as a conversation starter. To my surprise, she liked the idea and we're going with it. :D
 
great lesson last night, working on the "in-between", focusing on rumba - the rhythm and not just the timing. It was illuminating and i hope to be able to apply it to all my dances...
 
Lessons out of usual order this week. Lessons with Pro got moved from Tuesday to Friday, which (astoundingly) made it hard for me to keep track of the day of the week. :confused:

Managed all four dances with Smooth New Guy and five with Rhythm New Guy and felt reasonably good about them and a comp in two weeks. I saved my minor melt down for Pro, poor guy, with involved huge amounts of negative inner commentary on "why can't I do this yet?" Not helpful, I know, but he was very nice. I also asked him to re-evaluate after this event and the next if I should really be trying to do 9 dances with him. I really enjoy it, but it results in my feeling spread too thin at times. A lot of the time, actually. A day later, I can say that the smooth really was OK fine and I liked what I learned during the lesson. We didn't get through much of the Rhythm.

Two fun items: 1)The studio has a new set of technique oriented group classes--twice a week--and I've rearranged my schedule to be able to take them. Loved the first one I attended yesterday. 2) One of the New Guys and I are reading (re-reading for the nth time in my case) The Inner Game of Tennis together. Perfect timing given my melt-down yesterday. ;) I have it on kindle and I'm annotating it some this time. One of my goals is to write down dance examples for the tennis examples.
 
Well, having gotten that shiny new foxtrot the previous weekend, we spent most of this week's lesson working on getting me doing it. It's ... going to be a process. There's rather a lot of it that is less "swingy-swingy" and more "Fosse-Fosse". (My instructor's phrasing.) To say I have no jazz background would be an understatement. It's going to be a process.
 
This weekend: Dancing tango. Pro starts playing with rhythm and dynamics, dancing pretty much full out and having some fun.

Pro: "What's different?"
Me: "I don't su*ck anymore."
Pro: Starts laughing, and gives me a high five.

(I really was able to give him a more technical explanation... and did. The smartass comment was just out of my mouth before I knew I was going to say it. :oops:)
 
Last set of lessons before competition later this week. Good all around...for where I am at the moment. Pro keeps repeating, "your dancing, my standards", meaning I can't expect to be able to do everything I would like to be able to do in silver, he has a better feeling for the path and appropriate expectations than I do, and if he's satisfied with something, I should be too. :rolleyes: In truth, I don't think anybody has ever accused him of being too easy on his students, so yeah. I expect the smooth at the comp to be fine, the rhythm to be a tad hit and and miss; I just don't do enough rhythm. Pro has demo'ed that if I "simply" keep a good connection and follow in rhythm, all is fine. o_O

As expected, the classes have been terrific. They are going through the Bronze syllabus, rotating styles and dances. Each class covers one step and some of the technique to go with it. Lots on proper footwork, turns, cuban motion.... No such thing as too much basic technique work. ;)
 
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