Lesson with Pro yesterday and outside visiting coach. Pro wanted us to work on swing (ughhhhhh), and told the coach that if there were any remaining time, we’d also do cha cha. So we danced about 90 seconds of swing - I honestly tried to enjoy it (or at least act like I was enjoying it) - but although my basic pendulum motion has improved, I still missed several of his leads and therefore messed up several steps. The coach interrupted us to say, “now do a cha cha. I want to see how you dance when it’s a style you LIKE.” It went much better than swing; and in fact, my movement overall was much better than usual.
The coach said cha cha is better because it’s clear that I know when to bend and straighten my legs, and in swing, it’s clear that I DON’T know. E.g., in swing, when I return my weight to my LF at the end of the rock step, I haven’t been straightening my left knee. Pro said he’s never realized that since he can’t see it from his position as my partner. So I did a few basics that way with the coach, prompting Pro to blurt out in surprise, “damn that’s good!” The coach shrugged & said, “that’s the only thing I think that has to be fixed. In general you have a really good look, but that one thing makes it look a little bit messy, and you know something is wrong so you aren’t confident with it and don’t enjoy it.”
We then worked on a new way for me to think about body movement. Instead of focusing on hips, “imagine that you’re pulling on a very tight pair of jeans. When it’s time to zip them up, you pull in and lift up from inside your body as you pull up the zipper - yes! Exactly like that!” For the rest of the lesson, each step involved “pulling up my zipper” before every transfer of weight from one leg to the other. It’s fascinating what a difference it makes, but I can tell it’s going to take a LOT of time and effort to make that happen automatically. As the coach said, “it’s simple, but not easy.”
Another extremely helpful tip was an exercise where I rotated my arms & shoulders so that my elbow pits (antecubital fossae) and palms were facing completely out away from my body, causing my lats to lie flat and down; then rotated JUST my forearms & wrists back in toward my body, allowing my arms to move without changing the position of my lats or shoulders. (I was showing a tendency to “pull up my zipper” with my entire upper body, including my shoulders, which is of course a no-no.)
Other fun things: during the introductory few minutes, the coach began with an assessment of my & Pro’s relative heights & said we look very good together (that’s not really a compliment, because height isn’t something I have control over, but it’s nice to hear anyway). He asked me, “have you danced before?” I said no, no dancing, no sports, nothing before this. He raised his eyebrows & said, “huh...but you have the body of a dancer.” Pro nodded & said, “she practices a LOT,” as I simultaneously nodded & said, “I practice a LOT.” Towards the end of the lesson, I made some comment about something being difficult right now because I’m still a beginner. The coach shook his head & said, “I can’t tell you’re a beginner. You understand what I’m showing you. You understand how it will make such a difference. Beginners wouldn’t understand that.”
As with the prior visiting coach from this summer, I feel like I’ve been given important concepts that will be incorporated into all my future dancing. (Unfortunately, neither coach had a magic wand to grant my wish of “instant expertise,” lol.)
