how are your lessons going? thread II

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And just finished the week of daily double lessons. Unfortunately, it did not feel excessive! :eek:

Today started with Foxtrot with Smooth New Guy. Primarily, I was just stunned at how much my dancing has improved. (I know I keep on saying that, but that's how major it is!) More of the improved swing, sway, CBM from last week and earlier this week. A touch of VW, just reinforcing what I had done yesterday with the coach (who gave SNG a quick rundown of what we worked on). Then Rhythm New Guy. Cha cha, with an emphasis on using core muscles to improve connection into his right hand and then rhumba, emphasis on connection and rhumba walks. As I spent 70-75% of lesson time on smooth, it's not surprising that rhythm didn't get the phenomenal boost that smooth has. Next time I do something like this, I might have to switch and do 70-75% rhythm. :p
 
Yesterday's lesson was decidedly mixed. The first part of it was with my pro and a new potential partner.. She's a bronze level dancer and in Nashville, meaning no weekday practice. On the other hand, she is in Nashville, meaning she's receiving competent instruction. (And the reduced drama of dancing with someone who is well aware of my pro's value has quite a lot of appeal in and of itself.) She's also rather closer to full bronze than newcomer, meaning I can take dancing with her as an opportunity to productively work on my own fundamentals.

That part of the lesson went quite well. Unfortunately, part of the reason why that went as smoothly as it did is because I frankly didn't have to exert myself terribly hard in it. I've been struggling something fierce with fatigue and soreness lately. At times, the soreness has moved into flat out pain. I had another couple of lessons by myself after my lesson with new-potential-partner. Those went ... less well. I mean, we got a reasonable amount of stuff done, but, well... I was visibly frustrated and upset with myself enough that at one point, my pro announced a field trip.

Field trips (which, to be clear, are to different parts of the studio other than the main dance floor) aren't *common*, but they're not unheard of either. Most commonly they're to go refer to a picture in the hall of David Hamilton and Olga F. dancing. Can't beat that as a handy reference! This time it was over to the lounge area where my pro basically asked one of the male pros to tell me that I'm a good dancer. It's nice that my pro is both able to recognize when I'm getting seriously down on myself and cares enough to want to do something about it. 'Twas a bit embarrassing that she'd have to though. Ah, well.
 
Foxtrot, VWaltz and Samba as leader with Female Pro, continuing the theme of softer knees. With Male Pro, worked on some places in Foxtrot where I tend to lose my shape - hmm, well, at least that means I have *some* shape to start with, otherwise I couldn't lose it.
 
Did a bit of practise on Foxtrot yesterday, then onto Waltz for the first time! Struggled with remembering the basic steps, woah. I am very uncoordinated and have a bad short-term memory, which didn't help of course ;) Kept on going on the wrong leg... But I practised a lot last night, and will continue so that I can get it down. Really enjoying it, looking forward to my next lesson. :cool:
 
Pro got the new, improved, version of me last night. He said it was the best ever in terms of a lot of basic qualities. A very large stressor was recently removed from my life and it finally dawned on me that that is why my dancing has suddenly improved so dramatically. We did more on VW. Went through what I had done on the coaching and he added in and clarified a few things. Most of the time was spent on step 5: second step when woman is moving forward. "Ohhhh, that's the step that has to be larger to get around the leader..." And a little bit on step 1 and what happens if I don't match him (I create a brick wall that he can't move through...he had us switch roles and demo'ed it very graphically). Then a waltz step that my notes had been pretty incomprehensible on. He was pretty funny about my notes: "Did you add in xyz? Write that down, too." (Corrections he was perhaps tired of making.)
 
Chicogal said:
...then onto Waltz for the first time! Struggled with remembering the basic steps, woah. I am very uncoordinated and have a bad short-term memory, which didn't help of course ;) Kept on going on the wrong leg...
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It has nothing to do with being uncoordinated and having a bad short-term memory, even if, like me, you are and you do.;) It has to do with what happens when you lower or step on 3. If you don't actively switch your weight to your new standing leg, it's game over. I remember that phase of learning the waltz well. Once I was standing on both feet, it was completely hit and miss which foot I would use next. If I, say, stepped with my left leg, I had to consciously unweight my right foot so that it would be ready to move next.
 
Lesson it self was good but I am so fed up with having to be flexible when all the other students don't/ I used to have a regular slot but don't anymore due to teacher putting a new class in for 6 weeks. Then I have his wife again because he was running so late but why cant the couple after me have her? It did work out well this though and then he came up tome to tell me not to watch the other couples lesson which was fine but I was waiting for him to be free to ask a quick question and to pay him. I think I am going to have to speak to him next week
 
RiseNFall said:
It has nothing to do with being uncoordinated and having a bad short-term memory, even if, like me, you are and you do.;) It has to do with what happens when you lower or step on 3. If you don't actively switch your weight to your new standing leg, it's game over. I remember that phase of learning the waltz well. Once I was standing on both feet, it was completely hit and miss which foot I would use next. If I, say, stepped with my left leg, I had to consciously unweight my right foot so that it would be ready to move next.
Click to expand...
That's good to hear! I've actually been doing that - very consciously, as you did! - and it's already so much easier. Thank you for the advice :)
 
I always wanted to learn Samba--even though I dance rhythm, not latin--until I had one serious lesson in Samba technique. o_O

Lessons with New Guys tonight and then a merengue class. First was Rhythm New Guy. We started with rhumba and that was good enough that we moved to swing pretty quickly. The swing was good enough--after one "you already paid for that" tweak--that we moved on to Mambo. That took more work. As it is faster and sharper than rhumba, I still look more like I'm dancing smooth when I do it. He fixed it some, but it's gonna take a while. Then we went over what Pro had added to the VW earlier in the week. It's definitely getting better, plus I understand it better, so I don't feel like my progress is going to go poof at any moment.

Smooth New Guy next and we worked on waltz, which was good enough that we got to work on a few details of one of the steps. I was pretty happy. Actually, I was very happy.

Merengue class was fun. Only one other student, a woman. RNG taught it and the process for the night was he explained something and demoed it. Then he led her, led me, had me lead him, than I led the other student. She follows well!
 
Lesson mostly with the hula hoop torture device last night. Interesting, and useful... though I want a bigger hoop so I can try it with my full shape.

Also, my neck hurts this morning, likely from the moment where we forgot that we were linked together with the torture device, pro led a dynamic shape change in tango, and I went... and we broke the hoop. The thing is now only sort of round, with 2 big kinks in it :oops:
 
open foxtrot last night, lots of little improvements. then Rumba with the new woman teacher - she's lovely! lots of fixes to my body that are going to take a while to get. I improved quite a bit, tried to show pro, and of course got nervous and didn't do it as well, lol. DANGIT. She was a little disappointed, so was I. but it was lovely and i will work to apply it everywhere. Now to find when i can get a follow up lesson with her.
 
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