How are your practices going?

Had the usual Monday workout/practice/rounds session this week. Partner couldn't make it, which is almost unheard-of, so I was solo for the duration.

Turned out to be a serendipitous opportunity. Coach always observes the rounds, and this time she remarked "it's a lot easier to see what you're doing without some girl blocking my view." She made a few super helpful actionable observations:
  • I use correct head positions and actions to the right of my centerline, but flawed ones to the left
  • In some dances, I initiate my movements too much from the top and not enough from the core
  • My Latin footwork and actions look beautifully crisp alone, but muddier in partnership. Investigation needed.
The work is never done!
 
fiesta0618 said:
Had the usual Monday workout/practice/rounds session this week. Partner couldn't make it, which is almost unheard-of, so I was solo for the duration.

Turned out to be a serendipitous opportunity. Coach always observes the rounds, and this time she remarked "it's a lot easier to see what you're doing without some girl blocking my view." She made a few super helpful actionable observations:
  • I use correct head positions and actions to the right of my centerline, but flawed ones to the left
  • In some dances, I initiate my movements too much from the top and not enough from the core
  • My Latin footwork and actions look beautifully crisp alone, but muddier in partnership. Investigation needed.
The work is never done!
Click to expand...
Ahh - hmmm. I usually focus mainly on upper or lower body first. I typically tend to leave left-side or right-side issues "until later." And then run out of time. There's something for me to think about.....
 
I got to the Y twice this week for solo practice – the time slots for availability of the studio room are now so small, that I’m limited to about 50 minutes max per session. Sigh.

Anyway, I was working a lot on keeping my shoulders down, and the transfer of weight onto the receiving leg.
 
I went to the Y today and got in about 50 minutes of practice - my time was squished because the body toning class ran late so I had to wait to start. I worked on swing in Waltz and Foxtrot. And also paid a lot of attention to my “leading edge” in each figure. I’m hoping that will give me more “presence” in my appearance on the floor.
 
I started standard with AM about 2 weeks ago and had my second private lesson yesterday!

I've mostly done standard waltz and my instructor encouraged me to start going to the bronze 1 classes and practice parties but omg am super nervous about dancing with people who are not my instructor (it's really just my fear that I'll mess up lol)
This past lesson I was taught more on my frame and making sure my overall silhouette was correct! Footwork/moving without my heels making noise is proving to be difficult but practice practice practice

If anyone has tips on solo practice and really anything I can do to improve my dancing outside of lessons, I'm all ears!!
 
I went to Comp Rounds last evening. There were 2 couples, 2 Solo Follow, 2 Solo Leads, and I switched back and forth as Lead and Follow, so I did 3 as Lead and 2 as Follow. I just felt "meh" - I struggled to hear the beat in the music, which is really unusual for me; and nothing felt fluid. But at least my stamina felt OK.
 
At my solo practices this week, I think the use of headweight is finally starting to settle in. I guess I’ll find out at my next lesson.

And my Pros contacted me about a potential practice partner! :dancingbanana: One of the students on the university Dancesport team that my Pros coach, will be in the area over the summer. She dances silver/ gold Syllabus Standard and is looking for a Lead to practice with. So, I’ve sent an email to her and, who knows, maybe we can work something out.
 
I was kinda miffed that my rumba walks have seemed wobbly lately cuz I kinda thought I was improving on that....and then I re-punched holes in my shoe straps and voila, wobbliness decreased dramatically. Turns out loose shoes were the reason. On the other hand, I need to get back on practicing cruzado walks more cuz they've been feeling slightly off lately.
 
The good news – I’ve got a Practice Partner for the summer months! Woo-hoo!! After 2 hours of lessons today, I teamed up with one of the university dancesport team members coached by my Pros for Standard Practice. She’s quite a good Follow – much, much better than I am as a Lead. We ran through all 5 dances. She knows Syllabus figures through Gold, and some common amalgamations, but doesn’t have any set routines. So….she followed what I lead– and she followed really, really well. If I missed something in my routine, she didn’t know that I missed something, she just followed what I lead. It was SO NICE not to get that accusatory: “THAT isn’t what we do there” complaint that sometimes comes from Follows who do know the routine.

And because she wasn’t compensating for me (like my Pros do, though they don’t think they do), it highlights some things that I need to clean up: I’m sometimes unclear in whether I’m leading an Open or Closed Telemark; I’ve got to pay more attention to the rotation during the “slip” in the Fallaway Slip Pivot; and it seems that an old under-rotation problem has re-emerged in my Double Reverse Spin.

And after all that, she is still game to practice with me again next week!

The bad news – after 2 hours of lessons prior to the practice session, and a 1 hour 45 minute practice session, I am absolutely dead on my feet. It didn’t help that one of the other students who was taking lessons at the same time, kept turning off the fan. I’d compromised and turned on only 1 of the 3 fans, and put it on low, but that was still “too much circulation” for the other student. Practice Partner and I were soaking with sweat, and near the end of our session, there were a couple of times when I might have gotten a tiny bit light-headed. I must remember to take Gatorade, rather than water, next week.

All in all, I’m hopeful that Practice Partners feels that she got something worthwhile out of the session. I mean, she wouldn’t have agreed to meet again next week if it had been truly terrible, right?
 
I suppose since I went to a practice party, this post is in its rightful place lol
First practice party in my life and I was a little overwhelmed, but had a lot of fun! This is mostly because I'm a beginner, but social dancing is a different beast lol
I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that I was the person who mostly danced with the teachers, but the rest of the people in the studio had been dancing for much longer than me so it was a little intimidating. But nevertheless, my frame is holding up quite nice and I just need to focus on my footwork.
It was also my first time dancing in court shoes and I won't lie, I can't really feel my feet atm xD
Am looking forward to the upcoming practice with my collegiate team next saturday!!
 
Been doing a lot more hour+ long solo practices than I usually do, and in a full studio (not just my living room or a side room at the gym). Mostly mambo for a specific showcase, but also some days of waltz and tango. In Mambo, I focus a lot on weight changes, since some of the combinations for the showcase don't seem to flow very naturally to me and I literally end up flat footed at spots. In solo practice in waltz, I've been focusing on stretching my steps out and rolling through my feet more. Once I'm feeling more grounded, I've been moving to tango. I have a fallaway slip pivot to Viennese cross combination and later a fallaway whisk combo and both need to curve some, and I tend to go in a straight line or make sharp turns that causes the steps not to flow well. But the practice is really allowing me to walk through each bit step by step to try to catch and correct it.
 
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