Mid month update

As I feared, I haven't got to skate my regular schedule. This time of the year is busier, and I also did the Nutcracker on Ice that took a lot of time. To add to that, we've had our holiday on ice annual party, where each of us brings a treat. We do skate but there is lots of talking especially because people that don't skate regularly come to this session to catch up. Then, I woke up one day with a stiff back, I think I may have been cold during the night. It doesn't feel injured, just painful. And next two weeks the ice schedule it's gonna be even less manageable.

I've decided to concentrate only on the Ten Fox and hopefully get that tested mid January. I was able to add an extra lesson this week and next week, so even if I skate less time, I'll have more of my coach's guidance. And I think this will work, because the majority of the work left to be done on this dance is for partnering. There are few spots where I go on my own way, instead of following my partner. And, because of that, I'm slower on those spots and I fall behind the music.

Besides the dance, I'm going trough the Pre-Juvenile moves each time I'm on ice.

But, what I'm really trying to work on, is the basic alignment. To progress to the next level I need develop and to show more power, and that usually is described as speed. But is confident speed, and that is only possible with a good lean, pressure/ grip into ice and these are only possible with good and quick balance and alignment. Skating forward, I was paying attention to the spot on the blade where my weight should be, and for skating clockwise I was always forward on my blade and leaning/reaching forward, and I think I improved that a lot. Now there is mostly that the skating hip sticks out. I'm quite sure that I don't use my core muscles enough.I'm trying to make myself do some core exercises, but I'm not good at sticking with it. Skating backwards needs even more work, it seams that I do all kind of things with my hips with the back push (like allowing the free hip to go back after the push, and/ or dropping this free hip).

I'm sure everybody goes trough these rebuilding of the basic skills phases. And I'm wondering how everybody approaches it. It used to be frustrating for me. I think I felt that feeling frustrated was counterproductive to my skating and I've blocked it, repressed it. But the feeling may still be there in a different form, because I still have a negative emotion about this process. And I'm wondering now if repressed frustration isn't actually worse then acknowledged frustration.

Ice show: The Nutcracker on Ice

The Nutcracker on Ice happened this last weekend. I saw it last year and I loved it so much decided I had to be in it. It was the 45th anniversary of the show. Also it is the last year it's gonna be done on this particular rink, as a new rink is being build and this old one it's gonna be demolished.

What can I say. It was grand! The music goes uninterrupted and  numbers align in the back and they are cued when to come in. And as the Nutcracker is a party, it honestly felt like a party. It was beautifully decorated, the costumes were over the top, tutus included. 

We were around 30 adults participating as guest to the party and we had a group number, but some adults also had solos and duets. The queen and king were adults and they hand a dance together. There was a duet with two maids that did an amazing fun number. The magician, Clara's godfather, was played by different adults. And at least one adult had a solo in the second act.

As we rehearsed, the main instruction was to have fun, be comfortable and present big. Almost half of the adults did the show in the previous years, some, going back 20 years! And they were of course big help. Basically we were told to not stress out about anything, and just follow their lead. These adult skaters are part of a theater on ice team and they create each year a new number and they compete to ISI nationals and take part in local shows. They are a truly lovely group of people. The one day, Saturday, when we had two shows too close together for most people to be able to drive home, one of the skaters from this group invited us over to his place to eat. He made huge pots one with chili and one with vegetarian ratatouille, and the rest of us brought sides and deserts. Drinks were suggested but I was actually impressed that nobody went to it. What a responsible group!

Now, the only not so little negative thing, is that this is not my home rink. It's 40  minutes away without traffic, but it took me more then an hour with traffic. We had 6 rehearsals, 3 of them last week and 5 shows during the weekend, two shows each day on Friday and Saturday. I thinks this schedule is close to a professional performer schedule. And besides work, it is the time of the year that is most busy. So, as much as I enjoyed every little bit of it, I may not do it next year.

It all went so fast I didn't remember to take pictures, I took just a few. I will share only if they look good enough to make justice of how beautiful was everything. Otherwise I'll let you use you imagination.

Ice Dancing: Hickory Hoedown

As nothing new is happening with my skating these days, I'll write about a pattern dance I've tested and not described yet.

I tested and passed the Hickory Hoedown (the first and easiest of the Bronze level pattern dances) in January 2018. It is quite a long time ago and I'm not sure how well I'll remember my challenges when learning it. I suspect I will remember while going through the steps.

It is a country/ western style dance, and should be danced like a fun, happy dance. But, my coach said that when it was invented, it was meant to be a tango... honestly that makes more sense to me. Maybe you can read in between the lines that this was not a favorite dance of mine. I don't particularly like country music..

Here is the judging form for this dance: https://www.usfsa.org/content/hickory-hoedown.pdf. As always, I will describe the dance in lobes, or groups of steps that stay on the same circle.

Intro steps: four strokes, left right,left, right, starting along the short end of the ring, and planing to start the dance on the long axis (made by hockey dots) of the rink.

The pattern dance:
1.2.3. Left Forward Chasse (1-1-2, total 4 beats)
4.5.6. Right  Forward Chasse (1-1-2, total 4 beats)
7.8.9. Left Forward Progressive (1-1-2, total 4 beats)
10.11. Right Forward Cross Roll (1 beat) Left Forward Slide Chasse, that felt to me like just an inside edge, but it is called chasse because you don't push into it, you just put the left foot down while you point the right foot forward, then you bring the right foot in, outside of the felt knee and kick it out (total 3 beats) I think this is the first spot where I had a little trouble. I had to remember to finish the lobe perpendicularly to the axis and bring the feet together so I can push into the next lobe that is towards the right, the more uncomfortable side...
12.13.14. Right Forward Progressive (1-1-2, total 4 beats)
15.16. Left Forward Cross Roll and Right Forward Slide Chasse with a kick.  (1 and 3 beats, 4 total)
17.18. Left Forward dropped 3-turn  (2 beats) and Right Backward Swing Roll (4 beats). These continue on the same circle as the previous lobe. The 3-turn technique was hard for me at that point in time. For this dance the specific instruction was to start it going towards the end of the rink, not try to go across from the beginning as it felt natural to me. The not so perfect 3-turn seams to be acceptable for this level and I didn't have a comment from the judges. What wasn't acceptable was me rushing everything from this point on. My coach must have told me a hundred times to just finish the swing roll. But up to the present days I'm not 100% on a solid outside edge finishing the backward swing roll and that made me fell insecure to start the next step, so I think I was rushing the swing roll to have extra time to re balance for this next step.
19.20. Left Backward Outside (2 beats) edge, to Right Forward Swing Roll (4 beats). As I said when I described other pattern dances, when you make a mistake, it has a ripple or domino effect, it shows in the next steps.... So doing a solid back swing roll put me in an impossible position to do a strong left back edge (plus I knew it and that added to the frenzy), and that made it difficult to step confidential forward to the next step. And this is where I had the comment from the judge that I was rushing...
21a.21b.22.23. Left Forward Chasse of just two steps not 3 as before, continued with Left Forward Progressive of two steps, not tree. (each 1 beat, 4 beats total). The reason the first two steps are named 21a and b is because the partner does a single step during these.

The first part of this dance (up to the 3-turm) is on a Killian hold (so, side by side) and it goes on a waltz hold for the end of the pattern. Then, during the last lobe, the lady lift the left arm from the partners back and bring it forward (without hitting the partner), to get into a Kilian hold again. I do remember, when I was first learning this dance, this arm change was the part that made me the most nervous. But i have to say, it kind of happen on it's own.

I was quite confident to test this dance, so not nervous. I felt confident enough to fell I can show off a little, so I've made a new dress for it. And... unfortunately I don't have a video of the test.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I'm happy with how my skating went last month. And then, as I haven't skated for almost a week because of the Thanksgiving, it all went back to me being cautious and stiff on ice. But this should be a very short set back, few sessions on ice should bring me back.

So, last month I was able to skate 3 times a week plus one half hour private lesson, plus one group lesson. At the beginning of the month I was accepting that I cannot progress if I skate without focusing on pushing forward any of the elements. I also wasn't finding the motivation and maybe even the confidence that it will make a difference, to make me skate focused. Before these last few months, I found motivation in testing, and I trusted that my skating skills will get better during the process of learning for tests. Now, I almost got to think the opposite...  not concentrating on the process of skating I've started to concentrate on my skating skills, and on all of them, not just the ones for the tests, and they felt not as strong as I wanted. I think this awareness made it a vicious circle because it made me feel I'm not ready to test...

I was telling a little about this to my coach and he said that the moves are right there, all I need is to decide to test them. Then, on the following week, while working on the Ten Fox and stopping during the dance to ask a correction, he said, well if you want to test it mid December  you have to go for it, don't stop the dance. I wasn't planning to test it mid December, in fact I cannot, because the test date is the same with one of the Nutcracker performances. But the fact that my coach thought that both the dance and moves are ready for testing, gave me quite a bust of confidence.

But more than my coach's opinion, is me feeling stronger, more stable, more fluid on ice. And that is progress. At this point I really feel I can build on it.

So, the plan for this month is to get both the Ice Dancing Ten Fox and the Pre-Juvenile Moves ready to test on mid January. At this point, the dance is good enough for this level, in the lessons we mostly do partnering. And while I still work on it on my own, I have plenty of time to work at the moves too. My club doesn't always have dance tests. I may have to test the dance on another club, where they have a whole session just for dance, and that may be for the best, get it done, and only then focus just on moves.

Freestyle I'll just maintain. My group lessons session ended, and I won't  register again for it, for now at least. It was a kids group and we did a strong warm up, that I was grateful for, but then we mostly worked on spins, because the kids had already have the jumps for this level. I'm grateful for working at spins too. I've learned two big adjustments. But I'm mostly grateful that I saw clearly that I have to stay half hour on the spins and not rush and take it methodically, in order to make a difference. Anyway, my goal was to get my Loop jump back in order to have  another program choreographed for Adult Bronze level, and we haven't work on jumps. I'll have to work at the Loop with my private coach, but maybe only after I test the dance and the moves.

I'm a little worried if my rink ice schedule and my schedule will allow enough skating time this month. My skating schedule is now Monday when I have my private lesson but as an extra session, Wednesday, Friday, no more Saturday group class. This week I'm not sure I can skate on Friday, and at my rink there is no convenient ice on the weekend. Then, next week, I'm gonna have 4 Nutcracker rehearsals and 5 performances, so I don't know how much I'll be able to skate on my own. I feel that some days I will be stuck at the Nutcracker rink, from noon to evening as the few hours break wouldn't be enough to come home and go back. I'm also wondering how tired will I get and how cold. Hopefully I will not catch a cold... And quick update, the rehearsals, up to now, went very smoothly. Then, around Christmas, the rinks schedules will be different, with less ice time for skating in general, plus the practice ice will be full of kids as they are off from schools. I'll have to keep focused when on ice because surely I'll skate less then I normally do.