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.