The ice rink that hosts this holiday exhibition of solo numbers on Nutcracker music, announced us that we will have half hour practice time on Saturday, a day before the show. That took off the pressure from my Friday practice, that I thought would be my last one.
On Friday I firstly did a 10 minutes warm up because that's what I would have the day of the show, then the program. It went reasonably well. Then I worked a lot on my back spin. Firstly isolated, to get the good muscle memory of the technique. Then I did it with added steps and it was going well. Then I did the program several times. I was able to do the spin each time. BUT... I had to slow down a lot to be sure I'll be in control, and I felt it really took away from the overall program flow and speed. So... I scratched it. I am happy I've got this opportunity to be motivated to train it. I definitely improved it, and I feel motivated to keep working at it in the future. I've ran the program several times more with a forward spin in the middle and a forward scratch spin at the end. I was surprised that I had to concentrate to put the proper steps before those spins, I was already getting used with the steps for the other spins. But, overall, I was felling good enough.
On Saturday, at the exhibition rink, I was firstly hit by how different the ice felt. It is a colder rink, with harder ice, or put it differently, the rink I skate lately has very soft ice and is very warm. I honestly panicked a little, as I missed few salcows in a row (my edges slid as I jumped, I couldn't hook with the toe pick in the ice). Ready or not I started to ran the program, and I found myself hit with another bad surprise. I've got confused on where I faced when I started, so towards which end I should go at certain points. I also found myself improvising again. We were just two skater on the rink so, I played a little bit to push the layout towards the ends. The program was designed more in the center, as I didn't have the power and speed to push it to the ends, but now, with the little extra speed I have, I found myself running close to the board towards the spectators. It wouldn't be a problem, it' s just that they, won't be able to see me. I'm reminding you, I'm allowed to invite just two spectators, but the show will be live streamed. I've settled into a pattern and I worked a little more on how much oomph, performance and excitement I'm able to actually control and not miss the elements. I finished the practice quite content that the content of the program is properly showcasing my current abilities, while allowing to enjoy performing it. And I felt excited for the next day.
On Sunday, the day of the actual show, I was instructed to arrived at the rink with no more the 20 minutes
before my show time. I made it 25... to allow for the check in. That
didn't take any time, just a temperature check. I was then sent to the
second rink to warm up. I was supposed to have 10 minutes just before my
performance, but I had 20. That may have ultimately not been an
advantage because I skipped my short off ice warm up so I felt quite
stiff on ice. The ice was also terribly chopped. I did some warm up
crossovers and power pulls. I did the forward spin and the scratch spin.
Ups... the scratch spin totally disappeared on me. I've realized it was
because of the dress. I wore a dance length circle skirt that, as I was
starting to spin lifted, got into my peripheral vision and made me afraid to
cross my leg. I've let it go and did the jumps, they went ok on the
first try. So I let them be, and tried the scratch spin again... nope. I ran my program without music, then with
music from my phone, twice. The scratch spin still hasn't happen... And
I was all sweaty and worked up.
I moved to the main rink, where I was allowed another 5 minutes warm up. I skated softly around the rink just to feel the ice, tried the scratched spin again. I became quite self aware of my skirt rising to the waist while spinning, and that the "whole world" will see my panties during the live video stream, as the camera man was at ice level. Before this, each show I was in, was filmed from above... I've tried the scratch spins several more times and it only got worse, at least my confidence did... It hit me that my spiral will have the most unflattering position as I would skate away the camera, and I quickly tried a different layout on ice so I would skate towards the camera while in the spiral position. And then I was like... I'm as ready as I will be, let's go!
I'll tell you now, I was happy with how the performance went. I'll go over it in detail when I'll have the video to share.
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