Exhibition: Canasta Tango Demonstration

Last Sunday I demonstrated the Canasta Tango in an exhibition. My new coach, the one that's gonna choreograph a pre-bronze program for me, is very involved in the adult skating community. He coaches many adults, I think, mostly adults, including a group that does ice theater. Some of his students will go to the ISI nationals and they decided to do a dress rehearsal with their numbers. And they had extra ice time, so the coach asked me if I wanted to demonstrate a dance, since I don't have a program just yet.

I hesitated for just a second, because of old thoughts of not feeling confident that I have that much skating skills to show. I will have to add that I've never been in a show as a kid, the only shows I ever did were the adult group numbers at my rink. But I realized, because this exhibition was between adult skaters, it was a perfect opportunity to check the waters, to see how I feel now, and to work on building confidence.

I choose Canasta Tango because for now, it's my favorite dance from the first nine I know. I also like the Willow Waltz but it's a more difficult dance and I wanted no pressure. Let's see what pressure I'm talking about:
- I used to get very nervous at both the group number at my rink shows and the tests I took.
- It would be my first time on ice by myself. At the Ice Dancing tests I had the coach there as my partner, and at the MITF tests there were 3 of us sharing the ice.
- I just started with the new coach to work on arm movement and presenting. And we started from nothing, as I haven't taken dance as a kid. I could have kept it simple with just lifting the arms in a ballet position at the beginning and presenting at the end, but I challenged myself to do a little more. To add to the pressure, I choreographed that myself, because I didn't see my coach again before the exhibition. Tango asks for sharp movement, I worked at it at home, in the mirror, but didn't look right so I did more of a flamenco movement that is softer.
- I have no experience in skating on music on my own. I sometimes try to do the dances on music but as I work on correcting a million things, I usually lose the rhythm. The music was not a priority because I know at test I have my coach there to keep the rhythm.
- I decided to wear a dress that I made and I love it, but... I had a sample fabric that I couldn't buy anymore, and while I first meant it to became a skating dress, I decided to let it be a regular dress so I can wear it more often. For skating is mainly it is too long and not tight enough.

How did it go?
- I wasn't nervous but I wasn't at ease either. I felt a little award.
- The restart of the music gave me an adrenaline rush. The first version of the hand movement was more controlled, the second time I rushed, I didn't extend as much, maybe was more tango like? But hand movement needs work.
- I blame being ahead of the music on the adrenaline rush also... but I knew skating on music needed work. That's one of the reasons I want a program.
- I got distracted as I got cheers in the middle of my third pattern. I thought they expected me to finish after the second pattern. It seems though, that Ice Dancing etiquette is for the spectators to cheer when the skaters are closest to them, because there are no focal points like spins, jumps, spirals to cheer then.
- I love taking videos of me skating because I see clearly what needs to be improved.
- The pattern of the dance and edges weren't totally correct. I wasn't even trying because I didn't do this dance in  a while, I didn't have time to work at it and I didn't want to put pressure on myself...
- It didn't look polished and I didn't expect to. The thing that hit me was the lack of toe pointing. I'll definitely work on that... Then my posture... I work on it continuously but it seems I have to work harder.
- Commitment to the music and character and presenting... I think that would do wonders and I see two ways to work on this. Firstly my new coach asks me to present everything I do on ice. Like when I do MITF, a spin, a jump, to put them in a sequence. It's gonna take a while. I think it's gonna be easier when I'll have a program and I'll practice parts of it. Secondly, I'll have to do more shows, exhibitions, competitions...
- Now, surprisingly, I also felt a little proud of my skating, in the sense that I felt it improved, not that it was perfectly done. I had speed and quite deep edges compared with when I tested it more than a year ago . Below is the solo warm up for that test. You can see that here I don't go too deep into the center of the rink.

Test: Preliminary Dances (Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues)

This was my very first test.

I stumbled across a testing session at my rink when I just started my private lessons. I decided to stay and watch. There were maybe 20 skaters and their parents and coaches. It was one adult lady testing  the first 2 dances solo, the rest were kids and teens. I was hit by how nervous was everybody. They were stiff in their dresses, hairdo and makeup. After testing some of them were crying. I decided right then that I'll NEVER test. But, never say never...

As I started to work on dances with my coach, I already knew the steps from a friend and I was bored. I knew the steps from the first 9 dances so 3 levels, but my technique was acceptable just for the first level. I needed to keep working on them to develop the technique for the next levels. To keep myself motivated, my coach suggested to test. She said that the first level is an encouragement test, so I won't have reasons to get stressed. I love fashion and she said that I'll get to dress up. She sign me up and sent me to take a lesson with a male coach that would be my partner for the test. There were just 2 weeks left to the test. In a way it was good, because I didn't have much time to overthink. I took 3 lessons. But I surely didn't feel prepared. I was intimidated and uncomfortable to skate so close to somebody. Plus we were going faster together then I was skating on my own. All these 3 pattern dances from the Preliminary level, are going forward in Killian hold. That means that the skaters are side to side, one of the man arms goes around the woman waist.

My new coach showed me the paper that the judges use for the test. It had two sets of requirements
1. Technique: accuracy, placement, unison, form, cleanness, and sureness
2. Timing/Expression: correct timing, expression of the character of the music
The coach said the technique I have is good enough for this level. I definitely knew the steps. The coach said that's the most important thing. He worked with me on the character of the dances. He said that in his experience even for high level dances, presenting the character of the dance could make a just ok test pass.

My test was in January 2017. Getting close to the testing day I felt fairly nervous. I decided to not think about it. Just let it happen. The dress that I planned on wearing, more precisely the nude tights seemed to be stressing me. I decided to wear black leggings instead, and that actually ended up making me feel not dressed-up, just awkward. I was asked to be at the rink with an hour before my test and I was nervous as i arrived, but standing around, I've got even more nervous.  Both my coaches were there but my partner coach was more aware of my nerves so he babysat me a little... well a lot.  He explained me how to breath deeply to relax, how to warm up a little, he told me to put on the skates just 15 min before and bend into the ankles to warm them up. He said not to think about anything, he'll tell me everything I need to do, including when is my turn. I have to say, it helped a lot.

We had 5 min to warm up on ice, and after the 5 minutes they played the music for every dance. I wasn't nervous at all when I first got on ice, but I was rushing through everything, I got a little tired and stop breathing right, and here I was nervous again. And, I was first to go. The first dance was the Dutch Waltz and here is the video. The second the music started my partner coach asked me something. I don't remember what, something about plans for the rest of the day. I didn't have time to answer but it made me smile and forgot all about nerves. I felt very stiff through the 2 patterns I had to do but I didn't feel I made any mistakes.
Canasta Tango (video here) was next, after 2 or 3 other skaters doing the waltz. It was was my favorite dance from the 3, and I felt I gave it a little more confidence.
On the Rhythm Blues (video) I was fairly relaxed, but also quite spent.
As we were getting off the ice my coach said "good job".

The whole test was done in 10 minutes and the judges sent the papers out immediately. I passed the first two dances with " pass +", the last one just "pass". Was I too relaxed on the last one?

All in all wasn't that bad!

Ice Dancing: Canasta Tango pattern dance

The Canasta Tango is a Preliminary pattern dance or level 1 and has preset steps, rhythm, tempo, and hold for partnering. It requires more types of steps then the Dutch Waltz. There are steps that I already described Forward Stroking, Forward Progressive and Forward Swing Rolls as in the waltz, a Forward Chasse blended with a progressive and the Forward Slide Chasse that I described already. And it asks, but it is optional, for a Forward Cross Stroke.

Here is a link to the form judges use at tests, it shows the diagram of the dance and the skills they are looking for: http://usfsa.org/content/canasta-tango.pdf and more explanation is in  the "Rule Book". You see in the drawing that the Canasta Tango has 14 steps. This dance covers less surface than the Dutch Waltz, but still starts in one corner and finishing on the diagonally opposite corner just the corners are more inside the surface. The count is 12,34 where each is one beat. The hold is reversed killian, I explained the killian in the Dutch Waltz post.
Here is the dance done and explained by national competitors ice dancers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIKwr7qtmWg&t=91s


Starting point: is on the red cross on my drawing

Intro steps: 4 Forward Strokes: left, right, left, right.
The pattern dance: Again, I will explain this in lobes grouping the steps in the judges drawing, as I was grouping them in my mind to remember them.
1.2.3.4 LFO-RFI (2 step progressive)-LFO-RFI (2 step chasse) (each 1 beat, 4 beats total) going imediately into
5. Left Forward Swing Roll (4 beats) that finishes on the red dot
6.7. RFO-LFI (Slide chasse) (2 beats each, total 4 beats) that finishes at the half line of the rink
8. Right Forward Swing Roll (4 beats) that finishes on the red dot

9.10. LFO-RFI (Slide chasse) (2 beats each, total 4 beats)
11.12.13. Left Forward Progressive, change lobe into
14. Right Forward Swing Roll with optional cross stroke (opt-XS). I had troubles with this step. I was aware that I had to do "something" to change the lobes direction but I didn't do it properly. So when going solo I heard a lot to start with the left hand forward ( and finish with the right hand forward). It seamed counter intuitive for me :( The other problem I had was that I wasn't completely transferring my weight to the left hip so I was kind of starting on on inside edge witch is very hard  to make it an outside edge once started inside. The last think is that this is not a step but a stroke, so you have to actually put some power into it. The Cross Strokes are part of the Juvenile MITF test, so it's not a beginner skill... I remember I fell few times on this step... Skating with my coach as a partner helped a lot as he was guiding me and positioning me. But I have to say, a year and a half later, meaning yesterday, I did this dance and this step without flinching... So there is proof that in time, every skating skills is gonna improve!

On the judges form it shows that they look for: Accuracy, Placement, Skating Skills, Style, Unison (if partnered). In my understanding it means that you have to know the steps, and where they go on the pattern, have some edges, some extension and posture, and some unison. The judges also look for timing (so the tango rhythm) and the character of the dance (for tango that is aggressive, sharp movement).

And here is my Canasta Tango test after learning from a friend for few months, taking a 2 months, once a week 35 min long ice dance group class and just 3 lessons with my dance coach.

This dance pattern is not so straight forward as the Dutch Waltz. The Dutch Waltz lobes were alternation on the sides of an imaginary long axis and short axis and they were quite equal in counts.When I've first learnt the Canasta Tango from a friend, we were doing the steps straight so we were zigzagging... instead of doing curves. I had targets on ice, like the red dots, and the center of the rink where to start some steps. When I started working with the dance coach he explained the pattern and the circles formed by the lobes, but I was already registered to test so he didn't insist on it. Plus, at the Preliminary level it's not expected  to master or even understand, maybe. But I think this is a good moment to became aware of reading the pattern dance from an image in the rule book or online. Also it is an opportunity to understand that while you are on the same circle you lean towards the inside of that circle, even if there seams to be few lobes there, you don't change the upper body, you don't check... you check before changing the direction and going on a new circle... So on Canasta Tango the first 2 lobes I described are on one circle, the next 2 on another circle, the next 2 on another circle and the last step on another circle.