I thought it was about time to do another post on my dance class.

photo credit to Sarah from Dancing with the Professors Showdance with A.J. Squillante 🙂

SO the class today was on waltz.  The first half of the class was on drills.  There is a huge emphasis on collection and bending knees and being “supple” to create a fluidity of motion (instead of being stiff).  There have been multiple occasions where they will have us stop in the middle of a count and not fall over.  In all of standard you should (theoretically) be able to pause on any count and be completely stable. We did a waltz drill where we were doing the basic, but in between each three count move, we’d take three counts to settle down (off our toes).  This was surprisingly a great drill to work on balance, control, and calf stretches! We then had to do this with a partner touching only with our core… this took practice.  The first few times I didn’t do so great, not to mention almost all the guys are significantly shorter than me! Eventually I got the hang of it.

The second half of the course was choreography.  We did a natural turn, a spin turn, turning lock to the right, a natural turn out of promenade to get into a close position, and a double reverse spin.  All of these moves I’ve done about a million and a half times, but it was still good practice.  The professor actually picked me out of the crowd to illustrate (with her)  how to drive out of the spin turn (and not stop momentum) into the turning lock.  We got into a kind of awkward position where I was practically underneath her… She then used me as a demo for something with a double reverse spin.  I couldn’t understand what it was, but I was doing something correctly that no one else in the class was doing so she kept leading me in them and having the class watch…

This week the choreography was all bronze moves (with the exception of gold turning lock), whereas in foxtrot we were doing open choreography (which was much more difficult for me because I hadn’t seen most of it before). The group is finally starting to come talk to me before and after the classes.  I think they’ve realized I’m here to stay (at least for now) so they may as well get to know me 🙂

I have had some pushy guys tell me that what I’m doing is wrong.  In both cases, it has been something that a coach has told me specifically to do!  First it was the thumb in the right hand in hold…. granted this is a thing of preference, but due to Ronen I always put my thumb up for an extra pressure point for connection… The French people have never seen it before and think I’m crazy.  Secondly, I can be very forceful on spinturns, due to Vlada.  Some men just don’t like being pushed around … 😛