Skip to main content

Stretch Goals

Jacqueline and I arrived at the parking lot at the same time for a two hour practice today.  Early Saturday means the studio is almost abandoned, it was just Samantha with a few beginners.  We found an adjacent, open, yet unoccupied dance floor and started in on Swing.  It's smoother now after many times, and we are working on details now.

Then it was time for my least favorite thing: stretching.  To get my dancer's body I'm going to have to retrain my legs.  Borderline physical therapy.  Samantha is a master teacher, she really got in there to get my legs in the right posture.

W 219.9






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Four Hours

Three weeks until the Utah competition. I am up at Valhalla (Timber Lakes).  I have a private room with a balcony that overlooks the valley, dappled with the colors of autumn.  First, a full round of weights (18-18): Bentover Rows Overhead Presses Bicep Curls Goblet Squats with extensions (I call them "Holy Grails") Tricep Extensions Hammers (my favorite, the sexiest of the curls) Farmer's Carry Lunges Reclining Flies Crush Presses Reclining Presses Then an hour of swimming, various strokes as well as doing the whole routine in shallow water. I ate six twinkies in rapid succession.  One of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I drove down in light rain to Salt Lake to make dance training, 4-6pm.  Samantha and I completed the cha cha routine: Basic Butterfly Walkaround turns Triple Cha Lady's Underarm turn and back to the top As usual I am completely lost when learning the new routine.  Time for hundreds of repetitions! Jacqu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saturday, October 6th- Practice Shoes

Fresh back from the mountains of Timber Lakes I had a two hour dance training.  From one day to the next I seemed to have forgotten part of my routine.  Jacqueline showed up right on time as usual.  She was wearing a yellow scarf that her beau picked up in France. Got a new pair of practice shoes. Got to break them in with 5000 repetitions. We finished up and practiced the cha cha routine.  Samantha gave me a taste of what it looked like at full speed, and I could barely keep up.  No matter, I am determined to learn it all to the best level. At the end we spent some time on the Waltz, just learning the complete basics from the beginning.  I am completely lost.  This dance has all sorts of odd angles.  But as always I'm ready to get it down.  Twelve days until the local competition and I still don't have outfit, and no prospects.    repeat from here (the top) Basic Crossover Breaks Crossbody Lead Basic Sepa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Good Round

I worked with Samantha on swing basics for an hour, then Jacqueline arrived and we practiced various items for two hours.  We got some basic swing moves down. Most of that time we had the room to ourselves and we had several breakthroughs.  My rumba walks are improving and my foot movements are looking more like latin prowling rather than a leaden golem clomping around. Jacqueline has been practicing her rumba walks for many weeks now and her movements are very elegant and curved. We do our original routines without thinking too much about it-- muscle memory.  Doing them under the pressure of public performance makes them cement harder in the mind. The last hour was... harmonious.  A timeless space.  Movement as art.  Beginner's mind. W 218.2
Post a Comment
Read more