Skating on 4 Hours of Sleep ~ UGH.

 Great short lesson today.  Lots of exercises not on camera and then we worked on the Killian and Starlight Waltz.  I’m so tired - very little sleep last night.

3 - Fer Today - Virtual Test - Learned The Blues - Solo Free Dance

All that in 45 minutes!

Last minute decision to test my Rocker Foxtrot today.  We had a virtual test session ending tonight .. so I thought I would try and attempt it today.  Summer is coming and I will be off ice for most of it until November!

The version of the test is from my camera at the end of the rink.  Same skate but not the official video taken for submission to the judges.  You can’t see some of the dance on this copy.

After that we worked on learning (teaching ME) the unbelievably difficult steps of the Blues.  Ask me again this time next year - I will probably not have changed my mind about that.  Deep edges and advance turns with backwards cross rolls and high lifted blusy free legs… yes sir this one is hard.

Before I left the session I put on my free dance music without any rehearsal to see what would happen. I can’t believe I made it to the end of the song.  I missed a lot of the choreography and my twizzles were really yucky in sequence .. RBO Twizzle followed by RFI Twizzle 🤮.  I lost my edge element .. the spread eagle but threw in a boring unemotional spiral and forgot all my “character steps” on the short axis. Oh and that scratch spin at the end… so not what’s supposed to be there~!   And I just learned the the Intermediate Solo Free Dance is now called Pre-Silver.  

But a good day all in all.  I hope I pass that test - on to nothing but Pre-Gold.

1) Virtual Test 2) Blues 3) Free Dance

Rocker Foxtrot Getting Close

 We’re thinking this dance may be ready to try and test next week.  Not perfect for sure but I want to finish the Silver Dance series of tests - so when I return after summer I will be working on only Pre-Gold.

Did a few runs, then worked for 5 minutes on the Starlight Waltz.  After that I stayed on the ice and tried a little solo practice.

Learning The Blues

 Another unexpected lesson.  Working on the Rocker Foxtrot - waiting for our music while 2 skaters ran their programs Vitali decided to teach me a few steps of the Blues dance.   This one is going to be hard with a CAPITAL H.

Baby Steps Progress on the Starlight Waltz

The Rocker Foxtrot did not cooperate today but I made a little progress on the Starlight Waltz.

I think I actually like this dance.  It has so many different steps in it.  The hold change is the big challenge for me as well as the mohawk with the high leg lilt.

Another Suitcase Another Hall

 The (slow) journey continues…

Quitting is Not an Option … However

Some days I sure feel like it!

After a weekend of being wowed watching Worlds I returned to the rink today to end up feeling so inept at everything.  Nobody likes a whiner.   So I won’t.  

 

Dance Lesson - Slowed the Music Down!

In todays videos I slowed the tempos of the music on the dances to the pace we skated - 

It’s the equivilent to the skinny mirror!

 

Short Lesson and a Few Spins

Mondays are always hard.  But I rallied at 7:00 am for a 30 minute lesson and stayed for the rest of the session to practice.  Toward the end of the session I tried a bit of my -never finished- free dance and attempted a handful of spins.

Plugging Away on the Kilian and Starlight

 I seem to be in no rush to test the Rocker Foxtrot - The last of the Silver Dances.  With 2 new Pre-Gold dances I am trying to learn - it’s enough on my plate.

Lucky to get a lesson today at 8 am vs 7 am.  What a difference an hour makes!  

Rocker Foxtrot:  The rocker is getting better.  We did our first run of a full test pattern today.

Starlight Waltz:  Wow so many steps in this dance.  Nothing really difficult except for the backwards cross roll for the lady and change of hold from Waltz hold and rejoining in Kilian before start of next pattern.

Kilian: well … lets just say ITS FAST.  The Chocktaw has to be just right or it wont work.