Happy Holidays from Arizona

 Ok .. here’s my “Holiday Skate” from Schnepf Farms about a mile from my winter home.  The ice was atrocious ~ $18 for 1 hour.  $12 if you have your own skates.  There were more bumps and killer blobs of ice than my pond at home .. nevertheless it’s outdoor ice.  Who can resist?

Starting a New Free Dance Program!

 It’s beginning to look a lot like - New Choreography.  

Today we started the journey.  It may be a very long journey.  My amazing coach Naomi Lang coughed up some amazing opening poses and initial steps to begin this program in just moments.  It took an entire lesson to teach the EASY steps to me.  If you have followed any of my skating you already know how long this is going to take!   A five-six-seven-eight … here we go.

Goal: Adult Intermediate Free Dance

Required Elements: Below 

Getting Close to Testing Pre-Silver Dances

 During my lesson with Vitali today I arbitrarily asked him where we were with respect to testing these three dances and his reply was …. We’re ready!  Let’s have one more lesson and run them all full out and then we will test them.  

I guess this will be my first virtual test session.

Today we worked hard on doing lots of dry runs - followed by runs with music.

I feel ok about them all .. except that pesky end pattern on the Foxtrot.

Arizona Ice Again

Ok .. I’m back for the rest of the winter season in Arizona.  Time to get busy LEARNING something new and I’ll start by not making too many excuses as part of my 2023 resolutions!

I skated Monday on an adult session and did a little freestyle after running my dances (not shown).

Then had my Thursday lesson with Naomi Lang.  We are going to start working on a new program soon but I need to get my HOUSE in order.  Namely .. learn some of these harder turns and get my Twizzles moving down the ice without hesitation.  The next level free dance for me is Solo Intermediate which requires an end to end step sequence, a spin, a side to side choreographic sequence (????) a short edge and a Twizzle sequence with no more than 1 step between.  😱  Needless to say - this will take at LEAST a year for me to do .. maybe longer.  But starting is the fun part.   I’m leaning toward a tango (so I don’t have to smile!) 

But today we just worked on fundamentals.

It’s Warmer In The Rink

Yep.  26º outside.   35º in the rink.   

While I am looking forward to getting back to Arizona where the rink is colder the outside air temperature… it was fun skating today at my home rink for Adult Drop In Coffee Club in Spokane at Eagles Ice Arena.   I was hoping to work off some of the Thanksgiving pie consumed this weekend.

I brought my freestyle boots and blades with me in case I had a chance to skate with my pairs partner of yesteryear Hank … but alas he didn’t make it today.  Maybe we can get together later this week.

Skating on my FS blades - are scary after being on my dance blades for months and months.  I was happy to execute nearly all my jumps sans Lutz … toyed with some choreography and tried some spins too.

My Holiday Program 2022

Counters - Chocktaws - Twizzles before Thanksgiving!

 Leaving tomorrow for parts much colder than Arizona.  Got my last lesson in today with beautiful and talented Naomi Lang.  My lessons are so low key with her vs with Vitali when my heart rate goes skyrocketing!  But that’s ok.   She helps me with so many fundamentals and now I am trying to increase my skating vocabulary from 

Three turns and Mohawks to 

Brackets, Rockers, Counters and Choctaws.   This may take some time.  I’ve been working on some of these off and on for a few years.

Now .. considering my coach is actually a Karuk descendant …  AND the first Native American to participate in the Olympic Winter Games (2002) perhaps I should stop calling them Choctaws and Mohawks and start calling them S Steps and C Steps.   Such a hard habit to break. I will try.

One Step Closer

 I had another great lesson with Vitali today. We spent extra time working on the Foxtrot exercises and spent a long time working on the position of my RFO edge/lilt and the timing of my end pattern RFO edge and closed C step .. what else is new?     I do feel I am making a little progress on it.

1 Step Forward 2 Steps Back

 Had a great lesson on Monday with Vitali.  Tuesday I received a Covid19 booster and a Flu shot at the same time in different arms.  I skated right after and felt ok.  I didn’t skate too hard on the session.

That night - WOW - arm aches, body aches, chills, headache … don’t get me wrong.  I am not complaining about getting vaccinated. But these two together really got me.

I tried skating on Thursday because I had my first lesson with Naomi after coming back to Arizona and I didn’t want to miss it.  I was so dizzy and fatigued I had to get off the ice - rest in the warmer lobby and return during my lesson time.

Needless to say .. we didn’t make much progress, but I have some really great exercises for learning my counters and chocktaws.

Arizona Ice Time Begins NOW!

What a great summer it was.  It flew by ~ I had no idea I was going to skate so often and spend most of the working toward a partnered dance test.  It was so much fun working with a partner again.

My modus operandi is to hang up my skates for a bit right after I complete a test or competition.  I get so mentally exhausted and worked up over the performance day .. I just need time off.  So I haven’t seen the ice since October 21.

Today I got back on the ice in Arizona and had a dance lesson with Vitali Vakunov.  After not skating for two weeks and playing 9 holes of golf in the morning .. I was wondering how my legs were going to hold up.  

Much to my surprise I never got really fatigued during the 45 minute lesson.  We went from dance to dance doing warm up exercises before each dance then running them back to back.  I was pretty impressed with my stamina.  Of course I think Vitali is doing all the work .. I’m just along for the ride!