Always more to learn

I told you all when I graduated from Bronze 1 to Bronze 2 level but for the past several months all I've really worked on in my private lessons has been stuff for the last 2 events and really haven't worked on the Bronze 2 steps yet. I've gotten some exposure to them in the group classes but nothing beats 1-on-1 attention. Well now that those events are done we've started learning the lv2 steps. Going from 1 level to the next they add more steps but they also add more styling and layers to your previous steps.
When I say there is always more to learn it's in a good way. Being shown a new step, practicing it a few times, adjusting it and working to understand it, then after awhile (sometimes a few min sometimes not even that session) it clicks. That sense of understanding is such a wonderful feeling. The ones where it takes the most time for me anyway is being exposed to it an group setting. But you have to go out and try it and it makes it so much easier to learn it in the private lessons. For example they let those at Bronze 2 go to the Bronze 3 group class. So I went to the Cha Cha Bronze 3 class a few months back and kept up the best I could but wasn't grasping it. Then last night went again and it came a lot easier. Just the time to absorb it and generally getting better in other areas of my dancing helped me pick it up better the next time.

Rock-a-rama

Just finished a very fun day at Rock-a-rama. It was a solo showcase allowing us to show off our dancing skills and the entertainer in eac of us. The pictures will cycle over on the right but they are all at my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_higgins/ . Everything went great and there was so much energy from everyone, the rock & roll theme probably helped with that. Here's the videos I took. I'm very happy with how my solo and formation performances turned out and it was so good to get so many great comments on how I did. Probably post more later about the event just wanted to get these up right away.

Rock-a-Rama 2009 Plano Pro Formation, performing to rock medley "Rock you like a Hurricane/Pour some sugar on"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejxw-2s_tSQ
Rock-a-Rama 2009 Dallas Pro Formation, performing to Queen Bohemian Rhapsody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYJLrxG-GVQ
Gillian Horowitz with Angelo doing a solo at Rock-a-rama to the remix of Elvis' Rubberneckin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP_-tXTdv7o
Rock-a-Rama 2009 Plano formation to "I love Rock & Roll" featuring Roger Kamicar, Sidney Lenz, Adriann and myself, also choreographed by Adriann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx36dg3veLM

My Rock-a-Rama 2009 Hustle/Cha-cha Solo with my instructor Adriann to "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai.

Recent Happenings

Well I've been with out regular internet for awhile but I'm back up and running again. I've added a bunch of stuff from the last event as you can see. Melanie who was going to be my regular alternate instructor has been pulled down to the Dallas studio (that is a sister studio, owned by the same people) to fill in for an instructor on maternaty leave. as they say "The only thing constant in life is change". So for now I'll be taking my alternate lessons with Gilda. I don't mind taking lessons with others it gives a rounded education. I'd even like to take some lessons with the male instructors to help with things from a male point of view. But on the other hand it is nice to get used to dancing with someone and get familiar with them. I'm glad Adriann is still with me and if she gets taken away from me were gonna have a problem. She knows the way to teach me that really makes things click.
Right now we are doing a lot of work for the up coming event Rock-a-rama. I'm doing everything I'm eligble for. Looking forward to doing my solo and I'm also in the Team Plano formation, which is a sychronized group dance. I'm even going to do the amature 2-dance with another student.
Amy at the studio who does a lot of manager duties is really making some great improvements with fun electronic newsletters and adding there own websites on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/amdsplano/ and face book and youtube. I've linked all my things with there's. Its nice to be able to share our video and photo's with each other.

Pro-show Freestyle Showcase 2009

The Professional show by the instructors of all the studios. Quite a show, glad I recorded it, so much going on at once. Who's your favorite?

Freestyle Showcase 2009 2-dance Videos

This is my doing the competition portion of the event. I danced Rhythm with Adriann and Smooth with Melanie. Its nice to get an outside perspective on how I did.

The Day after 5/18/09

Thankfully I was able to get the day after freestyle showcase off work. I didn't dance a lot at the event but it was a very full day and glad I could relax after. A couple of the judges from the event stayed to give master classes and coaching sessions. Bobby Gonzalez was a judge and he is here for a couple days also giving feedback to all the participants of the event. He goes over the judge's comments for each of your freestyle heats. Everyone is evaluated at there individual level. As this was my first event I was marked as a "new comer" the next levels are "associate bronze" which is bronze 1&2 and then "full bronze" for those that are bronze 3&4. Most of my judges critiques were about things like being sure to change wieght fully with each step and the size of my steps for the dance I was doing. Overall Bobby said they had to look for things to comment on and that I was making very good progress.
Next I went to 1 of the 2 master classes for the night. I don't think I posted anything on the first master class I went to. Those that travel around to do the coachings are world famous dancers in there own right and considered masters. They will have a group class where they touch on something that can help someone of all levels. Leslie Spearin was one of the judges yesterday and she had us work on the change of body wieght from one foot to the other and body postion in smooth dances. Dancing is a bit more complicated than walking and sometimes its hard to change your wieght correctly. Everyone does it unconsciously as they walk, its natural. Now for most of us we haven't been dancing as long as we have been walking so its something to learn. Now not only is it required for picking up the foot you want to take your next step with but if you don't do a clear and full weight change it makes it look sloppy and doesn't give your partner the right communication. The other thing we went over was body position. When you first start the guy and girl face each other and there shoulders line up parallel and you get into dance hold. Now as you get to higher levels in most of the dances you actually line up off center where the girl's shoulder is at the guy's center line or where the buttons on his shirt are. I talked about this when I was talking about Tango but I guess it applies to more of the dances than just that one.
I had a short break then I had my lesson with Adriann and Leslie Spearin coaching. We focused on rythm dances Rumba and Cha Cha. Like the last time I had a coaching session she really gave me a lot of info. I tried to soak up as much as I could but I'm glad Adriann took notes. We worked more on my Cuban motion. Refining how the bending of the knees affect the hips, theres always another layer to add. The hips are supposed to move more in a horizontal rotation and not any up and down motion. A bit hard to describe with out a visual but think of taking a step forward with your left foot and bending the knee now instead of letting your right hip raising to compensate, rotate your hips pulling your left hip forward and your right back but don't let it rotate your chest keep that forward. Now with each step you change your wieght, bending the other knee and straightening the first and alternating the rotation of the hips.
There are to many things we touched on to mention them all but one other thing was how to lead a move called 5th position breaks. The move requires me to release my left hand and we open up on that side. So to lead her I use my right arm to pull out and back, with her connection of her arm resting over my right arm and my hand on her back she gets a very clear lead of what I want her to do.
Now if anyone reading this hasn't taken lessons don't worry if you don't understand it as I barely do and it's something that anyone has to work up to and everyone moves at a differnt pace. Speaking of learning pace it was again gratifing to hear her say I picked up what she was explaining quickly and she could give me even more than normal for Adriann to incorporate into our lessons. Leslie was also surprized like Bobby (my last coach) how few lessons I've had. It's a great confidence builder but I realize there are things I'm not going to get right away and that it is work. But I'm glad so many differnt people all see the same skill and potential in me, it makes me want to work even harder.

Freestyle Showcase 5/17/09

I've been looking forward to this event for awhile now. It was a long fun day. Started at 7:30 with breakfast and dancing starting around 8:00 and we ended a little late around 6:30pm. I've got 4 videos of my dancing the smooth and rhythm 2-dance section and then 4 videos of the professional show that I'll be uploading later.
A 'heat' is where you are on the floor with several other couples dancing to a song for about 2 min. There were 220 heats for the day before the various 2-dance portion and the professional section. I did 8 heats. But I know some students who did 100 or more and some the instructors were dancing all day for maybe 200 or more of the heats.
I had an anxious energy but wasn't overly nervous. The best way I can describe being out on the dance floor was it was energizing. I danced 3 smooth dances with Adriann, 3 rhythm dances with Melanie, a Foxtrot with Gilda and a swing with Amy. And all thou I didn't do very many dances it was fun watching everyone else. I also got lots of great photos. They did smooth dances then a break for out fit changes going to country western dances and then to the latin/rythm.
Then the 2-dance portion of the event came up. I entered both the ryhthm and smooth associate bronze level 2-dances. first it was the rhythm which was a Rhumba and Merengue that I danced with Adriann. I didn't expect a lot out of the rhythm side but I wanted to experience the competioion side of things. Adriann created a routine for our Rumba that we could do then repeat for as long as the music went. I got throu it once then totally blanked and just started trying to remember moves to do and get throu the rest of the dance. Adriann gave me a huge compliment in my eyes, she knew I had lost it and that I was nervous but she said I didn't project it in my movements or my face so that only she and I knew we weren't on track. I didn't place when they announced the top 6 out of 10 couples, but I wasn't expecting to.
They had the other leveles of rhythm 2-dance then I did the smooth dances Waltz and Foxtrot with Melanie. It went very well I thought. I was very confident and Melaniei said she could feel my lead the whole time. They ranked the top 6 out of 9 for this one. I was actually a little disapointed I didn't get acknowledged in smooth and I was in the bottom 3. But this was my first event and it doesn't mean I was bad just that everyone else was above my skill level. Like I said I had someone take a video and looking at it from an outside view I'm very satisified with how I did for the dances.
As you you will be able to see the professional shows were amazing. So fun to watch them go all outwith routines they designed. The whole day was amazing. I'm goint to have to start saving up for the next major even so I can dance more heats in the event and get more experience. I'll be adding more soon when I can.

Good-bye Tiffany

I have limited access to internet so these posts are a bit delayed. This should have been added 5/5/09.
I'd suspected something was going on as I hadn't seen Tiffany at the studio for a couple of days. Today I got a call from Adriann confirming things, that Tiffany was no longer with the studio. It was all very diplomatically said "That she is taking her career in another direction" and that tonight I'll have my lesson with Amy. I doubt the transition was planned to far in advance as she didn't say good-bye. We got a long quite well and I'm sorry we won't be able to do the swing routine I promised her or the Viennese Waltz to 'Cancion Del Mariachi', a song from the movie Desperado, that was on the list of music I gave to her. She had set it aside as something she wanted to do with me when I got to that level. I wish Tiffany luck and good times in what ever she is doing now. I'm going to miss her.
Amy has come helped out or gave pointers in some of my lessons before but it was nice to get a full lesson from her. It's nice to have lessons with various instructors as it gives you a differnt views and it gies you a fuller pictures of what you need to learn. I'd also met Melanie an instructor that recently transfered from the Dallas studio a couple days ago ago. She joined us for part of the lesson and is going to be dancing with me for the dances I would have had with Tiffany at Freestyle showcase. Looks like she is going to be my alternate instructor.

Cuban Motion

Right now I’m not taking as many private lessons due to financial reasons but one of the great things about the studio is I am still able to go to all the group classes which reinforces what I already know and shows me some new variations on those steps also.
Sense we are not doing as many we really pack as much into a lesson as we can. Two things that really help with that is one I seem to absorb what they give me quickly (Amy another one of the instructors there has nicknamed me the dance sponge) and two I practice what they give me on my own time either at home with choreography written out or coming in early before group classes to use the dance floor to practice on my own.
Next month there is a local dance event called Freestyle showcase. A Freestyle is where you are on the dance floor with multiple other couples dancing to a certain style. You are graded individually on your level in that dance. There is also a section called a 2 dance, where it is 2 dances of either Smooth or Latin style and you compete against the others on the floor. I plan on doing both the Smooth and the Latin 2 dances.Tonight we focused all our time on a dance routine for Rumba one of the dances in the Latin 2 dance. I’d done a Rumba before at a spotlight party, in fact it’s the one I have on video. We are using those steps and expanding it. Now after all that let’s get back to the title of the post here. Cuban motion is the effect where you bend 1 knee and keep the other one straight this causes the hip on the straight leg to go up then you switch. This is what causes the Latin motion in the hips, if you just tried to do the hips with out the knees it just wouldn’t work. As we worked on the steps we worked a lot of alternating bending the knees and changing weight. Sometimes I had to pause and go back and cover something again because it was a lot with the knees, the hips, the steps the arm movements and layering it all but I really felt like we made a lot of great progress. Looking forward to the showcase and competing.

Bronze 1 Checkout

At the studio you can choose which dances you want to focus on for your majors, then have dances that are your minors that you don’t do as much and those dances you want to just skip. It's very customizable. I choose to make my majors the same as those they have for the majors at dance competitions; they are also some of the more common. They are Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Rumba, Cha Cha and Swing. 3 smooth and 3 rhythm dances. Today I checked out of Bronze 1 level of all of those dances and can now move on to Bronze 2 steps. It’s such a great feeling of accomplishment. Making my teachers proud of my progress, the support from the other students, its got me feeling so good. Was also a very cool feeling when I was having my evaluation to be able to do a step when it’s called and have it come easily. Now on to learning more and more.