Dance lesson with Ikaika on 8/16/2010

Attendee: Sharron

Last week we had some wonderful lessons with Ikaika, but I neglected taking notes, so a week later, I only remembered that we talked about:
1. make the spin turn travel more. Daniel's first step on the spin turn need not to curve to the extend that it's not going down line of dance.
2. he corrected the opening into prominent after the turning lock. Daniel need to let me pass first, then step forward himself, so that we line up correctly for the prominent position.

Today, we worked on
1. Throw away oversway:
a. when in the prep position, turn head right, but don't take the space of the man. Need to remember to keep the belly in. :P
b. the challenge line step, need to try to feel stepping straight through the man's right side. after landing with the right foot turned, don't try to swivel to be turned 180 degrees. Instead do something like 150, to leave some angle.

c. go forward on the shaping part, feel like a forward/upward spiral shaping that stretches the right side. forward, but not onto.


2. feather step:
a. He asked me to put my finger tip at the center of my body, right below the last rib cage, to feel the spine turning (into CBM), it needs to turn at the same speed of the body weight shifting from the front of the feet to the end.
b. Contract the back muscles (the muscles on the side of the back) to turn the body into the CBMs.
c. relax the muscle, free it, flow it, while keep the head at the same position, at feather, reverse turn, and especially at the end of the feather finish step, don't tense up with the right elbow sticking out.

3. natural wave:
after the natural turn, in preparing the next step, left the knee bent over the foot, to facilitate the preparation of the left foot. Do not shift out the right hip instead.
do the prepare, split, collect three stage exercise. On preparing the right foot forward, similarly, try to create a crease between the left leg and the left crotch, to prepare the right foot forward.