Lesson with Ieva on 5/1/2012

We worked on Waltz today

1.      Posture:

a.      Need to keep the posture picked up. Like the handsomely picked up position.

2.      Movement:

a.      Use the lowering for the movement, do not do the lowering with no purpose.

3.      Left whisk:

a.      Weight on inside of the standing foot (left foot)

b.      Left foot need to move to place quickly.

c.      In the step going into the left whisk, use foot pressure to travel through the partner, not around.

d.      She talked to Denis about not turning too much at the end?

e.      Throw away over sway: she said that foot can not cross, but shoulder can turn more if partner turns more.

4.      Zigzag:

a.      Keep the upper body still relative to partner’s position, do not slide back and forth

5.      Natural Pivots:

a.      In forward step, quickly move weight onto right foot (turned out) and turn.

Questions for Ieva,

1.      Reverse turns:

a.      How do we do tumble turn, where to step my right foot, why does he step on my left foot?

b.      Also this happens in the telespin step.

2.      Tango:

a.      Can we work on some tango basics?

b.      What are the basics for tango walk, and progressive link, then close promenade?

handsomely pinned -- Lesson with Ikaika 4/25/2012

Had two lessons with Ikaika last week.

Work trips to CA feels so much like  a vacation!

At the lesson, we talked about maintaining a structure of the couple.

11.  Structure:

a.      Feel like handsomely pinned to the partner at ribcage, (not at hip!, don’t worry about keeping connection at the hip, This is different from Danny’s version)

b.      This is a similar like what Ieva talked about picking up the bra strap, and put it toward the ball of the foot.

22. Coming out of PP, need to land on the inside of the big toe, and move toward the partner.

3. Double reverse, look at the comp video, notice that I was falling back weighted on coming out of the double reverse, this is not how to create shape, remember forward onto the ball of the foot, handsomely pinned.