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?

Standard Lesson with Ieva on 9/21/2011

August and September just flew by!

This is the second lesson Denis and I had with Ieva. We looked at waltz mostly, then a little bit of VW. It was a great lesson.

1. At last Sunday's lesson, we focused on space. Having a bigger space.
a. Put a dot on foot, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, wrist, finger, neck. feeling like the space between each dots are bigger, longer.
b. Thinking of the space around the body, rather than the body itself as a way to renew/maintain the shape. Think as if there are balloons all around.
c. Think of the elbow going where the movement is going.

I asked a couple questions today
2. How to get a bigger shape on the natural turn? Keep in mind there is not much time to finish the shape though, so need to start early. Remember to keep the space big all around. do not sacrifice one part of the space to achieve bigger space on another part. For example, don't shorten the back, keep both side of the neck long (don't short the left side of the neck).

3. Running spin turn:
Don't rise completely to the end, rising after the weight is moved onto the standing foot , second rise gradually.

4. Left Whisk:
Sharron need to remember not to collapse the left side.

5. run around:
On the first step coming out of the left whisk, put right hip down, to change to a sway toward the center of the turn, (while keeping the shape to the left).

6. Promenade position:
Remember to keep the space big, not having head leaning forward into the direction.

7. zigzag: do not shift the frame when turning from PP to close position. Keep the frame (i.e. spine, elbow, arms) moving forward consistently at the same speed.

8. pivots+ spin turn: difference between pivots and spin turn. no rise on pivots? what was she addressing here?

9. Throw away then into a left foot develope: do not close the space when turning around to the develope. Need to move the hip up/forward for the develope.


VW:
1. direction: Remember to step the right foot right under partner's spine to ensure that I'm following his direction.

Standard Lesson with Ieva on 6/1/2011

Questions:
1. Turning lock: how does the hip eye align with the ball of the foot during turning lock?
Answer: The hip eye always align with the same side foot. (left with left, right with right). It's the shoulder that may cross sometimes to the opposite foot.

2. How to do the double reverse with
The routine goes as the following:
1. chasse close.
2. quick open reverse with a pivot (1 2&3&)
3. double reverse overturned(1 2&3&)
4. left whisk (123)
5. run around.

There are a lot of syncopation and turns here. In turning, need to remember the following
a. get out of the way when in inside of the turn. This is used in after the pivot step and after the double reverse. Basically overturn a bit to get to the right position, and then step the right foot toward under the right elbow to get out of the way.
b. use arm to help partner get out of the way when on outside of the turn, this is used in the last step of the quick open reverse, to prepare for the pivot step
c. She also suggested to do another reverse turn, instead of a pivot after the double reverse to turn around.
d. on runaround, keep the inside hip (i.e. right keep) down. this helps with the turning. But to keep a nice picture, still project left/up on the shoulder/upper body.

3. How to do the develope picture line (Need to ask her on this again when Charles is around)
a. Look up/forward, not down.
b. bend left knee before stepping back.
c. there are two choices on the shaping here, which leads to either keep the lady's head left, or turn it right. Not really sure how she lead these two.
d. slight left foot forward before getting onto left foot.
d. move the weight forward to left foot, and pick up right knee.
e. extend right foot, and do both foot rise and body rise. (do foot rise if possible, can skip it if need it for balance)
f. on coming out of this figure, the first right step is around leader's left side, then the next step is around his right side. there are similarity to this in fall away whisk.
e. She also mentioned that this is a definitely a waltz picture line, with the rise and fall. And most of the picture line should be phrased on the first bar 123 in the 8 bar phrase.

4. We then worked on foxtrot a little bit.