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.

Standard lesson with Katusha

Today's lesson we worked on foxtrot.
1. Shape:
a. an exercise is to stand with right side next to the wall, stretch left but push to the right to stretch left, so we have the equal stretch on both side. And this shape and stretch is maintained within, but supported by the partner.
b. When trying to shape head/upper shoulder back, the spine is shifted forward first, so there is a bigger contrast between the lower part of the spine, and the upper part (+ neck, head), but over all the stardum is staying at the same spot in space.
c. In prominade position, the stretch is exactly the opposite. stretch to right on the right, but stretch to the left at the base area (from above hip to bra strap area shift left, then above part stretch right).
2. spine keep toward the partner, even during the shapes. Lady's spine mirror what Leader's spine do.
3. The stretch both side somehow helped me to keep the arms connected to the body. Denis reported improvement in quickstep.
4. Reverse turn, under turn it, so that it ends with a slight rotation to the right.
5. CBM, she said to think of the two shoulders moving at different speeds.

Standard lesson with GP 2/4/2012

What a fantastic lesson today.  We worked on techniques.

1. Lady's job is to only move forward and backward. Let the guy to the job of direction and turning,

Reverse Figures
Eg A: Applying this in big top: Big top is three forward steps, with a swivel and pivot in the middle. after the outside swivel, on the big top steps, just step forward, do not try to get around, just go forward (down line of dance) on left foot, then forward with right foot, as soon as the right foot touches the ground, swivel on BOTH foot, then close left foot to right foot, pivot (meaning turning body and foot at the same time), then step forward with left foot.

 Eg B: Fall away slip pivot. first three step is stepping straight back, At the end of the third step (right foot back), rise and continue to go back with head, then the man will turn the lady and make it a slip pivot.

Eg C: weave from PP: forward with right foot
a. forward left
b. forward right, do not try to cut across him.
c. swivel, (keep head right).
d. forward left.

Eg D: double reverse over spin:
back step on right foot, left foot close to right foot, and heel turn, forward with right foot, swivel with both foot once right foot touches the floor, (turn head to right), cross the left foot in front of left foot. right foot back, pivot on right foot.

Thoughts: tumble turn is similar to the second part of the double reverse over spin.

Questions:
1. How to apply this to reverse step in reverse outside swivel in tango? Is it back right foot, pivot foot and body, forward left step,


Natural figures:

Eg E: Natrual Spin turn and Pivots: remember to go forward, not going around.
a. turn body right to match with the partner as stepping forward on the right foot. (very important, do not try to go around).
b. then step forward on the left foot, (not around).
c. swivel both feet to the right, as soon as the foot touch the floor,

d. move weight back to left foot,
e. pivot on left foot. (turn body and foot at the same time)
f. forward with right foot again, repeat a.

2. In forward movement, the power of the movement come from the bending of the the shin of the front foot. It is like a horse that pulls the carriage(body) forward. The incorrect way is to push from the back foot.  This provides more control of the movement, much less likely to let the momentem of the body taking control. Especially so in tango. 
Eg: reverse outside swivel. In syllabus, the reverse outside swivel is a reverse turn+ swivel. The difference in open step is that the lady doesn't swivel, only the guy does the swivel. The girl only just turn the body to the left to face the guy, As I'm moving the left foot forward, I need to keep my body to the left as the guy is moving from my right side to my left side.  But I continue to move forward on my foot.

After the reverse outside swivel, do not stop, continue with the forward step in the big top right away.

Standard Lesson with Danny

1. We continued the conversation on rotation in waltz.

2. In double reverse: the person going back does the rotation, the person going forward needs to move. So it is lady rotate, man move; then switch to lady move, man rotate. In the over spin part, lady rotate again. man move.  At this point, we get into something like a PP for a brief moment, before step out to the left whisk.

3. In natural turn, the leader sends his signal at the & before the 1, by bending the ankle. the difference between bending the ankle and bending the knee is that bending ankle shift the body forward, while bending the knee could keep the person in place (like sitting down, instead of moving forward). And it's the moving forward that is giving the signal to the girl to step out.

4. Swing and sway of the natural turn: the leader sway left to stop the turn. Not exactly sure if it's sway we are talking about here, because he said it's something in the legs that he is doing. He called this counter rotation.


Quick Step.
1. need to make sure that the legs are before the body in closed position. In promenade position, can keep the body tilted because nobody is in front of you.
2. pepper pot step has Q&QQQ, the first Q& each are 1/4 of a count. 

General.
1. He asked us for a stronger/warm connection/fit, especially at the beginning of a partnership. 
2. He asked me to free my upper body for rotations. He said I was too stiff to follow his lead. So I was able to correct it, and he said it was good.

Standard Lesson with Giampiero

Today we continued on Foxtrot. After we clarified the routine. We got into the topics below

1. Foxtrot Timing: Instead of trying to do SQQSQQSQQ, we try to do SS|&SS|&SS. i.e we change the steps from 2 1 1 measure into 1.5, 2, 0.5 measure. The reason we do this is because we should accelerate when going down, but slow down when rising. In the SQQ scheme, we are slowing in the downward movement but speed up in the rising part. In the new &SS scheme, we drag out the rising part.

2. Posture: what is vertical?  (Forgot his precise answer now). However, he emphasized on the proper alignment of the pelvic bone to establish verticality. Basically after the pelvic bone is properly directly (most likely a very slightly tucked sensation for me). It is then aligned with the center of the thigh. and the chest. This line is directly above center of the foot in Waltz and foxtrot. above ball of the foot in quickstep, and slightly behind center of the foot in tango (not sure if it is as far behind as on the heel though) . This shift depends on the amount of bend in the knee.
 The correctly alignment of the pelvic bone needs to be maintained through out the dance. This is how  it guarantees that the upper body is properly aligned relatively to lower body.

Need to double check the definition of verticality with him next time. Need to verify on the three point of alignment next time.

3. we also talked about timing the moving back of the upper body, the lower of the standing leg, the preparation of the moving leg. They need to be timed in the same way relative to each other.  I seems to have a tendency to leave the upper body forward. so he told me to release my upper body.And they will natually push my standing leg to do the Heel part of the TH movement.  Right now I often skip that. I don't put my heel down.

4. On reverse turn, we talked about the left foot closing step should happen after the heel turn is done, and as soon as I close, I'm ready to go forward, so this is a forward step, not a backward step.  This would make it easier to

5. Use the leg that is ahead of the movement as soon as possible. Feel like a horse dragging the carriage, not pushing the carriage. When going backward, same principle, feel like the foot is like the wheels of the car when driving backward.

ballrom dance competition floor size

I was wondering the size of the ballroom competition floors. So I did some research online and summarize it here.


USA Dance rules state:
5.7.8 Competition floors for recognized competitions must be a minimum of 60 feet long by 36 feet wide. (They do not specify a maximum size however and they do not specify a difference for champ events).
NDCA Rules state:
III. 21. Floors for competition must be a minimum of 60 feet long and a minimum of 36 feet wide, or 2,160 square feet. Floors for Championship events must be a minimum of 66 feet long and a minimum of 42 feet wide.


Premier ballroom (fremont, CA) -- 45ft x 72ft

MIT: 48' x 80'. roughly
MAC: 40 x 76 or 40 x 80
Nationals: 40 x 80

Starlight: 85' x