The New Steps

So I actually meant to do some kind of short post to try and capture the two new steps I got last Thursday.  But you know, best laid plans and all.  I should have done this when the notes were fresh in my head – now I’m going basically on my memory.

The weird part of this is that OwnerGuy gives JoNY the step and then it sounded like she watched the training video to learn it.  Can’t imagine what those training videos are like.  Guess he’s figuring she can give me the high points and then he can come in and clean up any issues.

The first step was in Cha-Cha and I can’t remember the name.  I know it was In and Out something and their might have been Progressive or Triple Progressive in the title.  Then again the step name probably won’t mean anything if you aren’t dancing at a Famous Franchise because I’m pretty sure they’ve got different names for a lot of the steps.

So it starts with a basic Cha-Cha and into an opening out so she’s on my right side.  We cha-cha to the left and then I do something she called a cross body but it felt more like what we do on a half moon.  Basically, I use the rock step to move her from my left to my right so we are side by side in an open position.  Then it gets a little weird.  We both do forward locks on the next triple and then we are supposed to rotate our bodies towards each other and do something with the feet although they are still pointed down the dance floor.  So we do another set of forward locks but we are in some contorted contra body position.  Then we finish with another set of forward locks where we are back to being side by side.  Then, we go back to that contorted position but just for a normal rock and then we separate.  I’m supposed to bring her in while not really moving and then I roll her back out to end it.  I’ll have to consult my notes for more details.  I can see it in my mind but the little details have left me.  It was actually pretty easy except for me wanting to change weight as she rolled in which wasn’t good because then I was on the wrong foot.

The Swing step was called Banana Split.  We start in a double hand hold and I wrap her up like we are doing a circling whip but then I roll her back out and we end up facing each other with arms crossed over each other in some unnatural cockeyed position.  After a rock, we triple towards each other to end up back to back.  I wish I could explain the arm positions but, like a lot of steps with arm stuff, it kind of happens naturally.  When you’re all wound up, there is generally only one way to unwind.  I’m suppose to then drop a hand and give her a free spin where she comes around me and then I pick up her and we are back to normal.   The tricky part is that the spin comes pretty quickly and it feels like I want to hang out a bit in the back to back position but there is no time.  We basically get there and then she comes right back out.  Guess I figure with all the effort it took to get there, I’d kind of like to hang there for a bit.

Tonight we have a coach coming in and my later lesson is going to be on Bolero.  He supposed to be able to help me make the levels of Bolero appear without having to sink deeply into my knees.  Not that I could sink deeply into them even if I wanted to but my current amount leave the Bolero looking kind of flat which seems to be a no no.

Of course, I still haven’t quite figured out that having a training session before taking two dance lessons is not a great plan.  Actually, I suppose it would be worse if I had two lessons tomorrow.  Right now, the muscles are just tired.  Tomorrow they get tired and sore.  Today we did a boat load of shoulder/upper body stuff.  We are still working on finding a permanent trainer for Tuesday so today I was working with someone I had once before Thanksgiving.  That session was nowhere near as tough as today’s.  She had me doing bicep curls – 3 sets of 15 reps (twice).  Probably not a big deal for some of you but I don’t yet have that kind of endurance.  We dropped the weight as the cycles progressed but it was still a struggle to finish at the end.  Seems like the theme was endurance and clearly that’s an area I need to work on.  So tonight could be fun as I try to get my sore shoulders to cooperate with the dancing.