Back at It

So OwnerGuy added the finishing touches to the Fox Trot and he was on our lesson for a bit to show me how it is supposed to look. We started out going through the part we knew and he watched and gave me some pointers on the telemark. Basically, the first step kind of sets it up and the second is me cutting her off. The combination of rise and that is supposed to make her close her feet and then we just step out. Sounds easy. But then everything sounds easy.

The new part he added is a hairpin. We ended the old part in a shadow position and after a streamline, we do one open natural. The hairpin is just four steps (believe they are all the same timing) with us still in shadow. On the last step we both step forward on the right foot but with rotation and CB so we are a bit twisted.

Then, we step back on the left while rotating a bit and do kind of tandem turn but I drop my hand so we end up apart. Then, there are “two jazzy steps” (don’t ask me what that means) and I’m supposed to go after her with what is a Bronze variation but never really done called 3 and a feather. Or at least I think that’s what I remember from last night. The weird step is the second because it is also a heel step but you roll through to the toe (all on the quick). The last step is a normal toe. That middle part is supposed to give me some momentum to cover the distance between us.

After that, we are still apart (maybe I have her right hand in my left) and there is another three steps that ends up outside partner. From there, I do something that I can’t remember but it ends with a hinge. I roll her around and she walks away from me and that’s the end of the show.

Right now, the details are sketchy but I wanted to get a few things down. But I was tracing out the pattern in my head and it covers a lot of ground.

If I remember it all, the pattern goes something like this:

• After some initial stuff, we start on a long side and we do a side by side grapevine.
• That ends with both of us doing a spin and then we take two steps back the way we came.
• From there, I go another three steps back – angling this a little so it isn’t straight back and give her a turn into the telemark which sends us towards the corner.
• We do a couple of step/points and then she runs from me and I catch her in the corner and there is a little dip like thing before we both do another spin (or turn)
• I pick her up after that and it goes into a spiral and then a hover corte which covers the short side and gets us into the opposite corner.
• We come out of the hover corte and go into the streamline and the first open natural which covers a lot of the long side and gets us near the third corner.
• Then the hairpin goes about halfway on the short side and we use the tandem turn to change direction and start back down the long side.
• The 3 and feather and next part cover the long side and the hinge gets us almost back to the second corner.

I don’t know how many steps that is but it goes up and down the long side twice. We both agreed we need a bigger floor than a typical Showcase.

I did discover that doing two Fox Trot lessons requires a bit of ankle strength. I was kind of wobbling a bit towards the end. Still, it will look cool if we can get some of the rough parts down.

We did finish with a practice run right at the end of the lesson and managed to make it through which is also how I know how much ground it covers. There was a lady coming in for her lesson (she’s another one who enjoys performing) and she actually just hung around outside to watch until we finished. Then she came in to let me know she had been out watching and also mentioned how much it moved.

Oh and I did tell JoNY my plan to focus just on the routines and skip the Showcase in September. She agreed that made sense so now we just have the grind until November.