Practice makes the girl go round...

[catsmeow]

Elise:
Why does your partner not find a suitable pro am teacher and take private lessons with he? Would that not increase the speed of learning that much more ? Just curious.

[elisedance]

Elise:
Why does your partner not find a suitable pro am teacher and take private lessons with he? Would that not increase the speed of learning that much more ? Just curious.

Simple answer?  He's a cheap skate!!  Its much better for him to take lessons with me - then the coach spends 80% of the time with the lead and the follow serves as the model for his efforts - and then pays half the lesson.

I wish I could get him to do so because you are so right - we could be in championship in no time.  Actually, right now we are still working through the after effects of an op so I'm happy to take it easy.  However, he is running a danger - while I am working with new-pro my dancing is improving by leaps and what if some top lead were to notice that?  I don't want to change but have no idea how I would react.

Lets hope DP isn't on here yet uh?  Or maybe this would do him good.  Or maybe he would just go find someone else oh dear...

[waltzelf]

Practice is going just great at the moment. We're making some real progress and feel right on the cusp of breaking through the "3rd place" barrier we have going at the moment (almost comp we score 3rd or 4th. So we easily make the final but are just out of reach of the top couples).

Just a little bit more refinement and we'll be there

[elisedance]

its great when you feel progress - we are too I hasten to add but thats largely because we have one extra limb than we had before

[waltzelf]

its great when you feel progress - we are too I hasten to add but thats largely because we have one extra limb than we had before

Because of the massive height difference between my partner and I it's been a very slow start - she was heavy, and my top line would suffer badly because I couldn't adjust properly.


Now she is light as a feather, feels tall, and there's a real warmth in the connection due to the closeness of our partnership. The wins come soon

[elisedance]

with an attitude like that - surely they will

[Becca]

My practices are going great! With competition coming up we are focusing on a lot of little things but i still feel major improvement I'm just dancing Smooth this comp. (no Rhythm   ) so i've really been able to focus. Yesterday I had a great lesson, we worked on Tango and Viennese Waltz, plan to go practice on my own today too.  I just have to keep my ballet out of it! Ahhhhh!! LOL I did ballet for so long that it is always creeping in on my other dancing... *sigh* I'll just have to keep trying to use it to my advantage   

[elisedance]

which comp are you doing Becca? (I haven't looked at our competition list)
ee

[standarddancer]

A thread to talk about, well any aspect of ballroom practise you care to....

Had an hour with DP (hey, we need our own abreviations thread! Dance Partner BTW, er, by the way (and so it goes)) this morning - his leg is getting stronger and its having an amazing effect on our dancing.  What I had not realized is that before the op we were basically basing all our dancing on what his bad leg could do (in retrospect its obvious I suppose, but somehow it was not at the time).  Now he is opening up and its so much easier to stay in balance and for me to dance.  I don't have to think about the 'third partner' (his knee).

We've got a way to go but its already feeling better than before

hey, that's sounds so great!!! really happy for you!

[elisedance]

Time to practise in 5 minutes - gotta run!!

[elisedance]

worked for 1.5 hrs in the studo - the longest yet DP's legs are starting to really release.  As usual spent a lot of time on waltz basics - just going up and down the floor.  There's always so much to fix.  In particular working on not rising too early and lowering on the first bit of 'one'.  I don't think one can ever finish this!

[Becca]

which comp are you doing Becca? (I haven't looked at our competition list)
ee

Im doing the Atlanta Open! OMG like 3 weeks away now.... WAAAAA... *Must Practice*

[Rugby]

Good luck and have fun.

[QPO]

Practiced our New Vogue this evening and had fun. we have quite a few dances that we need to learn before the next comp. Need to have better crontrol of my upper body as I seem to be getting neck strain and I am not sure which dance is causing it.

[elisedance]

Neck strain is often caused by trying to make an unnatural shape - craning rather than keeping the head in a smooth line with the spine.  The head does NOT extend, its the body shape that creates the head line - and don't turn it - the women in the videos may seem to be doing that but its a product of a shape created from the feet up, not the head down. 

Perhaps you are trying too hard?