Journal 5 - Dance Lessons

Journal 5 - Dance Lessons

8-31-10

Ha ha, it's 4:06 AM (of the 1st of September.) -- I really can't seem to shake this 4 am thing. I have an excuse tonight though! I was doing some laundry. Yay, clean dance stuff.

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I struck out again with Registration this morning -- I got there around 10, and no one was there… So, that's 2 strikes… I'm starting to get nervous about it…

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Later in the day, I FINALLY had my first lessons in weeks, and good GOD, whom I love, I was tired afterwards!!!!

Here's what we worked on today:

Rumba was the dance of the day, and we started, as we normally do, with Vitaly having me do Rumba Walks around the floor, while he watches. Once he'd seen enough, he came up and asked, "Why do you just *stop* on 4? You just leave your other leg behind you!" Unsure of myself, I said, "Because you're not supposed to move on 1…?" A lightbulb went on over Vitaly's head as I had started to speak, and he basically finished the thought with me. Then, as per normal, he swept away the old rules, and told me that while I was correct -- there is no step on 1 -- he *wanted* me to be collecting the "non-standing" leg, throughout the 1 count. This also tied into his wanting to see more action in my "center." That is to say, that the collection of the non-standing leg, and the musicality of the "non-moving," "1" count, should be seen more in my body.

Keeping the body moving, and the collecting in of the leg through the "1" count, also makes it easier to "wind up" and get that "explosive" push onto the "2" count.

After working on the forward walks, we moved on to backwards walks -- and the seemingly impossible body rotation Vitaly wants me to effect immediately upon execution of each step. It was quite the adventure when he shaped me into the form he wanted! "Every time," he said. And then proceeded to demonstrate. I pretty much gaped at him, is the most polite way to put it. And then I shut my mouth and tried it. A few passes later, he was reasonably pleased. We were also working with the concept of working from the standing leg, to get to the next step, while the free leg needed to work from the knee, in order to make the step happen faster.

… I know almost none of that makes sense when reading it, in typed form -- but if you could see it, well, it'd make sense. *laughs* In simplest form:

The standing leg (the one you are standing on) is your "important leg." Any time you move, you are always getting your power to move from this leg.

When placing a leg behind you, you naturally bend it, as you are moving the leg under your body, then behind you. If you think about trying to straighten the whole leg, you'll always be slow. If you think about just straightening from the knee, it happens much faster, and in a much easier fashion.

Neways…

Then we worked on Cucarachas -- namely, that one really has to stay, "on" the "important leg," while doing them, when the change in the body and change of sides is happening.

E.g. -- I am standing on my Left leg -- I am about to do a cucaracha to the right. When I push from my Standing/Important Leg -- I do NOT want to immediately transfer all my weight, body, and hip to my right leg. I will keep some weight, and my hip over the Standing Leg I've just moved from. The step will happen on the first part of the Count, and on the second part of the count, all of hip change/body action will follow.

Somewhere in between the Walks and the Cucarachas, Vitaly and I had a discussion about the different parts of the foot, and how to break down what part of the foot one should be on in each part of a Rumba walk. Additionally, we broke down the hip placement in the walks, as well as the basic.

That led into a pop quiz, as we were going through the basic:

"What is our goal, when we dance??"

The answer is, "To move our body!"

The question following that is, "What does "body" refer to?"

And the answer to *that* is that it's the vertical line of you, from the crown of your head to the top of your tailbone. Everything in your body should rotate/move *around* that column, and when you are moving your body forward/backwards/to the sides, it is that column that we are trying to move.

** Note that it doesn't necessarily need to move a great amount. **

The above, marked idea, led into the following discussion:

"You need to relaaaax!!!! Let your hips be freer!"

Essentially, Vitaly was saying I was keeping myself from moving well, because I was trying to hold on to, or to control all of my muscles, all at the same time. It's impossible. And it will tucker you out right quickly. The idea is to control a step for just as long as you need to control it, and then to, "let go." If you've already placed something correctly, you shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

*****

That said, we moved on to Samba…. … … … Which is always an adventure.

Mi Mi and I always joked, referring to Samba:

"Samba … You will *never* get it right. *Ever.*"

This holds true in Russia, too.

We started with Vitaly asking me, "How do you "feel out" this dance?" E.g. - When the music comes on, before I start my choreography, how am I going to move my body, to "feel" this dance?

Thus, we started working on how to "feel" Samba, in place.

I pretty much hate that exercise. Ha ha ha!!! More because I just can't ever seem to get it quite right. I might get part of it, and then I do something else wrong; then I fix what I'm doing wrong, and I lose what I was doing right!

It's a work in progress.

We moved on to Whisks -- where I am learning that Russians are masters of illusion, or something. Or maybe it's just the "building" process of technique -- where you receive one form of technique, only to have it be changed later.

In this particular case, Vitaly tells me that I should be thinking of already moving to a bent knee when I dance a whisk. This seems counter to what I feel that I "know" -- but I came here to do it their way. What I think it really is, is that he does move through a straight leg, to a bent knee -- but it happens so fast -- they use *so* much of their knees -- that it's just easier to tell me to think of moving to a bent knee.

Thus, Vitaly meets with one of my biggest problems in Samba -- I have a problem using my knees. A big problem. I can't relax enough to use them enough/quickly enough. We're confronting that head-on!!

As we worked, I was becoming more and more tired, and Vitaly looked at me, saying, "You are tired because you are moving everything. Use your legs! Your body really shouldn't move."

From the Whisks, we moved on to working on Cruzado Walks. Of note from this lesson:

1. The "collecting action" in a Cruzado Walk is NOT some kind of "scooping' of the hip. You should simply *stand* on the leg. I.e. Straighten the Knee. (This straightening should also happen UNDER the body -- so that your level does not change. I.e., if you are looking at me from the front or side -- when I straighten my knee to "stand," my head should not raise up, at all.)

2. Be softer when landing -- use your knees! (Are we seeing a pattern with this knee thing in Samba yet?)

3. It's not about *traveling* with this step -- don't run! You will lose your hip action.

We also worked more on making it a *fast* change, from step to step -- which requires much knee usage, as well as a large amount of center work, stretch, and compression, to "change sides."

*****

After Vitaly ran me around with the Samba walks, we moved on to doing some Rumba work, dancing together.

By that time, however, I was just exhausted, and I didn't do very well, at all…. My posture wasn't so great; my shoulders were too tense; I was heavy -- and I was heavy because I wasn't isolating my legs enough. Which is to say, my top line should have been free, and relaxed, and the work should be being done by my legs. But I was trying to use everything, and that was what was making me so tired.

I was disappointed in my showing. We'll try again tomorrow. I'll have 2 more lessons, and then Vitaly will leave for LA.

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I left from the studio to go to my weekly Hustle Party, where I hadn't been for almost a month by this point!!! I was exhausted, but I really wanted to go see everyone.

They were all really happy to see me, too! It was almost overwhelming! I can't count the number of times I asked, "How are you tonight?" And received the answer, "Better, now that you are here!!" Goodness gracious.

There was a new pair that caught my eye -- they were very good! Yuri shared with me that the pair were students of Maxim's/theirs. Very cool!

Much to my embarrassment, Yuri grabbed the guy, and told him to ask me to dance, and to be honest, I didn't dance all that well. The guy definitely showed me up. Whether it was because I was exhausted, he was that much better than me, or both, I'm not sure. It certainly added to my self-disappointment.

Still, the night wasn't awful. Andrei gave me chocolates, as usual! How nice!

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Tomorrow, hopefully I'm meeting up with Nastëna, and I'll have another meeting on Thursday (two days from now) with Ahsain, at MyBar.

Moscow Kitty

4:08 AM (<-- The time when I finished my skele-notes of the day. I certainly didn't write this whole journal in 2 minutes!!!)