A more relaxing session at the LDA

June 20, 2006

I took the train 6:45 PM departure from Cambridge to London and 10:15 PM departure from Kings Cross back to Cambridge. No engineering works = less hassle than driving. I can relax on the train and read a book or take notes.

LDA 3.3 with Susana and Mario

1,2,3,5,6,7 toss follower’s hands up (slightly to her front right) and hands on follower’s hips for free 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower with leader’s R hand on follower’s back in preparation for turn as unit
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn as unit 1/2 counterclockwise finish CBL with low cross pass (L-R behind leader’s R waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa lead with R hand landing on follower’s leading R hip and lead follower into free 1 1/2 Copa turn with leader also doing 1 1/2 (more like 1 3/4) counterclockwise turn to get to open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 closed hold CBL (relax! only need R hand on back) and switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into reverse CBL position and lead 2 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn over and under to get R-R behind follower’s L waist (end in CBL position)
1,2,3,5,6,7 offer L hand in front for L-L connection by 3 and turn follower full clockwise on 4 (!) with L-L going over and coming down right away while R-R is kept close to leader so that R-R is at follower’s front L waist (or follower’s arm is across in front of her belly) on 5 and lead her backwards on 6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 stay in CBL position and lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn or similar

Not being 20 minutes late (or however) seemed to make things easier for me. At very least I was able to get more repetitions and practices. The only minor drag was that some students who paid for the class did not show up once again so that there were excess leaders. On positive note, one of the assistant instructors Helen participated once again; she’s very nice to work with. I spent downtime on working on my footwork and spins. I’m guessing that I was at least solidly in middle of the pack among leaders tonight.

Based upon my observations during last 3 weeks, I would say that Susana is the more indispensable instructor between her and Mario. While Mario talks quite a lot and gives much of the instructions, Susana goes at least one or two steps further.

Unlike in the past sessions, I stayed a little longer after the class and did some practice. Cool. It’s very nice to get fair amount of meaningful repetitions. I’m also enjoying being asked to stretch my abilities a little but not too much. I would say that these LDA classes are something of a hybrid between Joe’s classes and Sally’s classes – about the same level or slightly harder (in part because of resetting of 20-week plan on Mondays, Sally’s classes are slightly more challenging than the Latin Collective classes for me right now) and with more time for real-time practices than both. More practices are possible because most people do not need review of whole lot of fundamentals and also because the routines are shorter comparatively.