1+1=2 ... makes sense!

July 16, 2007

The body movement part of the class lasted a whopping 70 minutes today. After 20-30 minutes I felt tired and came close to falling down several times. Some of the exercises took so much energy yet I hardly showed any movement. The worst part for me involved movement of anything between my stomach and my chest. I think my joints might be too calcified to get a whole lot out of these exercises even with months and years of practice. I’ll just have to grind it out and see how much I can get done in next couple of months.

I liked the method of doing feet part and rest of the body part separately first before combining the two for some of the more complicated body movement exercises. I can’t speak for others but it helped me to approximate the material more easily.

The footwork part had some revisions as well some tangible new material, which I can write down for a change. For 12 o’clock turn, Sergio reminded me yet again that I should not get my left foot to prepare to side (a bit to left) rather than straight forward (I suspect he might not mind slightly to right as much, but I could be wrong). I found myself losing my balance more easily with these fixes (but it could be because I was just too tired).

Shine (the final product only – some of the intermediate parts are not so bad either)
1,2,3 cross over steps (R, L, R) – in place or minimal traveling
5 cross over step L
6 R foot slide back (an early version involved bringing L foot back together on 7 before crossing over step R on 1 before another basic) and land – head flick back around 6 1/2 before facing partner again by 7 or so
7 L foot in place (although I found it somehow easier for next part if I slide L slightly back here on 7 and do a crossover step on 1 with R before proceeding with basic)

A turn for leader (count done in follower’s timing)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 start a swivel turn weight (starting to transfer weight to R but on both feet during the turn)
1 weight transfer to R foot when turn is completed
2 L foot back for back basic (or open break)
3 R foot in place
5,6,7 second half of normal basic

Since this is used primarily by lead, it probably would be good idea to practice this with leader’s timing also. In this case, start the swivel turn on 4 followed by weight transfer to R foot on 5 for backwards charge or open break on 6.

Now this move can be used to initiate Copa (tension on 6, start bringing follower in on 7) with switching from L-R to R-R at the end of the turn (R-R connection made by 5 1/2).

Also this move can be linked up with a kind of Copa fake demonstrated next.

6,7 Copa start with R-R hold (here we had leader’s hand coming from top I think)
8 R-R down disconnect with free R hand going around follower’s hips (not at the waist and do not use fingers – ha ha) and start guiding follower to turn 1/2 counterclockwise (I think follower’s turn would happen between 1 and 2)
1,2 footwork for leader is L foot to close in with R on 1 and then R foot back now with lead turned about 1/4 counterclockwise to get out of follower’s way on 2
3 there are couple of options here including a normal Copa turn (possibly with L hand at hip also guiding the turn) but the version practiced for final effect had L-R connection made in front of follower which would go straight up to lead follower into 1/2 traveling clockwise turn

Pretty cool. This is … elegant. I imagine I’ll try practicing this both On1 (translating to On1 seems fairly straightforward with caveat that pulling it off in real situation no doubt will take work) and On2.

Random note. There might be an extra experienced lead visiting from the north this Thursday.