Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Alea iacta est (the die is cast)

Unlike Suetonius, in his famous comment to Julius Caesar in 49 BC, I don't plan to cross the Rubicon in defiance of the Roman Senate.  But in a similar sense, my fate is now defined.  I will compete at ISI district IV's spring competition.  There's no turning back.  I've paid my $55.00 for (maybe) 45 seconds of skating time in front of my adoring public--oh, how they love me (big news for them).  What was I thinking?

For the sake of my two dear constant readers I should back up just a tad and provide the back story from this afternoon's lesson with my long suffering Coach A.

As noted in a previous post Coach A., as befits a good coach, was busy imploring her students (which includes moi) to consider the upcoming spring comp.  Up until now I have resisted the notion of competition.  Testing is one thing but competition seemed beastly and undignified for a person of my considerable gravitas.  However this cunning woman had a card up her sleeve:  She said "I know you want to dance the Canasta Tango rather than the Dutch Waltz but in order to do that you must pass ISI Dance 3 no later than today."  I've been trying to pass Dance  3--like forever.  As an organization, ISI is a stickler in that skaters must have passed the level which contains a given skill prior to competing at a level containing that skill.  USFSA, in contrast, allows skaters to "punch above their weight" so to speak.  But this is an ISI competition and the CT is a Dance 3 level skill.  I had previously  passed Dance level 2.

Dance 3, in addition to the CT also demands that students pass the Rhythm Blues--an evil dance which posses a series of  tricky tuck behind steps in the end pattern.  Many times has your diarist crashed and burnt while attempting "blues expression" in this particular dance.  I was in a grim mood.

But Coach A. was insistent.  And so we gave it a go.  And much to my surprise I pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.  We somehow managed to skate the RB cleanly twice and with that I passed!  With that hurtle out of the way we shifted gears and spent the rest of our time cleaning up my CT skills.  No, I can't show you the Dance 3 badge today but "soon come, Mon, soon come" as they say down in the islands.

I now have roughly a month to make the CT competition worthy.  Coach A. threw me one last curve:  she prefers Hernando's Hideaway over Besame Mucho.  The things I suffer for my art.

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations George! Both on the clean dance and on signing up for the competition. I imagine it will inspire you to make all kinds of progress between now and a month from now!

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    1. Thanks Mary. Yes, I'm hopeful that both of these benchmarks will lead to skating improvements in the near term. I feel like I've been stuck on a plateau for a long time.

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  2. You're braver than I am! Best of luck!

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    1. Thanks Babbette. I'm not all that brave. I just seem brave while hanging on to a strong coach. We'll find out how brave I am during the solo dance at the competition.

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  3. Oooh, that is terrific. The Rhythm Blues is an evil dance, but you will have so much fun with your Canasta Tango now that it's over. You will have to post photos of the badge AND keep us up to date on your costume choice for the competition (okay, you think it's about the skating, but everyone knows it's about the outfit!)

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    1. Thanks Jo. Ladies tend to fret over customery. For men the adage "black is the new black" probably works best--at least at my level. I know, black trousers and a black turtle neck in boresville, but I think I'll save the pink sequined shirt for if/when I'm a little higher up the ladder!

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    2. My dance coach always wants me to wear black, no sequins for me!

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    3. Simpler is better. Less is more.

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