Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The trouble with refinements

Refinements.  Just when I think I've got things under control with the two dances I'm scheduled to test this Friday Coach A. introduces yet another small refinement.  The trouble with late in the day refinements is that in the process of trying to incorporate them I inevitably lose control of the larger picture.  Free leg extension, toe point, holding edges for the required number of beats, the list goes on.  Yesterday we had our last lesson prior to the test.  Midway through, she told me to concentrate on timing rather than sweat all the small stuff.  I think that's wise since I won't get another shot at ice time before Friday.  The evening free-style session we use for my lesson was crowded and a bit frantic last night.  Lots of skaters were prepping either for tests or up-coming competitions.  One girl in particular seemed to have impeccable timing: she managed to blindly cross our path several times while we were partnered.  She always had that Bambi in the headlights look in her eyes, as if she was thinking "where in the world did you suddenly come from?"  No injury/no foul but I don't think we got in more than a couple of complete patterns of either dance.

It turns out that I'm not the only one with a dog in this Friday's fight.  Coach A. is testing the Midnight Blues, an International test level dance.  She indicated that she and her coach (yes, my coach has a coach--how great is that?!) had a good run through, a not so good run through and then a so-so one the last time they practiced.  She's passed four other International dances and her goal is to pass five of the ten currently on the list. She doing the ice dance equivalent of a PhD dissertation while I'm trying to move out of pre-school!   Fingers crossed for both of us. 

6 comments:

  1. Good luck Friday! Can't wait to hear (read) how it goes.

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  2. Thanks. I hope to finally escape preliminary ice dance purgatory.

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  3. So excited that you and your coach are testing! I think the Midnight Blues is a gorgeous dance; your coach is probably thinking the same thing as you about those last minute refinements. Good thing Bambi didn't take you down yesterday! Good luck and will be happy to hear the results!

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  4. Thanks Jo. I'm hoping we both do well, but if we get "retrys" then that's what we'll do!

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  5. I cannot cope with last minute tweaks. In college, I was in colorguard for the marching band. They decided to change something about the pre-game literally minutes before the start. And guess what, I forgot the last minute change. Honestly, with thousands of people in the stands, trying to remember to smile and not drop my flag, and remember the already-learned choreography...I simply cannot deal with last minute tweaks.

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