Sometimes a few words suddenly make all the difference.

Not much to report.  Still working on foundation skills.  This past Tuesday night coach A., after watching me demo a few Mohawks said "try to close your free hip more."  I tried that and, to our joint surprise, I whipped off two Mohawks in a row that I could hang onto the exit edge for more than the Fiesta Tango's required one beat duration.  Of course after the excitement of thinking I was actually on to something, reality settled in and I was back to "immediately put the free foot down" territory again.  Ah, but those two good Mohawks in the required direction are what I hope is the beginning of me being able to test this dance before the end of the decade.  A breakthrough, sort of. 

We skated the dance's end pattern partnered so that I could get the feel for the changes of partnering that occur during the turn as well as the steps which come after the Mohawk.  I won't claim that we're still friends but we didn't crash and burn and we are still on speaking terms.

After my microsecond of success, coach A then said that I need to flatten out the exit edge a bit.  By that I think she means that I need to check more.  I currently check Mohawks by pulling my free arm back and looking over my free shoulder.  I'm not sure how likely that technique will work if I'm hanging on to another skater, but one thing at a time.  Hopefully the exit edge control will become routine as I practice the turn, remembering her coaching tip.  And who knows-- in time it may eventually mirror the well controlled Mohawk that I have in my strong direction--at least well enough to fool the judges.