Frozen Cha Cha

My Friday moves-in-the-field lesson with Coach R was a disaster. It was just a frustrating day and I was depressed and whining. There is so much to re-learn that it's hard to focus, but I have to get it together.

By contrast, today was my first lesson with a male dance coach. Even though I am skating at about a bronze level, I need a goal to keep me interested and push myself. So we worked on the Cha Cha Congelado, an international dance that I should have tested before surgery but I was too busy stressing out about surgery to get my act together.

The dance itself isn't really that hard, although it has a lot of steps and some tricky partnering and timing. I know the timing well so that won't be an issue; doing two patterns at test level will be. There are no steps that my hips can't do so I think it's very possible to get it together. Maybe not to pass the test, but to skate it. We worked mainly on the promenade lobe into the re-start, and then walked through the rest. The back-to-back mohawk is a bit challenging for me (just not confident in the hips working as they should) and we will spend an entire lesson on it.

I have been working on balance almost every day and it is making a big difference in my abilities on the ice. I may not be skating any better but I am more confident when it doesn't feel as if I am about to fall over with every step. I was confident enough to try to skate with a partner today other than a coach or Tim. I skated a couple of dances with Doug (Swing and Ten-Fox) and he said that I am skating at about a Bronze level as a partner. That's "on average" - some things are better and some worse. But it means I can probably partner most of the dances through bronze at BAID(and by then, I hope, pre-silver and perhaps one silver, the American).

Oh yeah, and the Cha Cha Congelado.