??? help! what dance was that????

[alhrayth]

Hi! As some of you might remember from my posts, I hope to join a lovely ice-dance club next season, after taking very basic adult lessons and then being in a quite poor adult skating team for the last three seasons. So you can quess that I have a LOT of things to learn about dancing.
I am currently skating every monday in a session we rent privately with some members of the club I plan to join, and I'm having a lot of fun trying to learn bits and pieces from some of them (they're a friendly bunch, no problem in stopping to give advice to a newcomer like me!). I started trying to learn some dances (apart from the difficulty of doing them with a partner - but I first have to find myself a partner first - my main gap with them is my ignorance of the sequences of the dances). So I had a bit of fun with a couple fo waltzes, and a couple more that I didn't get to see completely :cry:. Anyway, yesterday my usual private coach exclaimed: 'if you're here to dance, we'll do a dance instead of working on technique!' and proceeded to explain me a very easy short sequence that I seem to recall he called "ten step"... is that right? I have written down the steps yesterday night to help myself remember them (now, he called them with the italian names, but if I translate them correctly they were mostly backward 'runs'(?), a mohawk, a swing...) but I wish I had a chart with the pattern it should take on the ice....
Do ou think I am remembering the name correctly?
If so, do you have an idea of where I might find such a chart? Does any of you have something like that?
Sorry for the very basic question... but you have to start from somewhere, don't you? ;)

[Mrs Redboots]

Yes, there is a dance called the "10-step"; it's like the 14-step but without the swing roll. Try http://www.icedancers.com/technical, which may have the pattern, what my husband calls "the words"; failing that, it may be on the British ice-dancers' Yahoo group webpage, whose address escapes me but Tashakat will know! She will also know whether it's there or not.

[alhrayth]

Thank you for the answer!
I know I have the 14 step in my dance book, I'll have a look at that too. Are you sure about the link you gave in your post? It doesn't work for me.... :cry:

[TashaKat]

he proceeded to explain me a very easy short sequence that I seem to recall he called "ten step"... is that right? I have written down the steps yesterday night to help myself remember them (now, he called them with the italian names, but if I translate them correctly they were mostly backward 'runs'(?), a mohawk, a swing...) but I wish I had a chart with the pattern it should take on the ice....
Do ou think I am remembering the name correctly?
If so, do you have an idea of where I might find such a chart? Does any of you have something like that?
Sorry for the very basic question... but you have to start from somewhere, don't you? ;)

Hi, it sounds more like the 14 step to me. See if either of these two make sense to you :D

This is the 10 step pattern:

http://img48.photobucket.com/albums/v146/TashaKat/10step.jpg

and this is the 14 step pattern:

http://img48.photobucket.com/albums/v146/TashaKat/14step.jpg

The UKskaters group (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/UKskaters/) is open to anyone, no pressure, feel free to upload links, pictures, info etc.

[alhrayth]

Thank you TashaKat!!!
By looking at the charts you posted, I feel more inclined towards the 14step too... the steps are there, in the sequence I remember, and the pattern seems much more like it - I remember in particular the big curve of step n.4, that's where I was swinging the free leg forward & backward, in a curve I doubt I can pull off by myself - my coach helped a lot with the direction/depth...

[TashaKat]

Thank you TashaKat!!!
By looking at the charts you posted, I feel more inclined towards the 14step too... the steps are there, in the sequence I remember, and the pattern seems much more like it - I remember in particular the big curve of step n.4, that's where I was swinging the free leg forward & backward, in a curve I doubt I can pull off by myself - my coach helped a lot with the direction/depth...

Hi, don't worry about not being able to pull it off straight away! It may LOOK easy but in the UK it was a *Bronze* dance (the levels have all changed name now ....... :roll: ) and the skating level for coaching used to be (they changed that too :roll: ) Silver so that gives you a good indication of the level of the dance :D

Good luck and enjoy it, I loved that dance as you can really open it up (especially when dancing with your coach :) ).

[alhrayth]

Thank you again!
I really can't wait to go skating again next week ( :cry: This rink is simply too far from my home to go there for public sessions too... sigh!). I will try this again for sure, hopefully my coach will be there to be my partner again ;) Usually I love BO edges, I feel quite comfortable in them - but never having skated with a partner before, I feel really weird in some of the positions. I'm used at skating in quite contorted positions doing synchro, I know I just have to adjust to some different contorted positions! LOL

[CanAmSk8ter]

There's no end of contorted positions in this sport, believe me! I've experimented with a lot of them ;)

It's funny someone would bring this up now... I was watching my coach partner an adult beginner the other day and I got a kick out of watching how uncomfortable she looked skating with somebody... I barely remember what that was like, partly because my first dance coach was actually female and we didn't partner much, but I do remember it! I was trying to pinpoint what level I was at when partnering stopped being an effort, but I really can't. I suppose it's partly because I've had several different coaches (and one real partner) but four months ago, when I changed coaches for what I plan to make the last time, I remember reminding myself before my first lesson, "Partnering will feel weird today, you've never skated with him before, don't panic if things feel a little 'off'" and actually once we got started I felt like we had been skating together for years. That's not to say that partners are "one size fits all", but I think after awhile skating with a partner feels more natural, even if it's a different partner.

[luna_skater]

I've been a synchro skater my whole life and when I started dance, I thought partnering would be no problem. Wrong! It completely freaked me out to be skating in SUCH close proximity to someone else. In synchro, I still have an arm's length of space. It took me quite a while to get used to it. And then every time we had to learn a new position....sheesh! I FINALLY feel comfortable with partnering, just in time for my last gold test on Friday, LOL.