All you dancers and pairs skaters...help!

[aussieskater]

As some of you may know, I've recently taken up dance with DH. (And we're finally back on the ice after summer break - yay!)

My question is about looking/seeing: we've got the first part of the Swing Dance down (not good but at least we know the steps), and are working on the change where the lady moves to forwards. It's the first dance we've done where I'm forwards and he's backwards (except for the last part of the Fiesta Tango, but that's a disaster in more ways than one right now :cry: ).

I know that when I'm forwards, it's my responsibility to look for traffic etc, but I can't work out how to do it. The problem I have is that with his skates on, DH is over 6'6", and my eyes come to his shoulder. I just cannot see around him...or over him or under him (!) or through him. It seems that when I try to look around him (ie: to the side), I end up in the wrong position tracking-wise, especially when I need to look around his left side (my right side). Strangely, standing on tip-toes doesn't work. :)

Where do I look? (Or more correctly, where do I need to be to look, since I'm obviously in the wrong place vis-a-vis him?)

(PS - smilies have finally decided to work for me! Another yay! :D )

[Mrs Redboots]

Hmmm - good question! And I don't know the answer - I can and do look over the Husband's shoulder. Except that actually, I can only track him if I look at the top button of his shirt, whereupon I get yelled at for not looking up.... and if I look up, I get yelled at for not tracking him.

And I have yet to discover how I'm supposed to know whether our shoulders (in Kilian or reverse Kilian) hold match if I can't look!

And I agree with you about the end pattern of the Fiesta - it's one of the very few dances I do better without a partner!

[samba]

I feel your pain aussieskater, my first partner was 6'6" also and I can remember him having to keep looking behind him all the time which can be a little distracting if you are trying to concentrate on edges etc, I sometimes think dancers need a wing mirror on occasions like this.

Funny thing is my present partner is only 1" taller than I am, we only did pairs so not such a problem anyway but I do find it easier to look over his shoulder when necessary, we gave up for many years but have started back on a fun level and had a great time this morning, maybe I can talk him into dance, on second thoughts no, the last time we tried he did a 3 jump instead of a turn 8O :roll: .

Cheers
Grace

[aussieskater]

And I agree with you about the end pattern of the Fiesta - it's one of the very few dances I do better without a partner!

Oh, the problem with the Fiesta isn't him, it's me (sounds like a line from a TV soap :P ). I'd really like to get those horrid backwards-cross-in-fronts (or whatever they're called) happening without my bottom preceding me and with some speed. And as for the mohawk just before - I can manage it at a snail's pace, but the problem is that I'm not too bad at the part just before that (where you leave the crossed-under foot crossed under then change to it), and I generally have too much speed coming into the mohawk ("too much speed" equals having my hair move perceptibly). :)

And Samba, it's the extra four inches beneath the soles of DH's feet that takes him over the halfway-to-seven-foot mark - in bare feet he's *only* 6'3" or so...and still a problem as to where to look.

I did ask Coach about this, and her answer was that I have to counterweight (?) - ie: lean away from the edge not with it to lean around him. This will also apparently help with the presentation of the dance. She confessed that this is a skill not generally taught to lower-level skaters (read: me). When she showed me what she meant, I understood why. 8O Hence the post on this board - I was hoping for an easier (read: doable) suggestion, which won't kill me (or DH) in the learning of it!

[Mrs Redboots]

Oh bother, I meant to ask our elite skaters - she is several inches shorter than he is! Sorry, I did remember and they were busy, and then later on, I was busy and didn't get a chance!

As for the Fiesta, I still have trouble being on balance after the Mohawk and getting a decent push on to the RBO edge, which means the LBI edge is usually either an LBO or a flat, and it is the step to forwards I still have trouble with. I tend to wide-step, probably because my weight is in the wrong place. Grrr.... The rest of the dance is looking good though.