Bronze
Initial Round: Cha Cha
Final Round: Hickory Hoedown

Silver
Initial Round: Foxtrot
Final Round: American Waltz

Gold
Initial Round: Kilian
Final Round: Westminster Waltz

Looks like there will be no pre-levels added, at least not for next year.

Anyone know what they're doing yet? I'm officially staying silver since I'm taking time off dance to finish my jr/sr MIF hopefully before the changes go into effect in Sept 2010. I can still pass the one pre-gold I've been working on without being forced to move up.

Funny how last year I wanted to do gold b/c I HATED both dances for silver, now this year I have no desire to do gold but like both silvers. If gold had been different dances I would have moved up, but it's my worst of the 4 pre-golds and the one gold dance I don't even know, versus staying silver and doing to dances where my solos are already very strong and comfortable and I can focus on getting my stupid axel consistent and my MIF.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I'll stay Bronze, because I was really only just barely qualified for Pre-Bronze this year. I'd tested the Cha Cha, but not the other two Pre-Bronze dances. Heck, I hadn't even learned the Swing yet! Um, and I haven't learned the Hickory yet, either, so it looks like I've got a lot of work to do this year! And I'll still really be just a Pre-Bronze dancer skating up a level if they're not going to separate out the Pre levels next year.

Goals are to pass the Swing and Fiesta so my partner and I can compete as a Pre-Bronze team next year, work on the dances for that level together, and now it looks like I need to polish the Cha Cha and learn the Hickory. I also want to take my First Figure Test.

The Hickory isn't bad, it's the first one I remember actually being kind of fun. You can totally ham it up, too.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

If I go, I'll have to do gold again. Killian was a very tough one for me & I was SOOO glad to be done with it, but I guess it never hurts to keep working on it. I'd been hoping for Starlight but oh well!!

I don't know the Westminster Waltz, so that will be good for me to learn it. If this keeps up, by the time I get to actually test gold dances I'll already know them all & have them half ready to go!

Ooooh, the Cha Cha is my best PB dance (ignore what I did on the social dance at ANs - my legs were SO STIFF that day!)! I'd just have to pass my Cha Cha and learn the Hickory and I could do Bronze solo dance in 2010!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Same here, if I decide to do it next year.

__________________
I've got mad salchow disease!

do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Right now the plan is for me to move up to silver due to my results this year. I haven't passed any bronze tests yet, and I would need at least one pre-silver solo. Plus my partner and I hope to be able to compete pre-bronze next year, and there's a lot of tests to be done. All together I'm looking 10 dance tests before next January (partnered and solo).

If I can't get through all that (I also need to do a new freestyle program and summer is not a great skating time for me due to work and lack of ice time), I might consider skating bronze again. The cha cha and hickory are totally different dances then we did this year (and the hickory is evil ), but I really would rather move up.

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

I'm confused as to how you all came up with these. I looked at the chart on USFSA and didn't see anything specifically for solo dance. So are you just taking the first dance listed from IR and the first dance listed from FR for each level?

For reference, here is the relevant chart for Bronze:

Adult Bronze (IR) ANs: Cha Cha, Ten Fox
Adult Bronze (FR) ANs: Hickory Hoedown, Fourteenstep
(Same is true for Sectionals)

Why wouldn't it be one of the other dances listed in the IR or FR since there are two listed for each? I understand the two are for couples dancing, however just not sure I understand why bronze (for example) would be Cha Cha and Hickory rather than, say, Cha Cha and Fourteenstep or Ten Fox and Hickory. I wasn't able to compete last year, so I don't know if that's just what they did last year or if that's just how it is decided.

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

No "pre-" levels for next year because we are still in the two-year trial of solo dance at AN, and the deal was Bronze, Silver and Gold only -- that's what was voted on at last year's GC. The trial will be evaluated and the permanent addition of the event and any changes to it would have to go through a future GC.

I am definitely not doing Silver again, but I am not yet qualified for Gold since I haven't passed any pre-Golds. I learned the steps to them in 2003 but soon after stopped dancing; I only just picked it up late last year and relearned the two Silver event dances. I don't recall the Kilian being one of my favorites. In fact I recall the Blues and Starlight being my favorites and thinking the Kilian and Paso would battle it out for least-favorite honors! But my goal is to start lessons again and relearn the pre-Golds and hopefully pass one or two in the next year. I guess I will put the Kilian on the front-burner! (And I have no clue what the Westminster Waltz is all about!)

Not too bad...the only dance I was really rooting against was the Starlight...since I passed it when it was still an International and never worked on the solo. I used to despise the Kilian, but in the years since I have passed it - it has grown on me. It is one of those dances that feels really great when you can just breeze through it. Now that I'll be working on it though I will probably anticipate the choctaw and it will turn into a thing - just like the Blues.

Since I am not a waltz person I was really hoping for the Quickstep or Argentine, but alas, I will have to wait one more year.

If they end up doing Pre-levels...would it likely then be 2 Gold Dances, 2 Pre-Gold Dances, etc?...if so that would get pretty repetitive quickly. I like doing one from each level.

If pre-levels were added I could see them maybe mixing it up every few years with a dance from the level above or below like they do with compulsories for partner dance (once you hit gold some of the int'ls really aren't solo-able since much of the difficulty is in the partnering and without that they're awkward, but others aren't bad to solo, like the Silver Samba). I really hope that's the case. At least when you're at the lower levels, you can move up and get to new dances over time, but once you hit gold, you're there for good...another reason why I decided I'm not going to be in any sort of hurry to move up. I'm only 28...plenty of time.

Now I can call Del and tell her to go ahead with the waltz dress we planned out when I ordered my new freestyle dress from her. Yessss! It's going to be gorgeous.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

what to do, what to do -

I can conceivably test the Killian this next year, I have never even looked at the Westminster pattern and doubt I could do well at it Nor do I particularly want to revisit the FoxTrot and the American ...

we'll see!

Sara

I'm of the same mind as you, Sara! I haaaate the Foxtrot (aka the only dance I ever failed) and though I like the American, I'm so over that dance. I will likely be moving up to gold. I like Kilian fine, but I don't know the Westminster at all. I like waltzes, though, and I'd much rather work on new dances for eventual testing than rehash old dances that I passed years ago.

The Rocker Foxtrot is the only one I ever failed! The American I learned and tested easily enough, though it was on the heels of the European and aside from drastically different three turns they're similar enough.

Wonder what the Westminster is like...I've never even learned the full pattern of the Starlight!

wehaveayear, wehaveayear, wehaveayear, wehaveayear...

Technically, we only have 9 months since the registration deadline is 1/15

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I've got mad salchow disease!

LOL! I keep telling myself "wehaveayear" too!

Buzz kill!

The Westminster is one of the faster waltzes and supposedly the hardest of all the Golds, but I personally loved this dance. Don't let the speed and steps (there's a RFI rocker tossed in there) intimidate you. This is a beautiful dance, especially when partnered.

Westminster waltz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX4KSgSH3LM

HOLY CRAP is that an awesome West in that video...wow.

The thing I like about the American (as boring as 3 turns over and over can be) is the control it takes to do that dance well. It's easy, especially on the solo, to whip the 3s, pop up in the knee, and swing the free leg through wildly, but to do a controlled turn with the right rise in the knee and placing the free foot and holding it there for a split second really is a challenge. I think the shoulder/hip alignment and body position on this dance (which I passed last year) is part of why my MIF got better by not working on them, I developed better habits. And I *think* because solo dance is a non-qual event, I can go old skool and start the pattern in the center the way I learned it, rather than at the end of the rink...I noticed couples doing that in Centennial.

Now to fit the dance into an NHL rink...I dance on an Olympic rink and have no issues filling that out on some dances, and the American is one of them (as is the Tango, as evidenced by the way I was in the boards on the end pattern when I competed at AN). I was totally running out of room when I worked on it on an NHL rink yesterday.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I meant wehaveayear to work on the dances! not to decide

Yup - I keep saying, I had no clue there were so many different kinds of three-turns - until I started tackling dance. And when I started learning the American? I had just passed the European - and I tell you, a part of me was truly miffed. You mean I worked for so long on getting 3s to work with my free foot right next to my skating foot, and now you want me to do the complete opposite?

What really intimidates me is how stunning the dancers were in the Gold event! I am not worthy....not yet anyway.

Yowza, that West IS amazing. Fantastic lean and speed.

I've always started the American (and the European) in the middle of the rink, too. Wonder if that's a regional thing.

If you like the American, you'll probably like the Starlight. It's basically a bunch of steps stolen from previous dances (Willow chasses, European 3s, Foxtrot mohawk), with some awesome mohawky things on the second half. Deceptively tough, though. I wish the Starlight was the pre-gold!

Me too!

Yikes, that Westminster Waltz looks like it will be really hard to solo! (And to partner!!!)