Has anyone else heard someone make this comment? I usually hear it from adults. I wish I could tell them dance is much harder than freestyle but they'll never believe me. I've worked so hard at my dancing, taken MUCH worse falls in dance than in freestyle, & it kinda bugs me to hear eveyone else plan to do the "easier" skating once they're too old to jump! I'm also thinking internally, "Yeah, good luck!"

I don't really think it's meant to be a sign of disrespect for your discipline- just a recognition that dance generally puts less pounding force on your body. I'm a physical therapist, and I've recommended that a couple of my clients move away from freestyle into dance when there were orthopedic issues I was concerned with. But I also recognize that the dance discipline requires much more precise edging and turns than does freestyle. One is not better or worse than the other- just different.

Well, I'm one of those pains your talking about to some extent. I do and have learned some dance patterns, but I plan on leaving this for the most part for the time being. First of all I can only work on attempting doubles for a short period of time. I figure I better go for it why I can. Second, I can't spend more time or money on more ice time and lessons. I have made a choice to foucus on freestyle for the time being. Ice dancing is difficult in it's own way, but I disagree that it's harder than freestyle. Each has it's challenges. I know many older ice dancers, I don't know of any older freestylers who jump. Keeping this in mind I have made a choice, but not because ice dance is "easier", just because realistically I understand that one is less possible as an older person. Saying that, I plan on trying. =-)

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

I agree one of the problems is that skating dance *is* easier than skating freestyle.

Of course, skating dance well can be much tougher in my opinion!

Hugs,
Danielle

Dance is very easy to do badly, and very hard indeed to do well. It takes very little time to learn enough to have enormous fun at a club session, dance interval or other social dance occasion; it takes years to get it [i:431c84bfd1]right[/i:431c84bfd1].

I would, however, recommend that everybody take at least some dance; it really does wonders for your free skating! My husband is a case in point - he never did dance, and his loop jumps would land very heavily, causing everybody to look. Since he started dance, his loop jumps - and he hasn't had a freestyle lesson for well over two years - are light, airy, and land silently!

My coach requires all his pupils to do at least the basic level of dance, as, now that compulsory figures have demised, there is simply nothing better, not even Field Moves, for your edges, for your posture, for accuracy, for learning how to put steps together - well, for general skating!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I guess I'm one of those skaters too. Actually, I do have a dance background (from years ago both on ice and roller). The only reason I say that now is because I have a limited time on the ice each week, and my body's freestyle clock is ticking away rather rapidly. There just isn't the time to do it all (especially now that moves are also in the mix). For me, it boils down to the fact that I need to devote all of the time that I do have on the ice to reach my freestyle goals (I'm nearing 50 and really want to give an axel my best shot). No disrespect to dance whatsoever, but I figure I my dancing longevity is much longer than for freestyle. I do like dance, but I find it rather boring without a partner, so freestyle is better suited for me at the moment. Now, if a partner should come along that would change rapidly!!!!

I'm guilty of saying: "I'll have to do dance now....!"
after hurting my landing foot.

I [b:42550baa4f]KNOW[/b:42550baa4f] dancing would be harder for me.
It looks difficult, it IS difficult, and so different from free that I wouldn't even try to compare them. It's like comparing speed skating to figure skating... sort of.

When people say things like your quote, perhaps they are being a bit ignorant, but when I say it (and many others) I don't mean to be disrespectul.
I think dance may be more forgiving on the injuries though, that's all.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

[quote:15c5ac66a3="backspin"]Has anyone else heard someone make this comment? I usually hear it from adults. I wish I could tell them dance is much harder than freestyle but they'll never believe me. I've worked so hard at my dancing, taken MUCH worse falls in dance than in freestyle, & it kinda bugs me to hear eveyone else plan to do the "easier" skating once they're too old to jump! I'm also thinking internally, "Yeah, good luck!"[/quote:15c5ac66a3]

I'm afraid that I used to MAKE that kind of comment (well, actually I used to say that Dance was for when you got old!!). Of course, you that know me know that I has since seen the light! I, personally, find that Dance is more difficult to do 'well' than Free, the edges, the timing the precision, the neat footwork ...... you can get away with MUCH more in Free! I actually love them both but have had my worst falls from DANCE!!

I have to say (from my original point of view) that the 'baby' dances were pretty boring to watch and do and all I saw was all these adults who just didn't progress, did the same dances week after week and never seemed to do anything different. I only started Dance to improve my basics and DETESTED the baby dances, if it wasn't for a good looking coach (ok, I'm shallow) I would have given up waaaay before I began to enjoy it! Of course, now I'm into Dance I can appreciate the finer points, I can see how the assumption that Dance is easier is made! It's not until you DO it and you're dying on your fourth sequence that you can appreciate how b***** hard it is not only keeping in time with the music but doing all these turns and steps .... in Free you can change the steps if they're not working for you .... in the compulsories it's do or die!

Sorry, gone on a bit ....... what's new?

L x

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The best whisper is a click

What dances are our dances up to? I have partnered through the Hickory Hoedown and can actually skate up until the 14 step, but I haven't had lessons on them. I have competed the swing and plan on competing the Fiesta and Cha-cha in atlanta. I will take my first 3 dances at our next test center in a couple of weeks.

Hugs!

I did take dance, and may do dance again when I can't jump. It will be a way to still enjoy skating but not do the jumps. You can compete/test the low dances without jumping, but not even the lowest free without jumping. I don't think it's an easy-hard thing as much as a what I want to do know and have time for. It's the same way I feel about moves. I don't have time for everrthing, and I can work on doubles and throw doubles now. I do believe that the dance and moves requires skill, but I think a lot of the difficulty is "created" because of the nature of the discipline.

My coach is a huge believer in moves and ice dance. I would say he's a maniac at the precise and controlled movements you get practicing these skills. I will admit that working on this "stuff" my freestyle has improved by leaps and bounds. I understand this, and devote ice time every day to working on these skills, but my focus is freestyle. I love jumping, too fun =-), and I just want to jump my brains out while my bod will cooperate. Just for the record I enjoy moves too, weird I know, but like mentioned I HAVE to jump NOW. Time is moving on for this "old" fart, and I HAVE to get that double loop. This is my biggest goa. I'll get to those big girl dances in the future.l

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

With my knees, jumping is out of the question othe than maybe a baby waltz jump.

You notice the statement says that when I can't JUMP anymore, not when I can't do freestyle anymore. All that they are saying is that they'll compete in freestyle until their body tells them that JUMPS (the most physical parts of freestyle) are out of the question.

Don't be a paranoid dancer and read more into it than it says.

I don't know of any freestyler that thinks the disciplines of dance are easy. Even my coach, who can't/won't jump anymore ("because it hurts"), turned to the disciplines of dance.

Gary

Truthfully, if you're any kind of freeskater, the first few tests [i:f90bc639d7]are[/i:f90bc639d7] pretty easy. Once you get past the pre-bronze and bronze, it's another story. Look at it this way- for Intermediate MITF, a passing average is 3.2, while for the Intermediate dances (I'm considering Pre-Silver to be Intermediate here) the passing average is 3.7, meaning that the dances are, in effect, held to a higher standard than MITF. I don't have my rulebook handy or I'd look up passing average for an Intermediate freestyle test, but somehow I think it too would be lower than Intermediate dance.

I'll ice dance when I become much more coordinated. I watch the ice dancers at our rink and I am always impressed by their moves....I have enough trouble getting out of the way of my almost 12 inch long blades, thank you very much!!..you can always tell when I am doing backward cross-overs by the clicking blades...

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

[quote:db086ccc57="Figureskates"]I'll ice dance when I become much more coordinated. I watch the ice dancers at our rink and I am always impressed by their moves....I have enough trouble getting out of the way of my almost 12 inch long blades, thank you very much!!..you can always tell when I am doing backward cross-overs by the clicking blades...[/quote:db086ccc57]

Figureskates, I'll get you dancing when we're in Lake Placid. Even if we fall, it wouldn't be the first time a partner has taken me out!

I will probably dance when I'm older. Until then, I only have so much money, so am sticking to freestyle and moves. I'm also guessing I only have so much time before my body will reject the idea of trying to do doubles and I'd really like to get all my doubles (I'm ok with not landing double axel ). If my everything goes as I'm planning, I'll start with dance late fall after passing Intermediate moves...until then, I'll have to just learn from the small child who is insisting on teaching me dance because she wants a partner (she has informed me that I'm the right height, even if I can't go to Regionals with her) .

I am well aware though, that the worst falls do not necessarily come with freestyle. I regularly attempt through double flip and when I fall (a lot) they're usually nice, soft, sliding falls. I had a super nasty bruise on my hip from the quick rocker-choctaws from Novice moves that is only just now going away and a while back got to see my coach taking a spectacular backwards fall while demonstrating the footwork for my first program (my coach, a former World's competitor, then decided it was too complicated for Pre-Preliminary...duh).

Dani,
Since I'm in the typing mood....here's a list of the USFSA dances:

Preliminary - Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues

Pre-Bronze - Swing Dance, Cha Cha, Fiesta Tango

Bronze - Hickory Hoedown, Willow Waltz, Ten-Fox

Pre-Silver - Fourteenstep, European Waltz, Foxtrot

Silver - American Waltz, Tango, Rocker Foxtrot

Pre-Gold - Kilian, Blues, Paso Doble

Gold - Viennese Waltz, Westminister Waltz, Quickstep, Argentine Tango

Junior International - Rhumba, Starlight Waltz, Austrian Waltz, Cha Cha Congelado

Senior International - Yankee Polka, Ravensburger Waltz, Tango Romantica, Silver Samba, Golden Waltz

I mistyped my earlier post. What dances are our dancers up to!

I should have mentioned that I am working on my first three dances and have partnered through the Hickory Hoedown. I plan on competing the fiesta and cha-cha in atlanta.

How about oru other dancers?

Hugs!
Danielle

[quote:c70f7d396d="dani"]What dances are our dancers up to!

Danielle[/quote:c70f7d396d]

Hi Dani

I'm working (for my test) on the European Waltz and 22-Step but also working (for the test after that - my coach has faith in me ... gawd knows why!) on the Rocker and the Blues.

In the UK we have to test two dances for each test level and you must pass both to pass the test (which is a bummer because I could probably pass the EW but the 22 Step depends on which feet I pick up on the way out in the morning!).

I SHOULD also be starting on a Free Dance and an OD for my tests, we've done a bit of the OD but haven't done it for ages (it was fast and difficult) but can't even decide on music for a Free Dance .... duh

THANKFULLY I've never had to learn the Sickory Showdown, it is the one dance that I have totally and categorically refused to learn ..... yak!

L x

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The best whisper is a click

Most of the adult dancers I know say that they got into dance when they realized they either couldn't jump or were afraid to jump, so I don't understand the big deal about it.

Personally, I doubt if I'll ever go into dance, even when I can't jump, simply because I can't seem to memorize the patterns. The whole disipline just seems so rigid to me (and yes, I've tried it, more than once) that it takes all the fun out of skating for me. If you like it, fine, but just realize that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

I've passed through my Foxtrot, with plans to take my European next month, but my coach has taught me all the way through the Golds.

[quote:d91aeef757="TashaKat"]
I'm working (for my test) on the European Waltz and 22-Step but also working (for the test after that - my coach has faith in me ... gawd knows why!) on the Rocker and the Blues.
[/quote:d91aeef757]

Hi Auntie Lynne! ;-)

I know the EW (which I think is a much, much prettier dance than the American Waltz. I also, from my roller days, know the 14 step and the 10 step. I have even read about an 18 step version of the 14 step. What is the 22 step?

We had the rocker and the blues both in roller, but I have long since forgotten the steps. It will be interesting to see how the muscle memory works or not ;-) We had something called the keats foxtrot, which I seem to remember was also known as the foxtrot, which I guess I will know if it is the same as ice's foxtrot when I learn my next test. ;-)

Thanks!!

Danielle

[quote="TashaKatI have to say (from my original point of view) that the 'baby' dances were pretty boring to watch and do and all I saw was all these adults who just didn't progress, did the same dances week after week and never seemed to do anything different. I only started Dance to improve my basics and DETESTED the baby dances, if it wasn't for a good looking coach (ok, I'm shallow) I would have given up waaaay before I began to enjoy it!
L x[/quote]

Hi,
Loved the bit about your coach Lynne - I too detest the Baby dances and hope to pass the first 2 levels soon so I won't have to do them (except for competitions maybe) anymore. It is boring doing the standard dances to the standard music and I only really enjoy them when I can do them either with my coach or with any unsuspecting man I can pounce on! - of which there are very few!
What I am enjoying though is the Free dance, since you can choose your music and include any favourite moves (there is one move in my dance which i am having trouble perfecting and my coach keeps saying 'how can you get that wrong - it is your move that you invented'. Trouble is he 'tweaked' it to make it look better and now I can't do it anymore )
I have also been working on an original dance to a Tango rhythm for a competition and I love the music and it is really challenging, being very fast with turns and spins etc. so dance can be fun even at quite a low level.

I did take a detour into Freeskating and took my UK novice Free test (which at that time did not require any jumps) but wasn't going to go any further with it both because I wasn't confident about the idea of having both feet off the ice at the same time and because of my history of a dodgy knee and bad back (muscle strains and slipped discs). However since the UK test have changed my old novice doesn't count so I am planning on retaking the novice test which now requires jumps and spins and so I have started to learn the salchow and toe loop. Only had a few lessons on these so far but hope to get there one day. I have seen at competitions one 72 year old who can still jump and spin (better than many younger skaters!) so there is hope for me yet.

happy skating!

[quote:a6c8fe83f7="dani"]
Hi Auntie Lynne! ;-)

I know the EW (which I think is a much, much prettier dance than the American Waltz. I also, from my roller days, know the 14 step and the 10 step. I have even read about an 18 step version of the 14 step. What is the 22 step?

We had the rocker and the blues both in roller, but I have long since forgotten the steps. It will be interesting to see how the muscle memory works or not ;-) We had something called the keats foxtrot, which I seem to remember was also known as the foxtrot, which I guess I will know if it is the same as ice's foxtrot when I learn my next test. ;-)

Thanks!!

Danielle[/quote:a6c8fe83f7]

LOL

The 22-step is a dance from the bowels of hell with lots of footwork done in a circular pattern ....... I've got a diagram of it HERE .... need to go off in a mo but will 'explain' it in more detail later

L x

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The best whisper is a click

Just in case anyone thought that I'd written something really gross ..... all I said was bowels of 'hades' ...... wonder if that's allowed through? Mmmmm ......

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The best whisper is a click