Yeah, yeah, I know. At this point, it might make more sense to wait until after Monday and do another double entry. But I'm not big on the "sense" thing, so I'm going to update NOW (also, apparently I'm not very big on the "sleep" thing either).
At Monday's class, we finally had our permanent teacher back--Ann Richens. She'd been away traveling the world for the last three weeks or so, so we hadn't seen her since the first class in September (we'd had step-in teachers from the Richens/Timm Academy, who were cool too). It was fun getting to show Ann all we'd learned over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I was just getting over a week-long virus and hadn't regained all my strength or energy yet, so I ended up having to sit out some bits so I didn't kill myself. Seemed like a good idea to me.
We started the class with a review of everything we've learned up until now. After doing all of that (and working on sevens/threes until I'm pretty sure we all felt like we were going to die), we learned another new jig step (heel and toe). We then ran through both "Walls of Limerick" and "Seige of Venice". This was particularly strange for us, because this was the first time the beginners had danced these two alone. There were so few people! Usually we're all running into each other. After this, the advanced dancers arrived. Ann tried to get the beginners to practice sevens/threes again in the back while the advanced dancers did some skip laps, but we somehow managed to confuse ourselves...and kind of almost run into the back wall. Ann then had the beginners do a skip lap while the advanced dancers watched, and then everyone did a couple laps together...wow that was a big circle!
We then got down to work on "Trip to the Cottage"...working on making sure everything looked good. We didn't really end up getting much further than we have over the last few weeks, but it was good practice of the first half. It's going to be interesting when we move on to the second half and the pretzels...I know a few of the beginners (Becky and Abra, mostly, because I talk to them the most) have be interested in learning that part.
After class, while the advanced dancers kept practicing, it was finally time to order shoes!!! My brand new ghillies should be arriving in a couple weeks, and I can't wait to finally get to dance in them.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Practice #4
So...I totally failed at posting after last practice. So in this post I'm going to try to update what has happened over the last TWO practices. :)
Last week, after reviewing skips and sevens/threes (which we pretty much do every class), the beginners learned our first JIG STEP. I promise that this is way more exciting than it may sound. The step we learned was a cross over and up step. The most complicated part of learning this was the fact that dancing in reel time (which is what the basic steps of skips and sevens/threes are all in) is in counts of three counts, while jig time is in counts of four. After learning this step to the best of our ability (which was mostly dancing it quite slowly), the experienced dancers came in for the joint class. We spent most of the joint class working on "Walls of Limerick" (the first progressive dance we ever learned), and then starting to learn another progressive dance, whose name I forget.
This week, class started with the weekly and ever torturous skip laps. You might think that skipping in laps around the practice room is no big deal, but it's actually INCREDIBLY tiring, especially when we go to music. After this, we reviewed skips up and back as well as sevens/threes in both directions. We then worked on reviewing the jig step, but this time going through it faster and then to music. Once the experienced dancers arrived, we worked on both "Walls of Limerick" and the other progressive dance. And then, after a short water break, we worked on "Trip to the Cottage" (the team dance we had started learning a couple weeks ago).
So that's the short version on the last two classes. Next class, we get to try on ghillies (soft shoes)!
Last week, after reviewing skips and sevens/threes (which we pretty much do every class), the beginners learned our first JIG STEP. I promise that this is way more exciting than it may sound. The step we learned was a cross over and up step. The most complicated part of learning this was the fact that dancing in reel time (which is what the basic steps of skips and sevens/threes are all in) is in counts of three counts, while jig time is in counts of four. After learning this step to the best of our ability (which was mostly dancing it quite slowly), the experienced dancers came in for the joint class. We spent most of the joint class working on "Walls of Limerick" (the first progressive dance we ever learned), and then starting to learn another progressive dance, whose name I forget.
This week, class started with the weekly and ever torturous skip laps. You might think that skipping in laps around the practice room is no big deal, but it's actually INCREDIBLY tiring, especially when we go to music. After this, we reviewed skips up and back as well as sevens/threes in both directions. We then worked on reviewing the jig step, but this time going through it faster and then to music. Once the experienced dancers arrived, we worked on both "Walls of Limerick" and the other progressive dance. And then, after a short water break, we worked on "Trip to the Cottage" (the team dance we had started learning a couple weeks ago).
So that's the short version on the last two classes. Next class, we get to try on ghillies (soft shoes)!
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