Welkom bij stapgeleerde, aflevering 4!
That’s Dutch….(courtesy of Google Translate) and we are learning the Dutch Waltz today! This is a relatively easy dance, but sometimes it’s the easy things that can catch us out or show how well (or not) we’ve practiced our basic skating skills.
This is a Simple Ice Dance, but…
In this dance we encounter Syncopation for the very first time. Syncopation in Ice Dance terms is dividing beats unevenly across a series of steps. In this case, a Forward Run.
We have 2 steps in a Run, usually 1 beat each step for any other dance in 2/4 or 4/4 time signature like Foxtrots, Marches or Tangos, but Waltz tempo has 3 counts and so we share those counts out as 2 for the first step of the Run and 1 for the second step.
As a result of Syncopation, the first Run of the dance has a light and slightly skippy appearance, but must never get airborne. Knee bend is your friend here!
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Our Full Follow-Along Tutorials Playlist can be found here, in case you want to extend your Ice Dance practice today 🙂
Olympian Tips to elevate you Ice Dancing
If you have learned the steps and feel you are ready to pay attention to details you could try some of the following:
- Pointing your toe at the end of each stretch of your leg as you push/stroke or swing a free leg forward. This makes great line, works the calf muscles to give them extra tone and makes our legs look longer….Bonus!
- Neat feet always look refined and controlled. Drawing the feet alongside each other underneath you before moving on to the next skating stroke is not only more elegant, it gives you more balance and potential power.