It’s a good thing that I take skating lessons, because I’m constantly realizing that what I’ve been telling myself to do is wrong. This week there were several corrections of this type:

1. Slide chassés. Laurie’s like, “You have to slide your foot forward so the new one can fit in behind. Don’t get caught on two feet or you’ll trip yourself.” And I’m like, “Whoa!”
2. Forward outside edge (into three-turns). Ari’s like, “You have to use more of your ankle to do the edge. Don’t just stick your hip or upper body into the circle to get the edge.” And I’m like,”Doh!”
3. Forward left inside three-turns. Ari’s like, “You need to let yourself turn into the circle.  You’re afraid of that, aren’t you.” And I’m like, “Oh, really?”
4. Forward left inside edges in general. I told Ari that I felt like I couldn’t push my left foot into the edge and keep on the edge, and he said, “Actually, I feel like my foot comes back so that my knee can go forward.” And I am like, totally speechless.

Lots of other good advice from both coaches this week, but these were my “rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” moments.

I did want to share some other things here. One is an article about a skating group that Laurie sent me. Their name is “Le Patin Libre” (don’t you love it?) and they do creative, artistic skating. Their energy and their interest in experimenting with skating movement is really infectious. It helps that they’re all well-trained skaters to begin with. I am not sure I want to do a “frozen zombie” program right now, but it’s an interesting concept, and I like the idea of “a new skating species.”

Not sure about the big rubber band, but I do like the pas de deux at 1:32.

Another is a quotation:

Let us read and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. [Voltaire, “Liberty of the Press”]

And lyrics from a Taylor Swift song that could very well be rewritten:

I’m dancing on my own (dancing on my own)
I make the moves up as I go (moves up as I go)
And that’s what they don’t know, mmm-mmm
that’s what they don’t know, mmm-mmm

But I keep cruising
Can’t stop, won’t stop grooving
It’s like I got this music
In my mind
Saying, “It’s gonna be alright.”

‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I’m just gonna skate, skate, skate, skate, skate
I skate it off, I skate it off!

And I’m like, “whoo hoo hoo!”