In the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a marble statue, the Doryphoros, or “Spear-bearer,” a Roman copy of a classic Greek figure who was supposed to represent the ideal male form. There he is, walking naked and beautiful out the door. And all I could think of was, hey, are his hips misaligned? Or is that the way walking is supposed to work?

His shoulders are level and he seems to be perfectly balanced in every other way. Honestly, I think he’s okay. And according to my PT and everything I’ve read, there has to be a release for the hip to swing forward and the transfer of weight to happen.

Lesson learned. I’ve worked so hard on keeping my left hip strong underneath me that I have trouble letting it go. I’m now holding my leg as stiff as a board. I need to relax! I really do! I really need to work harder at relaxing!!!

I realized that when I was working on inside mohawks today. These have been feeling really clunky lately. Ari told me that the hips should roll under (slight posterior pelvic tilt) as the foot comes in. (This happens on swing rolls too, by the way). I was not doing this; instead I was too busy doing my mohawk version of “Petrificus Totalus!” When I did that little hip tilt-thing, it was so much easier.

Same thing on that back crossover, change edge exercise that I like so much. On the left skating leg, I am doing much better with the left shoulder/lat release, but I still don’t have my right free leg turned in. In order to turn it in properly, I actually have to let myself go what feels like all knock-kneed together (which I can do very easily–but in my relentless quest to turn out my hips I have been afraid to do this).

Jeez, Jo, just let it go. As Colbie Caillat says, “You don’t have to try so hard.” Or to be more precise, I have to know when I need to push harder (like on those forward cross strokes on the man’s Euro-pattern!) and when to just let go and let the movement happen.

On the plus side today, Sonia commented that one of my outside-outside mohawks looked very “Ari-esque”–gotta love that! We had a good time (poor Ari!) with variations on this theme; another one I came up with was “Ari-S-P-E-C-T” in the style of Aretha.

I’m just getting warmed up for a forthcoming “queen of the ice” entry!

Next morning’s addendum: I can’t resist adding a final song here: Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” which reminds me of my early skating days in college and listening to “The Stranger” with Pete. Hi Pete, if you’re reading, this one’s for you!

Too bad, but it’s the life you lead
You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you’re wrong
You know you can’t always see when you’re right

You got your passion, you got your pride
But don’t you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true (Oooh)
When will you realize… Vienna waits for you?