Gonna Keep At It

Signed up for the spring session today. Monday nights from 6:00 to 7:30. I thought it best to repeat the Intro Tap, as I still have a ways to go before I master this stuff. I'm looking forward to the evening classes, too, as they are a full hour and a half, instead of the 50 minutes we get in the lunch hour classes. More people too, so more fun. Woohoo!

Lesson 8 - The Phalap

We were introduced to a new step today, called the phalap (and I'm just guessing wildly at the spelling). This is a basic tap step, easy to understand, and a devilishly difficult one to actually do. So difficult in fact, that at the moment, I'm drawing a total blank as to how to do it. This seems to be the pattern with all the basic tap steps: really hard to do and to remember.

You can get an idea of what a phalap is, if you think about flapping your foot against the floor, but in a syncopated way. And it makes a pha - lap sound. Slick, huh?

On the other hand, I'm getting close to actually doing the shuffle-ball-change - another basic tap step. For some reason I pretty much have it down in the left foot. But the right just ain't happening. I seem to be too stiff in the ankle. When I got to class today, I spent ten minutes before anyone else showed up just doing this step over and over, on each foot. It feels good to be loosening up the ankles like that, though.

Tanis, the teach, was much healthier today, too. But where the heck was everybody? There was only me and one other student, Corinne. So the vines bit was kinda thin, with just the two of us crossing back and forth, and no one in the back doing the half vines and the march in a circle thing.

I've more or less mastered the Shim-Sham Shimmy, at least as far as remembering all the parts to it. I still trip over some bits, and I seem to be off balance half the time. Weight transfers are giving me problems, cuz I'm forever moving too much, or on the wrong foot, or just off balance. I think the music Tanis used was a little slower than we usually use, too.

For the Stevie Wonder tune we added a couple more bits to it, included a variation of the phalap. For some reason, this piece is even harder to remember. I think I can get through most of it, but I know I got blank spots. It's coming together though.

Lesson 7 - Rough Day for Teach

Poor Tanis - she was supposed to be at her daughter's school volunteering, but the substitute instructor that was supposed to be there today bailed on her. On top of that she's wasn't at all well today. So it was a day for review and repetition.

She had us pair up and go through the routines with each other, and that was actually really helpful in getting everything in memory, and in getting some of the tougher stuff ironed out. I still struggle with the shuffle ball change, especially in the Stevie Wonder tune, as it has to happen pretty fast. The cool thing is, even though I don't have it down, it sort of sounds like I do - I'm faking it some how.

The other move that I mess up on is the sideways shuffle thing, but again I've got to the point where I can fake it sort of. And sometimes when I think I'm faking it, I find I'm actually doing it.

Then there's a part where you do this toe tapping bit, then drag the footback, stomp, turn the other way, and repeat with the other foot. It looks simple, but the goofy part is that it takes up only seven beats on each foot, with two beats to get into it. I try not to think about it, because it always works out to taking up sixteen beats somehow. When I try to follow and count I totally blow it.

I'm beginning to really enjoy that one. The other one with the vines and the Shim-Sham Shimmy I do better at, but I still have a heck of a time jumping from the half vine to the scissors step, both because of the sudden change from step-behind to step-in-front, and because of the weight transfer and the way you have to jump into the scissors from the vine so quickly. I end up waiting out the first couple of scissors, then jumping in on the third one.

I always screw up the bit in the back row, where we do three half vines and a four step march in a circle. I tend to be off balance a lot on the half vines.

Shoe issues: that loose tap on the one shoe is maybe too loose. One screw was actually sticking out a bit toward the end, and I was worried about gouging the floor with it. There was a screwdriver in the drawer under the sound system, and I tightened it up, but it didn't feel like it was going to stay. I'll have to watch that.

Lesson 6

More of the same, and I'll never get tired of it. But I wish I could remember the steps and moves from week to week. In doing the Stevie Wonder tune, I drew a total blank after the first dozen beats, and she made us try and remember it, too. One of us actually remember this dragging the foot part, but we all kinda sucked at recall.

We started with the warmups, which I'm getting pretty good at too. I mean, they're pretty simple moves, but they use muscles that don't often get used, or use them in ways that are different than usual. Heel-toe, toe-heel - stuff like that. And it still is amazing how warm a warmup makes me. Glad I have the wicking tees.

We did the grapevines thing again, and straight into the Shim-Sham Shimmy right after. My biggest challenge is the transition from the half vines into the scissors step, again, because of the change from step-behind to step-in-front. I am improving, as I can get into the scissors, before everyone else is done. But I miss the start of it, and another part of the challenge, besides the change in stepping is the weight transfer. I'm too way off balance to be able to change direction from a half vine to a scissors.

In the Shim-Sham Shimmy, I've been struggling all week to remember the last segment. It involves the shuffle-ball-change, but that was about all I could remember. So today, I think I finally got it all together. Gonna try the whole Shimmy from start to finish after I finish writing this, see how I do.

And to top it off, we got to watch the noon-hour smokers standing outside, who were watching a dumpster fire in the back alley. The fire department showed up shortly, but without the excitement of the sirens and all that.

Just another fun nooner. I can't believe how much fun I have in being so frustrated in this stuff. Maybe it's because I can just about do most of it, sort of on the edge of talent, but so far denied. I don't even know if what I just wrote makes sense.

Lesson 5 - After a Break

It's been two weeks since the last lesson, as there was no class last week due to the public school's spring break.

I thought I would have forgotten everything after two weeks, but it was surprisingly handy in my memory. I think I remembered everything, actually. It's just that the feet and the brain remember it a little differently. Getting them coordinated has been a challenge.

We did some different things for warm up that were kind of fun. Usually, we spread out and go through several different moves that really work the legs, especially the ankles, and we did do those today. But then Tanis (our instructor) had us doing some travelling, different kinds of strutting, heel-toe or toe-heel and variations. That was kind of cool, cuz I managed to get them down pretty quick.

We did a lot of the sideways shuffly moving. First with rotating both toes to the side, then both heels, over and over. Then reversing directions. Then we did the alternating one, where you start pidgeon toed, and move one toe and the other heel, then the other toe and the first heel. If I can get it started, and then stop thinking about what I'm doing, I can go pretty smoothly. As soon as I try to figure out what my feet are doing, they get tangled up. It's really annoying that both my kids can do this so easily.

Then we did the vines thing, with two of us doing the criss-cross and the other two in the back of the room doing half-vines and a circular walk. (There were only four of us in class today) Then we trade places, and do it again. I still got hung up at the end in switching from the half-vines to this other move that's a really quick cross-over and heel click. It's hard because with the vines you cross your legs behind, but with the last bit, you cross in front, and transition from one move to the other is really fast.

We got the last move of the Shim-Sham-Shimmy, with the shuffle ball change. I almost actually did this, but it still mostly eludes me. I really like whole thing. It feels like a complete dance routine, and even has a kicky finish. But then, Tanis got us to combine it with the vines exercise, so it became a full three minute choreographed routine. Very cool!

After that, we split into teams, and Tanis played a piece, while we had to figure out our own moves to it. Totally intimidating, except that once we started, it came to us quite easily. Our team came up with a rhythm that we tapped out, then we did the sideways shuffly thing (must learn some terminology), and then we discovered that the rhythm we came up with fit quite naturally into the half-vine. I found rather amazing that we could do something like that with just a couple of basic moves.

To finish, we worked on the Stevie Wonder tune, and added a few more things to it. Lots of shuffle-ball-change, and a cool couple of stomps to finish. Tanis showed us really quick in the last couple of minutes more of the moves that we'll learn, and there is that damn sideways shuffly thing. Very challenging.

They've posted the spring and summer schedules, and I have until the end of the month to get the early bird pricing for the spring schedule. I plan to repeat intro tap, and see if I can get some mastery over some of this stuff. Depending on how that goes, I may take Tap 1 in the fall. But for sure, I'm having way too much fun to quit.