Dancing on my mind

[elizabeth_mn]

Last night at dance practice I was reminded that I still don't have a solo step for our June performance in Iowa. Mostly my group does ceili dancing (the social style, as opposed to the more modern performance-based style) but this time we are doing a step-about as our finale, where each dancer gets 2 measures to dance a solo step, then we all finish with some hardshoe battering. A step-about is fun! But I didn't have a hardshoe step anymore. It's been about 10 years since I have been in dance classes, and I have forgotten a lot of the choreography.

So, YouTube to the rescue! I Googled "beginning hardshoe step" and here is what I got.

It starts out simple and gets a little more complex, but never crazy-hard.

Also this one. Love the toe hits behind.

I've also been enjoying watching these Howcast dance videos. I haven't used much from these, because most are a little advanced for me now (well, I used to be able to do back-clicks! Kinda.) There are tons of these with lots of little techniques.

So what I did this morning was to assemble step components from videos like these and from basic steps I already knew, practice them, and write them down on paper. I made them into little chunks of 2 counts, so with 8 counts to fill, I just shuffled the pieces around until I had an order I liked, making one cohesive step. NOW I need to practice my new step one hundred more times before next week's practice - the last practice before our next performance!

Comments

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I just watched the first one, and I'm about 95% confident I could figure that out myself! Of course I don't know the proper form (and I don't have the shoes), but a lot of how I learned and remember tap is from hearing the rhythms and sounds. The speed on that was just right that I could get it. Fun!
ETA: The second one was too fast for me to get; I'd have to concentrate on it in sections to get the feel. But I know how hard it is to slow down more complicated steps. The balance gets off and some things just don't work at slower speeds. Like when you're really in the air for several things at once.

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the second one was a little fast and the video quality is slightly blurry. If I hadn't learned that step in real life it wouldn't make much sense. But it worked as a refresher!

I know there are Irish dance studios in your area if you ever wanted to learn more of this! It's fun!