Preliminary Test, B8s

My figures lesson with Lynne on the Chandler "Ice Cafe."

So this was our first go (well mine, it debuted yesterday but I wasn't there) at the Ice Cafe format.  We started at 11:50 with a 20 minute patch lesson, then the rest was freestyle as usual.

Lynne and Teri had laid out 20 patches on the ice, though we only had 8 people.  We drew lots for patch assignments.  They gave us the option of learning to use a scribe, or learning to lay out circles without a scribe.  Since I know how to use my scribe, I did the latter, along with half the group.

There was some actual value in this, as I had never taken the time to try stepping out my circles.  My circles are 8 steps wide.  After that I had some time so I worked on FO8, FI8 and waltz-8, and then we were out of time.

After that I grabbed my scribe and laid out some circles and then Lynne and I had our lesson:

• Preliminary test -- FO8 was okay although the first LFO was a bit wide :-(.  FI8 was pretty good.  Waltz-8 we spent some time on.  After I made myself slow down and concentrate (i.e. the 2nd time through) they were better.  The RFO edge back to center is probably the weakest part now.
• BO8 -- these were really good!  Good flow and speed and felt really solid.  There are some small things to work on of course, but I was pretty pleased.
• BI8 -- ugh.  This is still a work in progress.  I'm really working on the push to keep my feet closer together and to do that with a good push.  Urgh.  These need a lot of work.

All in all it was pretty productive.