Saturday evening dance session at Lloyd Center is usually not so well attended. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. It's good because the ice is BEAUTIFUL and well-manicured following the public session that preceeds it (which is no small task I am thinking) which is delightful for any ice-dancer.
It's BAD because there are very few people (men) to skate with!
I made the most of the (bad) situation by just enjoying the ice and working on basics and parts of dances, which is about what I am capable of these days - with anything that requires quick turns and changes on the upper-level dances. I am okay with the lower-level and (mostly) forward dances - these are easy (relatively) and I enjoy skating them with about as much flow as I can muster by myself.
The atmosphere in the mall is a little wild in this early Saturday evening time slot - more people hanging out, more people in the food court (watch out for flying french fries!) and just more onlookers than most of us are used to - but as I've mentioned, you learn to ignore it for the most part (although one is ever-wary of things that might get dropped onto the ice, including, it seems, parents who decide to dangle their child over the edge of the barrier - not too smart considering that in this small rink the ice-dancers sometimes need to get very close to the barrier in order to get the patterns into this small rink. I have not seen it happen, but I would hate for some child to get slammed by oncoming ice-dancers!!!
I had to admit I was a little intimidated that I would get smacked myself last night - there was a team of "elite" ice-dancers on the ice last night doing the dances (or the parts of the dances that they could fit into this rink) and I just couldn't help but feel that I was going to get mowed down (or get in their way) at some point. It never happened, but I did feel uncomfortable, I must admit. It's been a long time since I've skated on the same ice with skaters moving at that speed and with that power (oh how I miss skating in Boston...)...
Another good reason to have a partner, even a temporary one at a social dance session - two people dancing together are far more solid than just me skating solo.
Speaking of partners, I want to congratulate all of the hard-working ice-dance teams that just finished up competing at "Adult Nationals" this past weekend and especially to Laura Rose and Kiel Leighton who were 1st in the Original Dance portion of the Championship Dance competition!!! I must say I LOVED their dance at Pacific Coast Sectionals and can't wait to see it on icenetwork!
Also don't know what happened to Portland's other team of Julia and Jordan who apparently withdrew from both of their events and haven't been heard from since... Strange.
I know that I am not usually into "naming names" in this blog but I just wanted to put out a very big CONGRATULATIONS to all of the skaters from Portland who competed in Lake Placid this weekend. I know that every one of you worked very hard to be there!! Yea!
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