I picked Bay up from the airport yesterday at 2:30, fresh in to town from her three week trip to Brazil.  It sure is nice to see the person you've chosen to spend the rest of your life with when you've been separated from them for any length of time.  The sequence of events for our day went like this:

• 2:30 - Pick Bay up.
• 3:00 - Grab something to eat at Boston Pizza
• 4:00 - Get home, unpack a little, look at souvenirs and some photos
• 5:00 - Go for a bike ride
• 7:00 - Get home
• 8:00 - Go and meet some friends downtown at Whitebird to see Jess off before she goes to Ottawa for her summer co-op job
• 10:00 - ZZzz..
  

That's a pretty full day - I'm not quite sure how Bay managed to pack it all in after having traveled for the better part of an entire day previous.

Because Bay was away this past weekend, we missed the opportunity to take part in the marriage preparation course that we normally help out with.  This course is something that Bay and I have been doing for just shy of two years now, but I've never written about it, so here's where the curtain gets drawn back, and the magic is exposed for what it really is (pro-tip: At the core, it's about effective communication).

Background

When you get married in the Catholic church (While I'm best described as a secular humanist or agnostic, Bay is a practicing catholic, so this was a requirement for us), you are required to take part in a two day marriage preparation course, and to present the certificate you receive to the priest officiating your wedding.

Interestingly enough, before I had even met Bay, the first co-op supervisor I had had told me that her and her husband (one of the owner's of the company I currently work for) had gone through a similar course as well, and found it quite valuable.  Being a big fan of any opportunity for self-improvement, I had always felt that there was no harm done in taking a course like this before getting married, and had planned all along that it was something I wanted to do, regardless of who I was marrying and what religious beliefs they held.

When Bay first mentioned it to me, she was somewhat surprised to hear this, thinking that I would be adamantly opposed to any kind of course like this being imposed upon us by the church.  In any case, what really mattered was that we both felt this was a good idea, and went ahead with it.

As it turned out, we really enjoyed ourselves, found the course fairly helpful.  The people that were leading the course when we took it were actually friends of Bay's from her church (and came to our wedding), and shortly after, asked us if we had any interest in helping out.  The two couples currently running the course were all aged above fifty, and their feelings were that having some youth in the mix as well would help round things out.

The Course

So..  That's how we got to the point where we were actually teaching the course, but what exactly is it that we're teaching? 

The course itself isn't about sharing feelings with a group - it's about each couple getting an opportunity to discuss things with each other.  Some of the topics that are covered include:

• Resolving conflict (a sticking point for many people, whether they realize it or not)
• Discussing plans for the future
• Managing finances as a couple
• Aging together
• Some of the things to expect in the future

These and a few other items are all tackled using videos (hilariously cheesy '80s videos actually, although they still have a strong and valid message), handouts, some discussion, and a lot of individual talk between the couples.

Bay and I lead one quarter of the course, specifically going through efficient ways to resolve conflict in a relationship, and managing finances as a couple.

Resolving Conflict

The most potentially embarrassing part for Bay and I is always at the very start of the course, when we have to introduce ourselves to the class and mention the fact that we've only been married for a year-and-a-half.  However, we have been together for five years previous to actually getting married, and though the Catholic church may not like people living in sin, it's undeniably going to lead to a lot of growth and experience for a couple.

As I said earlier (and it's pretty cliched by now), the real key to any successful, happy relationship is effective communication.  However, merely stating that is a bit of a platitude, and doesn't really get us anywhere.

How do we effectively communicate?  Is it simply through yelling at each other when we're upset (well, that's not always a bad idea)?  The process that we go through is a fairly simple and effective way to begin with an issue and to iterate through it, performing the following things:

• Choose a time to discuss the problem

This seems like an obvious item to many people.  "Right now!" is typically the response people have initially.  However, there are many times when you're much better off waiting:

• One or both of you have been drinking
• One or both of you are hungry
• One or both of you are tired
• You're not at home or in a place that lends itself well to discussion
• You have something that absolutely has to be dealt with

All of these may be fairly obvious, but there are plenty of other reasons that it may not be a good time to discuss the problem that you want to deal with.  If either of you isn't able to commit the time right now, set aside some time to deal with the issue specifically the next day, or sometime soon.  Reneging on this appointment isn't an option - you both need to commit to sit down and discuss at this time.

Above all, ignore the old saying that "It's better to stay up and fight and go to bed angry".

• Identify the problem

This step is typically a bit deceptive.  People often begin arguing with each other, assuming that they're both talking about the same thing.  Half of the battle can simply be getting on the same page, and talking about the same thing that bothers you.

Perhaps I hate it that Bay is friendly with other attractive guys, but Bay hates how jealous I act when she is simply being friendly with people that she works with (this is hypothetical).  It could take some discussion before we're both aware of what is upsetting each other (you'll notice that the hypothetical issue above is really two different perspectives on one thing).

A real key to this step is learning to pick and choose the thing you are going to work on.  One friend of mine mentioned that when he would bring up an issue with his girlfriend, she would counter by saying "Well, I've been holding back bringing up all of these things, but this really bothers me, and this upsets me, and that is annoying...".  Each of those items is something that probably needs to be dealt with (it's not fair to you, your significant other, or your relationship to simply harbour issues you may have), but you can only work on one thing at a time.

• Brainstorm solutions

Now we're getting to the actual meat of resolving a problem.  Although this is the part where you're actually going to start figuring out how to resolve an issue, the previous steps are really about laying down a good foundation to do that.  Without a strong foundation, a building will collapse, and you should put the same amount of importance into establishing a good foundation when you are aiming to resolve conflict.

This is exactly what it sounds like.  In school we used to start writing projects by brainstorming ideas.  I thought it was cheesy and stupid.  Nowadays, I use brainstorming whenever I'm getting stuck trying to find focus.  By dumping out all of the ideas that come into my head, I get a quick overview of my thoughts.

Brainstorming solutions to a problem should be no different.  Just blurt out ideas that come to mind, and write them down.  In the course, we usually end up with a number of jokes that get shouted out, but that's okay too - behind every joke there can be a nugget of truth.  Don't allow yourself to get caught up judging or thinking about a given solution during this phase.  Write it down, and move on to the next one.

• Choose and contract a resolution

Now you get a chance to go over all of the ideas that you have brainstormed.  Evaluate each item and see if it's a valid solution to the problem you've identified.

As you start to come up with a possible solution, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you are looking for solutions that are measurable.  Good intentions are great, but they're a very poor way to reach a solution.  An example:

• Good intention: "I promise to pay attention to you more often"
• Measurable solution: "I will give you a big hug first thing when I get home from work, and devote at least ten minutes before I start doing chores to talking with you about your day"

Does that sound kind of cheesy to you?  It does to me as well, but that's okay.  The key item here is that it's something you can specifically look to in order to determine whether or not your solution has been successful so far.  You can also see that it is much easier to make sure that you're keeping up your end of the bargain with a solution like this.  It's pretty near impossible to ever truly prove or disprove that you are "paying more attention to someone every day".

Once you've chosen a solution, set a date a couple of weeks from now to evaluate your progress, and see if it's working.  If necessary, mark it on your calendar so that you don't forget. 

When that date comes...

• Evaluate your progress

Here's the semi-last step of the process.  A couple of weeks after you've contracted your solution, get together and determine whether or not you've been successful.  How do you both feel about how things are going? 

If things are going well, then hey, that's great - you've resolved a small amount of conflict.  This is what you're aiming forever.  That's not always the way things work out though.

Maybe the solution you've come up with is just imposing too much of a burden on your time, and you need to scale back a little bit.  Maybe you're both abiding to the solution you came up with, and the problem still exists.  This is when you move on to the next step:

• Iterate, if needed

As I'm fond of saying, failure is just an opportunity to re-evaluate your goals and determine if you need to adjust them.  It doesn't mean that you failed as a couple, or that you'll never be able to work things out.  It could mean that the solution you contracted simply wasn't realistic for both of you to stick to.

Often, people will identify what they believe is the problem, only to then later discover that this was just the symptom of a deeper problem.  Maybe the problem Bruno Mexidando identified was that his wife doesn't kiss him enough, but the real underlying problem is that Bruno is always going to kiss Betty-Jo when she's in the middle of a conversation with someone that makes him feel insecure.  The deeper problem here is likely insecurity and jealousy on Bruno's part, and a lack of sensitivity on Betty-Jo's part.

Start back at the top, setting aside time to discuss, identifying the problem, and moving from there. Be willing to accept that maybe you got the problem wrong the first time, and be willing to iterate over these steps for the sake of your relationship.  They really are important.

So that's the main gist of the process.  We have a number of examples that we go through with the class, iterating over these five main points, as well as bringing up some scenarios from our own past (we've certainly had our share of conflict).

We also review a number of common pitfalls that couples run into that can create conflict.  Things like round-robin fighting and dismissing each other's complaints ("Here we go again, you always get upset about this!"), and the one I think is most important: avoiding the temptation to put each other down, even jokingly.  This last one is especially important, as it's a very unfair way to treat your partner.  By putting them down as part of a joke, you preemptively take away their ability to respond and indicate that you've hurt their feelings ("What, I'm only joking - can't you take a joke?").

What we get out of it

I get an interesting assortment of looks from people when they find out that we do this.  Some people are interested in the process.  Some people could care less.  Some people appear a little skeptical, as though the notion that you can teach an effective way to resolve conflict is silly, and some people even come off a little resentful ("Who are you to tell someone how to solve their problems?".  The distinction is that we're not telling someone how to solve their problem.  We're teaching them a method for solving their own problem.)

Precluding any of this is of course the fact that you will get out of this kind of thing no more or less than what you are willing to put into it.  When we took the course, we approached it without any preconceived notion of what to or not to expect, and took away from it a number of good ideas.  Each couple's mileage will vary, depending on how willing and open they are to new approaches to these kinds of things.

Although we volunteer our time to teach the course, the benefit we derive from doing so easily makes it worth our while.  Everytime we iterate over these ideas with the class, it helps solidify our own understanding, and internalize the process.  After every class, we leave having new insights into how conflict can be resolved, and how a successful relationship can be managed (or fall apart).

The single biggest reward out of any of this though is the most obvious one - it's a chance to spend a weekend talking and thinking about our relationship together.  The longer you're together, the less often that seems to happen.  Opportunities like this one are easily worth the small amount of time that they demand of us.

That's all for now.

This is part of my ongoing series related to the popping classes that I'm taking at Vibestreet Dance studios, you can read last week's entry here.  The most recent class focused almost purely on tutting, a style that I have never gotten into.

Before I get into the details of the class, I want to provide a quick update on myself, as I haven't been able to sit down and write as much as I'd like to.  If you are hear to read only about the dance class, you can skip past this stuff.

This was the last week I had to occupy myself before Bay got back from Brazil, where she was taking part in the international emerging markets aspect of her MBA degree at UVic.  She has been gone for three weeks now, which is the longest her and I have been apart from each other in about four years.

The time apart has been very healthy.  When I say healthy, I don't mean "Thank god we are away from each other!".  What I mean is that it's good for a couple to spend some time apart from one another now and then, remember who we are as individuals, spend some time recalibrating ourselves, and learning to appreciate each other and what our relationship means to us all over again.  I make a point of saying this every time we teach the marriage preparation course - it is imperative that the two people in a couple can function independently, if they're going to be able to function together in a healthy relationship.

Over the past three weeks, I've accomplished a bunch of things.  Some of those are:

• Started and finished some Spring cleaning, organizing our condo and storing some things that have been left out for far too long
• Come up with a couple of new systems for managing my tasks (nerdy, but it does feel really good to come up with a new system that makes you more productive)
  
• Officially resigned from the VEMF management team this year (a difficult decision to make - more on this later)
• Hung out with good friends
• Caught up with old friends
• Started getting up early in the mornings to fit an hour bike ride in before work
• Continued training hard for squash

In Bay's absence, I've tried to treat the three weeks as something of a working vacation, starting with Easter weekend, and then taking the following two Monday's off work as well.  This has given me more spare time than I would otherwise had, and given me some spare to let my mind be creative and wander.  Although this has been a bit of an experiment, I think that the results have been really good.

I really enjoyed watching Marc Lesser's talk at Google about accomplishing more by doing less.  One thing he said that has stuck with me is his mantra that you should take time during the year to "retreat, in order to move forward".  By retreat, he means remove yourself from your daily life and give yourself the opportunity to think about it from outside of the box (at least, this is how I interpreted his advice).  I look at the past three weeks as the first opportunity I've had to practice this advice, and will certainly be looking to continue this practice.

Now, isn't it about time that we started talking about dance?

Tutting

At the start of this entry, I mentioned that in the past, tutting was never a style that I had pursued.  The reason for this is a simple one really: I just didn't feel that I was anatomically capable of performing the dance.

Tutting, as a style, is all about moving your body in and out of positions that incorporate right angles.  Wrists bent at right angles, elbows bent at right angles, shoulders bent at right angles, etc.  The name derives from King Tut, and the stereotypical angles created by the body parts that mimic some hieroglyphs, and certainly Steve Martin and Bugs Bunny mimicing "walking like an Egyptian".

The problem is, my wrists don't bend back at a very sharp right angle.  With a lot of effort, I can get them bent back at about 80 degrees, but when I see this in the mirror, it just looks ugly.  I can take my hand and pull on the my other wrist and get a good sharp right angle, but surely this isn't what the dance is about.

So, tutting was a style that I'd watched dancers like Tommy Boy do, and always appreciated, but had put a mental barrier in place and wasn't going to bother trying to progress further with it.  It turns out, many of my concerns are fairly unfounded in the dance.

The most important thing to keep in mind with tutting is that you don't need to be perfect. We should always aim to make sharper cleaner angles, and to be as tight as possible, but there are limits to what the human eye can perceive, and by and large, if you're making an effort to keep the lines created by your hands parallel and tight, you should fare just fine.

Some basic positions

Unlike the rest of what we have worked on so far, tutting didn't come with a set of fundamental moves that Dillon taught us.  However, I've tried to break out some of what I perceived are fundamental positions that you will find yourself moving in and out of frequently.

Prayer position

This is a very common position, and you'll find yourself starting and ending a lot in this position (at least when you are beginning, as I am).  It is exactly as it sounds like.  Feet at shoulder width, arms in front of you and close to your stomach, with the palms of your hands pressed against each other as though you are praying.  Ideally you want to make an effort to bend your wrists back at 90 degree angles, and keep the line created by your forearms parallel with the ground.

You have now mastered your first tutting position!  Congratulations.

Variations on the prayer position

From the prayer position, there are a number of movements that you can make.

• While maintaining the angle your wrists are bent at, you can slide one of your hands up one hand-length, so that you now have one hand in the previous position, and the heel of your other hand touching the fingertips of your bottom hand.
• While maintaining the prayer position, move your hands over to the left or right side of your chest.  As always, try to maintain the angles created by your wrists, and keep the line created by your forearms parallel with the ground.
• Pivot one of your hands downward, with the base of your wrist as the pivot point.  When you are finished, you should have one hand fixed in the same position it was at the start of the move (pointing upwards), and one hand pointing downwards.  The heel of both of your hands should be touching.
• Do the same pivot as above, but at the end of the pivot, continue your movement to bring the back of one hand against the palm of the other hand.  One hand should remain as it was in the prayer position, with the other hand bent downwards at the wrist, with its back flat against the palm of your other hand.

King Tut

Although I'm not sure that it's actually called this, I noticed that a lot of our movements tended to flow in and out of this position.

The king tut position is what I call the position where your arms are out, your elbows are bent upwards at 90 degrees, and your wrists are bent again at 90 degrees.

The most common position I found us moving into was done from the prayer position:

• Start in prayer position
• Moving your arms up and out, you want to end up with your elbow bent upwards at 90 degrees, and your wrists still bent back at 90 degrees.

That's it.  The transition from prayer position to this one is simple, as you don't actually have to move anything - you simply pivot around your elbows.  The hard part in this position is maintaining a 90 degree angle with your wrists.  When I asked about how on Earth this is possible, Dillon said that it's most important to make sure that your hands remain parallel with the ground.  Imagine that you've got a heavy book resting flat on the palm of each hand when you're doing this position.

Some transitions from the King Tut position

From this position, you can transition into a wide variety of other angles.

• You can fold your wrists over and bend them from an outwards angle to an inwards angle.  In this position, your arms and elbows remaining the same, but your fingertips will go from pointing outwards to point inwards.  This is an easy one to make tight 90 degree angles with, so make sure you look in a mirror and get this right.
• You can roll your wrists in a circle so that your fingertips remain pointing outwards, but your wrists are now bend forwards at a 90 degree angle, rather than backwards (again, a much easier angle to make)
• You can pivot your arms around your elbows, so that your elbows now bend downwards at 90 degrees, and your wrists remain bent backwards, this time with your fingertips pointing inwards at roughly your stomach level

Head tuts

A number of angles we ended up working on were created by taking a tut and shifting it to the top of our head.  For example:

• From the King Tut position, bring your left arm over top of your head.  Your wrist should now be resting on the right side of your head, pointing up like a horn.  Now bring your right arm over top of your head as well (you'll have to put it either in front or behind your left arm), and make the same position with your right hand as you are with your left hand.  Ideally you want to maintain 90 degree angles with your wrists, so that both of your hands remain pointing straight up.
• From the King Tut position, make a transition similar to the one above, but bring the palms of your hands together, and rest them together on the middle of your head, with your fingers pointing up (to my eyes, this position always makes me think of Indian dancing)

Box tuts

Box tuts are just the term I use to describe any tut that mimics the shape of a box.  The most common box tut is done by:

• Take your right arm, and put your fingers just against the inside of the crook of your left elbow joint.  Use this elbow to bend back your wrist at a 90 degree angle
• Take your left arm, and bend your left wrist downwards just above your right arm's elbow, putting your fingers lightly touching your elbow.

In this position, your forearms and wrists should be forming a box.  From here, you can collapse and recreate the box by:

• Straighten the wrists of both of your arms.  Your left arm should be resting flat on top of your right arm.
• Smoothly slide your left arm behind your right arm and downwards.  As you do this, the fingers of your left arm need to sit just inside the crook of your right elbow joint - remember, this is how you are going to bend back your right wrist.
• While you're doing the above movement, simultaneously bring your right arm in front of your left arm and upwards.  As you do this, the fingers of your right arm should gently touch the elbow of your left arm.  Continue moving your arm smoothly upwards, bending your wrist to create a 90 degree angle.
• You should now have a box tut again, but with your right arm on top instead of your left arm.

This motion in itself creates a nice visual, although doing it over and over again will get boring for the audience.  Nevertheless, you can see that you can do a lot with a little bit of movement.

Wrist twirls

Wrist twirls were a movement that Dillon showed us because he found them useful as a way of moving in and out of various tut positions.  Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to describe in writing the motion that is used for a good wrist twirl.  I know this, because I've just spent five minutes trying to get it down, and I haven't really had much success.  However, the gist of the motion is:

• Hold your hands out, with the inside of the wrists of your hands together
• Pivot your hands in a circle, around the inside of the wrists. 
  
• As you do this pivot, you want to make sure that the fingers on your left hand are always pointing away from the fingers on your right hand.

That's it.  If it sounds easy because there's so few steps mentioned, that's because it is.  But it only becomes easy once you get the hang of it.  If there is anyone that wants me to show them this move, just ask me in person and I can give you the goods very quickly.

Another wrist twirl that we learned is to transition from the prayer position at your chest to the one on top of your head.  To do this, you:

• Starting in prayer position, start raising your hands upwards.
• As you move your hands upwards, slowly start to open up your hands, showing the backs of them to the audience (so you're looking at the palms)
• Press the backs of your hands together, and imagine that the back of your wrists are now glued together
• Pivoting around the back of your wrists, rotate your hands inwards (towards you), then down, and then out and upwards.
• When you are done this motion, you should have the backs of your hands stuck together, with your fingers pointing either outwards or upwards (depending on how far along you've moved them)
  
• You can now continue moving your arms upwards and place your hands on top of your head.  The backs of your hands should be against each other, with your wrists bent backwards at 90 degrees angles to your forearm.  Done!

Footwork

One thing I was curious about was what kind of footwork we would use to complement tutting.  Back from my earlier days of liquid dancing, one of the things that always drove me nuts were dancers that stood in place with their feet fixed on the floor, and then proceeded to totally trip people out (their own words).  I found this annoying for a couple of reasons - One, it's contrived and obnoxious to make the assumption that you're totally tripping people out, and two, standing fixed on the dance floor for an entire song is not dancing.

Dillon commented that tuts do not have a specific style of footwork that is used with them, though some dancers will raise their feet off the ground to create angles that complement those being done with their hands.  The main footwork to use with tutting is the same as that which we have learned previously.  Gliding will complement tutting, and the Sac-step will as well.  On that note, I noticed that in spite of all of the good foundation we've covered so far, Dillon has not broken down the Sac-step for anyone, so...

Sac-step

The Sac-step is a very simple motion, but allows you to fill a few beats with your feet.  The name is derived from Sacramento, where Boogaloo Sam (the creator of boogaloo) was from (I believe).  The motion works as follows:

• Start with left foot slightly in front of the other
• Take your left foot, lift it up, and then put it down beside your right foot
• When you touch the ball of your left foot down, shift your weight to this foot, and then
• Take your right foot, lift it up, and then put it down in front, roughly at the same distance that your left foot was at the start of this move

That's it.  The step isn't complicated, and it certainly won't trip people out!!  However, this is a valuable step to learn, and lets you add in additional footwork while you're doing something more complex with your upper body.

Practicing

This session left me with a lot of things to practice.  One of the things I was most interested in finding out was how Dillon went from this very rough set of fundamentals to actually being able to use tutting as a dance.  The main suggestion that Dillon offered was to start in any one position, keep one hand fixed, and then practice as many transitions and angles as you can with the other hand.

The main art of tutting is maintaining clean angles and transitioning in and out of various positions.  Once you've developed the muscle memory for these positions and transitions, it becomes fairly easily to string them together into a dance.

Conclusion

Towards the end of the session, we went into a bit of liquid, as all of us had aching shoulders and wrists from holding the tuts for so long.  Liquid was the first style of dance that I ever really got into, so most of what we were working on came fairly easily.  However, I did notice that I am a bit rusty at this style, and my liquid isn't quite as smooth as I would have liked to see.  I'm alright with that though, as there's simply too much other stuff that I want to practice right now.

I believe that the remaining two classes will be devoted to reviewing of what we've picked up so far, which is good.  There's been so much material that we've covered that an opportunity to go back and solidify it will be a very good thing.

More updates to come!

It's another Tuesday, which means another popping class has passed.  This past class was related to glides, slides, and floats - essentially all different ways of moving yourself around the dance floor.  I'll dive right in to the material we covered, adding my own thoughts throughout.

Floats

Dillon started out by showing us the most basic piece of foundation for gliding: the heel-toe pivot. This is a very simple movement (in theory), and forms the basis from which the glide flows out of.  To do this move, the motion is:

• Start with both toes pointing inwards, almost, but not quite, touching
• Pivot on the toe of your left foot, bringing its heel around so that it is now pointing to the right (and your toe will now be pointing to the left).  While you do this, you also:
• Pivot on the heel of your right foot, bringing its toe around so that it is now pointing to the right (and your heel will now be pointing to the left).
• When you have completed this motion, both of your toes should now be pointing out
• Repeat this process, this time pivot on the heel of your left foot, and bring its toe around so that it is pointing inwards (and your heel pointing outwards), and, simultaneously:
• Pivot on the toe of your right foot, and bring its heel out so that it is pointing outwards (and the toes pointing inwards).
• At this point, you should have your feet in the same position that you initially started in, but be a few feet to the right of where you started.

As you can see, this is a fairly simple movement. I have been shown this motion a couple of times, not just from watching popping instructional videos, but also in a few workshops that I've been fortunate enough to take.  However, I've never really gotten it to stick.  What I mean by this, I guess, is that I've been lazy and neglected to practice the move.  I suspect that this is because when I first started teaching myself, I didn't realize this was the foundation upon which glides were built, and just started right into actually working on the glide.  My glides aren't horrible, but they could certainly be better if I put in some time to practice proper floats.

This is really pretty unacceptable.  Since this is the foundation upon which gliding is based, I'm making a mental note to make sure that I get this down.

As we were going through this, I noticed that a couple of people were having trouble alternating where they were placing their weight on their feet.  Having worked with a couple of friends to try and help then get this motion down, I can totally appreciate this difficulty.  One of the techniques I would recommend is a good starting point is to get the first pivot setup (so raise up on the ball of your left foot and the heel of your right foot) and then just pivot back and forth, into and out of, the first and second position.  Don't worry about changing where you've got your weight positioned for now.  Just practice going back and forth between these two positions.  After you've put some time in to that, work on the pivot from the second position back into the starting position (but this time continuing in the direction you started, rather than back to the original position).

Breaking the move down into these two steps will help you solidify it in your head and ensure that they can happen without you thinking about it, and this is really the key goal to establish when we're learning new techniques.

Glides

Okay, on to the meat of what everyone has been waiting for.  First, a quick note on glides.  This is, hands down, the single technique that I get asked about the most.  Gliding is a simple movement, but is very visually confusing.  People always want me to show them how to do it, but don't realize that it only becomes a natural movement with a little bit of practice.  Not a ton, but some, definitely.  I noticed in class that some people were getting a little discouraged as we went through the various techniques, and I got worried.  I have a vested interest in seeing people getting stoked about popping (and the rest of the funk styles as well), so I want people to be pumped on these techniques.  Hopefully some group practice sessions will help with that - more on this later.

Before going any further, there is an important point to make that Dillon didn't cover in class.  The key, in my opinion, to the glide's visual effectiveness, is making sure that the foot that is raised up on the ball of its foot is not the one that is moving.  The movement will always happen with the foot whose sole is flat to the floor.  There is a good reason for this:

Imagine someone walking, running, moving normally.  Which foot is doing the movement?  It is always the foot that is raised.  During normal locomotion, the foot that is flat on the ground remains stationary (and is being used to push off forwards with), while the raised foot travels forward, then gets placed flat on the ground, and is then used to push forward (and the back foot is now raised and moved through the air). Our brains are trained to understand this kind of motion, and to expect it.

A glide works by flipping this rule on its head.  The raised foot never does any movement, and the flat foot does all of the movement.  When the brain tries to parse this visual input, the viewer focuses on the raised foot expecting movement.  However, no movement ever happens, and before you know it, the dancer has moved halfway across the dance floor.

When practicing glides, keep this cardinal rule in mind:  The raised foot does not move.

Side-Glide

The side-glide is the second most well-known type of glide, after the back-glide (popularized by Michael Jackson, incorrectly, as the moon-walk).  This glide is actually much simpler than it looks, though it does require some training to understand exactly what is going on.

Dillon indicated that the motion for the side-glide flows directly out of the floating technique we covered earlier, and as soon as we started working on the glide, I was surprised how closely it really does.  The motion is broken down as follows:

• Start, again, with your toes pointing inwards, and your heels outwards
• Raise up (and put your weight on) on the toes of your left foot, and the heel of your right foot
• Pivot on the toes of your left foot, and the heel of your right foot, so that your toes are now both pointing outwards.
  

So far, this is identical to the float.  Here's where the change comes in:

• At the end of the last pivot, you need to shift all of your weight to your left foot (which remains up on its ball), because...  As you drop the heel of your left foot down to the ground, you want to slide your right foot away from you.  I find that the hardest part most people (including myself) have to deal with is getting their right foot to remain as flat to the ground as possible, but without it touching.  You want to avoid generating any friction between your foot and the ground.
• At this point, you should have both your toes pointed out, with your feet about two feet apart (or shoulder-width).
• Now, again, as with the float before, put your weight on the ball of your right foot, and the heel of your left foot.  Pivot to bring your toes pointing inwards again, then shift all of the weight onto your right foot and slide your left foot back in towards your right foot.  At the end of this motion your toes should just about be touching each other, and you're back at the position you started in.

Another aspect of this glide that people have trouble with is the weight transfer.  Ideally you want to do both the weight transfer AND the pivots at the same time, in one smooth motion.  However, I've always found this fairly tricky (possibly because I never learned to float properly).  I would recommend just taking things slowly for now, and focusing on the individual steps.  If you have trouble with the weight transfer and the pivot, then just repeat that motion over and over, until you get it right.

One other thing that we worked on that was helpful was simply going up on the ball of your one foot, and sliding your other foot away from it as you brought the heel of the raised foot back down to the ground.  This is a great way of developing the muscle memory for half of the motion for the glide.  You could apply this same principle to the second half of the glide, ensuring that you get these two aspects down tight.

One last principle that is very important here.  Ultimately, you want to learn to do this motion smoothly that you can carry it out without making any movement in your upper body.  Initially, you will find it difficult to maintain the balance required to stop yourself from moving around, but with practice, you should be able to glide while keeping your upper body perfectly still (and then once you've got that down, you can start doing contrasting movements like waves through your upper body while gliding.  But save that for later).

Cross-over Glides

Next up, we focused on cross-over glides.  These are done identical to the side glide, with the exception that your trailing foot either crosses in front of, or behind, your lead foot.  This glide is definitely more advanced than the side-glide, due to the high level of balance that is required to sustain the isolation that you need.

As soon as you cross your feet, it becomes much more difficult to maintain balance and keep your upper body stationary.  At this point, the class was starting to get frustrated, as we were nowhere near getting the regular side-glide down.  Adding in this additional step was simply too much to handle at that point.

Circular Glide

The circular glide is based on the same principle as the standard side glide (most of the more advanced techniques are), and as always, the cardinal rule continues to apply: The raised foot does not move, while the flat foot does.

The motion for this glide is performed as follows:

• Start in the same position as the side glide, toes inwards
• Raise up on the ball of your left foot, the heel of your right foot, and pivot your toes outwards
• Slide your right foot away as you lower the heel of your left foot
• Now, pivot your toes inwards, and raise up on the ball of your right foot
• This time, you pivot around your right foot, in a semi-circle.  Your left foot traces this semi-circle and remains flat to the ground
• Your back should now be to the front of the room, and your toes should be facing inwards.
• You can now carry on the glide as you normally would for a side-glide, or continue to rotate in another semi-circle.  The motion is the same, raising up on the ball of your lead foot, pivoting your toes outwards, and pivoting around the lead foot in another semi-circle

You can vary this glide by see-sawing back and forth as well if you like, always leading the turn with your front, or, with your back.

Snake Glide

The snake glide is one of the glides that does not actually move forwards directly from the side glide.  All of the movement is produced by one foot, while the other foot simply traces out a path beside it as you travel along.

The motion for this glide can be broken up into two distinct movements.  For the first part, your back foot will be doing the moving.

• Start with the toes of your left foot pointing to the left, and your right foot held up off the ground
  
• Put all of your weight on the heel of your left foot
  
• Pivot on your heel to move your the toes to the right
• Now shift your weight to the toes and ball of your left foot, and pivot on them to move your heel pointing to the right
• Repeat

This is the half of the motion that will actually move you across the dance floor.  The second half of the motion is should initially be practiced with all of your weight on your left foot, and leaving that foot stationary:

• Start with your right foot beside your left foot, with your toe pointing forwards
  
• Slide your right foot (flat against the ground) forwards
• As you the heel of your right foot reaches roughly your the toe of your left foot, rotate your foot around your ankle as much as you can, so that your toe is now pointing to the right (and hopefully somewhat to the back).  Then start to slide it backwards
• Slide your right foot backwards (attempting to lead with your toe as best you can), and when the heel of your right foot roughly reaches the heel of your left foot, rotate your foot again around your ankle, bringing your toes around so that they are again pointing forwards.
  

To bring everything together, you combine the pivots of the first motion with the slide on your right foot.  The visual you are aiming to produce is that your right foot is snaking along the ground, and your left foot follows along.

I've practiced this motion in the past, but I find it very difficult to get the balance correct that is necessary in order to avoid lurching your upper body all over the place.  Still, this is an excellent candidate to practice, and something that I will make a point of spending some time on, along with the floats.

Wiggles glide

The Wiggles glide is a glide created by Mr. Wiggles, of the Electric Boogaloos.  I remember the first time I saw this glide in my Mr. Wiggles 2 VHS tape, and not being able to comprehend what was going on.  The confusing part about this move is that the main amount of motion that is generated happens from a left-to-right (and vice versa) direction, while the dancer actually moves forward along the dance floor.  This makes it really confusing for someone watching to figure out how they are actually accomplishing this.

The glide is composed of a set of pivots on your heels and toes, and the rest flows from that.  First, the most important motion to train:

• Put the heel of your right foot directly in front of your left foot
• Pivot on the toe of your left foot, swinging your heel out to the left.  At the same time that you do this:
• Pivot on the heel of your right foot, swinging your toe out to the left.  Next, you pivot on the same body parts, and reverse the direction, so..
• Pivot on the toe of your left foot, swinging your heel in, through the center, and then out to the right.  While you do this, simultaneously:
• Pivot on the heel of your right foot, swinging your heel in, through the center, and to the left.

You'll notice that you can get your heel and toes out much further for the second part of the pivot than the first.  This is okay, it's just a limitation of your anatomy and the way our ankles bend.

Once you have this motion down, you're ready for the more complicated part.

• Start with your feet as before, with the heel of your right foot directly in front of your left foot
• Pivot on the toe of your left foot, swinging your heel out to the left, and on the heel of your right foot, swinging your toes out to left.
• Now pivot again, swinging the heel of your left foot in, through the center, and out to the right.  Do the same for the toes of your right foot.  Now comes the new movement:
• Place all of your weight on the heel of your right (front) foot.  Leave this foot positioned as it is
• Take your left (back) foot, and slide it out to your side, and around in front of your right foot.  While you're doing this, you want to pivot on the heel of your right foot, so that its toes swing out to the right.  This pivot should complete right as the heel of your left foot comes into position right in front of your right foot's toes.
• Transfer your weight onto the heel of your right foot, and the toes of your left foot.
• At this point, you should be back in a familiar position - with one foot in front of the other, the toes of your left (front) foot pointing to the right, and the heel of your right (back) foot pointing to the right.
• Perform the pivot you practiced above, pivoting on the front left foot's heel and swinging your toes to the left, and pivoting on the back right foot's toes, swinging your heel out to the left.  Now repeat these steps as much as you like to continue moving forwards.

Dillon mentioned that this appears and sounds like a complicated movement, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite simple.  I can attest that this is the case, having practiced this glide a fair bit.  It takes a little bit of time to figure everything out, but once you have it, it creates a very pleasing visual without a lot of effort.  This is, however, one of the more difficult glides to perform on "sticky" ground, as the heel of my shoes always gets caught and throws off my pivots.

One amusing note to mention - I can remember just throwing out this glide when I was taking the Funky Stepping workshop a couple of years back, and Jake, the instructor, jokingly called me a biter.  Fair enough, I suppose.  This is a very distinctive glide that is absolutely the domain of Wiggles.  Having said that, I still think it's valid to use a move that you've seen someone else doing.  Just make sure that you give credit when it's due, and apply your own style and attitude to the move.  It's okay to derive inspiration from other dancers - just take what you like and make it your own.

Practice

So that's the whole of the class.  Dillon took things a little bit slower this class, which was good (perhaps part of that was due to my insistent prodding), but I definitely noticed that there were at least a couple of people that were getting exasperated as we went into more complicated glides.  This is definitely not what I want to see, because I have a vested interest in seeing people get enthusiastic about Popping (it means I'll have more motivation to keep at it myself).

I've been talking with Brooke about the potential to set up a practice session at the studio, and I feel more strongly than ever that this is really something we should get going.  I was originally waiting to hear back from Dillon on this, but I get the impression from him that he has too many other things currently commanding his focus, which is fair enough.  However, I'll see what can be done to take the lead on this and see if we can get something going (provided there's some interest).

Next class is apparently about tutting.  This should be an interesting class, as I've always shunned tutting due to the fact that my wrists simply don't bend back at 90 degree angles, and thus my tuts look like ass.  However, I'm sure there are a lot of techniques that I can take away from the class, regardless of how clean my angles end up looking.  I'm looking forward to the next session.

A brief interlude from the ongoing blog about the dance classes I'm taking.  This entry is about the latest attempt I've made at creating a system that works at home.

Tonight was the second popping class of the session of six that I'm signed up for.  If you missed it, you can read the archive of the first class here.

• Fingers
• Wrist
• Elbow
• Shoulder
• Chest
• Stomach
• Hips
• Knees
• Pivot on heels
• Pivot on toes

The trickiest part of the wave for most people is getting their stomach to bulge out without including their chest (which should be tucked in at this point in the isolation) or their hips (which are pushed out for the next isolation).  Although I've practiced and used the body wave for a long time, I found that I was having difficulty hitting these isolations individually, and that's usually an indication that I've been using speed as a way of cheating isolations.

When I talk about cheating with speed, what I mean is this: Many people when they first start out waving notice that if they do the wave quickly, it looks better to their eyes, and feels easier.  It is easier because you don't have to spend time worrying about hitting the isolations, and because doing the isolated segments of the wave slowly looks awful until you've learned them correctly.  However, this is the nature of everything fundamental - you simply must learn how to carry out each move slowly before you can learn how to do it quickly.  More practice time in store for me.

Different Types of Waves

At this point, Dillon explained a specific difference between a couple different waving techniques.  The most common wave is the isolated wave, as specified in the above two examples.  An isolated wave always means that you move a body part (in isolation), then return it to its original location after the wave has moved on.

The travelling wave is a wave where the body part that the wave has moved through remains in the position that the wave has moved it to.  A wave like this can typically be used to move your body parts to a new location, rather than keeping them static.  Ultimately though, it's just another technique to add to the visual complexity that your audience is presented with.

The main travelling wave that Dillon showed us was a kick-out wave.  This wave works as follows:

• Kick your right leg out and forward, then place it down
• Move your knees forward
• Move hips forward
• Move stomach forward
• Move chest forward
• Move shoulders forward
• Elbows
• Wrists
• Fingers

As you can see, the isolations remain the same as the other waves.  The biggest difference is simply that you are not resetting each body part after the wave travels through it.

Side wave

This wave provides the illusion of a wave moving you sideways.  You could theoretically do this as an isolated wave or a traveling wave.  As a traveling wave, it would look like:

• Move your head to the right
• Move your chest to the right
• Move your stomach and hips to the right (I find it nearly impossible to isolate those two for this wave)
• Move your knees to the right
• Move your left foot beside your right foot, and then move your right foot over a step

To make this into an isolated wave, you would return each body part to its original position after each step.  Once the wave hit your feet, you would pivot on the toes or heels of both your feet to provide the illusion that the wave had travelled in that direction, then return them to normal and start the wave back up.

Trace Waves

A trace wave is simply a wave within which you use one of your hands to trace along the path of the wave.  The isolations are the same as any other wave.  The only difference is that your hand is tracing out the same path, and moves over each body part as the wave passes through it.

Dillon showed us a few examples of trace waves, but at this point I was actually starting to get lost on some of the techniques he was using to isolate the lower part of his body.  The two that I remember are using a pivot on your toe (moving your heel from inside your body through to the outside) to run the wave down through the bottom of your foot, then back again (by pivoting on your toe to bring your heel back up on the inside of your body), and dropping down onto one knee.  For this drop, think of the wedding proposal stance, but only moving your knees and legs.  Your upper body should stay facing forwards, while your legs and knees are in this stance facing to your left or right.  Also, the direction that you twist your knees to the ground needs to be consistent with the direction the wave has been moving).  You bounce the wave back up through your body by twisting your legs back into a standing position.

Dillon Wave
Rolling Wave

The rolling wave is a technique I'd never heard of before, and required a few isolations that I certainly need to put some time in practicing before I'm anywhere near a place where I can execute the entire wave.  This wave operates on the concept of travelling in a rolling direction around your arms as it moves through you.  At each isolation, it is essential that you bend and move only at the joint being isolated.

The Cobra

The last technique I'll cover today was the Cobra.  At this point in the class, I think most of us were feeling fairly overwhelmed.  In addition to the techniques outlined above, Dillon showed us at least that many more ways of waving.  I'd like to keep track of them all, but it was too much.

The technique for the Cobra involves a number of different isolations happening all at once.

• Your left shoulder rolls in a circle, moving forward, then up, then back, and lastly, down.  This motion is repeated.
• Your right shoulder rolls in a circle, moving back, then up, then forward, and lastly, down.  This motion is a circle in the opposite direction to the one being made by your left shoulder.  This motion is repeated.
• Your chest rolls in a circular left-to-right fashion, going left, then out, then right, and back in.

The main aim here is for a circular wave to start at your left shoulder, carry through your chest, and then out your right shoulder.  Once you have this down, you aren't yet finished!  Now you need to include movement for your lower body parts.

• Your hips move in a circle consistent with your chest
• Your feet and knees are making rolls in a direction consistent with your hips and your chest.  At the end of each roll, you should now be facing in a direction slightly to your side.  If you were to continue this movement indefinitely, you would end up moving around in a slow circle.

As you can see, this is a very complicated technique with a lot of moving parts.  Definitely something to break down and start focusing on the basics first.

Some parting tips

Some parting tidbits that Dillon passed along, before I go any further.

• Hit at start and end of wave

To  add to the effect of the wave, you want to hit at the beginning and the end of it.  This will provide a more powerful look to the viewer, and it will also provide a strong contrast between the two kinds of movements (waves, although they don't have to be, provide a very fluid appearance, while pops are a very distinct broken appearance).

• Wave against a flat surface

I remember practicing this technique when I worked at McDonalds.  Because each joint in your arm should replace itself after the wave passes through it, you can use a flat surface as a good way to discipline yourself into doing this correctly.  Find a half-wall, if possible (if not, you can use a table, but will probably have to sit or duck down), and put your back up against it.  Lay your arms out along either side of the surface, and then practice waving back and forth along it.  Your arms should never drop beneath the surface, nor should a joint stay above the surface after a wave has passed through it.

Conclusion

There was an awful lot of material to cover during this class, and I'm finding it hard to set aside enough time to practice all of it.  To accommodate this, I got Dillon's e-mail after class and asked him about setting up some practice sessions.  Brooke says that we can rent out the studio space for $25/hr, which would be fairly reasonable if we could get at least 5 people together to go through what we've been learning.  I can't think of a better way to stay on the true path and continue to improve, so I hope that this is something we can make happen.  Stay tuned for information on that topic, should it be something that interests you. 

That's all I've got for this week, but I will continue to practice, and will be writing more after each individual class.  If anyone has any feedback or questions, it's always welcome.

Alright,

As promised, this is the first entry for the popping class that I've started taking.  I've been popping for around ten years, but I have never had the benefit of any formal education or training on the subject.  There is certainly something to be said for someone that is self-taught, but, without the benefit of instruction, there is the unavoidable consequence of taking many wrong-turns before you finally find the correct path for each new technique you wish to learn.

As my friend Dave (currently taking a photography class) and I discussed the matter last night, we both reached the same conclusion: If you want to continue to progress and improve, it is imperative that you find a mentor to help you do that.  Mentorship doesn't have to mean something like a life-coach.  It can be as simple as a teacher, or a peer with a little more experience.  The key element here is having someone that has been down the path before you, and can help you avoid the same mistakes that they made, and stay on the one "true" path to improvement. 

Although there are many different ways to accomplish something (and finding them is absolutely imperative in dancing), there is always the most efficient and correct way to apply your foundations, and this is where a mentor will help you in a way that self-teaching can never quite achieve.

The class is being taught through Vibestreet Dance Studio, a studio run by Brooke Kilgore - a pretty cool girl that I started talking to about a year ago when I was looking for popping classes.  Onwards with the first lesson.

Oh yeah, one last thing before I go any further - the class is all about fundamentals.  If anyone has any interest in learning something like this, take it with me!


Popping

I showed up a little bit late, and the class had already started underway.  I hadn't missed much though, as our instructor, Dillon, was just beginning to explain the process for creating a pop.  The warm up exercises we did were simply holding our arm out, gently resting our other hand on the forearm, and flexing.  Flex, hold for three seconds, release.  Then, flex and hold for two seconds, release.  And lastly, flex and hold for a second, release.

After the warm-up and brief explanation of what a pop actually is (a muscle flex), we started to move into different kinds of hits.  I've been popping for many years, but never had formal instruction or a mentor, both of which are key elements to consistent and sustainable growth over the long term.  Although I've done plenty of reading, I was glad to see that even at this stage of the basics, there were new things for me to learn.

The main hits that we covered were:

• Arm hits

This is simply the initial hit that we practiced while warming up.  Additionally, you want to do your best to maintain a relaxed wrist and set of fingers on your hit, so that you can isolate the hit to your forearm

• Chest hits

You hit with your chest by flexing the muscles in your chest, tightening and pulling in your abs, and opening up your shoulders.  You don't want to go crazy with your shoulders, as a little will go a long way.  However, pulling them back only slightly will add to the visual strength of the chest hit

• Ab hits

I'd never even considered hitting with my abs before, so this was something new (and awkward) for me to work on.  The ab hit is a lot like a standing crunch, though much more subtle and faster than the exercise.  The muscle contraction is the same.  Dillon advocated adding a very slight twist to the motion, rather than moving your torso in a straight up-down orientation (as you would with a standard crunch).

• Neck hits

Although I never knew it, there are two ways you can hit your neck.  The first is done by using the muscles that attach your chin to your neck (doing this hit will naturally cause your Adam's apple to bob a little bit).  The second way to hit your neck is by using the muscles at the back of your neck.  In both cases, Dillon mentioned that he doesn't use these hits because he thinks they look a little goofy, but acknowledged that learning and using them properly will add one more dimension to your popping. I made a mental note to keep on practicing neck hits.

• Leg hits

Last up were the leg hits - a hit that Dillon made a special note to point out was one of the most important foundations of good popping.  I found it mildly ironic that I had been popping for over nine years, but only using my legs for the last three or so, given how fundamental these hits are.  Oh well

There are again two ways that you can hit your legs (unbeknownst to me).  The first is the technique that I've trained myself to use - hitting with the back of your leg.  You bend your one knee gently in, and then snap it back.  IN order to avoid over-extending your leg, it's important to start this technique off gently until you have a feel for how much motion you need to generate the look of a hit (hint: It's not much).  Dillon also mentioned that it was important to generate some additional power by slamming your heel down at the same time as your knee hits back into place.  It became immediately obvious to me that I had been neglecting this aspect of the hit as soon as I tried to get my heel to stamp down - the motion was completely foreign to me.

The second leg hit is a front hit, and is done by very quickly and ever so slightly bending your knees, then stopping.  The analogy I've been using to help myself is that which you make when you're trying to get your cat (or someone) to flinch.  IT's almost like you're getting ready to pounce, except you never follow-through with the pounce. 

As we went through these, I noticed that although each of these hits will look better when you integrate them with the other hitting techniques, it's important to practice each one individually first so that you can learn to isolate correctly.  Once you've done that, then (and only then), you can put them together.  The end result will be that your hits will look much cleaner and more precise.

We finished up the popping with an introduction to the Fresno.  Dillon confirmed a lot of what I thought I already knew (but was never 100% sure of, due to lacking any mentorship as I've progressed), and re-iterated the fact that the Fresno itself is a great dance to start off with, giving you a firm base from which to improvise upon.  Nothing new was taught regarding the Fresno, just that the key is to isolate and hit into each step back and forth.  I was really impressed with Dillon's fresno and his ability to improvise in and around each hit and beat.  I made a mental note to practice this more at home.

Walk-out

We finished up the popping segment with a move that I've always seen performed, but never realized that it was even something you would consider "a move".  The move is called a walk-out and learning about it excited me.  I got excited because it meant that there was an actual technique involved that I could make greater use of.

The walk-out is a fairly simply (in theory) means of moving around the dance floor.  The effect that it generates arises more out of the contrast with the rest of the motions that you're doing, than out of the movement itself, since you are essentially just walking to a new spot on the dance floor, then starting up again with articulated and isolated movement.

The technique we learned for the walk-out was as follows:

• Start with the Fresno.  Fresno to your right side, and hit.
• Fresno to your left side and hit.
• Take your right foot and slightly cross it over your left foot.  Raise your left foot up on its toes, as if you're going to take the next step with your left foot.  Be careful - you don't move anything else here.  Even your body stays in the same position.
• Take your right foot and move it back across your body, so that it is now on your right side.  Your left foot should still be facing to the left (in the same position as when you started the Fresno) and with the heel slightly raised
• Pivot on the toes of your left foot, and turn your body and head, so that you're toes are now both aligned and your body is facing in the direction they are pointing.
• Step forward with your left foot, and bring it together with your right foot.  Stamp it down at the end to generate the hit to complete the movement.

This is not a complicated series of steps, but generates a striking effect due to the fact that people don't expect to see you suddenly break out of one style of movement into this.  The change of direction thrown in by the third to fourth step above also generates some visual confusion for the viewer.  Very good stuff to learn.

Boogaloo

Next up was some work on Boogaloo techniques.  We started off warming up our legs and knees by doing some gentle rotations.  We followed this with the actual goods - leg rolls.

Although I've practiced leg rolls to some extent in the past, I've never really felt motivated to push the technique anywhere, nor had any inspiration to add it into my dancing.  Hopefully actually working on them in class will change this.

Leg Rolls

Leg rolls were every bit as annoying to work on as I remember - a clear sign that this is a technique I need to put some focus on practicing.  One point that Dillon made that I hadn't heard articulated in the past was that you generally want to aim to have your toe and your knee pointing in the same direction throughout the role.  The biggest implication here is that you can't just leave your foot stationary while you wrench your knee around (worst-case scenario, this would probably cause some damage if you went at it too vigorously).  The key to a good leg roll is to raise up the heel of the foot, and pivot the knee in a nice circle, using your toe as the the pivot point.  The part I had the most trouble with was hitting the leg at the completion of the leg roll, as you're meant to finish the roll with your toe pointing slightly away from your body (the same orientation you began in) - however, this resulted in me trying to hit the leg in a direction that was opposite the one it was moving in to complete the circle.  I'm going to get to class early next week and ask Dillon about this.

The last set of leg rolls were double leg rolls, which require a good sense of balance.  The goal here is to rise up on the toes of both feet, pivot your knees in a nice circle, and then come back to the previous position with a hit.  A good leg roll means that you're not moving your upper body at all, ideally completely isolating your upper body from your lower body.

Body Rolls

The next move we worked on was a popular one, called the Old Man.  I'd seen this move in many popping tutorials and videos that I've worked through, but never got the motion quite right, nor really felt enamoured with the movement (a common theme for me and most of the Boogaloo techniques).  The motion is as follows:

• Kick out your right leg (leading with your foot) in a wide circle.  The rest of your body stays motionless
• Now your upper body follows the same circle that your right leg moved in
• Lastly, move your hips through this same circle.  As your hips pull away from your left leg, bring it around and together with your right foot.  Hit your legs or stamp your heel into this final position.

We touched briefly on head rolls, which I've never thought about incorporating, mostly because it feels awkward.  However, the motion is fairly simple - just let your head fall to the side as though it's been pushed, and then roll down and back up to the other side of your body.  This provides one more point of articulation and isolation for your dancing.

The last roll we did was a full body roll, which works as follows:

• Push out your right shoulder
• Follow the motion with your chest by rolling through your chest, from the right side to the left
• Follow the motion with your hips, rolling in a circle, out to the right, through the center, and then finishing the circle by moving your hips to the left, then back
• Follow the motion with your knees, rolling in the same manner as your hips - out to the right, through the center, left, and then back in place.  Stamp heels down at the end to complete this motion with a hit.

This roll was very tough for me, requiring multiple isolated body parts to work in unison.  Definitely one that I will be practicing.

Flexes

The next thing we worked on were the twist-o-flex, the master-flex, and the neck-o-flex.  I remember when I ran Shaddup and Dance, I put an absolutely humiliating (in retrospect) video of myself showing how to do a twist-o-flex.  It was awful.  My heart was in the right place, but I didn't even know what a twist-o-flex was, and I simply didn't have any of the foundation.  I've never really taken the time to properly learn flexes since then, so it was good to actually have some specific instruction in this domain.

Flexes, in general, are a set of segmented and isolated rotations of your body.  Think of how you might see a robot re-orient itself in a new direction, moving each of its main body segments in isolation (head, then torso, then hips, then legs, etc.).

Twist-o-flex

The twist-o-flex works is broken down like this:

• Take a step back with both feet (one foot at a time, but a quick step back).  As you do this, raise both arms up, bent at ninety-degrees at your elbows.
• Bring your arms down and place them akimbo on your hips.  As you do this, raise up on the toes of your left foot, bending your knee to do so.
• Pivot to the right, on your feet.  The only things that should pivot are your torso, your hips, your legs and your feet.  Stay on the heel of your right foot and the toe of your left foot.  Make sure that your head and your arms stay oriented in the same direction (since your arms won't have moved, you'll be holding them akimbo, with one hand on your stomach, and the other on the small of your back)
• Rotate your head and your arms, in line with the rest of your body.  Bring your arms to rest at your side, and as you complete the rotation, step with your left foot (still on its toes up to this point) to bring it into alignment with your right foot.  Stamp the left foot into position to generate a hit at the end of the movement

That's a lot of writing.  The movement isn't technically that complicated, but it generates a very pleasing visual effect when done correctly.  I'm very excited to practice this move.  As I suggested, the motion isn't complicated, and it's always been there for me to practice.  But now, I've got motivation to improve - I'm going to a dance class every week, and I really want to see some improvement. 

Master-flex

The master-flex sounds intimidating, but is actually quite a simple set of movement:

• Raise your arms up, bent at ninety-degree angles at your elbows, just like you the start of the twist-o-flex.  As you do this, drop your left knee down to the ground (gently!), with your right knee bent and raised (imagine the position someone takes when being knighted or proposing).  You should be on the toes of your left foot.
  
• Now you rotate your body around your hips.  Your upper body will turn and face the other direction, and at the same time, pivot on your left foot.  Bring your left knee up, and drop your right knee down to the ground.  If you've done this correctly, you will now be facing 180-degrees to your starting position, in the mirror image of the position above (hands still up in the air, left knee raised up, right knee lowered to the ground)
• Step up and forward with your right leg.  As you do this, bring your arms back down to your sides (for optimal effect, put them in the mirror image of the position you starting them in prior to going into the master-flex.  Bring your right foot together with your left foot, and stamp it into position to generate the hit to finish the movement.

This move generated some sore knees for me.  I'm going to practice it, but I may consider buying knee pads first - Squash already leads to some sore knees when I lunge a bit too far for a ball, and I don't want to develop knee injuries.

Neck-flex

The neck-flex is probably the closest thing to my early abortive attempt at a twist-o-flex.  The movement is quite simple:

• Turn your head to the left, and look over your left shoulder
• Pivot your body on your feet, around to the left.  The pivot ca be tricky for a lot of people.  What you're doing is taking your left foot, turning it and placing it so that your left toe is now facing behind you, and then rotating around that pivot point.  At the end of this movement, your body should be facing 180-degrees from your starting position, and your head should now be looking over your right shoulder
• Rotate your head to the left, so that you're once again looking over your left shoulder

Conclusion

So, that's what we learned in our first day of class.  That's an awful lot of stuff to pack into one hour, and I'm left with not just a large number of steps and moves to go away and practice, but also the motivation to actually do that practice.

I'm thrilled that after only the first day of class, I've discovered a ton of flaws that currently exist in my technique.  Flaws and bad habits are really annoying to work out, but they're also milestones and things that engender more motivation when you finally do overcome them.  It's the challenges that keep things interesting and worthwhile, so that's really the only way to look at these opportunities.

I'll aim to keep updating this blog each Tuesday with a summary of the previous night's class, along with any other thoughts I have on the topic.

We've now breached April, and that means a couple of things.  For a start, at least on Vancouver Island, the beginnings of Spring are tangible.  The sun's getting up earlier, staying out later, our cherry blossoms have bloomed and look beautiful against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, and it's getting easier to get up early in the mornings.  I was even able to go out biking in a t-shirt yesterday. 

It also means that most of the people that set New Year's resolutions for themselves (even if they didn't title them as such) to exercise more often, have now failed in that goal.  I'm not being pessimistic or cynical about human nature here (even though I am, generally speaking) - I'm just stating statistics.

Why is it, that so many people set off with such good intentions, only to give up completely in less than three months time?  I think it's because they've failed to follow the cardinal rule of exercising (and working towards a healthy lifestyle): Have fun.

I mentioned New Year's resolutions, but this phenomenon really applies to any "get fit" kick that people embark upon.  Sometimes it's after a vacation that resulted in two weeks of drinking and zero days of exercise.  Sometimes it's after a long camping trip, and is preceded by a lemon juice/cayenne pepper cleanse (that's a topic for another time).  After a sustained period of feeling unhealthy, we're all pretty keen and full of motivation to flip the tables and get things started in the right direction.

You run out, buy some new gear, and head out the door for a grueling 1.5 hours at the gym, or a 45-minute jog, after not having done either for over half a year.  The results are predictable: You've got new gear and resolution-level motivation (I like to think of this as artificially-inflated motivation), both of which propel you through the work out.  You're not enjoying more than the first couple of minutes of it, and by the time you finish up, you're a heaving sweaty mess.  You head home, crack a beer, and tell yourself that you'll be doing that three times a week from now on (some of the truly brave/naive push this to five times a week).

However, when you wake up the next morning, your muscles are screaming in protest, and you can barely sit down.  "It'll be better tomorrow, in time for my next workout", you tell yourself, only to discover that that pain sticks with you for almost an entire week, holding your next workout hostage until it subsides.  When you're finally feeling whole again, you get yourself ready for the next workout, even though the only thing you can think about is the week-long pain that you've gone through, and the torturous upcoming hour or so that leads you down that path.

Does this sound familiar to you?  If not, go away - this post isn't for you.

The fact is, none of the above sounds like any fun.  What is the motivation for someone to continue with the above routine?  Getting fit?  Being healthy?  Looking good?  These are all abstract, long-term goals.  They are abstract because "being fit", and "looking good" are very nebulous terms.  It's very difficult to tie those down to something tangible that we can point at and say to ourselves, "Look at what I've accomplished!". 

These goals are also at a disadvantage because they are purely long-term goals.  No one gets fit after three or four workouts.  No one is going to look good in a couple of weeks - it's just not how the body works (so if you're planning on taking a vacation, you better start exercising now.  You're not going to get your body "beach ready" in a few short weeks).

Disclaimer: Yes, sometimes it is possible to get short-term results very quickly with radical dieting and over-exercise, but trust me, these short-term gains come with a very hefty price: the inevitability that in the long-term you're actually training your body to put on more fat, and yourself to practice negative yo-yo habits, instead of positive lifestyle changes.

No - if we want to make changes to our lifestyle that are healthy and are going to stick, we must obey the cardinal rule.  We have to have fun doing it.  No workout will always be fun, but whatever activity we are choosing for ourselves needs to have some kind of intrinsic value that we can appreciate and enjoy in the short-term.

There are a couple of factors that we have to account for in order to meet this goal:

1. Do something that you enjoy.

It's so easy, right? If only that was the case. 

Most people, when they make a resolution to get fit, choose either jogging or lifting weights at the gym, usually because these are the most obvious choices.  Jogging doesn't require much effort to start doing, and gyms are all over the place.  When we think of getting fit, these are usually the first two choices that come to mind.

However, does this make them the right choice for someone?  Absolutely not.  Just because a lot of people are doing a particular activity doesn't mean that it's going to be something you enjoy.  Do you like being outside?  (Consider this question honestly - you're not writing a personal ad here, you're trying to figure out your best choice of exercise).  Is planning out a route going to be something that you enjoy?

How about the gym?  Are you comfortable working out around a lot of other people (I've overcome this, but I hated it when I first started).  Does lifting weights seem like something that you'll enjoy?  Is there anything in particular about the culture present at a gym that will entice you to keep coming back?

Incidentally, this is an excellent reason to avoid the temptation to run out and buy yourself a new set of shoes, or a new tight-fitting t-shirt to wear to the gym.  Doing so may temporarily inflate your motivation, but it will also lock you into an activity that you should be approaching with the intent to evaluate initially. 

This lock-in is motivated in part because of our tendency to be swayed by the sunk-cost fallacy.    The motivation that you think you'll get by buying-in to a new activity is artificial at best, and self-defeating at worst.  By approaching something without investment, you're allowing yourself the liberty of changing to a new activity if you don't enjoy this one.

2.  Have fun while you're exercising.

Don't start out with a goal that is far-fetched and ridiculously challenging.  Give yourself a goal that is reasonable, and that will give you the space required to appreciate the activity that you're doing.

When a lot of people first start out jogging, they run intervals, jogging for five minutes, and walking for one minute.  This kind of approach is great, as it lets you ease into your new workout regime, and gives you time to look around you and really enjoy what you're doing.

If at any point during a workout you start to feel that you just want it to be over, maybe you need to dial back a little bit and take it a little easier.  Be willing to adjust the goal that you set for yourself at the start.  Remember: it's much better to adapt your goal and succeed than to adamantly stick to your initial goal and then give up on your routine all together.  Your goal is to find something that you are going to make a part of your lifestyle, not to simply get through the current workout.

3.  Push yourself

This advice may seem to conflict a little with the above item, but it's important that you maintain a healthy balance of the two.  Above all, your number one goal should be that you're doing something that you enjoy, and that you're doing it in a manner that allows for that enjoyment.  Once you've found that balance point, take yourself out of your comfort zone and push yourself.  It doesn't have to be a lot, and you don't need to go overboard.  Just be willing to make yourself work, and to get yourself sweating.

Items 2 and 3 may prove elusive for someone that is only just beginning a new workout routine.  The longer you workout and exercise, the more in-tune with your body you will become, and the easier time you will have understanding when you are ready to push yourself further, and when you need to dial back a bit and give yourself some time to simply be present in the moment.

Remember that, above all, in order for exercise to become a lasting part of a healthy lifestyle, you really have to enjoy it.  You're not going to be able to force this, so be willing to look until you find something that is right for you.  If you discover that you hate lifting weights at the gym, don't treat this as a failure on your part - treat it as an opportunity to adapt your goals and to try something new.