[jivecat]

Originally Posted by mshedgehog

I decided right at the start that I would totally ignore the whole question of decorations until the little ones started to happen all by themselves without me even intending to do them. And sure enough after about six months of following nicely I went "oh, what was that?" and found that whenever I was relaxed and dancing naturally, there they were. Just little toe taps and things when enough space in the dance coincided with an accent in the music, but there, just part of me dancing around to the music and not really an intentional thing.

Good thinking. I didn't feel comfortable with them either and felt that it was damaging to my confidence to be expected to add my own stuff before I was ready, and without ever being taught how to do the decorations. I don't do anything now until I'm good'n'ready. However, my style was described recently as "understated" so I'm thinking I could trowel it on a bit more and still no-one would notice!

It would probably take you a lot less time that that - I'd never done any kind of dance before and I am a very cautious person.

No, it's taken me longer - at least two years! But then it did seem to happen overnight, as you describe. I'm also very cautious, especially where dance is concerned. After the first foggy few months when I had no idea how to follow, I knuckled down to total obedience to the leader, even though this was not my natural character. I'm over all that now.

So when that happened I decided I was ready to watch Jennifer's Ornaments and read her tutorials so I would get some ideas of what to work on.

Ah yes, the bewitching Black Lotus. I've seen the film clips but not read her useful notes before. Although I can hardly drag my eyes away from her fabulous shoe collction and her killer heels scything through the air long enough to take in the actual steps.

I don't do ones that don't feel natural because I think I'm supposed to be having fun and not scaring myself (I'm easily scared).

Surely not! What kind of ones scare you? Do you think that if you make yourself do them they would eventually begin to feel natural?

For example I can't really do the "beat in front" that she demonstrates in the video there, because I'm not fast enough and my free leg technique isn't quite what it needs to be for this to be a natural movement. I'm really really cautious with it and I'd only try it with certain leaders and when I'm feeling really secure. I want to be able to do it, but to get there, I'm working on my free leg technique, not the ornament directly.

The "beat in front" is the one I think I now overuse. I don't know what I look like doing it so I can't check up on my technique. (Don't even mention the word "video".) I don't know how I picked it up, either. Do you think all this stuff can be learnt by osmosis from compulsive viewing of Jennifer Bratt clips? I wish.

The free leg is something I'm just returning to. In my early lessons people seemed to go on about it quite a lot, but I can't recall it being mentioned for some time now. It surfaced as an issue because one of my regular leaders said that it was very difficult to get me to do a boleo (that's where the leg is relaxed and swings freely, yes? I never have go a grip of all the terms.) The classes I attend seem to have moved towards a focus on learning figures and I would rather have some pure technique included every time.

I think this is a really sweet, sexy little no-effort ornament and I do it a lot.

Is there a Jennifer Bratt clip where she demonstrates this?

I've never done that. It looks cool though. Do it if you feel inspired, just don't damage the floor!

I'm more worried about damaging my feet - I often gouge the skin across the front of my foot as I pass the other foot across even in moderate heels.

As for how long you've got to do them, some friends who are much more experienced dancers than me had a discussion about it recently in the comments on my blog, it's a bit confused (I was totally lost) but really interesting. I think it's a bit rude to post my own URLs on somebody else's discussion board but if you want to click through on my profile it's the one in February about "how long should I wait for the lady to finish her ornaments?"

Ta. I shall look at it.