Countdown Timer

I have added a countdown timer to the blog - counting down to 5pm (GMT) on April 2 when I hope to upload a video of my completed 40 step Fling challenge.

It is quite scary watching the seconds tick away - watching my stamina building schedule quickly disappear!

Great feedback

Just a quick post to say thanks for all the great feedback that I have received so far.

If you want to leave any comments the just click on the 'comment' link and type away.

Videos speeded up?

Someone asked me 'why did you speed up the videos on the blog?'

They are not speeded up - this is the speed I am dancing.

Approx 13 seconds per step (152 bpm) - this makes my fling about 9 minutes long (long enough I think!)

vdieo trials 200209

video from 210209

still warming up!

New video coming ...

I said that I would be putting up some new video over the weekend.

Well, I just need to find time.

I have some good footage of practices and hopefully will find time to upload it tonight.

Video testing

Started testing my video setup last night.

Hit a few teething problems but got most of them ironed out.

I have some footage that I will be putting up over the weekend - keep watching.....

Good practice session

I had a good practice session at the class last night.

Got through more steps that I thought I might.

Also, as I have now found some music I am now dancing to speed (which is quite fast!)

Better weather - better practices!

Now that the snow and ice has gone (well for a day at least) I am hopeful of increasing my practice schedule.

My dance space gets a bit cold in the winter and although I warm up pretty quickly after 10 or 20 steps of the fling I needed to tidy it up.

Moving boxes in subzero temperatures was not high up on my agenda and so with the mild weather today I should get this done tonight.

Then I can dance my little feet off...

Monday update

Day off work today - time to spend with my family.

Tonight I will be pushing a bit further with my practices.

Update later.

Gareth

Practice update

Had a good jump about at the class last night.

Ran over most of my steps - couple of tricky ones that I still have to master up to speed but I reckon I am making good progress.

Got a busy weekend with meetings and so I will not get much of a chance to work on my Fling - but I am hoping to find some 'early' or 'late' gaps in my schedule.

Music update

Still hunting for music - not as easy as you might think.

Needs to be

- pipes (just a preference thing)
- uplifting (need to keep me going for 40 steps!)
- L O N G...

I have a couple of tracks in mind - see what I can do over the weekend.

Warn up steps script

Some scripts for the initial 3 warm up steps per the video

pointing step

Bar 1
hop L point RF 2 count 1
hop L take RF to 3RA count 2
repeat counts 1, 2 counts 3, 4

Bars 2 & 3
dance bar 1 with L then again with R

Bar 4
fling turn by R

pointing step 2

Bar 1
hop L point RF 2 count 1
hop L take RF to 3RA count 2
hop L take RF 4 count 3
hop L take RF to 3A count 4

Bars 2 & 3
dance bar 1 with L then again with R

Bar 4
fling turn by R

toe and heel step

Bar 1
hop L point RF 2 count 1
hop L take RF to 3RA count 2
dance toe and heel RF counts 3, 4

Bars 2 & 3
dance bar 1 with L then again with R

Bar 4
fling turn by R

What is a 40 step fling

My friends were helping me look for music when they asked - how long does it need to be? to which I answered - 40 steps of the fling.

How long is that in real money? they asked

Well, I answered, if you have been to Cowal and watched the worlds finals - it is like all the flings in the adult section danced back to back with no break!

I hadn't really though about it like that before.....

Music

The next thing that I need to do is sort out some music for the challenge.

In my initial I danced without music but I guess that trying to complete 40 steps without music might be a bit monotomous for viewers (not to mention that I could probably do with all the help that I can get to see me through all the steps).

However, finding music will not be straight forward:

- needs to be 40 steps
- tempo will need to be fairly up beat ( I do not fancy dancing 40 steps at today's tempos!)

I will start hunting for something appropriate today.

Video of initial steps

Here is a sample of some of the steps that I will be dancing in the challenge

Step scripting

Now that I have the steps listed I needed to amend my notes and re-script them into 2 formats

1. into a summarised format
2. into a detailed format

I plan to use the summarised format as an aide memoire when I am dancing and so it contains only brief details of each step (and as most of the old steps comprised 3 bars then a fling turn the 1st step of fling would be scripted as 'shed R L F')

The detailed format will be the script that I will publish on completion of the challenge. The notes are still summarised (when compared to SOBHD text) but I believe they give all the information required to allow dancers, along with my video, to understand and then perform the steps.

I have now completed the scripting of all the spets that I plan to dance (although depending upon what actually happens I may have to make some changes!)

Step selection

Selecting the steps to be danced was fairly easy.

I have a database of many old fling steps which I compiled over the last 12 or so years. I have performed many of these steps (and also submitted them to the SOBHD with the intention of bringing them back into competition) so all I had to do was review and select some interesting ones.

I categorised the steps into rough groups based on the step's main contents:

flinging (shedding)
backstepping
toe and heel
shake
crossover
pointing (covering pretty much everything not in the above)

and then selected a sample from each category.