"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance"

I was delighted today in my lesson, as we have now started working on the Novice Foxtrot.

First of all though, it was the usual stuff:
Perimeter Stroking: Still improving - but I need to push my hips a little further forward into the stroke
Backward Russian Stroking: D reckons that I look more confident since watching the competition on Sunday. I suppose it could be, but I was so tired last week that anything would look better! Gradually feeling better and getting faster.
FXO's: We worked on the underpush, and she was pleased with them by the end. I need to try and get some space to work on the CW, mainly to get more confident on the weight transfer.
BXO's: Still improving slowly. D was pushing me to bend my knees more and more and it does feel easier and more stable when I do them deeper. I go a lot faster too - which is taking some getting used to!
3-turns: FO3's happening sooner in the equation (don't need to do so many failed ones as a warm-up!). One thing on 3's is that if I do need to put my foot down, then put it down next to my skating foot, instead of landing it about three feet away! The hard work on my FI3's has paid off - I even managed a couple of small RFI3's today! LFI3's hopeless as my weight is too far back, but I will work on this on Friday.
Mohawks: Glad to say these have returned from their nice relaxing holiday, and actually weren't too awful. Just one each side, before we hurried onto . . .

Novice Foxtrot: This was so much fun! We worked on the pattern up the long axis, and of course the ends are similar but more crammed in with deep edges. For those readers who aren't familiar, it is a combination of progressives (runs) and swingrolls in big semicircles going around the rink. D was very encouraging and said it was already looking pretty good considering I have only just started it. Corrections thus far are to not hitch my free hip up on the swingroll (ride on the hip?) and to start each progressive from the central line of direction.

Now, I have a question for the dancers amongst you. D set me some homework, to find the pattern (which I have). The other thing she told me to try and find out, is what percentage of the "lobe" is the progressive, and what constitutes the swingroll. For example, is it half and half, or is the progressive a third and the swingroll two thirds? I know the counts (1-2 for the progressive, and 3-6 for the swingroll) - it's more about where on the pattern the swingroll starts. As an uneducated guess, I would say half and half, so the swingroll starts at the apex of the semicircle. Any help would be gratefully received! Even better would be if someone knows where there is a plan with the actual steps on it :) The one I have found only has the overall pattern on the rink . . .

Off for another work trip tomorrow (hopefully the last one for a few weeks!) so another early night. I was strangely awake today considering I was up at five yesterday to go to Bristol, and didn't get home till eight! I have a day off on Friday (still loads of leave left for this year so a few days off in a couple of weeks, and then a whole week off in November - yay!) so I have lots of things to practice.

But mostly, I'm just so happy to have started dancing!