Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Middle Atlantics, the local and somewhat large competition held by the Skating Club of New York, is this weekend. I know because not only am I volunteering (it prevents me from having to pay to watch Junior and Senior Ladies), but because the rink had two solo competitive ice dancers, a senior man and a senior pair team. Toss in two little girls who didn't reach my waist, another skater, who can't see without her glasses and me and you have my freestyle session today. It really wasn't that bad. We, Amy and I, have figured out the problem with ALL of my three turns: twist. I don't twist enough. She thought it could be because of my back, but that's not the reason. I don't know what the reason is because it doesn't hurt to twist. I think I felt that if I thought about the three turn, it would automatically happen. Nope. So with more twist in my spine, I tried my worse three turn: right forward inside. Guess what? It worked. They ALL worked. The ability to complete my MIF was interrupted by the competitive skaters listed above, but that's okay. I'm going to hit the rink again on Monday morning (9:00am public session - wish me luck). In the meantime, I am hopeful and optimistic about my skating and finding employment. As a side note. it is my hope that one of the most recently overused piece of music will fall back into obscurity: Feelin' Good. Most people use the Nina Simone version (yes, that's a woman) and know nothing about the song. I surprised a coach today by giving her this information, and for the record, I never saw the show because I wasn't born yet. Feelin' Good is from the 1965 musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd", written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse (same folks who wrote Candyman for the original Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory). The song is sung by "The Negro" (remember, it was 1964 when it was originally produced in London, came to Broadway in 1965, thus the term "Negro" was acceptable). The character is abused by the two main characters (Sir and Cocky) and despite that abuse, still manages to soar in the face of authority and win the Game. He leaves with dignity, much to the amazement of the other characters. It's a very deep song with a very deep message. Sadly, I don't think anyone who skates to it, gets it. If you can hear the original version of this song, do so. You may understand it better. That was my lesson on American Musical Theatre for today. The original singer was Gilbert Price, RIP.