Olga Foraponova

Olga-US Smooth Champion
It was amazing to watch her teach. She was honest. Honest and intimate with the students. I saw her strength, her sincerity, and also her directness. It was inspiring for both Brian and I.

She began with asking a few Smooth competitors to the floor. Naturally she picked out the national amatuer champions. Ironically, she didn't know who they were. She worked with them individually and together. Jaime was better at understanding the core principles she talked about; although Travis was right there learning as well.

She spoke of Connection and asked the students what connections they thought of:
Hand to Hand
Body
Visual
Hand to body
Floor connection
music connection
Relationship

The first one she jumped on was the connection with the floor through the center. She spoke of how the hand or elbow connects to the center. She used an exercise we've used in teaching leading in Swing/Lindy. Yet, she took it a step further. I'm sure you can guess Brian and I were both writing furiously.

In Connection there is one stable partner- You move through your center to your partner, to arm, to body, or to past his body. Yet the connection of the hand does not differ. The hand stays in the same position with the same amount of resistance/connection. "Maintain tension in order to not fall over and to keep from running onto your partner."

There are three dimensions.
up/down: Vertical
left/right: Horizontal
forward/back: Lateral

Know where your are going and know where your partner is going. What is the location?

Vertical rotation- as he takes the arm up the connection continues.
Maintain hand positions-maintain same type of energy. "No surge of energy."

"Know where your partner is, and trust you will have someone to take care of me."

Connect in rolling connections
Don't have loose connection in the middle
"Organize your action"
"Allow your girl to be balanced and stabilized."

Brian and I were so joyful about what she taught. It reinforced our faith that what we have is so useful and it deepened our understanding. What a phenomenal class.