Holiday Program *or* Highway to the Danger Zone

The Holiday Show program is done. My partner chickened on the lift, so we replaced it with two Power 3 turns which mirror each other. The tradeoff for not lifting is that now we have to fly the program at 90MPH to make it through the music, because those power 3's take longer than a lift.

And I'm not kidding. We've made it on the music once.

Once. We have one minute and six seconds to perform the following:

We start out with some 3 turns, into a throw waltz, and here is where I can pick up some time. The Throw Waltz lands, I step out into a pivot and turn that into a one foot spin. The Step Out and Pivot I can kinda rush.

Then we do some step-behinds, six of them. Or four. Or eight, depending on where the spin winds up. This is messy, because timing is critical. Four steps take up less time than eight, so a goal of mine is to firmly establish it to be four or six but never eight. Eight is dumb. Again, we can pick up time by losing some of the steps and smoothing out the ones we do.

Then it's some arm-presentation, followed by some 3 turn manuever that puts us in line for 3 Back crossovers, stepping out into a FI Spiral back around cross the center. I have to position myself just right coming out of that spiral so Partner can shove me a bit, and I find an outside edge quick enough to do those power 3's. It's been dodgy.

Now things get truly hairy. The Power 3's are okay, I can lush those up just fine. But then I have to step forward and edge roll quickly into two fast forward crossovers on my weaker side. I'm well aware that the slightest pitch forward is going to catch that drag pick which is millimeters off the ice. If this happens, I will plow into the photographer because he'll be right in line with my trajectory.

Now we really have to push, because I can hear the music winding down at this point, and I know we have about ten seconds to do the next few things. There's a one foot presentation glide right downstage center, followed by an outside mohawk at top speed. I've hated the stagger back I have been doing, so I've been trying edge-rolling back into a back crossover, then push back big into a Back outside Spiral.

The Edge Roll is taking up time, so my partner is telling me to cut it, but I'm in favor of taking up an extra second to get a smoother flow. Besides, he cut my lift, so whatever.

Spiraling back like Dale Earnhardt Jr, I then have to straighten up and snowplow backwards without killing myself or looking too awkward, find my partner's open hand, twirl twice and curtsey.

And smile. And then when we've finished close to on time, we celebrate before trying again.