Dogs Can Dance Challenge - Classical Freestyle

The Classical Freestyle Division places a heavy emphasis on synchronized movement with the dog.  This really was a division made in Heaven for Speedy!  He and I moving together to the music is, quite simply, his favorite way to dance!

Our first routine to Waltz of the Flowers was created to be an MI submission, but Waltz from Maskarade earned our division as a waltz, so I decided to go ahead and do this as our first Classical Freestyle submission.

Speedy, unfortunately, had not quite recovered from a minor foot injury, at the time of this filming.  In spite of that, he really did do a beautiful job!



We earned a very solid 129 points for this, which turned out to be a pretty consistent score for us in this category!

Some of my favorite comments from the judges:

"Floor patterns were very well defined - the flow and path of your serpentines, and your spirals are lovely"

"The dynamic between you and Speedy on that floor is phenomenal.  Your synchronization is gorgeous"

"Excellent job of showing Speedy's lovely flowing movement!"

And just a bit of constructive criticism:

"Of course rewards are allowed in this division, but at the end of the pass phrase, you fumbled with it and that was distracting"

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For our Intermediate and Advanced Classical Freestyle submissions, I did something that was very special to me.  I very slightly reworked one of Speedy's WCFO routines - one of the two that were our best - a routine to Steven Kravis' Reunion.

This was just fun to do.  We love to perform this and our work on it for the Challenge really was a tribute to Speedy!



We earned 128 points on this performance, as score I was very happy with.

Some of my favorite comments (this one had so much positive feedback that it was difficult to choose my favorite comments!):

"The 'float' between you and Speedy when working Center front is lovely"

"The dog knew the dance"

"Beautiful teamwork, just beautiful"

"My sheet was covered over with 'Yes!" for almost every question to consider"

And some constructive criticism:

"This dance employed gentle contrast in height and had short changes of pace.  More extreme contrast was not possible due to the dog's limitations but was not necessary for this dance"

"It does appear that moving backwards is not Speedy's favorite thing to do"

"I found the kneeling axial move that you included for contrast to be a bit jarring and then I realized that it was also unnecessary"

This routine is very meaningful to Speedy and me and I am glad that the judges received it so well!

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For our final Classical Freestyle submission - for Advanced - I elected to film Reunion one last time.  This was not my best performance!  I was a bit of a clodhopper, dropping the leash a couple of times!  But Speedy did such a lovely job that I had to go ahead and submit it!

The Final Performance of "Reunion"

We earned 129 points, completed the level, and earned our Classical Freestyle title!

My favorite comments:

"When the leash was dropped the dog did not hesitate to stay on track with the handler"

"You and Speedy have spent years and hundreds of hours working together.  It shows"

"The handler's hand movements presented the dog well and enhanced the dog's movement"

And a bit of constructive criticism:

"The music did not provide any contrast"

"The only problem was a couple of small hiccups with the leash on your part"

We did enjoy our Classical Freestyle work and I am pleased that Speedy carried this division on his own!