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2025.11.11 : house sesh 🫡: @mxawng 🎥: 3 2a x finally got thru my 2025 vids, please clap! maybe i should have looked at this footage before i went in the hole for the sesh before. i look a lot more energized, strong, and awake today. i am much, much more committal. i'm realizing that a huge determinant of how i feel about my movement on a given day is just a matter of how tired or ready my muscles are, with a lot of the remainder being mental alertness and mindfulness. core and upper leg engagement means my upper body is free, no issues of ragdolling or consistent stiffness today to trouble my eyes 🥲 even my arms look fine although they aren't doing anything in particular. (arm suggestion from mary three months later: think about making the elbows the highest point on the arm, don't worry about anything else). lots of nice moments of musicality. the main things i'd like to improve are: - not getting lost in footwork soup. feels like there are sections that have decent clarity and definition, and other sections where i'm kind of just grasping for what to do. but that's the work ig. - having a wilder… stylistic range? jungle might say to be unpredictable. even when i vary my movement to the music it looks kinda samey. i think i need to keep working on mechanics so that i can go from small to big, or shift my weight more rapidly. but upper body groove and arms would help a lot here. - kinda a synthesis of the above two: move more outside the framework of "house steps". jess always told me i would suffer one day for learning via combos and not exploration. but idk that i could have built up the mechanics without all the motivation and training from class. separately, albert showed me and melvin a piece of footwork he got from… i forget. reminds me of smth huu adds as an optional flourish to his routines.

2025.11.11 : house 🫡: @huurock 🥰: @erinzhou @yuukikuun @ifi_ony @sleepeatliftnyc @shoyo_osaka @esosaoviasu 🎥: 6 5 4 1 3 2 my last class of the year and i still feel great about where i ended up in 2025. i use so much more of my body than i did at the beginning of the year, and it feels better and looks better than before. my ability to embody sound/shapes is still limited but growing. i think the biggest comment i have for this class is that i'm anticipating the music, both during the routine and in my free steps before. i really do have a lot more time. notes: - the steps before 6 starts is maybe the best i've ever just danced on my own ever lol - still struggle with eighth-note weight shifts. the lotus variation at the top asks for more of a shift stage right but it's too quick for me to catch. - arm circles at the top are very regular and coherent but also they're a bit relentless and… inertial rather than deliberate. - tap-cross moves also have an awko weight transfer. think it's the prep. - reject has a bit of a squeezed feeling; might also be the prep. - arms suggest uncertainty on the farmer into knock right after the reject. i think i don't feel super balanced slash sure of my foot placement on the cross over. - double-time skate is hard which throws my balance off thru the two turns. - crab into criss cross is tight! but i'm rushing 😭 - the run into reset has improved so much from using my core to pull my knees up! - i like how much volume and space i make with the knee/hip swivel. - trying to keep my hands high for the swirl. the coordination is hard; it sort of disrupts my lower body. this get down is still hard for me; it's really hard to push my hips up and remain stable esp. while turning (which is obvs why huu always says to do the separately to start). the zulu roll looks nice tho.

2025.11.07 : house 🫡: @huurock 🥰: @sallykismet @aliceburefjord @brendabravooo @beatrixzhou_ @sleepeatliftnyc 🎥: 6 za 7 5 x 1 3 4 2 alice's last class 😭 today i had an insight abt the swirl, which is that it's driven by the core+hip twist with _even weight_ on both feet! previously i had always thought of the weight shift as part of the energy of the move, but now i think of it more as a consequence. i also am very happy with how my turns have improved. both the heel-toe cross turn and the house pirouette right into a chase are way more stable than ever and are also drilling down more than floating up. notes: - would like to be more patient with my shoulder and hip torsion generally. this affects the pdb at the top, my rdj's, the swivel swirl variation after the chase, and the knee arc before the roger rabbit turn (and the turn itself!). - but my shoulders are putting in work today! - i'm doing a twist with my cross step that came from caleaf. looks nice 🙂 - i like the party machine, esp. the musicality and arms in 5. spongebob is a bit loose goose, esp. on the prep. i think i'm not comfortable w/ my arms there. - roger rabbit turn feels a bit too floaty and… squeezed? as though my feet are forced too close together the whole time bc i'm standing in a box. - i want my grapevine direction changes to be stronger. - weird arms for the huu rock patented twist kicks. i like how smooth my floorwork is today _until_ the ejoe. i think i'm always rushing thru it: maybe i should squat down lower and push my hips up before i drop my knees and start to shoot my feet out.

2025.11.06 : house 🫡: @huurock 🥰: @beatrixzhou_ @thejasonarodriguez 🎥: 4 1 x 2 5 8 9 6 3 really digging the slow run today; lots to learn from it. there's upper body jack/groove, esp. in the shoulders, that is integrated. one thing i'm noticing is that my ear has an affinity for percussive transients but isn't attuned to the release and reverb. these sonic long tails are a big opportunity for sitting in the pocket differently. related to that is that i'm still a bit shy with what the choreo kids call "milking". it requires more strength than i like to use, but also strong commitment and intent. there's an rdj in 1 that i wish were more unctuous. execution notes: - nice and stable at the top, giving me lots of upper body freedom. - sidewalk variation could use more… shape. not sure how tho. - my knocks could be lower, with more quad utilization. - step-step-hop into lotus creeps up on me; think it needs more core than baseline. - turns, incl. the chase turn, are more stable than ever! - my arm accents for kick-and-stomp are always very intense. i'd like more options. - windmill arms for the tree turn are seeing huuuge improvement from the core work. - floor kinda awkward today. the get-down is unstable bc idrk how to use core when contracted like that, and that bleeds into the turn out with the leg which is v chunky.

2025.11.05 : house 🫡: @tonyvmcgregor 🎥: 0.1 0.2 2.5 2.1 3.1 really significant class for me. whole class was variations on farmers. i was practicing farmer run turns on my own, and at some point tony came up wagging his finger. i asked him about it, so he demo'd exactly the way _i_ was doing it, _to me_. surreal experience, like walking into a party and bumping into yourself—i know what i look like doing the farmer run from class vids and it was wild to see tony perfectly (like, 100%) mirror this awkward tense way i was moving. then he demo'd his way of doing it, and said the difference was he was keeping his jack thru the turn. this like almost immediately unlocked a new understanding of core engagement for me—that it has to be mobile. i need to activate my core _through_ my jack, not exclusive with it. i don't quite find it in this class, but over the next week, the way i did the farmer run, the way i did the _reset_ even, all sort of reoriented around this idea and got much, much more stable and powered. b/w the variations tony gave us and the ones i just decided to practice, today we had: - "farmer tree". like a tree but instead of ball-changing, doing a farmer on the foot the tree lands on; and then going back the other way. tony brings this out for us frequently. i think the rotation messes with how i contract and jack for the farmer; i still struggle with it. - "farmer run" with a turn. idk what the origin of this move is really, but huu does it a lot with the farmer. freeing up the shoulders by engaging the core really invites the groove in. - farmer roger rabbit. same double-time feel as the farmer run but roger rabbit step pattern. - farmer ↔ crosswalk. tony just casually handed this to me while i was doing drills. really useful. i've never figured out how to incorporate the crosswalk into anything so it's nice to have a connection. - directional farmers. i misinterpreted smth tony showed us and did sort of a farmer swirl. what he gave us was a farmer traveling like one step to the side. - tracing arcs inward with the knee. gua does this a lot. i can't figure it out, i think i lack strength in all sorts of places (core, obliques, outer glutes).

2025.11.03 : hip hop 🫡: @tweetboogie lots of notes from tweetie on the running man today: - the hop matters! hop high! i am not hopping all that high but my free leg comes up high at least. - don't think about pedaling/sliding so much with the back leg. this is challenging for me bc i feel like it's very house-y to pedal. i think the idea is to make the 1 and the & both very distinct instead of blending it into a single smooth motion that only accents the 1. - hit the hop, then hit the lunge, putting lots of space b/w the legs. - running man doesn't need a rock. the rock also kind of is what i naturally do but i found it was a lot easier not to if i held my core more, which tbh is probably a good way to make sure i'm using enough core. - pump fists front and back. the first pump is like the one arm movement today that i felt like i have the right power for. some notes on arms from me: - for the hands open (reset arms), i'm like holding my elbows a bit too close to my body so it looks kind of wimpy. i think i'm doing it this way bc it relies more on shoulder and less on chest and i am way weaker in the chest. - i'm super rushing the arms at the end, and i'm also like, moving bigger than is necessary. i think this is _also_ a chest weakness thing, because i feel like i can "throw" and "catch" but only in one direction.

2025.10.28 : house sesh (pt. 2) 🫡: @mxawng tbh i don't know if i got anything out of this extremely arduous and mentally taxing process of going thru session vids (the first ever i have taken or looked at). i _know_ my class notes help a ton with understanding movement mechanics and how my body works. but this process is so much more mental than technical. jess says maybe i should focus less on movement quality when i watch my own freestyle, which is… fair… but i think i simply don't want to ~explore~ any movement that i do, like, intolerably badly, so i think i'm stuck juggling both. anyway my takeaways: - i just need to Commit™ 😰😵‍💫 i have so little faith in the choices i make on the fly, and even tho yes sometimes i react too late and i don't do anything as pretty as i want, so much would be improved by me just Trusting that it will be ok, enough to not like stifle my own movement—esp. mid-move!! i think letting myself stop if i'm too uncomfy is important, but i am banning myself from giving up mid-move 😭 - commitment is embodied in the core. when i don't believe in what i'm doing i slack my core, which makes me ragdoll and creates this negative feedback loop when i look back. i think for this period of growth i need to overcompensate core activation. also i notice that as i get more tired and weaker, it makes me avoid intentionality even more bc of the extra effort needed. - slack core is also making it so i don't get the shoulder/hip torsion i really value, or the four-points stability i need for turns and rdj's and etc. also i never bounce or groove or jack or even ground thru any of my turns :< - i'm really bad at anticipating my own weight transfers? major shifts both to the side (skates, big rebounds, party machines) and down (like into a farmer or even a heel-toe-heel) catch me off guard even though it's literally me doing them. def the core thing affects this and also i think i'm not using my quads enough in general. this is smth technical i can just work on in class. cont'd in comments

2025.10.28 : house sesh 🫡: @mxawng 🎥: 1a 8a 4a 3a 3b 2 9a 8b 8c scroll away if u don't want ur eyes to bleed 🤗 🤗 the spectre of these videos has been haunting me for months. tbh i am only getting thru them now bc if my backlog of vids gets any longer i'll never be able to catch up again. impressions on individual recordings. summary in next post. 1: first 40secs is very shy and small but comfy. super glued to familiar movements, but i'm patient and with the music. some of the clearest pauses on 8 i've done, and the most intentional arms (even counting class!). i think what happens after that is i sort of botch a transition into a farmer which causes me to lose faith. i catch a few beats but my movement starts to get smaller and sloppier and my head clouds. i try playing with turns and arms, but i have so little confidence or capability in those that i kind of lose any semblance of movement quality or control everywhere?? at the end i do some heel clicks and that rejuvenates me but i'm kinda gone. 2: start is ok but i'm not sitting into the stops on 8 enough; my intent is fine but they look awkward bc i'm not committal. doing an ok job keeping my elbows up without too much arm flailing. i have not recovered mentally from 1 so i just blank on footwork intermittently bc i don't want to just do more loose legs and heel-toes. this causes me to Doubt and then when i play with fast footwork at the end it's floppy and hesitant. need more quad and ankle engagement. 3: i really like how i'm catching the & at the very beginning. why didn't i keep going with it?? gotta believe in myself 😭 that said i am obviously mentally fatigued and don't have the mindfulness to slow down or the capacity to make footwork choices; it turns into eighth note soup. very not grounded. i do like how i'm trying out different volumes and feels for my accents, since i only rly feel comfortable doing most steps just one or two ways, which is a big handicap. that range exists, but it's unfamiliar and i'm not doing it with conviction, and it's even harder to reach when i get discouraged and use less strength.

2025.10.28 : house 🫡: @huurock 🥰: @floffnn 🎥: 3 1 x 2 5 so looking back at this class with fresh eyes, the main thing i see is i am absolutely exhausted. i'm trying to stay relaxed, but i don't have the energy to maintain that slight activation to keep everything compact and together. coming back to house after 2 months, my muscles are weak and my breath and cardio are gone but it's actually easier to maintain gentle tension bc my body is rested. i'm so jello in these vids :0 - there are two syncopated crab pdb's in here and i'm rushing both of them. but i think the rushing is both caused and exaggerated by my obliques not doing the work of coordinating my chest and my hips twisting. as a result, twisting one sort of flings the other, and then i'm stuck overcompensating. - my lower shoulders and upper back also aren't having it. look at that crazy floppiness on the double-time running man! part of this is me being wimpy with my intent, but small intent with good activation of the lower traps really overperforms. - that upper body lagginess is there in the peter paul and dodger before that too, and it's also throwing off my weight and balance. you can see my hips wanting to be stage left but the rest of me clearly doesn't. - the double skate and step-over turn is a really tough sequence for me. i'm trying to loosen up into it move but actually for this i think i should bind my core and really pull myself tight thru it. - i like how twisty and intentional my swirl and its swivel variation are today. - the double step-over turn is easier when i focus on holding core and less on the diagonality of the line which at tempo really is not important or feasible. - the amount of rotational momentum thru that multi-turn sequence is hard to control but all the work with shannon helps so much. i also like my arms in 3 for the scribble in particular. i'm a big fan of what came out on the floor today. the toe-touch suzie-q looks very smooth and balanced, and i managed the corkscrew + sweep open well today! at least for the runs where i wasn't even more tired.

2025.10.27 : house 🫡: @tonyvmcgregor 🎥: 1.2 1.3 2.3 2.1 3.2 4.1 tony eyeballed the room at the beginning of the class and was like, we're gonna have to take it slow today. i was like how do you know that??? but he was correct. anyway, today's work: - reverse jack. just an out-and-in two-step with a reverse jack. it's still so hard for me. even thinking about it rn, i'm not sure what part of my body isn't activated or strong enough. hammies? glutes? hip flexors? or maybe i need to use my shoulders more? it's obviously still not coordinated. - tip-tap-toe. we did switching directions (start left into start right etc.) and traveling with it. i am comfortable with the tip-tap-toe in general but i tend to do it the way huu does it, which is with the body sweeping in a circle. tony does it in a more like… origami-like way where he sort of folds out and then folds in with the heel and toe. i was struggling this class not to tense up my shoulders and chest, which i understand now to mean i need to figure out how to incorporate them into the move. - shuffle and dodge. jungle at some point saw my shuffle and dodge and was like, you're doing some other thing, it's not a shuffle and dodge. so i asked tony today, and he said what i do definitely _is_ a shuffle and dodge. but in the process of us practicing it in class and partnering up, and tony being like, you were doing something different before, i realized: (a) i can keep the chill, dodger feel of my shuffle and dodge but add in more of a kick in the free leg, and (b) that kick has an important visual impact! i thought of both the loose goose and the powered kick variants as literally the same. to tony's eye, they are distinct variations. - chase variations. the classic shoulder shimmy. tony also gave us a like out-in, big-small variation which i am not emulating well at all; when he does it, on the step out he like bulbs out and when he twists in he compacts. sort of like a bouncing blob, or mega victreebel. he also described the hopping variant as a hurdle, and jumping over the foot that's crossed in front.

2025.10.24 : house 🫡: @guangminshen @shannon__healey 🎥: 1.2 2.2 gua was teaching shannon some stuff at session which i stole and then filmed later during a tony class. first is a step-step -> farmer x3. very straightforward but i found this really useful for getting my farmer lower to the ground and making the hop feel even more like falling. also, the vids make it really clear that i'm rushing out of the second step into the farmer. i think my feet are shifting faster than my weight. second is a heel-toe jack on one side in a figure-8 pattern. this isn't hard on its face but watching myself do it, i realize that gua's toe placement after the heel always is noticeably further along the ♾️ pathway (like how he does his train, which is kinda a flatfoot-toe jack), whereas i retract it like i do with my home base heel-toe jack. (note from late january: this is because i only have 2% of gua's core strength.)

2025.10.24 : house 🫡: @huurock 🥰: @shannon__healey @sleepeatliftnyc 🎥: 4 3 watching my vids during class, i felt like i was not getting deep enough, maybe because my core wasn't helping me raise my knees. watching back though, i see something different—i think i'm holding too much tension elsewhere in my body, esp. the shoulders and chest, as i try to keep my core "gluing" everything together. but i'm also tired. if i weren't as tired my knees would come up higher during those farmers at the beginning, the triangle twisting would have more volume, etc. etc. when i say i'm not pushing into the ground enough, i guess i also mean i'm not channeling the energy thru my core enough! notes: - been thinking abt picking my legs up more and drawing a broader arc for suzie-q's. it def helps. - still having trouble keeping the line for step-over turns even tho i'm very mindful abt core activation now. - my arms get confused during "walking" turns; they lose the figure-8 pathways. - the sweep turn was one of the hardest parts of the routine for me but i think it turned out alright. shannon says the key is that once you swing your shoulders for the momentum, hold the four points steady and maintain the structure for the rest of the turn. - need to drive internal bounce + spring more with the roger rabbit, the rdj's, and the step-step-hop into the heel-toe walks. - more ground -> core for the dodger, one-side tip tap toe, and even the indian step (altho it looks pretty smooth). would like to get better at core engagement as i crunch and get down to the ground. even the corkscrew down is kinda rushed bc i just don't feel comfortable holding in a low squat. the huu patented kick-to-get-up is getting possible! splits are still hard tho; the hip abductor control is not there yet.