Driving back from our lesson with Eddie this afternoon, I passed a minivan whose back window was dominated by a huge decal from a dance studio. Below the studio name was the slogan “Go big or don’t go!” I had to smile because I’d been having the same conversation with Eddie just a couple of hours earlier.
After struggling a lot at our last competition, and then taking a few weeks off with no lessons, I was feeling discouraged and unmotivated. Neither Daniel nor I was sure where we’d start or what we’d be working on in our lesson today. We started by explaining to Eddie as best we could what had happened at the competition: we had trouble with floorcraft when the dancefloor was crowded, and we both tended to forget our steps when we got nervous.
We worked on some strategies for what to do if we get boxed in:
hold a pose if we happen to be in one.
stop, close our feet, and restart the step we were in the middle of.
do basics to get around the traffic jam.
But we also worked on posture and movement to make our dancing appear more aggressive. Eddie didn’t quite come out and say this, although he agreed with me when I said it: part of floorcraft is psychological. If we look like we’re big, aggressive, and moving confidently across the floor, other dancers will yield to us more often than if we look tentative and small. It reminded me of marching band when I was in high school: the very first step and the very first note of the show have to be assertive, our director would tell us. If you’re going to make a mistake, make a BIG mistake. Go big or don’t go.
Sharing the floor with us this afternoon was a family–Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son-In-Law-To-Be, and Daughter’s Fabulous All-Rhinestone Wedding Shoes–getting lessons for the bride & groom’s first dance and the father-daughter dance at their wedding reception. Watching SILTB dance with Daughter, I remembered how important posture and movement are, even for beginning dancers. If you are a beginner, you are concentrating on remembering the steps. You’re looking at your feet, your elbows have collapsed, your shoulders are rounded, and you’re taking little, tentative steps for fear of messing up. Even if you get all the steps right, you don’t look as polished and accomplished as you could. And let’s face it: if you’re paying for professional instruction for your wedding dance, you want to look polished and accomplished because you know 120 guests will be watching you!
Same goes for just about any social dance situation. Those same basic steps plus upright posture, a solid dance frame, and a big smile will set you well apart from everyone else on the floor doing the clutch-and-sway. It’s the ultimate in “fake it till you make it.”
The marvelous Dolan Maples (He’s a Ladies’ Man) just called and reminded me I hadn’t yet put a post on our site about this weekend’s Sunday Night Dance Party. Come join us Sunday, July 25 at 7 p.m. at the Howard Community Club for an evening of casual dancing. Admission is $5 and song requests are welcome.
While we’re on the subject, don’t forget Dance Houston County’s second annual “Dancing for our Heroes” charity ball, Saturday, July 31 at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Aviation’s Century of Flight hangar in Warner Robins. The Georgia Big Band is playing this year and there are some great dance demonstrations planned as well. Tickets are $30; visit www.dancehoustonco.org or call Carl Candiano at 478-919-0624.
(my friend Steph Thompson’s ballroom instructor’s tagline every time his dancers completed an underarm turn)
Sunday afternoon saw us back from the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in Baton Rouge, LA just in time to host our Sunday Night Dance Party for an awesome crowd. Thank you, everyone who attended! The Gumbo competition was a great experience and we are so glad that we went. Although we didn’t place as well as we’d hoped, we had a fantastic time and got to see all of our comp buddies as well as meeting some new ones. The Louisiana Gumbo chapter of USA Dance is full of nice people and they put on a well-run, classy, enjoyable competition. Our only regret was not getting to do more sightseeing around Baton Rouge, but at least we did get a great view of the river Saturday night from the terrace at Tsunami.
The highlight of the comp came on Saturday afternoon when we lined up on deck with 10 other couples for the Smooth portion of the Open American 6-Dance. While we were lining up, 8 couples were on the floor dancing the Smooth portion of an Open 9-Dance event. Daniel got everyone in the on-deck area to sway back & forth and wave our arms in unison as the Viennese waltz played for the 9-Dancers. By the end of the song, all the judges were staring and everyone, including us, was laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. The announcer said, “All of you on deck, cut it out! I’m getting seasick!” So when we lined up for the Rhythm part of the 6-Dance and the 9-Dancers were dancing swing, Daniel cued everyone to do the basic swing step together. He led us through underarm turns and everything. It was hiLARious. Rumor has it that someone got this exploit on video, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, click through for some video that our various dance friends captured for us. I also have a few pictures but WordPress does not seem to want to upload them right now, so look for those in a later post. Continue reading “Aaaaaand, she’s back!”
So it turns out that this month, the 4th Sunday is the same day we will return from the Gumbo Championships in Baton Rouge. We’ll get off the plane at 1:20 p.m. and head back to Macon just in time to set up for our dance. Since we will have tales to tell and, hopefully, ribbons to show off, we hope everyone can come and help us celebrate a great competition experience.
Join us at the Howard Community Club at 7 p.m. as usual on Sunday, June 27. Daniel would like me to particularly remind everyone that song requests are welcome, so please bring any CDs with songs you’d like him to play.
An anticipatory lull has taken hold here at DLDancers HQ as Daniel and I count down the hours till our departure for the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in Baton Rouge this weekend. So I thought I’d take a moment to introduce the Internet to our three mascots and most loyal supporters.
Mackie a.k.a. Little Bitty
Tango, a.k.a. Big Buddy
Tiger a.k.a. Little Buddy
Tango is about 4 years old; Daniel got him before we started dating. Tiger is 3 months old–we just got him from our dancer friend Jodi Williams (she has more kittens available if you need a mascot of your own). Mackie is the baby of the family at only 5-6 weeks old. Daniel found her wandering lost in a parking lost last week and brought her home.
None of them has any aptitude for dancing but they are all excellent at lounging, pouncing, meowing, eating, and being adorable. (You know: the things dancers do when we’re not dancing.) We will miss them when we head off to BR. Special shout-outs of gratitude are due to Shane Trayers who will be on cat patrol while we’re gone. Thanks, Shane!
We set off for the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in 12 days. It must be time to start obsessing about getting ready. This will be our first time flying to a comp. It’s gonna be a major troop movement. We are dancing in some events where costumes are allowed, and some events where they aren’t, so I have to decide about taking my gowns and whether to check them or try to carry them onto what’s likely to be a wee little aircraft. Last year I bought this practice dress for Smooth and I just got an outfit (this top and this skirt) for Rhythm, so I will be pretty well fixed without gowns too. As a fan of packing light, I’m tempted not to take the gowns, but I don’t know yet.
At this point it’s much more fun to obsess about packing and preparations than to really focus on any possible shortcomings in our dancing. As always, we haven’t practiced as much as we’d like or taken as many lessons as we’d hoped for, but we have our new routines and we are pretty good at selling a performance. Plus, we are both really up for a vacation, so we want to make sure we enjoy this trip regardless of our placements. Dressing up, pinning on the number, and putting on the show is half the fun. Being in a new place will be the other half.
Yesterday was the Madison Studio recital at Zuver Center and we had a great time. Huge thanks are due to Kelly & Steve for coming out to cheer us on and to video our performance for us. We got lots of positive feedback on our performance, which is always wonderful to hear. After doing a lot of competitions and less formal exhibitions, it felt a little strange to be up on the stage all by ourselves with the audience watching us. In a perfect world I think we’d have routines choreographed just for this purpose–something with lots of flashy open work and very few steps in closed hold.
This video clip also shows the group that danced right after us, which was the Czardas number from Swan Lake. Most if not all of the Czardas are in the ballet class I take on Thursday nights. When the class danced its number later in the program, Daniel asked me why I wasn’t out there with them. I just gave him a look. But I am planning to go back on pointe again later this year, so maybe next year?
Here’s the video–let us know what you think of our performance!
Friday afternoon is dress rehearsal for the Madison Studio’s recital. We’ll test-drive our tango on the stage at Zuver Center before rolling it out for an audience on Saturday. Friday evening is Paula’s First Friday dance at the Sports Hall of Fame downtown. Paula is giving a complimentary lesson from 7:30 to 8:00, then everyone will dance from 8:00 to 10:00. Admission is just $5. First Fridays are always fun and if you’ve never seen the Sports Hall of Fame, this is a great opportunity to check it out.
Saturday at 2:00 is the Madison Studio recital at Zuver Center on the Mt. de Sales campus. Daniel and I are the 3rd performance in Act I, so come on time if you want to see us and stick around to see all the other great performances. Tickets are $10. We are very excited about this performance–it’ll be our first time doing our new tango routine for anyone other than Eddie or Jim & JoyDawn! Ms. Madison has named our act “Temps d’Amour” in keeping with the recital theme “Times of our Lives.” If you can’t make it, stay tuned for updates on how it went and, hopefully, video.
We just got word yesterday that this year’s SouthernStar Mid-Summer Classic has been canceled due to “multiple factors beyond [the organizers'] control.” It’s hard not to wonder what happened, given that the date had been scheduled long ago and the organizers were already promoting the competition. We’re sad to be missing the comp this year. It is lots of fun and very friendly, and I for one was looking forward to riding Sheikra again.
But! We do have other treats coming up this summer. I just finished booking our flight to Baton Rouge for the Gumbo Dancesport Championship–we leave a month from today. We’ve heard this is a great, well-run comp and we are excited to participate after missing it last year. Also, with Tampa off the agenda, we have a little more money in the dance budget, just in time to sign up for a coaching session in early July with Andre & Natalie Paramonov. I never thought that after only a few years dancing together & competing we’d be exposed to such high-level instruction. It gives me that “Wow, we are really doing this!” feeling.
Bummers happen, but the great thing about ballroom dancing is that there’s always something else to look forward to: another comp, another lesson, or maybe just a new pair of shoes… *wiggles eyebrows*
