We are back from the Greenville Newcomers Challenge, where we had an excellent time and danced a lot. No, seriously: A LOT. See, pro-am competitions are different from all-amateur events in that there are a lot more categories and combinations of dances at a pro-am. We have traveled to USA Dance comps and danced only a half-dozen times, but yesterday we danced about 58 heats, mostly single dances, all in one day. It was a total marathon and by the end we were both exhausted. Happy, but exhausted. We started dancing at 8:30 a.m., got away for about 90 minutes for lunch, finagled a 4-hour break for an early dinner and a nap, and finished our last heat after 11 p.m. The awards for the evening session took place at the end of the session so we were actually in the ballroom till close to 1 a.m. We might not ever register for quite so many heats again, but the experience was worth it. We won a $100 scholarship (always exciting) and we got to do some things we’d never done before:
- I had my picture taken with some sorority girls–members of Kappa Delta at Clemson University–who were attending a conference at the comp hotel and came in to watch the dancing.
- We scratched some heats: this is not, practically speaking, a big deal, but we’d never done it before. Around 3 p.m. we realized that if we danced everything we were signed up for, we might not even have time to eat dinner. So we asked the deck captain to scratch us from the rest of the afternoon and came back for the evening session in scholarship-worthy shape. Good call.
- We each threw away a pair of dance shoes. Daniel bought a new pair at the comp and started wearing them immediately. I wore my old, grotty, too-tight Smooth shoes for the millionth time because I keep swearing I’ll get rid of them and then I don’t. By the end of the night I was practically limping and threatening to throw them away before we left Greenville. Daniel hid them from me for the rest of the night so I could think about it. Just before we left the comp hotel, he said “Are you sure about your shoes?” and pointed to where he’d concealed them under the registration table. I said yes and left them there. Also a good call.
- Most interesting of all, we got to do what’s called a “dance-on.” I’d seen this done at Hotlanta but it’s never done at amateur comps. Instead of entering en masse through the on-deck area, each couple is introduced by name, enters through the curtain behind the podium, and then does a 30-second solo. It’s not judged so it’s just a chance to show off in the spotlight (literally, in this case). We were a little nervous because we’d never done one before and because we weren’t sure what music we’d get. But we found out it would be a tango, so we went out there and did the first 30 sec. of our tango routine–which happens to be pretty good and pretty interesting to watch. It was fun!
We definitely did not dance perfectly but we danced well at least some of the time and got a lot of compliments. We were also glad that Eddie was there (he and the Academy Ballroom crew were running the comp) as he’d not seen us compete before. I think it gave him a better idea of what we need to work on in lessons. We have a lesson Friday and then I’m doing workshops at the studio all day Saturday. I hope my blisters heal by then, but if not, I’ll just tape ’em up and go for it!
