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comp diary competitions

Comp Diary: Total Recall

We got back to the ballroom way too early on Saturday for the Open American 6-Dance.  This is becoming a pattern: I am paranoid and I like to be early, plus I tend to round our scheduled time down to the hour in my mind, so if our heat is at 1:40, I remember 1:00.  And then, as the competition program reminds us with its caps-lock on, we are supposed to be in the ballroom 30 minutes before our event.  Thus, 1:00 becomes 12:30 and we are an hour ahead of our scheduled time.  BUT!  Comp organizers have a pathological fear of Running Late (a not-unreasonable fear if you assume you have to build in time for the ambulance to come) and, as a result, comps often run early.  I was still gluing on my eyelashes when Daniel came to the dressing room door to ask if I was ready because our heat was coming up.  Mild panic ensued but we were ready in good time, unlike one couple whose number the announcer was calling when we were already on deck.  The lady rushed in holding the gentleman’s number and shouting “We’re here! We’re here!”  Her partner was still changing his clothes.  (Note to prospective competitors: DON’T BE THAT GUY.)

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comp diary

Comp diary: May you have an interesting weekend

The idea that “May you lead an interesting life” is a “Chinese curse” is probably apocryphal, but one can see the relevance of the connection between “interesting” and “curse.”   Our weekend in Baton Rouge, although enjoyable and successful, was…interesting.

We got away Thursday afternoon around 1 p.m. after settling a GPS rivalry in favor of the directions given by Daniel’s phone, which wanted to lead us southward on state & U.S. highways as opposed to my car’s GPS which was determined to lead us north to Atlanta to catch I-85.  Even taking into account the higher speed limits on the interstate, that seemed silly.  Off we went to the south.  No sooner had we crossed the state line into Alabama than we got into an accident: rear-ended, fortunately at very low speed, by a semi.  Argh!  Dealing with that ate up at least an hour, but at least the car was drivable and no one was hurt.  After calling my insurance company, calling the other guy’s insurance company, and calling my parents (so my mom wouldn’t worry when I mentioned the accident on Facebook), we went on our way and finally got to Baton Rouge around 10 p.m.

Friday afternoon around 1:00 we danced our first heat, Adult Silver Rhythm, and Senior I Silver Rhythm immediately after that.  It was nice, after the long and stressful drive, not to have to get up and dance the first heats of the day.  It was also nice to start with Rhythm instead of Smooth.  In most cases, we end up dancing Smooth for our first heat of the day.  It’s hard to dance a slow waltz with all that adrenaline in your system but for the cha-cha, the extra energy helps!  Surprisingly, we came 3rd out of 6 in the Adult event but 6th out of 8 in Senior I.  Usually it’s the other way around because the younger competitors in the Adult category (ages 18-34) manage to out-dance us.  In any case I am going to have to stop saying that I don’t like the first heat of the day, because we almost always get a good result out of it, no matter what the event is.  Maybe the nerves make us extra sharp.  As it turned out later, we’d need to be sharp.

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comp diary

Comp diary: Gumbo departure eve

We leave for Gumbo tomorrow in the early afternoon after I finish teaching, with one last practice session on deck for this evening. This will be the great driving-to-competition experiment: is the wear and tear of a 9-hour drive worth the financial savings and the freedom to haul along as much stuff as we want?  Might we actually have fun on the road?  With my new car, the satellite radio trial still active, 2 drivers, and my smartphone, we are hoping to make it fun.  Daniel likes to drive and wants to voir le paysage (see the countryside) along the way and I am going to bring some books to read.  And, no matter what, it will be vastly less expensive than flying.

My computer room is covered in luggage and piles of clothes as we get ready to pursue our road-trip experiment.  As advertised, the great thing about not flying is that we can relentlessly overpack; thus, I am taking two complete sets of comp wear (one stoned and one unstoned), two “after-five” dresses for the Friday night welcome dance and the Saturday night banquet respectively, four pairs of tights, three four possibly five pairs of shoes, makeup, practice clothes, pajamas, random shorts and t-shirts, a swimsuit, and the necessary (read “overlarge”) assortment of toiletries.  Daniel has culled through his collection of black pants, black button-downs, and zipper ties and chosen the ones he wants to take.  I have obsessively re-checked the dress code to make sure we don’t get invigilated: the organizers have said that they are checking costumes at registration, so we need to make sure everything is in order.  I will never forget the first year that we danced Adult level at the Triangle Open and had to borrow a black tie from a college kid because we had not paid close enough attention to the dress code restrictions for Adult.  The dress code is not complicated, but it’s strict.

We dance Adult and Senior I Silver Rhythm on Friday afternoon, then Adult and Senior I Silver Smooth on Friday evening.  Both Smooth events are semifinals, so our first big challenge will be to see if we can get recalled into the final.  I’m glad we’re dancing Rhythm first; starting with Smooth and leading off the day with a waltz is hard, but starting with a cha-cha will cut right through the nerves.  Saturday late morning we are doing the Open American 6-Dance, which is big enough to start with a quarterfinal.  That means we have to make 2 recalls in order to be placed.  Meep!  We will dance the first 3 dances (don’t know if they’ll start with Smooth or Rhythm), then have a break to change outfits, then dance the other 3.  Those who make the cut will repeat the process for the semifinal and again for the final.  The event is only open to Silver level dancers and below, so we have as good a chance as anyone, I suppose.  If we dance well Friday, our placements should suggest how well we might do Saturday.  If we flame out on Friday, then Saturday will be our chance for redemption.

Of course, we are also supposed to Have Fun and I am looking forward to the trip in general as well as the chance to perform, which we always like.  Ann Durocher-Steven, one of the organizers, told us after our first Gumbo that she doesn’t know anyone who seems to have more fun on the dancefloor than we do.  Good technique is important but it seems like the most memorable couples are the ones who really engage with the audience.  If someone–even a high-level competitor–has beautiful technique but looks like (s)he’d rather be somewhere else, then something is missing.  I can’t imagine spending the hours and days and years required to become an advanced dancer if I weren’t going to enjoy the payoff of dressing up and dancing for an audience.  No matter how we might feel about our placements, we always have a good time while we’re out there.

Off in a few minutes for the all-important pre-comp mani-pedi (now with more hyphens!).  I have been looking forward to this for days, to the point that I actually dreamed about it last night (the pedicure, not the competition).  Is that weird?

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comp diary lessons

Comp Diary: Round and round and round

Yesterday was our last lesson with Eddie before we go to Gumbo the weekend after next.  We spent our entire lesson (90 minutes) doing “rounds,” which means running through our competition routines over and over again with only a small break between repetitions.  Waltz waltz waltz.  Tango tango.  Waltz-tango. Foxtrot foxtrot foxtrot foxtrot. Waltz-tango-foxtrot. Waltz-tango-foxtrot. Waltz-tango-foxtrot.  You get the idea.

Rounds are ideal for building stamina, obviously: when I took my shoes off at the end of the lesson, they had sweat stains around the top of the heels.  But they also help you learn to change gears really quickly.  In a typical multi-dance heat in a competition, you walk onto the floor and dance anywhere from 2 to 5 dances (depending on your level) consecutively without leaving the floor.  When you have finished one dance, you get a few seconds to take your starting position for the next one, and off you go.  You are judged not only on technique but on “the character of the dance,” so during that short break you have to let go of the dance you just completed and focus on the one that’s coming next.  After making your waltz look like a waltz–smooth, graceful, romantic–you must immediately make your tango look like a tango (sharp and aggressive) and then your foxtrot look like a foxtrot (upbeat, happy, elegant).  And do all this while controlling your nerves, staying in time with the music, and practicing correct floorcraft and technique.  No pressure!

I always have a hard time with waltz, especially in the very first heat of the day.  Being slow, smooth, and controlled is a challenge when you are buzzing with adrenaline.  But yesterday we worked on being more aggressive and powerful in waltz while still expressing the character of the dance: lowering, hinging steps from the hip, covering more floor.  I found that if I really focus on my body, it gives my nervous brain something to do AND my dancing gets better.  Sometimes I look at myself on video and I can see that I’m dancing with some weird combination of laziness and tentativeness.  In some ways I’m holding back (not stretching my steps or working my hips) while in other ways I’m slacking off (letting my bum stick out or not staying left).  Yesterday, after an hour or so of drilling our smooth routines and really trying to overcome those shortcomings, I suddenly found that my dancing in cha-cha, rumba, and swing got better too.  A rising tide lifts all boats, it seems.

We are going to do some more rounds on our own tomorrow and one or two days next week, then we leave for Gumbo next Thursday.  Stay tuned!

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comp diary lessons

Comp Diary: There is no bull.

Yesterday we started learning a Paso Doble routine in our lesson with Eddie.  Daniel is especially excited about the paso because it requires good posture and sharp movements: he feels like it will help him improve his technique in our other dances.  Plus, he loves exhibition-style routines with lots of eye-catching, dramatic moves. We entered Open Paso Doble for the competition in Baton Rouge, hoping we would have the routine ready to go by mid-June.  That may or may not happen!  We learned enough steps on Saturday that we can get through a 90-second heat, but it’s a pretty challenging dance.  The steps are not too complex and the routine is not complicated.  The hard part is the musical phrasing.  In other competition dances, as long as you start on the “one” (i.e., 5-6-7-8-ONE), you’re generally okay.  It’s perfectly acceptable to wait a couple of bars and make sure you catch the beat before starting off.  Paso doble music, on the other hand, is very structured.  Yesterday, Daniel asked Eddie where in the music we have to start.  We were a little intimidated when we found out that we have to start on 3.  As in, the third beat after the song starts.  Silence–one–two–GO.  If we start wrong, or if we don’t get the timing right during the routine, then we’re irrevocably in the weeds.  So that’s pretty scary.  On the other hand, I get to do a tour jete, which is awesome.

Here’s some competition paso from a few years ago, using the music that is almost always used for paso doble:

And here’s an exhibition paso:

It is cool to watch these top-level dancers and see them doing the same steps we are learning (albeit doing them a lot better!).  We are in a little over our heads, but we are challenging ourselves and we’re motivated to improve, so it will come.  Will it come by June 17?  Not sure.  I am still hopeful.

And remember: the man is the matador.  The woman is the cape.  And there is no bull.

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comp diary competitions

Comp Diary: Dancemobile Goes to Gumbo 2011

Gentle readers, this past Thursday was a milestone in my life: I bought a new car. First brand-new car ever for me; first new-to-me car since 2001 when I bought a 1997 Nissan Altima.  We still have the Altima; it’s in front of the house, basking in all the glory of the 183,000 miles on its odometer.  Although I planned to take it to 200,000 miles before replacing it, certain ominous rattles were getting more ominous and I did not want the New Car Fund I was building to become the Fix the Old Car Emergency Fund.  So I started looking last weekend and bought a 2011 Kia Forté Koup.

A small part of my calculus was the knowledge that we were going to the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in Baton Rouge in June.  When we went last year, we flew.  That worked out fine, but it was expensive and promised to be expensive again this year.  We started to think that if I had picked out my new car by then, we could drive it.  While car-shopping, we checked every candidate to make sure it would carry a large suitcase in the trunk (sorry, Beetle convertible) and a couple of hanging bags in the back seat (nice knowin’ ya, Mini Cooper).  I did some math and figured out that at 25 mpg (a very conservative estimate) and $4 per gallon, we would still come out WAY ahead relative to the cost of 2 plane tickets.

On Friday I entered us for the competition: this year we are doing Silver Smooth & Rhythm (Adult and Senior I), Open American 6-Dance, and Open Paso Doble (provided we can learn a routine in the next 6 weeks).  I also entered us for Open Cabaret but I need to ask Eddie if our rumba routine is credible as a cabaret number.  My new comp mantra is “If worse comes to worst, we can always scratch.”

We will leave as soon as I get off work the Thursday before the competition starts, share the driving (9-10 hours), and probably listen to every station on my Sirius trial subscription as we cross the various radio wastelands between here and there.  Then we’ll drive back on Sunday.  As I said to my mom on the phone the night I bought the car, “We might hate it, and we might never do it again, but we’re going to drive this time and see how it goes.” And Jamie contributed “Dancemobile” as the car’s new moniker. Whee!  What do you think: do I need a vanity plate?  DANCMBL?  Or maybe just DLDNCRS?

See the U-S-A / In your Kia Forté!  Hey, that totally works!  No offense, Chevrolet, but I’m going to have to rewrite the entire song.

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comp diary competitions friends & family

Garden City Dance Challenge

We got back yesterday afternoon from Augusta, GA and the Garden City Dance Challenge, where we had a lot of fun.  My lack of self-tanner skills apparently wasn’t obvious, Daniel did not get busted for having gum in his mouth on the dance floor, we danced 15 heats (including our first-ever solo showcase) and I didn’t die even though I had a cold, and–best of all–my parents had a really good time.  Dad is old enough to remember when social dancing was actually social in the sense that everyone learned how to do it, so he was quite intrigued by the difference between that and competitive dancesport.  And my mom is–well, she’s a girl, so she took an avid interest in everyone’s costumes and hairstyles as well as the dancing itself.  I was glad they could come just to see what a competition is like.  Now, when we talk about it, they will have some context.  When my dad asked me over dinner Friday night “What typically happens during a ‘heat’?” I realized that a ballroom competition is much easier to observe than it is to explain.  So they had fun and got to meet some of the people we’re always talking about.  The atmosphere in the ballroom was very energetic all day, which is helpful because competition days are so long.  I had my false eyelashes on for something like 15 hours!  All honor and glory to the organizers at Ballroom in Motion for making that magic happen.

The showcase performance went well, I think.  I say “I think” because I haven’t quite dared to look at the video yet.  Daniel said he could feel in my body how nervous I was.  While I’m never conscious of being nervous, I do get a big hit of adrenaline when I perform, and I haven’t quite mastered how to use that to make me both aggressive and controlled.  Clearly I was in a bit of a fugue state: after it was over I had to ask Daniel if he’d had his fedora on through the entire performance, because I couldn’t remember.

Our results were good, if not spectacular: this was a pro-am competition so only a few of our heats were contested and even those were only 2-3 couples.  Nevertheless, we got a 1st for the very last heat of the day, Closed Silver American Rhythm.  The couple we were up against had been beating us all day and I totally biffed the choreography in our new rumba routine, so I don’t set much store by that placement, but it was gratifying anyway.  Mom & Dad left after we danced that last heat so we got to brag about our 1st place over breakfast with them the next morning.  Since we were staying for the awards we also got to see the pro heats–only one round each of Smooth and Rhythm but they were so exciting to watch.  I don’t actually want to be a professional but I’d like to dance like one!

Who’s ready for pictures?

Speaking of pictures, I have to give props to Stephen Marino, or “The Silent Photographer,” as he is known in my head.  This man tirelessly took photos on Saturday for as many hours as I wore eyelashes (maybe more), and the pictures are GORGEOUS.  I spoke to him in the evening and soon recognized that he was not responding verbally.  At first I thought it was some artsy shtick but then he whispered that he had lost his voice on a trip to Bermuda.  (Bermuda: poor guy!) It turns out that a photographer doesn’t have to talk very much.  In this case, at least, his pictures speak for him very well.

And for those of you who like your pictures to move around, videos will be up soon.  Special thanks to my mom for serving as videographer all day!

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comp diary competitions

EPCTDL and EPCPL

As we prepare for the Garden City Dance Challenge this coming weekend, it’s time once again for Exhaustive Pre-Comp To-Do List and its little buddy, Exhaustive Pre-Comp Packing List!  And away we go…

To do before Friday morning

  • Finish learning new rumba routine
  • Practice rumba routine
  • Run through Smooth routines a couple times each
  • Be prepared to believably fake it in swing and cha-cha
  • Reserve hotel room
  • Buy eyelashes
  • Locate eyelash glue
  • Also buy leggings
  • Finagle dresses in & out of bags
  • Turn hanging bag, dance bag, and dresser drawer inside out in search of missing dance briefs
  • Give up and buy new dance briefs
  • Get heat list from organizers
  • Apply self-tanner
  • Curse own ineptitude re: self-tanner
  • Double-check contents of dance bag: shoes, makeup, hair spray, extra tights
  • Do nails
  • Panic
  • Consult with parents re: arrival time at hotel*

To pack before Friday morning

  • Street clothes
  • Practice clothes (I always forget practice clothes and end up buying random track pants & sports bras at the nearest Target)
  • Makeup: foundation, concealer, powder, gel eyeliner, eyeshadow, shimmer powder, blush, eyeshadow, lipstick, lip gloss, eyelashes, mascara
  • Nail polishes
  • Tanner
  • White dress
  • Red dress
  • Black & white dress
  • Fishnets
  • Leggings
  • Pantyhose (must buy)
  • Smooth shoes & Latin shoes
  • Still camera
  • Video camera
  • Outfits for Daniel: black pants, black button-down, black pullover (sensing a theme), tie(s), hat, shoes x2, socks
  • Laptop?
  • Relevant chargers & cords
  • Toiletries (luckily we are driving, so none of that 1-quart Ziploc bag nonsense)
  • Sweater/hoodie to wear between heats
  • Ballet slippers ditto

*Did I tell you my parents are coming out to see us compete?  SO EXCITED.  Probably will not manage a Comp Diary this time around but will post after we get back for sure, hopefully with pics and video.  The Web site does not mention professional video, which means personal video should be allowed.  Stay tuned!  We leave Friday, compete Saturday, and return Sunday.  Woohoo!

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comp diary

Comp Diary #7: Photeaux

In between dancing poorly and gnashing our teeth, we did manage to take lots of pictures.  Here we go!

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comp diary

Comp Diary #6: Our not-at-all triumphant return

This morning we finished out our participation in the Carolina Fall Classic by failing to be recalled in Senior I Silver Rhythm, failing to be recalled in Adult Silver Rhythm, and scratching our two gold events.  Daniel was not feeling well, so we decided to cut our losses and start for home early.  Given our lack of preparation, we were not surprised at our performance in Smooth. But we have our Rhythm routines solidly under our belts and we think we do them well, so today’s results were discouraging.

While it’s easy enough to say that we’re just going to dance and have fun with no expectations, I in particular have difficulty accepting it when we don’t make that cut from semifinal to final.  In my mind, rightly or wrongly, not getting a recall is the judges’ way of saying that we don’t actually belong at the level in which we are dancing.  That probably isn’t true, but that’s the way I read it.  It’s disappointing for both of us and it detracts from the enjoyment of the event.  Plus, every recall we don’t make is at least one heat we don’t get to dance.  Obviously, we want to fare better next time.  We have decided to do two things: (1) set a practice schedule and do our best to stick to it and (2) talk to Eddie about when we should compete next and have him help us set goals.  So although we did not place well (or, in nearly every case, at all), I still feel like we learned something and the trip was worth it.

It should be said, also, that we had fun even though our results were not much fun.  The DJ played a surprising number of French songs (we foxtrotted to “Je ne veux pas travailler”) and other good stuff (it turns out that U2’s “Vertigo” is a swing!); we had a very informative chat with Mr. Crowder about possibly hosting a competition in Macon someday; and we competed Viennese waltz for the first time on virtually NO preparation.  The first time, we sort of stumbled through it; the second time, I started yelling out steps to Daniel with reckless abandon (“Runaround! Now go! Explode! Collect! Basic!”) and it went a lot better.  I would say of VW as I’ve heard said of swing: it’s like a plane crash: any one you can walk away from is a good one.

We also saw lots of people we knew from other comps, watched lots of good dancing (Andrzej Lelewer & Mary Beth Beasley, we want to be you when we grow up), had some nice meals, and got to go to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, which commemorates the beginning of the lunch counter sit-in movement at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Greensboro.  That was a cool experience, as is downtown G’boro in general.  It was good to get out and flâner a bit rather than spending the whole weekend camped out in the ballroom as is our usual practice.

So: by no means a total loss; lots to work on; and I do have a few photos and some video to share.  Give me 10 minutes to work on the laundry and I’ll be back with a photo post.