Ok, Saturday morning has arrived, (well later Saturday morning since I didn’t roll into bed until 4 am). It is 7:30 and I am wide awake (you know that adrenaline thing). My mind is saying let’s get up and get going but my back and feet and the rest of my body is saying “Get a grip, shut up, close the eyes and get back to sleep”. After an epic struggle, the mind wins out and up I get and off to the shower. The eyes were definitely in protest mode and decided they did not want to help me find the shower. I think the toes were a little pissed at the eyes for their lack of co-operation. A nice warm shower seemed to calm everyone down and we all started getting psyched for the day ahead which included none other than more workshops, competitions and of course more dancing until you drop *L*.
More great workshops today!!! I took 2 from Larry and Heidi Mongeau (from the Boston area I believe). They were great as we did some Intermediate patterns and leads we could use in our social dancing. They made the class fun and easy to learn. I would definitely take classes from them again. Oh yeah and Heidi is pretty hot too (sorry Larry but she is *L*). Then there was another fantastic workshop with Kyle and Sarah. I am going to try my damndest to get a private lesson with Kyle this weekend; I am such a fan of his dance style. The best workshop all weekend was with Mario Robau Jr. From what I have gathered, Mario is very much old school and likes to keep the dance within the dance (not sure if that makes sense to anyone) which is what I would like to do. His workshop was on different ways to anchor and I found it fascinating and something I could practice on my own. Great morning for workshops, now onto the competitions *L*.
The Competitions
Ok, today is a big day for competing. I have the Novice Jack and Jill, Novice Strictly Swing and Team competitions. The novice Jack n Jill is where you dance in prelims and if you are good enough you move into the semi finals and if you are in the top 10 you move into the finals. When you start you do not have a designated partner, you actually dance with 3 different partners in the prelims. You and your partner are marked as individuals for this level and for the semis. In the finals you get a single partner and you are judged as a team. You also have no idea what music is going to be played and there is an extremely good chance that you would never have danced with these partners ever before. Sound like fun *L*?? Well it is, scary but a lot of fun. My goal this weekend was to make it into the semi finals. I am very new to this dance and I am not ready for this level of competition, but what the hell *L*. Well, I had 3 great partners in the prelims and was so happy when I found out I made it into the semi finals. I had reached my goal and I was happy just to dance with 3 new partners in the semis. A few hours later they posted the results from the semi’s; I hadn’t had a chance to check the list when Julie came up and congratulated me for making the finals; thought I was being punked *LOL*. Wow, never dreamed at this size of a competition I would ever make the finals. Finals are tomorrow, so will let you know then what happened *L*. The second competition entered was Novice Strictly Swing. In this competition you chose your own partner but you have no idea of what music is being played. Well I have this incredible partner (I must have been a real good boy cause the swing gods have blessed me with an incredible partner). Her name is Shelley and this will be our second competition together (and I hope there are many many more to come). This girl is the prettiest, most wonderful, best partner anyone could ever ask for. She is a great dancer, an incredible person who is always smiling and having a great time. Do you get the feeling I love dancing with this young lady *LOL*??? Well, we did awesome!! There were a lot of couples and we placed 11th (first alternate into the finals). With a little more practice, we just might make the finals. Ok, afternoon competitions are over and it is time to practice for the team event that evening. They clear the ballroom and all the teams that are competing start running through their routines. We did ours about 3 so I think we are ready for tonight’s competition. The name of the team is Ripple Effect and there are 10 members (5 ladies and 5 guys). The routine was choreographed by Julie and it is really kind of neat. Do you remember at the beginning of this blog I mentioned the fight between the mind and the body and how the mind won with protest from the body?? Well right after our routine practice my body decided to go on strike and I started feeling very ill. I was so tired and hungry I had no clue how I was going to even perform tonight. I had decided as soon as the routine was over, I was going to sleep for a few hours. I went and got something to eat and went to my room to go over the routine (I had it on video). Once I ate, I started to feel a little better and figured I would make it though the evening. Competition hour arrived, we did the routine, everything went awesome and when the smoke cleared and the results were in WE WON!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!. That was so awesome. I was so happy for Julie and the rest of the team; they had put so much into this. Just a little side note here, as much as I love being on the team and really do love the people on the team, it would not bother me if they found someone to replace me. They are all much better dancers than me and I am just afraid I will bring them down a notch or two moving forward. I seem to have trouble picking up the choreography. I think I concentrate so hard on remembering the steps, I forget to have fun.
The Dance:
Alright!!! the fun part of the evening. Even though there was open dancing, there was still a show with all the pros getting up and doing a demo routine. It is always awesome to watch these guys and hope someday you will be able to dance half as well as they do. Ok, shows over, the main dancing starts, I get to dance with two ladies I met in Toronto, Kris and Lynda and met some other wonderful ladies especially Rachel from Rochester (beautiful big eyes and a great dancer) and yes I danced again with Jamie and as many times as I could with Livaline. Unfortunatley, Julie is a very popular lady when she hits the dance floor so my chances there were limited (no worries though, I get her all to myself for an hour during each private lesson *LOL*) And of course, a majority of dances were kept for my incredible dance partner Shelley. I just love dancing with this lady. I am so glad that Wij is not the jealous type. *L* Oh my god, look at the time 3am??? Wasn’t I supposed to go and take a nap after the team comp??? Oh well time flies when you are having fun. Ok legs, walk me up to the room and plunk me in bed, sleep time!!!
See you tomorrow
Larry
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