So, I'm insane. But you all knew that. In only 6 days I will be heading off to London for 6 weeks. One week after I get home I will be heading down to Vegas, Nevada for my first out of state competition, and my first competition where I will be dancing all five dances:Waltz,tango,vienese waltz,fox-trot, quickstep. My partner and I have learned all new routines in the past two months, and we have learned vienese waltz for the very first time. Scott has been gone on a folk dance tour, and I will be leaving before he gets back. So, we will have approximately 5 days to get our butts in gear and get back up to a decent dancing capability before we have to compete in Vegas. Can you say stressful?!?!
I will be watching the videos of our routines online while I am in London, and I am praying that my partner does the same. I will probably even dance the routines by myself if I can find a dance studio that will let me practice, or I'll just do it in Hyde park... that wouldn't be too crazy, right? :)
I'll try to post the videos of our new routines when we get the chance to video them. I will hopefully be able to convince my sister to get work off and come with me to Vegas, but we'll see how that works out.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Post Nationals hangover
Well, Nationals is over. I am happy/sad to have it over with. We worked really hard and did our best. We made the Quarter finals in Novice, which is slightly disappointing. However, Michael has put everything into perspective and I understand the situation a lot better now. Now we are on to training for Amateur! Which means all new, more challenging choreography, and even more technique to help us master this new choreography. I'm shopping around for Ballroom gowns in order to keep our look fresh and interesting throughout this next competition season. And I shall be saving up to order a custom dress for Nationals!
We will have a few struggles navigating this next year, but I am optimistic that we will prevail with our goals. The next step is competing out of state as much as possible. A needed expense. My passion is ballroom and I will do what it takes to succeed in it!!!
Yay for a new season and a new us!!!
We will have a few struggles navigating this next year, but I am optimistic that we will prevail with our goals. The next step is competing out of state as much as possible. A needed expense. My passion is ballroom and I will do what it takes to succeed in it!!!
Yay for a new season and a new us!!!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Gold 2!!!
I made Gold 2 ballroom!! I was so nervous! There were a lot of really good people trying out, but I made it! Maybe I don't rate my dancing very high...idk. I'm just really excited to experience being in one of the top dance classes at BYU!! I didn't end up trying out for team. I had only gotten maybe four hours of sleep, then I danced Irish for an hour and a half, then danced with Scott for an hour...and I was looking at hanging out at BYU for hours before try-outs started. I just decided to head home and sleep. I don't really have time for team anyway. I was only going to try-out this semester because of certain ballroom guys that pestered and guilted me into caving in. I am okay with not being on team this semester. I will be in London over the summer, so i don't think it's fair for me to take a spot right now.
Now I just have to make sure I take care of my body so that I don't get any injuries this semester. I have a comp coming up in a couple of weeks. And Nationals isn't too far away. It's weird to think of how far Scott and I have come...I just hope we won't be too out of practice when I get back from London. But we aren't strangers to hard work. We can do it!!
Now I just have to make sure I take care of my body so that I don't get any injuries this semester. I have a comp coming up in a couple of weeks. And Nationals isn't too far away. It's weird to think of how far Scott and I have come...I just hope we won't be too out of practice when I get back from London. But we aren't strangers to hard work. We can do it!!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Try-Outs
Well, i've been talked into trying out for the ballroom team tomorrow night. I am super scared, mostly because it's something i've never done before and i don't know what i'm going to do ahead of time. I have control issues. I guess I just have to let go and step out of my comfort zone. I'm pretty sure I won't get on any team, mostly because i can't follow for the life of me. Plus i don't want to take too much on this semester, and if I get into Gold II ballroom AND the team that may be pushing it a bit.
I guess we'll see tomorrow.
I guess we'll see tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Dancesport BYU
Yet another comp under our belt! It was a long and sometimes very stressful weekend, but we learned a lot and I at least had a good time!
The weekend started with our first event Pre-Champ Ballroom which was on Friday. We were dressed to the nines, warmed up, and had checked our dance position with our coach and got a thumbs up. We were feeling pretty good about our prospects, though there was a lot more couples competing in this comp than the previous ones. We danced as best we could, but it still just wasn't good enough to be called back immediately. We did get quite a few judges calling us back, but we were two judges off of being able to make it back. Michael said that he thought we had a good chance at being called back, but we just weren't quite there yet.
Saturday dawned, and I had a renewed wish to make it to the final in one of our events. We had Novice Ballroom and our Gold class event which was Fox-Trot. After prepping myself with all of the needed crap, I headed to the Wilk, got dressed, and warmed up. Scott and I ran our routines, and went over our mental lists about the specific things that we needed to concentrate on while dancing. Michael came up to us and checked off our frame again, giving us a few pointers, and wished us luck. We lined up and anxiously awaited our event to begin. We were the third heat out, so we got to gear up mentally for our event. I think we danced beautifully the first round, and nearly all of the judges agreed as they called us back in both dances. We stopped for a quick word with Michael, and then we were immediately back in line-up for the next round. We were a little tired for the next round, but we still did our best. After we were done dancing Michael informed me that my shoulders were doing something weird, and that I had to get a grip on them and keep them still if I wanted to make it back again. We made it to the Quarter-Final heat. We danced as best we could, but my shoulders still were having issues. Not enough judges called us back, so we missed out on being in the Semi-Final, but only by a few marks.
Fox-Trot went a lot better, though I was still having issues with my shoulders. We made it to the Semi-Finals in Fox-Trot, but just barely missed the finals.
I feel like we are on a plateau and just need to figure out how to make the next leap to improve our impression. Michael coached us on our promenade position, which is where my shoulder problems were stemming from. We are not taking a huge break between now and January's competition, we are going to be pushing through and working on our basic technique so our dances look better overall.
I am confident that this next season will be a lot of fun, and will teach us many more lessons. I hope we can start placing consistently higher in the rankings, both in Novice and Pre-Champ. But my ultimate goal is to get proficient enough to start competing in Championship Ballroom, which is much more competitive, and has all five dances. That is my goal.
The weekend started with our first event Pre-Champ Ballroom which was on Friday. We were dressed to the nines, warmed up, and had checked our dance position with our coach and got a thumbs up. We were feeling pretty good about our prospects, though there was a lot more couples competing in this comp than the previous ones. We danced as best we could, but it still just wasn't good enough to be called back immediately. We did get quite a few judges calling us back, but we were two judges off of being able to make it back. Michael said that he thought we had a good chance at being called back, but we just weren't quite there yet.
Saturday dawned, and I had a renewed wish to make it to the final in one of our events. We had Novice Ballroom and our Gold class event which was Fox-Trot. After prepping myself with all of the needed crap, I headed to the Wilk, got dressed, and warmed up. Scott and I ran our routines, and went over our mental lists about the specific things that we needed to concentrate on while dancing. Michael came up to us and checked off our frame again, giving us a few pointers, and wished us luck. We lined up and anxiously awaited our event to begin. We were the third heat out, so we got to gear up mentally for our event. I think we danced beautifully the first round, and nearly all of the judges agreed as they called us back in both dances. We stopped for a quick word with Michael, and then we were immediately back in line-up for the next round. We were a little tired for the next round, but we still did our best. After we were done dancing Michael informed me that my shoulders were doing something weird, and that I had to get a grip on them and keep them still if I wanted to make it back again. We made it to the Quarter-Final heat. We danced as best we could, but my shoulders still were having issues. Not enough judges called us back, so we missed out on being in the Semi-Final, but only by a few marks.
Fox-Trot went a lot better, though I was still having issues with my shoulders. We made it to the Semi-Finals in Fox-Trot, but just barely missed the finals.
I feel like we are on a plateau and just need to figure out how to make the next leap to improve our impression. Michael coached us on our promenade position, which is where my shoulder problems were stemming from. We are not taking a huge break between now and January's competition, we are going to be pushing through and working on our basic technique so our dances look better overall.
I am confident that this next season will be a lot of fun, and will teach us many more lessons. I hope we can start placing consistently higher in the rankings, both in Novice and Pre-Champ. But my ultimate goal is to get proficient enough to start competing in Championship Ballroom, which is much more competitive, and has all five dances. That is my goal.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Orem High comp
Orem Highschool competition is tomorrow. After the disaster that the last comp was I am really hoping we do well tomorrow. It's a smaller comp with both of our events already semi-finals, which could be good and bad all at the same time. It's good not to have all of the really good couples going up against us this weekend, but on the other hand that means that there will be less couples for the judges to look at. I am really hoping I can keep my frame in check tomorrow, that would mean that I have improved since the last comp. I'm not really expecting a call back into the final, but Scott wants us to start placing at every comp. I will do what I can to help but that may not be in the stars for us this year.
We are trying to do more rounds during our practice sessions to get our stamina up to par. So far it's pretty much killed us when we do it, but it's good practice and it feels good to be pushing and working so much. This is a sport after all, so we need to start treating our practices as training sessions rather than just remembering sessions. I think Scott is realizing this too, and it helps that whatever Michael says he takes to heart. If Scott can remember and implement all of the technique we learned since the last comp, then I think that we will look like a completely different couple. That goes for me too. I cannot slack on pushing when it's my turn to power, and my frame still tends to break which means it's doubly hard to get it back. I'm most concerned for our quickstep since that's where all of the technique really shows and the lack of technique shows as well. If we can get our quickstep to start looking effortless, then I think that we will be ahead of most of our current competition.
We are trying to do more rounds during our practice sessions to get our stamina up to par. So far it's pretty much killed us when we do it, but it's good practice and it feels good to be pushing and working so much. This is a sport after all, so we need to start treating our practices as training sessions rather than just remembering sessions. I think Scott is realizing this too, and it helps that whatever Michael says he takes to heart. If Scott can remember and implement all of the technique we learned since the last comp, then I think that we will look like a completely different couple. That goes for me too. I cannot slack on pushing when it's my turn to power, and my frame still tends to break which means it's doubly hard to get it back. I'm most concerned for our quickstep since that's where all of the technique really shows and the lack of technique shows as well. If we can get our quickstep to start looking effortless, then I think that we will be ahead of most of our current competition.
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