Reindeer Games

Yesterday was the second of the themed parties during the semi-annual points and membership drive at the studio. The theme was one where I couldn’t come up with an appropriate option from my existing wardrobe so I brought food instead. I’ve spent money on costumes for Showcase and I’ve got a lot of stuff in my closet that I’ll never wear again so I don’t like getting stuff just for a party.

And they had another one of their silly games. I guess I get a little more competitive than I’d like to admit. In this one, they divided us with guys on one side of the floor and ladies on the other. We had an overload of ladies so they asked for volunteers to be leaders for the game. They randomly paired us off rather than in teams like they normally do. The theme was related to childhood games so they came up with something like red light/green light where we danced until OwnerGuy killed the music and we had to stop on a dime. Anyone moving after the music stopped would be eliminated until one couple was left and they’d get the points.

The first dance was Fox Trot and I told my partner that I was sticking to just the basic step since the game wasn’t about dancing but just being able to stop. She agreed with my strategy and we easily advanced to the second round. The second dance was Rumba and, again, we stuck to just the basic box step. At one point, someone who had been eliminated made a comment about how we were just doing boxes. We engaged in a little friendly trash talk – my partner was a little more aggressive with her trash talk. Guess she took the game seriously as well. Again, we easily made it through. I will admit that I ended up close to OwnerGuy so I could kind of get an idea of when he was moving to kill the music. You take any advantage you can get. The last dance was Hustle and there were just two of us left at that point. Again, the master strategy was to stick to the basic Hustle step. So, as you can probably guess by now, we ended up winning the game!!!

Yeah, its a little thing but winning is better than not winning. I’m figure I also had a slight advantage because my trainer has had me do a lot of balance work and core strengthening. Just made it easier to stop and also make the frame more supportive so my partner stopped as well. And the balance thing made it easier to just hold my position. At the end of the day, we only got a couple of points but WE WON! I mean if you are going to be forced into playing silly games, you might as well play to win.

The party was also Showcase preview so several people who were doing solo routines at Showcase got to preview them in front of all of us. This wasn’t a dress rehearsal so we didn’t have anyone in full costume. Still it was fun to watch. This is the other part of Showcase that I truly miss. There is nothing better than the feeling of standing on the floor waiting to start when the nerves are there but you just feel so alive.

I was talking with someone at the party and she was convincing me that I need to talk with JoNY about getting back into the solos. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the Silver III patterns and checking out of the remaining dances in Silver II. All of that is good but it still feels incomplete. Since I’m missing this Showcase, it will now be about 18 months since I’ve had an opportunity to do a solo. The performer in me just isn’t going to be satisfied just doing heats. I know we were working on an Argentine Tango and would have done it at this Showcase but the only problem is that we’ve only focused on the song and not really tied a story around it. My favorite routines were the ones where we had a story or theme and costumes. That’s what I want to get back to. Well at least that party gave me an idea of what I want to do with my dancing.