Showcase Wrap Part 1

This is titled part 1 just in case I feel the need to do another post after I get my critiques. In past years, I really looked forward to them. Not sure why but likely just getting the positive feedback and validation. I still want to see what they say but it doesn’t feel as important right now.

I should just start right off and say that the day was just loads of fun. It was certainly true that I was getting burned out with the lessons and just grinding through the same parts over and over again. Would love to stay we performed every heat flawlessly making all that grinding worthwhile but that didn’t happen. We had some solid runs and some not solid ones. It happens.

I guess I shouldn’t really count forgetting parts of the choreography in the heats as a mistake. The judges don’t sit there with a scorecard showing your pattern so they can mark you down for missing something. They have no idea what I’m going to do or what order so if a part gets left out and we keep dancing, it really doesn’t matter.

What is really funny is that I’m super hard on myself on lessons but was able to laugh off the bobbles at Showcase. In one of our West Coast Swing heats, I messed up the first two parts so I just started over and told PJ that we’d see if we could do it right this time. But I was laughing while doing it. For sure, I could use more of that on lessons.

Random moment at the end when I was changing out of my dance shoes and getting ready to leave. Some guy from another studio comes in to do the same things and says that I just looked like I was enjoying myself all day long. Guess I have no poker face when it comes to dancing.

I know I tended to dance closer to their side for most of the heats. It worked out that way since it put me closer to the two judges who I’m taking coaching lesson from. Plus, I was sitting closer to that side so it was just more natural to get out on the floor and find a spot on that side. Just found it curious that he was apparently watching me closely enough to comment on my appearance.

The spring Showcase ran way too long and so OwnerGuy went the other way to run a model of efficiency. There were fewer heats and they packed a lot of them. Think that’s why they had two sets of judges. We actually ended ahead of schedule which never happens at a Famous Franchise Event. It did make for some “interesting” heats – especially the smooth ones. In some cases, the center of the floor was kind of like a mosh pit.

So now we are post Showcase and the obvious question is the next step. The critiques will certainly give us things to work on but the larger question is whether it is worth continuing the grind when the next payoff is six months away? Or maybe a different question is whether there is a way to break up the monotony of doing the same things over and over again so I don’t get bogged down and burned out. Showcase reminded me of why I do this. The challenge is figuring out a way to make sure lessons don’t make me forget.