The Winter White Nears

Yes, there is still ballroom happening. Since the coaching lesson, we’ve just settled into that routine of practice, practice, practice. Just the daily grind of lessons in between events. Working on new patterns for the Swing and Viennese Waltz that incorporate the Silver VI stuff and just got the final choreography for the West/East Coast Swing routine that will debut later this year.

Also trying to work on top line and elbow energy (dance coaches sometimes come up with strange concepts).

But we have an event coming up in a week called the Winter White. They did this last year for the first time and I guess it was worth bringing back. There used to be a team match in February but that went away during the pandemic and I don’t know if the other studios could support it so maybe this was just a way to add something to fill the gap.

Tis a strange event though. I’m not really sure what the purpose is other than it is sort of an intro to bigger dance events. They’ll have four categories (Smooth, Rhythm, Latin and other) and each category has four dances. It will be run in heats so you’ll dance the four dances in a particular category back to back. (Well you don’t have to do all four but you’ll do whatever ones you’ve signed up for).

So, in that respect, is does mimic a larger event. But I don’t think there are any judges (I could be wrong about that) so I don’t know if you get any feedback. I think it is just an opportunity to “battle test” anything new and just get additional practice/experience dancing rounds.

Its going to be in studio and it is only a couple of hours so it isn’t really a big deal. Plus, when they were doing the festival at the end of last year, one of the prize levels was a free round so I think they were trying to give people an incentive.

I’ve signed up for the Smooth (Waltz, Tango, Fox Trot and Viennese Waltz) and the Rhythm (Cha-Cha, Rumba, Swing and Bolero). I got the first one paid for because the prize so this is the cheapest event I can remember.

I guess the format is to wear white or other “winter” colors although I know one person who’s just going to wear black because that’s all they have. As luck would have it, I did put together an all white ensemble when we were doing the Rumba routine to the Backsteet Boys so I’ve got that covered. (Well I don’t have white dance shoes – that would be going a little too far)

Anyway, it is just another chance to actually dance outside of a lesson and it is hard to turn that down.