If you’re Smiling …

The day started with me going into the wrong parking garage. I don’t go downtown that often and I saw a public garage that claimed to have access to the hotel so I went in only to realize that it was the wrong hotel. They put the hotels right next to each other and I get the names confused sometimes. It was a minor bump because I just got out of the garage and drove down the street a bit to the right hotel garage and live was good again.

Good thing I always leave way too early for events that are downtown.

The ballroom was hot (like it was in the spring when we were here) but I have to admit that the AC finally kicked on sometime mid morning. Plus, I brought my newly acquired portable fan. Best investment I’ve ever made. Had so many people tell me what a good idea it was. Wonder how many we’ll see at the next one.

Had on bad stretch in the rhythm section where we had four in a row, sat one out and then had six in a row. Luck was with me that day because after the first three of the second set, the DJ said they needed to take a short break. I have no idea how the schedule is put together but there were so many heats that I do wonder how I ended up with that many in a row. By the way, after that, I had gaps of 30 heats between my next dances.

Also strange how the dances get distributed. We were done with Waltz early in the day and my first three rhythm dances were Cha-Cha. I only did two Hustles and they both ended up being late in the day including the final heat of the day.

One downside was that the heats were packed. They did a great job getting people to sign up but, in order to keep the thing from running late into the night, they had to cram lots of couples into each heat. I think the largest number was 12 couples and when you are trying to Waltz or Fox Trot, that makes for a lot of traffic to dodge.

My knees held up for the entire event. I took the compression sleeves off before dinner and that felt good.

One thing that always throws me for a loop is when students from other studios start calling my name out. I’m terrible with names. You can tell me yours and chances are I’ll forget it almost instantly. Faces, I remember very well. Names, not so much. Plus, the only time they give your name is when you are doing a solo. I guess others are better with names but it still always gives me a moment. Like, how did you get my name??

Had a coaching lesson last night and we got a chance to look over the critiques beforehand. Based on the comments, this wasn’t a strong as the one I did in September. More comments on timing an frame. The positive seemed to be my styling which got a lot of stars. (On the sheet, they would circle something they thought you needed work on and draw a star on something they thought you did well)

And then there was the smile. I’m really not aware of this because I’m not consciously telling myself to smile as that usually leads to an obviously faked grin but I guess I just smile a lot when dancing. Probably just can’t hide all the fun I’m having. It got noticed and there were a couple of comments.

Plus, we had a coaching lesson last night and she made a remark about it. I’m guessing that those who dance for a living do so because they love it and maybe they enjoy seeing an amateur like me who seems to be having a good time as well.

“I love watching you dance” This was also on one of the critiques. It tends to show up at least once and I hear that from other students as well. I can’t watch myself dance by the way so I don’t really know what people are seeing. Maybe it is the smile.

Had another judge who tossing “handsome” into a critique. She did that at the last Showcase as well so that must be a thing with her.

Won’t go into the coaching lesson much as it was a lot of inside dance stuff on West Coast Swing. All really good and should help us move that dance forward. Will be working with her dance partner tomorrow and that should be good as well. I like getting a male perspective from time to time and it really helps to get it from someone who’s seen me dance.

Oh and the routines both went well. I may have more to say about those because I only got a brief chance to look at the critiques so I didn’t get much past the smile comments.