Showcase Rant

Showcase was yesterday. At the last one back in November, I had some issues that prevented me from doing all my heats. The only positive about yesterday is that my body did hold together and I got through everything yesterday. But this experience was not a fun one and it is making me rethink this whole “why am I still dancing” thing.

So the studio sets limits on how many heats an individual instructor can do for each dance. But I’m relatively sure they put pressure on the instructors to fill out their slots and most of them did.

I don’t know how they put the heat schedule together but I know they have some amount of control over it and a decision was made to try and cluster the heats and instructor was doing with a particular student. Or at least that is what I was sort of told.

It was presented that this might reduce some of the chaos of previous events where the instructors were trading students between heats. I’m not sure it did because there was still a great deal of bouncing around but this is how it was presented.

What it meant for me was long periods of sitting followed by relatively long periods of pretty intense activity. For example, I was in the majority of heats during the last 45 minutes of smooth and the last hour of rhythm. I didn’t keep my heat sheet so I can’t give you the exact details. I remember doing six in a row and then finishing with five in a row. Plus there was the back to back Viennese Waltz and Peabody.

And, even when they weren’t consecutive, the breaks were usually one to two dances meaning about two minutes and that really wasn’t enough time for any sort of recovery. And I have to be honest – I’m not in the kind of shape where I can easily handle that much concentrated activity.

So I got worn out during the smooth round and I started to forget parts of the patterns and a few other issues popped up. The routines came up at lunch so there was a little break between them except for needing to change. (Oh yeah, I was in the last smooth heat which was a Viennese Waltz and then had to do a quick change to get ready for our formation which was the first one up).

But then I sat for over two hours as the rhythm heats were going on. I think I had one heat in the first couple of hours – again I didn’t keep my heat sheet or I’d give you the exact details. You try to stay loose but I was tired from the smooth rounds and it was just hard to stay focused. So when I finally got to do some dancing, my body wasn’t really ready and I was tired and so there were more mistakes and I was having a hard time keeping up with the faster dances.

I have no idea what the critiques are going to show although I can guess it will just be things about footwork and timing. Not sure I really care because I know I didn’t dance my best.

And since I’m on a rant, let me just continue. Most of the time I was one the floor with OwnerGuy and Z and their competitive students. So they were all trying to do their open routines which are choreographed little numbers and they tried to take up as much space as possible. It was a constant fight for space and I’m just not that competitive. I just want to dance and have a good time. I know navigating a crowded floor is part of it but there were times it was a little out of hand.

Which makes me really wonder what I should do next. I mean any bigger event is just going to be like my Showcase heats – a crowded floor with everyone fighting for space and attention. I’m just not into that I guess so I suspect I’d just fade into the background trying to stay out of everyone’s way. So why do it?

And why would I continue to spend money and time grinding away on all these dances on lessons if the one time I get a real opportunity to try them out turns out to be no fun at all. What’s the point??