Dance Sport Championship

This week has been a series of unexpected events, leading to a dramatic Dance Sport Championship competition. I’m in a social dance class this semester and we have the opportunity to compete in a competition against all the other social dance students. The competition isn’t required for the class and I didn’t think I was good enough, so I decided not to compete. But then this Monday I got an unexpected opportunity when one of the other competitors from my class had to drop out. I accepted the invitation to dance with Stephanie, and the dance preparation began. When we started practicing I couldn’t remember half the Cha Cha steps and was really worried. Even up to the day before the competition I kept forgetting our routine halfway through.

Then came the day of the competition; it felt like the Olympics with five qualifying heats leading up to the quarterfinal call backs. When I got to the check in place to get my number I found out they didn’t have me on the list! So I was shuffled over to a line for same day registration and was entered into the competition there. This meant that I had one of the last numbers and would be one of the very last couples to enter the floor.

So here is where I have to relate this to speed skating. Everyone knows that what lane you’re in matters; if you’re on the outside you’ll be skating from the back trying to pass everyone to get into the front. This is where you put it all on the line with the risk of wiping out and knocking down half the other skaters with you.

Krista, my dance teacher, taught us the importance of quickly making our way to the center in front of the judges in order to be in their eye and get our name circled as one of the advancing couples. In the first round we made it to the middle of the floor with some space around us and advanced to the second round where we also made it to the middle and advanced to the third round of competition.

By the third round they had already eliminated all the people ahead of us who were letting us slip by them to get to the middle. So here when we walked on to the floor we were cut off from the middle and ended up in the corner away from the judges (The outside lane of the speed skating track). As the music began we started our routine, and at the precise moment we began to make our pass. We danced our way through several couples and right in front of three judges! Yes! We had made the move and we advanced to the fourth round.

By now they had whittled down the competitors from the initial 177 couples to 86 couples. So we were competing against the top fifty percent of the competition. We were still stuck with our number entering the floor second to last. And this time as we made our way to the floor we were cut off from the center and boxed in on the front and on the back. It was time to go big and miraculously dance our way to the front or go home. The music began and we started our routine smoothly making our way to the part where we could travel towards the judges. But when that moment came, figuratively making our turn on the outside, we clipped another dancer and lost the rhythm. It was over, our glimpse of gold faded like the setting Sun.

Stephanie and I had a blast and made it farther than I had ever imagined going into the competition. While a couple weeks ago I figured dancing just wasn’t my thing, today I think I’d better take another dance class sometime just for the fun of competing in another Dance Sport competition. And maybe, just maybe I’ll go for the gold!