1. Decisions
The first thing that goes into preparing for a competition is the decision making. You scope out the Internet, dance calenders, studio promos, etc. trying to decide what competitions you might be interested in doing. I can tell you for us personally, a lot of it comes down to price and location . Let's face it...I'm a teacher. I am not nor will I ever be affluent. There are competitions out there that cost at least $50.00 per dance and include a trip to some exotic location, costing thousands of dollars. Those are not for us. We tend to stick with local competitions that require little traveling. We really like the college competitions. The other competitors are young, fun, and extremely talented. Those also normally have a one time fee with unlimited entries. After choosing the competition, you go onto their registration site and see what categories you will be dancing in. You have to choose dances that are in your level and every competition has different dances. If you dance silver in one competition you might be dancing cha cha, rumba, and swing. In another competition you might be dancing cha cha, rumba, swing, bolero, and mambo. Once you know what dances you are competing in you have to decide which steps are going to make up your routine. You have 90 seconds for each style. A lot of people try to do as many steps as possible in that 90 seconds. However, any judge will tell you it's best to do fewer steps with a high level of quality. You know the whole quality versus quantity thing. If competitions are spaced close together, the decision process is not that bad. Your skill level hasn't changed and you can just use the same routines for the next competition. If it's been awhile since your last competition, your skill level has increased and you have to create new routines with higher degrees of difficulty.
2. Training
Once you know what dances you will be competing in and have an outline of your routines, you go to your trainers. Now trust me, you are always training in ballroom and working with teachers. However, you might be working on technique or random steps. When getting ready for a competition, your training becomes very focused. You work only on your routines. Your teachers will help you work on proper technique, frame, and styling for those specific steps. Additionally, they may pull a step that looks sloppy or add a step they think would add something. We have three coaches/teachers. Our first coach is our technique coach. His name is Wayne. He is very technically minded and has us do a lot of drills. It's not the most fun...but he cleans us up. We don't meet with him very often. Our main coaches are Artur and Sasha. They are from Ukraine and have both been dancing since pretty much they were in diapers. Sasha came to America and danced with Dillon years ago. He's helped Dillon a lot and he is a dear friend of ours. His focus is our rhythm dancing. Artur is our newest best friend in the whole world. He is a baby and the sweetest guy in the world. You can't help but love him!! He is our smooth teacher. Together, I guess we have the perfect trifecta.
3. Diet and exercise
Anyone who has ever watched ballroom dancing knows those people are scantily clad. Even the men are subjected to wearing skin tight shirts that highlight every fat roll. Needless to say, you gotta whip into good shape right before a competition. Hitting the gym and eating right are mandatory. Not only do you have to worry about fitting into outfits, you have to worry about your overall physical shape. Anyone who has ever danced the jive for 90 seconds straight knows how taxing it can be. Ballroom is actually called DanceSPORT. They took some ballroom dancers to the NIKE research center and found their fitness levels to be comparable and sometimes higher than those of professional athletes. It is a sport people. In fact, you may soon find it as part of the Olympic games.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
Simultaneously occurring during all the above mentioned sections is lots of practice between just you and your partner. I once heard that a serious competitive couple should practice a minimum of three hours a day. Fortunately, that isn't us. We try to practice 3 to 4 times a week and then almost every day right before the competition. Practice can take a long time depending on how many entries you are doing. Practices can be fun, frustrating, rewarding, damaging, etc. You just gotta know when to quit. They are the best and worst part of it all.
5. Image
The week of the competition requires a lot of beauty maintenance. You have to make sure your hair is highlighted nicely. If you don't have hundreds for a salon treatment, you buy a hair kit at the store and just highlight the areas that will be seen according to your hairstyle. You have to decide what dresses you are going to wear which is also determined by the competition rules. You have to pick out your jewelry and any hair accessories. You paint your toes even though you know it'll chip off. The day before you make sure to get your spray tan. I don't know how that all got started in the ballroom world, but for some reason being orange is like a mandatory thing. Who knows!? The night before you set it all out and pack up. You brush your shoes, make sure you have the band aids, put the power bars in your bag, and try to sleep.
6. Love
The most important part of getting ready for a ballroom competition is love. You have to love yourself. You have to be able to accept that your body is the way it's going to be (no you cannot lose 4 more pounds before morning), you have to accept other people are going to have better more expensive shoes and dresses, and that inevitably there will be girls and couples that are way better than you and they will kick your butt. You have to love and accept your dancing enough to be happy with where you are, what you've accomplished, and how the judges rank you. Now when your partner in life is also your partner on the floor, there is a whole other level of love involved. If you don't deeply deeply love your life partner you aren't going to make it as a competing couple . There are moments of triumph where the connection is perfect, the step was flawless, or you actually win. In those moments you are elated and over flowing with love for your partner. You've never loved that person more....they are your hero. Other times you just cannot connect with them, you throw each other off balance, they forget to do a step, they don't want to practice and you do, or you don't want to practice and they do.....it can be the most frustrating relationship in the world. You have to be so dependent on your partner. Some partners...are just dance partners. They can get mad at practice, part ways, and cool off. When you are together together..you kinda have to leave it all on the ballroom floor and compartmentalize your life sometimes, which can be very difficult. However, when you can get perfectly connected, true love (which some couples have to "act" like they have on the floor) flows naturally out of you during your dancing and can edge you out for a win. There is this couple we know that are dance partners but are also married. They are not the most technically couple and are often out danced by other couples. Yet, when they are on the floor I cannot take my eyes off of them. They are so in love and it radiates from them as the dance. They are a joy to watch and I hope that others feel the same way when they watch us.
So now you know. All your questions have been answered in my mini-novel....right? :) Happy dancing!
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| Our smooth teacher-Artur! |
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| Our rhythm teacher and Dillon's dear friend-Sasha! |
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| Spray tans and costumes!! |
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| True love on the dance floor.<3 |
