The Oireachtas, Part 1

What. A. Day.

This year marked my first Oireachtas marathon. I woke up at 4:30 am (!) to get myself ready and drive to solos at 8 am. I danced my 4-hand around 1 pm. I danced figure around 6 pm (more about figure in another post). Awards were over around 9 pm. Home and in bed by midnight.

I hope I never have to do that again.

Solos:

All in all, I don't think my first two rounds were too shabby. I did get a re-start in my treble jig because of one of the girls I was dancing with fell. Luckily it was in the first eight bars, and also luckily, she was not injured, and it wasn't from us hitting one another. I was surprised my this in my treble jig, how even though we were dancing three at a time, that we pretty much avoided one another. Although, I can dominate the stage if I want to, so maybe the other two girls just didn't have as much domination power as me. Slip jig was a little more daunting, as I was dancing against last year's 4th place winner. I figured I had some chance here, my slip jig is better than my treble jig... We did have some almost collisions, but both of us were trying to dominate the stage. Still. I walked off stage feeling so confident about being recalled.

I think one of the coolest things about my solo competition is that there were a grand total of seven dancers from my school. And we all recalled. For two of the girls, it was their first ever Oireachtas recall, and a cause for celebration. Clearly, all those dreams I had been having the month prior to the Oireachtas of total Maple recall came true.

I was pretty disappointed in my set. I did not dance it was well as I usually do, which is saying something because my hard shoe is pretty weak. At one point near the end, I fell off pointe, and I was in general missing clicks and trebles all over the place. I walked off stage feeling terrible about it.*

After dancing around all day, it was kind of rewarding (?) to mingle backstage with my fellow senior ladies while the senior men's competition was being announced. We were finally done and here to reap the benefits. As the senior men exited the stage, we moved into side stage position in the usual circle while the world qualifiers (WQ) are announced. From here on, everything went by so fast. Yes, I wanted so bad to qualify, and even hoped a bit too much that I did. No, I did not actually qualify, but three other dancers from my school did. The next thing I knew, the other dancers from my school were leaving, and then my name was called. I didn't even know what I was walking on the stage for. I was pointed to stand on one side, and so I did. The only things I remember after this was Nora winning and Bill hugging me, and then we were all getting off the stage. At that point, I still didn't know what place I had gotten. I don't know if lack of focus was from disappointment or exhaustion (maybe both). It took me until the next day, and even the day after** for it to sink in that I had won 15h place! And hey! Three away from WQ! Not bad for your second Oireachtas...

...until two days after the Oireachtas, when I decided to hop on the message boards and see whats up. Much to my chagrin, I come across a post about WQs and senior ladies. Apparently the wrong formula was used, and the new WQs are up to 14th place! And guess who got 15th... This past week I have been living on the edge between being super excited that I am one away from being a WQ at my second Oireachtas, and being really frustrated in being only one place away. I have been going through my steps, thinking if I hadn't fallen off pointe, or if I didn't dance with the 4th place winner...

...until Monday (yesterday) when I received a text message about world adjudicators...

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

*Clearly it was ok. I was 15th after recalls, and stayed 15th after sets, meaning my set didn't hurt me, but it also didn't help either.

**I was extremely dehydrated after dancing all day, and realized that I didn't drink any water after my solo competition was done around lunch time. I call this my Oireachtas hangover, as Idisplayed all the symptoms the day after I danced, despite having no alcohol the night before.