Boston Bash: days 5 and 6

Saturday March 30th

Saturday was again spent mostly in the same competition hall as the day before, this time to watch the senior men dance, and cheer on Colin.  I always love watching the men dance because they are so powerful and at this level, they have quite excellent rhythm.  One thing I noticed as I was watching the dancing was that for their recall round, many of the men danced Vanishing Lake.  I came to worlds not knowing the tune, and left that competition not only having it memorized, but it's my set dance ear worm. It's not my set, but it is always in my head!

I ran straight from watching the senior men competition to get ready for the figure dress rehearsal.  I went to put on my wig, and ran into a slight snafu.  Of all the things I forgot to bring, I never would have thought it would be my wig.  When I was quickly packing (carelessly), I managed to grab the wrong wig.  I didn't realize my mistake until about half an hour before a dress rehearsal the day before competing at worlds.  I pulled the wig out of the bag, and wouldn't you know, it was my old wig that is completely the wrong color.  It was not my teams wig.  After a short freak out, I called around to other team members in the junior figure and was able to borrow the correct wig.  Problem solved.

My afternoon and early evening were dominated by a three hour figure practice and wig/make up tutorial to make sure we were ready.  It was a great chance to talk over with the team things those of us noticed about the staging with the junior figure, and what we can do to make our performance successful.

The night was concluded by eating at the P.F. Chang's bar because my friend and I were not feeling like good explorers.  I also had the good fortune of having excellent post-wig hair.  This once in a lifetime event was documented, and saved for posterity.

                                             Sunday March 31st: Competition Day

Our morning warm up and make up session will live in my mind forever as our best team building time.  We commandeered a bathroom four our team and helped each other achieve a uniform look with out make up and wigs.  Our Zumba-certified senior dancer led us in some of her favorite Zumba routines as a warm up.  We ran through our figure knowing that if we kept it controlled, and had our faces on, we could do this.  We could go home with some hardware from the world championships.

"Breathe"

Looking back a little over six months after being on the worlds stage, I cannot remember much of our performance, I do remember feelings.  During the walk on, I was keeping a cap on my nerves.  I may have been shaking just by the mere thought of dancing on a worlds stage.  My mantra was breathe.  Once the music started, it was smiley faces, chin up, sparkle baby sparkle, and one sassy wink at the judges.  I remember getting off the stage thinking that was not our best.  It was okay.  But not the best.

The entire time the announcer was calling out scores, I don't think I could breathe.  I tried adding up our numbers, but my brain could only focus on those groups that were receiving perfect 100s from the judges.  We were not among them.  Our team ended up placing 8th, the first non-awarded place.  It was mildly heartbreaking, considering the hours (read: years) of practice that we have put into this dance.

After dancing, those of us in the figure who were of age went to one of Boston's many Irish pubs.  We watched a little bit of the basketball tournament, reviewed videos of our performance that our friends and family were able to sneak, and determined that we didn't look as bad as we felt we danced.  It was a great chance to celebrate our accomplishment, and finally relax now that the pressure of performing at worlds was over.

My worlds experience was concluded with Pinkberry and having a mini viewing party for the Season Finale of Game of Thrones since the hotel I was in had HBO.  My greatest hope is that I get to repeat the experience in London this April as a soloist!

Goals: Keep up stamina and health

Days till Os: 24