Emerald Ball

What an amazing experience!

I am really glad I decided to do this comp in the end. I placed well in the open silver latin events, but other than that I was close to the bottom everywhere. I am not disappointed in that because I know the depth of the field at that event and in the end, my personal dancing was very strong – truly the goal for me.

It was a great two days competing. Our schedule worked really well with just enough of a break between dances to recover and feel fresh for the next set. I really felt I was able to put my best dancing on the floor.

That’s not to say that everything went smoothly. As expected, there were glitches here and there with little mess ups and sometimes difficulty navigating some very busy dance floors. I also caught my heel on my dress a couple times in standard, having to stop to fix it.

My body felt good and even today I am a little achy through my back and tight in my hip flexors, but much better than I expected to be. No blisters at all from the comp – truly a great achievement in itself!

From the videos and how things felt, I was able to understand and get a great idea of where I am at, and some ideas for working in the future. Seeing what others are doing helped me to recognize areas I need a lot of work and what my own dancing in lacking.

In short, this competition experience was exactly what I hoped it would be, and I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Emerald Ball in the future.

Now that we are home, its time to re-evaluate and figure out a plan for the future. We did a little bit of planning on the way home and needless to say, due to a number of factors, there are some extremely BIG changes coming to the way that I train. I will write about them later this week, or even later tonight.

Suffice it to say the changes are sending me in a direction I didn’t expect to go in so soon, but knew inevitably would come. One of them is permanent, but the other I hope will be temporary, although only the future will tell. They are big enough changes to make the experience of Emerald Ball a little bittersweet, but they don’t diminish the overall experience at all.

One thing that surprised me (although perhaps it shouldn’t have) is how much I enjoyed being on the competition floor again. Competing is truly where I want to be and this weekend just absolutely confirmed that.

My new dresses were amazing and felt great to dance in. Well worth the investment.

That is all for now, but I do promise to let you know about the changes very soon. I am still processing them myself in many ways.

So good to be back on the floor.