Dancestravaganzaaaaa Part 1: Competing: If you're going to wear red heels, you should probably have solid footwork

I attended the Lindustrial Revolution Lindy hop exchange in Charlottesville, VA on Memorial Day weekend. I had more fun than should be legal and gathered a lot to think about. In my somewhat obsessive thoughts about the experience, I wrote several emails to friends (mostly Emily). These entries are culled from those.

It's important to remember that I am an Intermediate Lindy hopper. I've really only been dancing and trying to improve consistently for about a year, although I learned about five years ago and have been dancing sporadically since 2007. All of my comments are tempered by that relative inexperience.

To read all the posts in this series, click on the "Dancestravaganza series" tag.

I decided to compete last weekend. Maybe it wasn't the best choice, but I don't think I was an absolute embarrassment at all, and I didn't take anyone else's opportunity to shine away, so that's fine.

How it came to be:

I was dancing with my favorite lead out of the city of Richmond. This was maybe my third dance of the weekend, and I was not in fighting shape. I had left work later than I expected, ran home, and had to buy power bars and wine (because I am learning to be a classy guest) from CVS (because I'm not that classy) before I left. Then there was a ton of traffic on the way down (because Virginia). All in all, I arrived maybe two hours later than planned. The bridge leading to the venue was out, so I parked a ways away and walked in. I didn't remember to bring an extra shirt, no no.

And lo, the lead asked me if I was going to compete in the Jack and Jill.* And I said no and laughed it off. And then I sat the next one out and chatted with a follow from DC. She was going to compete, she said, and asked if I was going to as well. I said I hadn't been planning on it, but... 

And then, in the way of two people trying to talk themselves into doing something, suddenly I had written my name on the list. I was wearing my bright red dance shoes. 

I have a weird relationship with competitions. I both want to shy away but have everyone look at me at the same time. I kept fantasizing both about missing the competitor's meeting and about advancing to the finals.

What actually happened, however, was completely predictable. I did not advance to the finals; neither did I die. I had a moderate amount of fun. I flailed my legs as much as possible, and I messed up my basic steps. I tried to cover my inadequacies with jutting my hips out, placing my arms in the air, and generally creating interesting shapes with my body. [Please note: this phrase will take on too much importance over the next couple entries.]

Walking off the dance floor, I thought about a few things.

1. A couple of my favorite dance moves are ones I've discovered from basically first principles. One is to kick while rock stepping, and one is to do a kick-and-step instead of a triple step. Both can be great in certain contexts, but I felt like they got away from me during the competition. My footwork could have easily been improved by not doing those steps.
2. The floor was absurdly sticky, as the organizers had not busted out the baby powder. I couldn't do any swivels whatsoever, and that's kind of a big deal in following. If you can't do swivels, you best be doing some interesting steps.
3. I was still wearing my bright red dance shoes.
4. ... See title of this post.

So the competition went exactly as you'd expect it to go for an intermediate dancer. I decided that this weekend was about learning and about broadening my horizons, and competing did basically exactly that.

There seem to be some unwritten rules closely around the dance scene. Out of respect, you shouldn't compete in things you know you can't win. You should reach a certain level before asking the experienced dancers to dance, only the instructors dance in the jam circles... the list goes on. Breaking these rules seems arrogant. 

Well, screw it. At this point i'll learn best and fastest by exiting my comfort zone and daring to break the rules a little (or maybe bread the rules, as I first typed. Then deep fry them). Also, at this point, I don't really know where I fit in as a dancer and how to get better. Maybe I am/was unfairly discounting myself.

Oh yeah, that was the other thing I was going to get a handle on this weekend. I was going to try to master that making interesting shapes with my body thing.

*Open and unchoreographed swing dance competitions are called Jack and Jills. The first round is open to all comers. They randomly match leads and follows, and dancing happens. An equal number of leads and follows progress to the final round. They randomly pair people up again and then each couple competes as a team. I probably should have mentioned this in part one.