Dancesport in Review

I realize that I haven't done my normal after-Dancesport blog post, so here it is.

Dancesport was cool. I made it four rounds into Novice Latin and got cut from the Quarterfinals, which was better than expected; four rounds into 380 Waltz and cut from the Quarterfinals, which was worse tha
n expected; I made it to the second round of Pre-Champ Latin, which was within my expectations. Last, I got cut from the Gold Bar (485/385) Cha-cha which was also within my expectations.

In short, I did BETTER than I normally do, which still isn't very good. But I'm OK with that. I think right now I'm just happy to be dancing at all, because I've realized that I am in the twilight of my dancing career as I prepare for GRADUATION (which I still find intimidating). Dancing has been a great experience for me, and I'm going to miss it next year. . . unless I'm lame and come back to Provo next year. It's in the back of my mind. I'm not staying in Alaska for the winter, and I have no idea where else I would go. So for now, Provo is my primary option. Anyway, blah, blah, blah. The end.

Ekphrasis

She could be dead, for all we know, lifted up as an offering to the gods. Her eyes are closed and her arms fall behind her, limp, held in place by sinew and bone, but not by the coursing of blood. There is grace in her form that follows the curve of her spine and explodes through the point of her toes. She is beautiful, even in the form of death. Light, almost holy, illuminates her face. If she is dead, she died content, or in love. But the dead often appear so. ~Joseph Devenport

Picture: Darci Kistler and Robert LaFosse by Annie Leibovitz

Target Acquired?

All I wanted to do was peek through the door to check out this really cute girl I saw. Now I'm her TA.

Does that mean I can't ask her out?

When did this Storm Begin*

Today was the last day of classes but I am numb to any real sense of relief. I think I'm just so exhausted that it has yet to register in my mind that I am almost free. The last week has been pretty intense. . .

Dance Concert was awesome. The End. On the flip side, it took a great deal of energy with all of the extra rehearsals, and it consumed my entire week.

Thus I found myself desperately trying to finish a paper Sunday afternoon--which I didn't quit working on until almost 6am Monday morning, and it still wasn't finished. I then had to get out of bed at 7:30am to go about my day. I then spent till 2am Tuesday morning finishing the stupid thing. . .Blah!

You can understand why I might have been a little loopy over the last couple days.

Oh, and for three consecutive Tuesdays now I have been awarded some sort of ticket. The first two were parking tickets, but tonight I got pulled over (I was speeding). This isn't a good trend. It makes me feel like there is a change in the wind. . . before this I have never actually received a ticket, and now three in a row. Bam, bam, BAM! Lady Luck seems to have deserted me. . .

Maybe, if I go to bed right now, I will get more than three or four hours of sleep tonight. That would be a welcome change.

*Title of a new Shiny Toy Guns Song

DanceSport, Move-Ups, and Concert

Yay! DanceSport is over! I don't know what to do with my life now. My schedule is totally whacked because I don't have to practice all the time now--though I probably still should be. . . I guess now is the time for all the homework and stuff that I have been delaying for the last two months.

As far as DanceSport goes, I only got past the first round of events that I didn't practice for: Gold Bar Pasodoble, and Novice Standard. That's why I need to spend more time. . . not practicing? Anyway, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed with myself for DanceSport. In short, I'm a terrible performer and not that great of a dancer. I can do better, but only if I totally immerse myself into dance, which I'm not sure if I can do. I don't know if--at this point in my life--I can really spend four or five hours a day practicing dance; I have school to finish, books to write, and all that ridiculously mundane stuff that life requires. Curses! Why isn't there ballroom dance in Glennallen, Alaska (pop. 500)?

Now that I'm done lamenting/venting, I shall continue. Tomorrow is the first day of move-up auditions for team (at 6:30am!). I'm not really sure how much hope I have of getting moved to the back-up touring team. I think I had more of a chance last year. Now I'm getting a bit closer (theoretically) to graduating and I haven't really improved that much from a year ago.

On the brighter side, concert is coming, and it's going to be awesome. The word on the street hints that all the guys will get capes for the finale. Woot! That should be pretty cool.

So, I'm off. Tomorrow morning is going to come much too quickly.

Here Comes the BOOM!

The U.S. National Amateur Dancesport Championships are being held this week here at BYU. I've blogged some about Dancesport before, so I shan't bore with unnecessary details. Suffice it to say that this week is going to be quite hectic, so don't expect any cool blog posts in the next week or so. Everybody that can, should at least come Friday or Saturday nights (preferably both) to watch the "Battle of the Champions" a not-so-official competition between four of the top U.S. professional couples. Included in this year's Latin event are Riccardo and Yulia--who is so gloriously beautiful, and dances even better than she looks; Eugene and Maria--who have pretty much won the Amateur championships for the last decade and are now pros; and a couple other couples that are also really good, but that I don't know that much about. If you aren't already a dancer and are interested in coming, let me know, and I shall direct you to the correct ticket office. Or you can buy them at the door.

Speaking of tickets. . . I am now taking ticket orders for the BYU Ballroom Dance Concert which will be held the second weekend of April. I can get tickets before the general public and thus better tickets than you can buy yourself (assuming you are not a fellow BDC member). So, I think they will be $10 or $12, depending on the time. Let me know if you want tickets and I will be happy to pick them up for you. Oh, don't buy them online or on the phone, it's a big fat ripoff. If you buy them yourself, be sure to mention my name when you buy them so I can get credit for spreading the Ballroom love.

Cheers!

Wanderings

I have a headache. Fortunately, some of my best writing seems to be when my brain hurts. I guess the throbbing pain forces my mind into some semblance of productive activity--because all of the usual mind-numbing things become. . . less pleasant. Or, I guess it could be the 65mg of caffeine that comes in the Excedrin that I take to relieve the pain. Whatever the case, I tend to take refuge in writing when I feel as I do now.

Unfortunately, that is just what I am doing, taking refuge in writing. So don't expect any deep, well-thought-out blog posts right now. Not that I have done one of those in a while. . .

So, this has been my most productive blog month ever. Double digit posts this month, and it's February. I don't know what brought on this flurry of relatively unintelligent posts, but whatever, I feel like a real blogger now (not because of the un-intelligence, but because of the # of posts).

Cool story: I was in the Richards Building (BYU athletic facility) on Tuesday practicing my dancing. There were several upper-tier ballroom dancers, from BYU's tour team, who were also practicing. Anyway, they were running through their competition Latin routines and somebody decided to turn off the lights. Talk about mood lighting, especially with the pimpin' cha-cha that they were playing. I felt like I was in a scene from a movie. . . Kind of like Richard Gere and J-Lo dancing in a dark studio in Shall We Dance, but a billion times better, and sexier too, without clever film editing to make it look like real dancing. Ahhhhhhh. . . can I express how awesome dance is? Can I describe how cool it is watching the fast, precise movements of a really good Latin couple, when every move creates a perfect picture line? Is it possible to express how much more dramatic and exciting it is when all you can see is their silhouette? Can I paint the beauty of dance in words? Probably not.

Can I mention how beautiful ballroom women are (except for their feet which tend to be kind of gross and smelly:). . .can't have everything can we?)?

Oh, one more. Can I express how much like an infant I feel in the world of dance? Actually, yes I can. . . I feel like a grain of dust floating in a solar nebula, succumbing slowly, ever so slowly, to the increasing gravity of the proto-sun, where I will then be part of a 12 billion year nuclear reaction that will fuse all of the hydrogen atoms into helium, then helium into carbon, and so on, until all its fuel is spent and it becomes a white dwarf, which will eventually cool until it is a hunk of incredibly dense rock, slowly drifting in space. Yep, that's how I feel. Actually, that's pretty much what is happening anyway, according to scientific theory, so I guess that really isn't much of an allegory.

Will I ever master the use of , ; :?

My head still hurts.

Dance Movies

I got Step Up 2: The Streets in my stocking for Christmas. It's pretty cool, as far as dance movies go. The dancing is quite good, and the final dance number--in the rain--is HOTTT. But, while Step Up 2: The Streets is visually stimulating, it suffers the same weakness as every other dance movie ever made: a bland and cliche story.

I don't understand why a subject matter that is so awesome doesn't result in movies that are actually good as a whole. I've watched dance movies that impress me with the quality of their dancing, but none have ever left me feeling inspired. In comparison, a football movie like Remember the Titans, which deals with the same core issues, is much more inspiring. How can football (or basketball, baseball, ice skating, bobsledding) come across as more inspiring than dance? It makes no sense.

Somebody needs to step up. Hollywood is focusing only on the visual stimulation of dance; they aren't seeking to use it in an inspirational way. Shameful.

Here is a short list of the dance movies that I can remember watching.

Strictly Ballroom--One of the better dance movies, ever, though it suffers from dated visuals, and the quirky nature of director Baz Luhrmann won't appeal to everybody.

Dance with Me--This one is good, but the story is a bit slow and will get real boring the second time through. Still, this movie offers the best glimpse of competitive ballroom dancing of any of the dance movies that I have seen. The last 15 minutes are real good.

Shall We Dance (American)--Lame. J-Lo is attractive, but that is outweighed by horrid dancing, cliche characters, and an uninspiring story. It does have Slavik Kryklyyvy for two seconds, and supposedly Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko (though I never have been able to find them).

Take the Lead--Not bad. The characters are kind of boring, but there are at least two pretty good dance scenes, though they are a bit over-edited (too many cuts). Jenna Dewan is a good dancer.

Step Up--One of the coolest songs I have ever heard (Show me the Money by Petey Pablo) some cool dance scenes. But otherwise predictable. Jenna Dewan can REALLY dance.

Center Stage 2--Attractive girls, good dancing, boring story. Yay.

Step Up 2: The Streets--Great dance scenes, Jabbawockeez, dancing in the rain, Brianna Evigan, typical story. Entertaining, but with no depth.

The Stream of My Conscious

I swear, I really don't like poetry. It's not my fault all the creative writing assignments in my British Literature class involve poetry. This one is a stream of consciousness that I wrote about dancing. Enjoy (hopefully).

Dancing and Self Revelation

Dancing. I search my mind
To find the words that convey
The sense of mental ease that it brings
Like idly strumming the strings of a guitar
Or shooting hoops in a darkened gym
With only the muted echo of the ball
Ringing on the hardwood
And the occasional squeak of a pair of Dadas
As they slide on a clean finish
Dancing heals
They use it in therapy
Usually stuff more like ballet
Or modern, contemporary if you insist
Because the body moves
As a reflection of the soul
When the soul is whole, so is the body,
But I don’t think it works the other way around
Ballroom is the best
A man and woman moving together
With a sense of ease and purpose
As music sings a steady waltz
Three beats to a measure
Lower on the one, rise on two through three
Lower again, maybe do a big top
Or a closed telemark or a tumble turn
It’s all the same,
Beautiful
I wish I could capture that grace, always
But Brent says I’m
“not a natural mover” and sometimes
He says I move “without passion”
He’s wrong, of course
The passion is there, inside
But I can’t release it at will
Usually it comes best when I’m alone
Plucking out a tune on a guitar or listening
To that magical swish as I bury the long trey
But I’m never quite alone when I dance
I always have someone in my arms
Which is what makes it so magical
Because everybody dances better
When they have someone to hold

Life Again. . .

It seems that I have once again survived another week of Dancesport. What a relief that it's over. For those of you who don't dance, Dancesport is a sort of high cost/reward type of event. In essence, life outside of dance is put on hold for a week, and all energy is placed into dancing at the highest level possible. Dance is fun, but a week of focusing on nothing else tends to be quite draining. I shall try to illustrate why.

My week actually began over a week ago at a warm up competition at Hillcrest High School in SLC. For those of you who don't know what the heck Dancesport is, here is my succinct definition; a competitive event where ballroom dancers go to show off their fancy moves in front of a panel of judges who make split second judgments between couples based on posture, smile, balance, rhythm, costume, etc. . . Anyway, Hillcrest was a disaster for my partner and I. We only competed in one event, Novice Latin, so we made the drive up there with high hopes and came away (an hour later) rather crushed after being eliminated--for good reason--in the first round. I have no scientific explanation for what happened. It just did. The end.

That was how this whole adventure started. On Tuesday, my Latin partner and I met with our coach (who was a judge at Hillcrest) and he was rather truthful with us--perhaps a bit more truthful with me than with her--which is good, because I find the truth to be helpful. But I don't really like hearing it that much. Still, it was nothing that White Zombie's "More Human than Human" couldn't cure in a few minutes. I came out of the whole experience with a new found determination to practice. Unfortunately the net result of practice times for my partner and I the week of Dancesport was only about 1.5 hours--not my fault--and the only real result was an elbow to the face, which, if it had been maybe a centimeter higher, would have broken my nose. I've never been hit in the nose that hard before.

Even with a little practice as we had, I feel totally redeemed, for the most part, from the debacle at Hillcrest. We danced the Novice Latin category again on Friday, and we danced worlds better. We made it to the second round--not that far, but a big improvement from the previous week--who knows, if we practiced to the point where we knew our routines instinctively we might have made it much farther.

On Saturday we competed in the Pre-Champ Latin event, which is the next level up and, consequently, much more difficult. This time did not go quite as smoothly, and I admit that I had a complete brain fart at the beginning of our Samba, so that the first 15-20 seconds were absolute patheticism. 180 (beginning) students could dance better than I was doing at that point. And then my shoe came untied and I almost died. And then, my partner's dress sliced open my finger and I bled all over her gloves and I had to madly scramble to stop the bleeding before the Rumba, which, though without the drama and violence, wasn't really danced any better. By some miracle, we still made it to the second round. Ahhh, the sweet taste of redemption; we danced much better, though this time, Samba again, I got an elbow to the solar plexus that had me gasping for air for several steps. Dance is so fun! We were eliminated thereafter.

Meanwhile, my Standard partner and I, as of say, a week ago, had no clue how to dance our quickstep--a six sided routine thrown at us in an hour by our coach. And our waltz was suspect as well. But, with two lessons this week, and a last minute practice session, we managed to get to the point where we could dance them. . . kind of. So, we danced the Novice Standard event, and got cut the first round. I kind of expected this, but I have high hopes for my Standard partner and I. There are moments that suggest the potential for dramatic improvement by the March competition.

Last of all I competed in the Gold Bar Cha-cha, a class event. The most advanced technique class at BYU. . . what was I doing there? I'm not sure. Still, I was confident for this event because my partner and I had excellent connection and a good knowledge of our routine, and we did dance well, though my partner got sliced on the wrist by a broken bracelet. We got cut the second round, which was disappointing, but not unexpected because of the quality of the dancers in this event.

Anyway, Dancesport is over. Now life starts again. . . and it's actually a bit of a relief.

Pictures later.

A Good Quote

To the universe

belongs the dancer.

Whoever does not dance

does not know what happens.

~Jesus Christ (according to the apocryphal Acts of John) 

Back to School and Stuff

This may be the first semester where I will like all of my classes. So far, all of my English classes will be covering good literature and none of my teachers appear to be demons in disguise. Usually my classes start out fine but then the teachers start breathing fire and the literature turns out to be the most boorish forms of classic slop. Blah! I don't think that is going to happen this semester.

Dance-wise I finished up my auditions this afternoon for Gold II Latin and Standard. I think I did all right considering that I hadn't danced the audition dances (rumba and foxtrot) in four months. I'll find out tomorrow if I got in.

I'm struggling right now to think of relevant things to say.

Oh wait! Can I just rant a little bit about dirty dishes? I hate them. There is a twisted cycle that has been going on in my apartment: I need a dish, I wash said dish, I use dish, I wash dish again, I leave dish in dish thingy, I find dish dirty in sink. . . I hate the dish cycle.

The Future is Here. . .

This has been a good summer, but I am quite ready to return for another year of school. I have high hopes for the next two semesters. This semester I have a couple of pretty cool English classes lined up: Literature and Film and Mythology and Folklore. I'm very excited for the second class, my writing delves a lot into mythology so I am hoping that this class will help me more fully develop some of my ideas.

Most of all I look forward to my Ballroom Dance classes; I've only been able to sate my appetite for Ballroom by watching videos on youtube. I can't wait to get back to dancing, though I will confess that I do have some nervousness about this--opportunities for dance being quite rare in the wilderness. I am afraid that I have lost what little I gained last year. . . while all of my friends have progressed through the summer. I'm going to be very, very behind; the classes that I need are audition based. Plus I have to find dance partners all over again. . . blah!, but with hope.

Coming back to Alaska has also illustrated how much I really do enjoy some sort of contact with humanity. I may be an introvert, but I need some social exposure. This semester I vow to be a bit more aggressive in inserting myself into the social sphere. Good luck to me.

Anyway, I've been ready to go back to a place filled with sunshine, dance, and women for the last couple weeks. Now, that future is here. Only three more days of preparation, and I'll be on my way.

Things I would change

The mind wanders to strange things out in the mountains, when the crisp cold air wakes you at night, and you lie awake listening to the sounds of the river, or birds singing to greet the dawn at 3am on the high tundra. . .

Me? I've spent a lot of time wondering about where I am at in life right now, and I must say that, for the most part, I am quite content with myself right now. But here are a few things that I wish I could change.

I wish I could have discovered Ballroom Dance while I was still in my teens. I would be light years ahead of myself right now, and would have a much, much better chance of making the BYU BDC Touring Team before I graduate from college.

I wish I had been more confident and aggressive in High School, mainly regarding the four years I spent playing basketball. . . I love basketball, and I had all the tools to be a good high school player, except for that athletic killer instinct. . . I wish I could have discovered it when I was much younger (and in better physical condition).

I wish I had known the secret of missionary work when I left on my mission, rather than when I was coming home. But it is so true. . . by the time you figure out missionary work, you are packing your bags.

I wish I was able to write like my sister. She can actually finish the stories that she starts, while I spend all my time in contemplation, wondering what the next line is going to be.

I wish I was more eloquent with the spoken word.

I wish I had bigger pectoral muscles.

I wish that I could recognize the ever so subtle signs of women, that I could distinguish between real flirtation and just being nice. On the same token, there are a few girls that I let slip through my fingers because I don't know how to initiate the dating process. . . that was dumb. . . I guess you just have to ask.

I wish I had TV right now so I could watch this season of SYTYCD.

Don't get the idea that I have a lot of regrets. I just have an awareness of how things could have been different, and maybe better. But you never know the paths that you might take in life, so, sometimes I wonder. . . especially when I lie awake at night, in the mountains.

On Women

This is supposed to be the other side of my post "What Makes a Man?" I am not qualified to even attempt to describe what makes a woman, so this post will be more along the lines of what a "manly" man--errr, myself--looks for in a woman.

Probably the best example of this comes from the quote that I posted at the end of "What Makes a Man," by Loius L'Amour. I guess I'll quote it again, "A strong man need wish for no more than this: a sword in the hand, a horse between his knees, and the woman he loves at the battle's end." So here we have a man, who finally returns from his war, and there she is, the woman he loves. . . waiting for him.

A man can't fight, like he must, without a woman who loves and trusts him. A woman is the foundation that a man stands on to do his battles. . . that sounds weird, I know, but remember in Rocky III? Apollo Creed is trying to re-train Rocky so he can fight the man who previously humiliated him, but Rocky lacks the fire. Why? Because he didn't have Adrian behind him. But when she gets in his corner. . .

That's the first thing that a man wants in a woman. He wants her to be in his corner, to be his number one fan and best friend, he wants her to back him up, and if she does that, her man will charge hell with a bucket of water, he'll fight till the death--for her, because of her.

Another thing that Louis L'Amour talks about (is he really the source of all this?) is a woman who can "walk beside a man rather than behind him." I interpret this in the sense that a man needs a woman who is a warrior. I use that term loosely to describe a woman who doesn't give up, no matter how tough things get; she possesses an indomitable spirit. Sometimes things just don't work out when a man tries to carve out a living (or a home, his niche in the world, or whatever) with his hands, and if things get tough, a man needs a woman to stand by him; to support him even in his failures. . . and a man will fail, time and again.

Of course, the other side of that, is that the woman needs to be a lady. . . no matter how tough the going gets. Sophisticated, intelligent, and cultured. . . she is the main influence that keeps the children from turning into animals/barbarians (though the man should not shirk his responsibilities here either). Related to this is the special sensitivity to spiritual things that women have. . . this is a special gift that is being lost in this modern era because of the destruction of gender roles.

Perhaps I am being a little too idealistic here, and maybe somewhat old fashioned, but there it is. . . A true woman, a lady, is intelligent and beautiful, sophisticated and unbreakable, and ever so devoted to the man who trusts her with. . . everything.

Here is the ideal picture of the relationship between a man and a woman :)

Yes, I admit my bias here. . . but there is so much that is beautiful in ballroom dance; it encompasses the way the relationship between a man and woman should be. The ideal in every way.

This by the way is Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed. . . I've seen them a couple times in person, and they are exquisite.

And here are Urs and Agnes just as icing on the cake.

I'm not going to try to explain the wonder of Ballroom Dance here. If you aren't familiar with it, I suggest you give it a shot.

Anyway, I don't think I talked about everything that I wanted to mention, but this is good enough for now. Hopefully I didn't come across as chauvinistic or anything. All I'm trying to say, is that a man and woman are equal in their respective spheres. There is nothing wrong with being a true lady. . . or a true man.

Dance

So, I'm starting to approach the point in time where I consider myself a "dancer." I guess that means that I'm finally starting to feel a little more confident in how I move and stuff like that. In reality though, I'm still quite new to this artform. I've been dancing about three and a half years total, but only over the last year and a half have I become a competitive/serious dancer, though that hasn't been without it's interuptions. The promising thing for me is that I am finally at the stage where I will start to make the most improvement. This video here is the Gold II Rumba from BYU during the winter 2008 semester. I've edited out my teacher making comments because if you've any sort of dancing eye you'll probably notice what he talked about, and he probably wouldn't like to find out that he's on the internet. This was my first semester in the class, so if my partner looks a bit more polished than I that's because she is (she's had the class before), plus, she's just naturally a much better dancer than me anyway. . . she's a lady. We'd probably covered this routine in class for about two weeks by the time we video'd (six hours of class), though I had done my best to learn the routine ahead of time from a video. From my own perspective I need a lot of work. I don't like my arm movement, but I think private lessons would help greatly there. My spins are pathetic, but are also improving. Posture has been a big problem in the past, but it is much better, though there are a few spots where I have relapses in this video. Anyway, for all my rabid fans out there, this is me dancing the rumba, one of my better dances.

And, just FYI, I don't usually dance with gum.

Furthermore, after all the work I put into writing this post, I'm getting some sort of error message when I try to upload the video, so, I guess you can use this link to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Hy4HWPEHA

Seize the Beat, BYU Ballroom Dance Concert 2008

This last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in my first BYU Ballroom Dance Concert ever. It was a marvelous experience. But not only was it fun, it also caused me to re-analyze some things about dancing.

First I'll talk about my initial impressions of being a ballroom performer.

Most of what I did, during the performances was wait. I'm on an entry level team for the company, and we only dance once during the entire program--discounting the Finale where everybody dances. So, during a show that lasts about an hour and a half, I really only spent about five minutes total onstage. The rest of the time was spent in the men's dressing room playing cards or reading books. Other people did homework, but I'm nowhere near that efficient with my time.

I thought I would be nervous when I finally went onstage, I'm usually quite nervous for performances--like in the movie The Cutting Edge when the dude goes and yarks behind a curtain before they go out on the ice--so I figured I'd get nervous for this as well. It turned out that I was actually quite calm; no nerves. I think maybe the difference was that I couldn't see any of the audience--because they are in the dark and the stage lights are shining in your face--and also it's a little different being a part of a team, where no individual really stands out. What a relief that was, it is sooo much easier to perform correctly when you aren't dealing with extreme nerves.

There were probably around an average of 4000 people for the three shows, which is a pretty good crowd. Back in high school--when I did concert band, jazz band, choir, and basketball--the crowds never really got much more that maybe 200 people, so this was a huge difference. When they cheered at the end of a number it was . . . awesome. Afterwards, as I would make my way through the crowd to my family, everybody was so nice and so impressed by what they had seen. Let me tell you, Ballroom Dance is awesome, and the BYU Ballroom Dance Company puts on a great, great show.

So this caused me to re-analyze what I am doing on the dance team. I used to dance mainly because dance . . . is fun . . . but so much more than that. It's hard to find words to explain the wonder of dancing, if you can think of a way to put it into words, let me know. Anyway, in essence, I used to dance for myself, because it was good for me. But now, as a member of a dance performance team, I have realized that dancing should also be done for other people. That's the whole point of being on this company, but I didn't realize that before. I guess it's logically pretty obvious, but what can I say, I'm blind at times.

But now, it is over. After all the hours of rehearsals, and the sacrifices I've made (almost broken toes, and tons of bruises, etc . . .) I feel kind of at a loss, I wish it was still going on.

My Homage to Ballroom Dance

Ballroom dance is the third best thing in the universe--trailing after women and the sun, both of which are kind of essential to the existence of Ballroom dancing in the first place. But I swear, there is so much stress involved. . . it evokes emotions kind of like when Pippen and Gandalf are sitting together watching the roiling black clouds that indicate the advance of Sauron's horde of bloodthirsty orcs coming closer and closer (ok, that's not the greatest of analogies, but my mind is kind of blah-ed out right now, and when that happens, LOTR happens).

I got good partners this semester--which was magnificent because last semester I never did find a Latin partner, and only found a Standard partner about two weeks before competition. Anyway, I thought things were going to be really great for the BYU Nationals, but somehow as it got closer and closer, I kept feeling less and less prepared. This isn't an unusual feeling I know, but this was a lot more intense than I have ever felt for a competition before. I felt like a train on tracks that were suddenly going to end in the middle of a bridge. . . devastation, destruction, imminent death! Luckily none of that happened though, just a significant portion of high level stress. Actually I'm kind of pleased with how things turned out for the most part. I made it past my first round of open competition--which for most people really is kind of a pathetic accomplishment--and I danced well enough in all of my other events (except the Gold Bar Tango, I don't know what happened there. . .) that I can feel good about how things turned out. The sad thing here is that I suddenly have a small perception of how well I could have done. With proper preparation, enough to feel confidence at least, I could have acheived much more than I did. Oh well, this is a common occurence for humanity.

What all this boils down to is that Ballroom Dancing is awesome. There is nothing like two people, a man and a woman, moving together in harmony; the result is absolutely beautiful, divine even. . . of course, this isn't exactly the result when I dance (I look stoned in my picture up there), but I try.

Everybody should, really.