Karve Week 6- Dance Competitions

I spent all of last Saturday at a dress rehearsal for dance. We had to do our hair and the top half of our make up, because of our masks. We also had to wear our costumes. Normally, we practice at our dance studio, but this was a special occasion, and we practiced at the Scottish-Rite Cathedral in Allentown. The first dance I had was my hardest one, Jazz. We began by warming up all together, and then going on the stage. On the stage, we spaced the routine. This means that we walked through our dance as our teacher told us where exactly on the stage we need to be. This year, we have a competition at this place, so it was nice to be able to space out routines on the same stage we will be competing on in just a few short weeks. This particular stage is not very wide, meaning that there isn't a lot of space from left to right, so we were a little smushed on stage. After spacing, we ran the dance and then gathered towards the front of the stage. This is when our teachers would critique on what we could do better. Then using those critiques, we ran the dance again. Luckily, we only had to run it twice; in past years we would have to do our dances three times. Anyways, we repeated the processes with our Contemporary dance and our Ballet dance. We had a few short breaks in between, but those were typically spent changing costumes and fixing our hair. When all of that was over, we had an hour break, and then our Mock Competition. In a Mock Competition, you basically do your dances ONCE on stage, and are judged by about 8 teachers who give you feedback that you will get in class the next week. It is only for solos, duets, and trios. Sometimes, I find this more nerve racking than an actual competition, because I am being judged by people that I actually know. My solo was one of the first numbers of the competition, and despite my long day, I performed the best I ever had. After my solo, I had a short break. I changed into my next costume, and then did one of the younger girls' hair for her. Then I practiced my next and final number, my trio. We had not had practice in a really long time because of snow, COVID, injuries, etc., so it was nice that we had the time to review the dance beforehand. After practicing, we watched some of the other numbers together, and eventually went on stage. After everyone dances, they do a little award ceremony where the teachers hand out a few special awards for some of the dances that stood out to them. I typically get one for my solo, by this year I got one for the trio! Being on stage after almost a year, felt really nice and somewhat nostalgic. I'm now really excited for actual competitions