blast from my past

[Laura]

Holy freakin' cow. I just pulled out two ancient tapes of me dancing, one from my second competition ever (in 1993) and one from a comp I did in 2001. They are both pretty hilarious. Not because I looked too horrible or anything (I looked like the beginner that I was at the time), but just seeing it, and who else was there and how young we all looked and what people were wearing and so on.

Anyway, watching all this brought me back to a "purer" time in my competitive dancing (and I swear my frame was better in some ways back then). I didn't really know what I was doing or what I had gotten myself into, I was just out there dancing and have a grand old time.

I've got to digitize these puppies and keep them on my laptop so I can pull them out at comps for inspiration. Because I feel strangely inspired now -- to go out and feel that carefree and happy on the floor, and to just dance not worrying what anyone else will think or do, or caring if or how I'm marked, or any of that.

If I could only find that stupid USB cable for my digital cam corder....

[syncopationator]

I just watched a video from my first comp and it was completely hilarious, and yes because of how bad I was. It made me feel really good about how much I have improved :)

[Laura]

After I finished watching the ancient ones, I put on the one from Embassy last week, and that made me start laughing again -- you can see I'm still the same person, the same dancer in some ways -- but also completely different in others.

[latingal]

Yeah, sometimes we forget about that feeling we had when we first started dancing. The joy that is so apparent when somebody is really, really enjoying the dancing. It shines through everything else. Never lose that in your dancing, it can get buried in the technique, the performance and the gloss - but in the end hopefully we get back to it and it reminds us why we are out there.

[njdancegirl]

Yeah, sometimes we forget about that feeling we had when we first started dancing. The joy that is so apparent when somebody is really, really enjoying the dancing. It shines through everything else. Never lose that in your dancing, it can get buried in the technique, the performance and the gloss - but in the end hopefully we get back to it and it reminds us why we are out there.

Well said....

[NielsenE]

yeah I'm trying to get started on a project where I'll splice together foxtrots from my second competition (don't have video of the first) through the present. It ought to be very interesting to see the progression (and regressions).

[nucat78]

I haven't had the guts to watch my first (and so far, only) pseudo-showcase yet. Maybe in a few years...

[standardgirl]

Yeah, sometimes we forget about that feeling we had when we first started dancing. The joy that is so apparent when somebody is really, really enjoying the dancing. It shines through everything else. Never lose that in your dancing, it can get buried in the technique, the performance and the gloss - but in the end hopefully we get back to it and it reminds us why we are out there.

very well said! I agree absolutely.

However, are one really able to enjoy "the feeling" while being so concentrated on competitive dancing? :roll:

[Josh]

I haven't had the guts to watch my first (and so far, only) pseudo-showcase yet. Maybe in a few years...

A book I read said that "a wise person is willing to trade a pebble for a diamond." This was in the context of putting our ego aside when others correct us and point out things about us that we don't necessarily like to hear--effectively trading something of little worth (our ego, a pebble) for something valuable (self improvement and acquiring better qualities, a diamond). Might this principle also apply here nucat...?

[nucat78]

Prolly, but I still don't want to watch it. LOL!

[Josh]

Prolly, but I still don't want to watch it. LOL!


lol nucat, I didn't either and used to cringe when watching. But I learned to love myself, mistakes and all! When that happens and you're okay with looking however you look, then you free yourself up to love yourself enough to work on it and make it look better!

[Laura]

I've always loved to watch myself dance on tape, and never really understood why some people are so afraid/hate to do it. Okay, I guess I can understand the fear, but the ones that hate it? Why? Is it because what you see on tape (reality) doesn't measure up to the image you have of your dancing? Well, a reality check can be a very good thing, so get over it :)

I found another tape, this one of me dancing with my ex-Amateur-Standard partner. Woo whee, we stunk. I cannot believe we had that much self-confidence after looking at the tape. And the thing is, when we looked at the tape after the comp, we thought we were doing a good job. (Not great, but good.) With the hindsight of three more years of experience...I'd say we did an okay job and that there was no way in hell we could have made that final that we were trying to get into based on how we did in the quarter and semi. Although at the time we couldn't see it. Interesting, that.

[samina]

aw, that's so sweet, laura...what a nice memento do uncover!

i got supershagged a little bit on my first latin comp -- it's fun when you discover you've made it into some of their frames. i guess i'll wait til OSB to have my next videos done. haven't had any all year, except what i recently did in a lesson. guess that'll be fun to see the changes...

[etp777]

Good stuff Laura. REALLY looking forward to this next comp (only my second, but a year and a LOT of lessons in), as I'd like to compare the two videos. Both for good and bad, as I knoww there are some bad habits that I STILL have, even after all that work.

[Laura]

I've been getting every single dance taped since I started with TS, but I'm going to cut down after the end of this year to just getting the Scholarships done. The video bills are just getting too high, plus I'm dancing more consistently now so the extra information from seeing every dance isn't necessary.

[etp777]

I'm sure I could benefit from having every dance done, but I can't afford it. :) Last time I did 12 entries, half newcomer bronze and half social foundation. Taped the bronze. This time doing 31. 14 intermediate bronze closed, 14 intermediate bronze proficiencies, a showcase, and two full bronze open. Will probably tape one of the open, and then not sure if closed or proficiency. Have to ask pro. and will depend on whether I dance different things for each (hopefully not). Plus the entries are split between two pros, so will have to decide how to split those. too much work. :(

course, will definitely get the showcase videotaped. :)

[tanya_the_dancer]

I don't do every dance anymore. I only did it for the first one or two comps. I don't do all multidances anymore either, so if I am doing both championship and scholarship, I'll only tape the one which is smaller. Sometimes I miss funny moments because of that, (like the time when we were doing smooth and had to separate and dance around a couple who was not moving), but you can't predict which one will be most interesting in the end.

I am with Laura on this one, I like watching myself on video. So I have a number of tapes and dvds from all the competitions except the very first one, and from most of my showcases. There was only one event from one video I never watched, because I knew how much I messed up in it, and it was going to look bad.

[Laura]

As far as rate of taping goes, I think at one point with my previous teacher I used to tape the scholarships at every other comp, and that was it. And it was enough. I'll say one thing, cutting down on the taping definitely leaves more money in your pocket at the end of each comp :)

[_malakawa_]

Holy freakin' cow. I just pulled out two ancient tapes of me dancing, one from my second competition ever (in 1993) and one from a comp I did in 2001. They are both pretty hilarious. Not because I looked too horrible or anything (I looked like the beginner that I was at the time), but just seeing it, and who else was there and how young we all looked and what people were wearing and so on.

Anyway, watching all this brought me back to a "purer" time in my competitive dancing (and I swear my frame was better in some ways back then). I didn't really know what I was doing or what I had gotten myself into, I was just out there dancing and have a grand old time.

I've got to digitize these puppies and keep them on my laptop so I can pull them out at comps for inspiration. Because I feel strangely inspired now -- to go out and feel that carefree and happy on the floor, and to just dance not worrying what anyone else will think or do, or caring if or how I'm marked, or any of that.

If I could only find that stupid USB cable for my digital cam corder....

cute.

my first competition was also in the nineties (1995). :cool: and when i look that tape - my stomach hurts because of laughing.

i was 10. in a pink dress and those shoes for kids (with fat heel). but what is funny is that all the girls had socks except me. :p

we danced samba, cha cha and jive. and we won 3th place out of 8 couples.

oh, i remember like it was yesterday.

we were so impresed with all those older couples. with the dresses and make up ......

but now, when i look those dresses - :nope:

[Standarddancer]

I've been getting every single dance taped since I started with TS, but I'm going to cut down after the end of this year to just getting the Scholarships done. The video bills are just getting too high, plus I'm dancing more consistently now so the extra information from seeing every dance isn't necessary.

I'm so with you on this one - the video taping costs are so high if you travel a lot to compete; and it's just so unnecessary to tape-record every dance; I skipped recording a few occasions when we compete for consecutive weeks. Sometimes I enjoy going to college comps, one video pass of $15 my parents or friends can record all they want, certainly save the bucks.

[latingal]

However, are one really able to enjoy "the feeling" while being so concentrated on competitive dancing? :roll:

Actually I've found with my latin that if I'm not enjoying the feeling on the comp floor, I'm probably not performing very well. I make sure that the last week of dancing before a comp is all about musicality and finding that enjoyment of the dancing again.