How Did You Feel After? [Archive]

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Vince A

03-01-2005, 10:34 PM

This kinda goes along with the thread - "How did you decide to compete for the first time?"

After years and years of "watching" others compete, and listening to the excitement of their "climactic" feeling they had while walking off the floor after their very first competition dance (phew, long run on), I decided to compete. I wanted to experience it too! Then I was hooked.

To this day, some 13 years later, I still remember how I felt as I walked off the floor after finishing me first competitive dance.

Do you remember your first time?

Wanna share it with us?

emanuela

03-02-2005, 08:42 AM

This should be interesting. I think I would expect good, pleasant feelings of accomplishment, but I'm curious to know if someone experienced the opposite (never ever compete again type).

Vince A

03-02-2005, 09:55 AM

I probably should move this to General Discussion, as we'd get more answers there . . .

newbie

03-02-2005, 10:20 AM

....
To this day, some 13 years later, I still remember how I felt as I walked off the floor after finishing me first competitive dance.

Wanna share it with us?

It's nice that you remember. So, maybe you would want to let us know how you felt after finishing you first competitive dance. :wink:

kansas49er

03-02-2005, 10:23 AM

Our first competition was last November. It was a WCS state contest. I remember walking off the floor feeling 1) a sense of relief 2) a great sense of accomplishment in that we didn't forget the routine, we hit all the major timing marks, We made no major body mechanic errors. and no body fluids were spilled---my wife and partner especially. She had NEVER performed in front of an audience before---there were warnings of possible dire circumstances like throwing up or a loss of bladder control.! !
We decided, even before the awards ceremony, that we had won a great victory! We are now preparing a new routine for a much larger contest.

Vince A

03-02-2005, 11:10 AM

....
To this day, some 13 years later, I still remember how I felt as I walked off the floor after finishing me first competitive dance.

It's nice that you remember. So, maybe you would want to let us know how you felt after finishing you first competitive dance. :wink:
Uh oh . . . you put me on the spot . . . so . . .

I had been competing on a swing team, and I felt pretty comfortable about in front of an audience and performing . . . I was ready to show off.

However, my very first competitive dance as a Newcomer was a Cha Cha, which I did very well, but wasn't as comfortable with it compared to WCS. So, we were introduced, and as the announcer introduced me and my Pro partner, we stepped out and I gave her a quick-release spin, which she did perfectly. We stepped back in line, and I was so full of it - confidence that is - or was it too much showing off??? Or . . .???

Anyway, we took our start position, the music began, and our routine starts by hitting ct 2 with the left foot as we both lunge forward toward the audience and then we set up for the next move. Newcomers are limited to what they can do in a start.

The next move called for me to give her a J lead into me, which I missed *cussing*, but she back-led herself into it. I wasn't there. Needless to say, I was off for the rest of the dance, and just couldn't get back on (even though later though all of our friends said that they didn't see a thing, nor a missed move, etc., and it looked very good).

But I was still very happy . . . "I did it," I loudly proclaimed as we both walked off the floor . . . I jumped up and clicked my heels, again loudly exclaiming "YES." My Pro was laughing. We were still on the floor. THe MC chuckled to himself.

I didn't win, because I had not entered in all the qualifying dances. But at the urging of my Pro, we approached two of the judges after that particular comp, an asked them how I did. They both said that they gave me a first in all of my dances, even though I didn't qualify to place.

I was in heaven and was hooked on competing. We immediately began the next week of training working on the rest of the dances. There is nothing like competing to get those juices flowing for dancing!

If anyone has ever thought of competing . . . DO IT! Yes, you will get nervous, but most everyone does. Then you tell us about "your first time . . . "

leftfeetnyc

03-02-2005, 11:29 AM

It's sometimes hard to put that first experiance into words.

After four months of lessons and half a month of social dancing in WCS, I decided to go to Swingin New England and enter the newcomer J&J. Going into it I wouldn't call myself confident, but I wasn't nervous at all.....

Until I got into the ballroom and there were so many people warming up. At the time I didn't know anyone in the scene minus two people, one being my instructor. My few warm up songs were terrible and there were two heats in the newcomer division as sooooo many people had signed up. I was in the second heat, enough time to get REALLY nervous watching all these great dancers.

Going in I had no pretention about making finals. So when I got on the floor I decided to ignore everyone but my partner and have a good time regardless of how I was doing. It was such an incredible feeling. Another girl I knew was competing a few feet away from me and I could hear people cheering her on, I remember feeling so happy for her and still having a great time myself. It was like the whole world disapeared and there was nothing that existed besides me, my partner, the music, and the dance.

I was so thrilled afterwards that I went out dancing everynight for the next two weeks and was dying for another chance to compete again. Since then I've done the newcomer at New Years Extravaganza (still having made finals) and will be back at it at Tea Party in three weeks!

Since I started, I find the dance and competing just gets in my blood, I can't shake it whether I'm at home, work, subway, wherever....it's always working it's magic on me.

(and anyone going to Tea Party needs to find me and say hello!)

kansas49er

03-02-2005, 12:28 PM

This is link to an article I wrote "in the heat of the moment" shortly after competing for the first time. Our instructor included in out club newsletter.
Maybe a bit over the top, I don't know. It was how i felt.

http://www.rivercityswing.org/page4.html

Vince A

03-02-2005, 01:03 PM

Spitfire

03-02-2005, 02:25 PM

The only time I ever competed was back when I was a beginner. I was in two competitions that year; one here and another up in Phoenix. I danced in the category of beginning freestyle and won trophies. The moment that is most memorable was at the Phoenix event when me and my instructor did a Merengue and we were announced as we went out on the floor and my heart went into my throat when I realized we were the only couple out there! there were suppose to be two others. :o

I recall thinking how we had this whole floor to ourselves and figured that I can take all this nervous energy I was feeling and make good use of it and did my moves. Well, I must have looked pretty good; as soon as we had finished the instructors and others from my studio were just ecstatic with my performance and the manager rushes up to me and says "Tom, I'm so proud of you!". 8)

I really had no idea that I was looking that good.

I think this is probably the only time that being nervous actually worked in my favor. :wink:

Sagitta

03-02-2005, 06:41 PM

You certainly feel something after doing either a performance or a competition. I am energized and alive after a perfroamnce..feeding off all the adrenaline and the audience and... :D

chachachacat

03-19-2005, 12:09 AM

chachachacat

03-19-2005, 12:13 AM

You certainly feel something after doing either a performance or a competition. I am energized and alive after a perfroamnce..feeding off all the adrenaline and the audience and... :D
Exactly! Performing is wonderfully intense high! :bouncy:

swing4life

03-31-2005, 12:01 AM

My first competition was recent at the Boston Tea Party in the Newcomer WCS Jack & Jill. And I can definitely say it's a memory never to be forgotten. I was a mixture of conflicting emotions - excitement, anxiety, momentary calm and outright terror. I took the opportunity of a couple of warm-up dances to help ease the "jitters". I was better until they started calling out the names and numbers to compete and where the feeling of jackhammers in my chest started to go full force. Being the leader, it was daunting to hear that the ratio of leaders to followers was 1:3 and that we had to keep on dancing with no rest. Which at the end I actually was glad that it happened. It took almost the fifth dance for me to get some semblance of calm and where I was more in the groove with the music. Before that I was nervous and trembling while at the same time focusing on my partner and the music. There were points in some of the dances that I was smiling so hard that one side of my face started to twitch and where I go off beat for a bit. And before I knew it, the round was over. In the end I was filled with relief, a sense of joy and accomplishment, and a bit of embarrassment since some of my friends were cheering on the side. Through it all, I had an extraordinary fun time and even more so since my friends were competing alongside and afterwards made new friends in the process.

To all the followers I danced with. THANK YOU! You all made my first competition experience a cherished memory!!

dancin_feet

03-31-2005, 12:54 AM

My first comp (kind of) would have been an internal studio mini comp day. We did Foxtrot and Waltz first and my instructor pretty much held me up during Foxtrot because my legs were not supporting me at all. In Waltz I could support myself a bit more but he led a simple underarm turn and I missed it completely!! I walked off the floor thinking that my nerves have just got to go, this is ridiculous! He referred to it later as like dancing with a bowl of jelly! :oops:

My first performance was different though. It was about six months after the above indescretion and I had worked really hard on my nerves, determined to not let them affect me that much again. I knew the routine (rumba) so well I could do it in my sleep. This was my saving grace I think. I didn't hear or see the crowd at all, other than a couple of parts where they cheered loudly, but I was still only vaguely aware of that. I performed the routine flawlessly, but my expression was completely blank (I only found this out afterwards). I walked off the floor unable to feel my legs and just collapsed into my instructors arms out the back. He was busy praising me and all I could say way, OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! I was very happy with it. Fortunately by this time I realised that it was just a learning curve and every new experience is going to be (hopefully) better at something, but also highlight other things that could be better.

And so began my journey .......