Focusing on the very first part of this thread title, “competition dress choice,” I have a new question.
As I mentioned in other threads, I recently bought a new-to-me aqua-blue smooth dress that is The Best Dress Ever (for me), & Pro & I both love it. I wore it in a lesson for about 15 minutes, and it moves even better than it looks. It’s my first truly “grown-up” smooth gown, and I’ve been looking forward to finally getting to wear it when we compete at Manhattan in a couple weeks.
But Pro threw a wrench in the works at yesterday’s lesson. He’s been watching us in the wall mirrors more than usual, and stopping frequently during lessons to watch video clips of whatever we’ve just done, and he usually makes some positive comment like, “wow - that looks a lot better than it felt!” (From him, that’s a genuine compliment, not a backhanded one.) He has been full of praise about the overall improvement in my smooth dancing.
So yesterday, he looked at me musingly and said, “I don’t think you should wear your new dress for Newcomer Silver.” I said, “it’s not ‘newcomer’ silver - it’s just PRE silver, and we’re also doing intermediate & full silver singles.” He shrugged. “Ok, pre, newcomer, whatever. Either way, that dress doesn’t belong in early silver levels. It’ll be great for the championship & scholarship, but I think you should wear a different dress for at least the first few sets of singles.”
Ummmm - what?!?!??
I’ve never changed dresses during a comp before. I know a lot of women do, but not me. And I don’t have a second dress that fits as well or looks as great as this one, & I told him so. He asked, “what about the bright pink Chrisanne you wore at Ohio?” I said maybe, but I’ve lost a good bit of weight since then, so it’s a little loose; and the looseness means the bottom of the skirt is lower than it used to be. I’m legit concerned I’ll catch my heels in it, especially during tango. He told me to bring it to a lesson this week so we can test it out, since there might still be enough time to get it altered before Manhattan.
I gave him my other arguments, like: how do I make sure my hair & makeup match the style & color of both dresses? What if my confidence is much lower in the pink dress, & that hurts my performance? I want the judges to recognize me from the singles when we dance in the multis - won’t that be easier if I’m wearing the same recognizable dress?
He said even if it’s the same judging panel for both the singles & the multis, they’ll recognize me by my dancing, not my dress (assuming they recognize me at all, that is [one can only hope]); and there are lots of makeup options that will work with ANY color of dress. The only concern of mine he took at all seriously was the one about whether the dress would impact my confidence (and we both know from experience that my level of confidence absolutely DOES affect my performance), especially if part of my brain is constantly worrying about whether my heels will get caught in the hem.
And then there are also some shallow but practical considerations, such as the fact that the pink dress has a moderately high back and one long sleeve; while the aqua one is completely backless and sleeveless…so, when the pink dress makes me sweat during the singles, I better hope my airbrush spray tan remains really freaking solid.
Interestingly, the woman from whom I bought the dress told me she only ever wore it in her scholarships, not in her singles. And like I said before, I know that changing dresses for the scholarship is a common practice among Pro-Am ladies.
But the concept is sort of messing with my head. Yes, I’ve always BROUGHT a second dress to comps, but only in case of emergency, & I’ve never actually worn my backup dresses.
Otoh, Manhattan’s schedule last year had about two hours between singles & multis, which is plenty of time to change dresses & jewelry. And tbh, the aqua dress does have one significant flaw: it is very uncomfortable to sit down in. (Standing, dancing, anything upright is fine - but the torso is too short for me to sit down comfortably in it.)
So I’m going around in circles in my head about what to do. Pro pointed out that since I’m going to bring both dresses with me anyway (the pink one is my emergency backup, since it’s the only other dress I have that currently fits at all), I don’t have to decide what to wear until I’m actually at the comp.
Anyway, now that I’ve given you way more background information than you probably need, my question for you guys is this: what makes a dress “belong” in full silver smooth but not in lower levels? I don’t get it.
P.S. Reading my first few posts in this thread made me laugh. Holy cow - I was soooo naïve and inexperienced (and enthusiastic!) back then. Awwwww.
