How early did you enter your first competition?

E

emanuela

New Member
How early, from the time you started taking dance lessons, you entered your first competition? How many hours of instruction did you take before you were able to enter a competition?
Emanuela
 
Never entered a competition and have no interest in doing so. Don't mind doing demos or performances, but that is about as far as I want to go. :cheers:
 
Sagitta said:
Never entered a competition and have no interest in doing so. Don't mind doing demos or performances, but that is about as far as I want to go. :cheers:
Click to expand...

It is reassuring to see that I am not the only one who is not attracted to competing.
 
I took 5 months of lessons before my first competition, but the first 3 months are social dancing lessons, since that's what everyone does in that studio. Then I moved, and started taking lessons with an actively competing pro for another 2 months before my first comp. We won standard, and got second in smooth in the newcomer category (collegiate am/am). I just had another cmpeition (this is 9 months after first lesson, but 6 months after dancing competitively) with my am partner (collegiate), and we won bronze smooth, and got 4th in bronze standard.

My first pro/am competition is in April. By then, I will have been dancing with my standard teacher for 7 months, and my latin teacher for 5 months.

I think people start competeping rather early in the collegiate world? I don't know what the average wait before competition is in the pro/am world.
 
We began taking WCS dance lessons in January, 2004. Privates once a week, two hours group lessons once a week, social dancing on an occasional basis. We increased our privates to twice a week in September, Competed in our first contest in November. We enjoy competing for the fun of it. We will never be national competitors, but we have fun at it, and our dancing increased dramatically as we prepared for competition.
 
I studied for about a year before my teacher first suggested a competition, but it was another six months or so before an opportunity came up. Tango competitions are pretty few and far between, and DanceSport generally does not include Argentine Tango as an event.

I guess maybe I studies about 200 hours with my teacher in those 18 months, not counting the ballet classes, or the hours I spent on the dance floor, practicing.
 
The first time I started learning to dance, I think it was just about three months (so about 24 lessons) from when I started to when I did my first competition. It was just a tiny comp at a studio where three studios got their students together. I danced in the newcomer category because they defined a "newcomer" as someone having less than a certain number of lessons, and I still qualified.

The second time I started learning to dance, it was about 9 months (so about 72 lessons) before I took to the floor. I danced Bronze at this one.
 
I danced for about 2 years (one hour of private instruction per week, plus group instruction) before I competed for the first time. I waited so long because I thought the competitions were pretty expensive. I unleashed a monster, though -- I can't get enough of competing now, and soon (within the next year) I'll be doing it professionally.
 
I started dancing 7 years ago at age 38 and did my first comp after about six months of lessons. I have done about three comps a year since then except for one stretch about three years ago when I was re-habing a knee.

I started doing am/am smooth for the first year or so then partner and I broke up and I started doing pro/am standard. I have been back doing smooth for the past two and half years.

I have a new partner for pro/am this year and we will be doing our first comp in two weeks - we have plans to do at least six comps this year including (if my money lasts that long) Ohio Star Ball.
 
Gumby said:
I have a new partner for pro/am this year and we will be doing our first comp in two weeks - we have plans to do at least six comps this year including (if my money lasts that long) Ohio Star Ball.
Click to expand...

Wow! 6?! By reading the other threads seems like pro/am competitions are pretty expensive (thousands). How does a person manage to go to competitions? Does one have to be a wealthy person to compete, or did I misunderstand?
Emanuela
 
emanuela wrote:

Does one have to be a wealthy person to compete, or did I misunderstand?
Click to expand...


Ha ha - if you did I wouldn't be going. Cost of competition can be quite expensive - it all depends on what kinds of competitions, the area of the country you live in and how many heats you want to enter - travel expenses et cetera.
 
emanuela said:
Wow! 6?! By reading the other threads seems like pro/am competitions are pretty expensive (thousands). How does a person manage to go to competitions?
Click to expand...

It all depends...Gumby is smart about how she spends her money, and also only competes in one style. You can save a LOT of money if you only compete in one style, and even more if you only do the minimum number of entries required to qualify you for the scholarship event.

When I was dancing Pro/Am I typically danced 5 single-dance events and one scholarship, and spent about $500 - $650 per local comp. If I went to a big out-of-town comp, I'd spend about twice that (including my hotel, my plane ticket, and a share of my teacher's travelling expenses). Of course, it all depended on location and duration -- some out-of-town comps were actually much less than $1300, some were a bit more. If someone tells you they spent $5000 on a comp, the first thing you should ask about before you pass out is how many entries they did. Some people go to Pro/Am comps and dance 20, 40, 60 entries because they do several styles. As you can imagine the prices REALLY add up.

There are ways of keeping the costs of Pro/Am down if you're careful about it. Doing one style, doing fewer entries, and sticking to comps with less expensive hotels and less expensive plane tickets are some of the key ways to keep costs under control. I used always travel with another one of my teacher's students, so that would keep my share of his travel expenses lower, and would also give me someone to split my hotel room costs with.
 
And if you want to compete and reaally keep the cost down - my advice is --- sewing lessons :lol:

DID I happend to mention my totally new saphire blue gown - that I just this morning finished - did I did I did I - hee hee

New gown - new shoes - new partner - new choreography - that squeeking sound you hear would be me!
 
AH....I agree...I only wish I could make my own standard gown and latin dress....but at the moment, this is not a possibility.....

As for cost of pro/am comp, the average here for Ohio Star Ball (which is about 3 hrs driving) is 1,500 (incluing everything you pay to your teacher, and your own expenses:hotel, meals, etc. assuming you are NOT on package, and you stay at Crowne Plaza instead of Hyatt Regency! :lol: ) for someone to dance 5 single dance entries, plus one scholarship event (one style).

To keep the pro/am cost down, I would suggest one never stay in the same hotel where the competition is held. I find it way cheaper to stay in a hotel right next to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Dance Ads

Advertise on Dance Forums Reach dancers, teachers, studios, event organizers, and dance-friendly brands. View ad options
Back
Top