Performance – Summer Solstice Musings

Last weekend was very eventful.

On Friday, there was the 13th Anniversary dance of the Ottawa Swing Dance Society (OSDS). As a former Executive member of the OSDS I usually attend these anniversary dances but this time around I was extra excited to go because they had my absolutely favourite band – the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra playing for the night. It was amazing. I danced like crazy from 10:30 pm till 2 am. I wanted to stay till the end (4 am) but common sense told me I should go to bed because I was performing the next day with my team.

So, begrudgingly I listened to common sense -what a pesky little thing common sense is, and went home.

I made sure I slept enough and ate well.

It was a good night at Saturday Night Swing. All the teams did great and I’m overall happy with my own performance. Then I did a ton more of social dancing, deejayed the last set and went to bed at 2 am again, only to rise and shine early the next day because I had to be at the studio for a Blues workshop.

It was a good weekend.

Without further ado, here’s the video of the performance. It’s a very simple routine because it is a bootcamp one. Competitive routines are longer and much more complicated. FYI, I’m in the front line, black dress, red flower on my hair.

Tomorrow, we’re all off to the Canadian Swing Championships. Three days of dancing, competing, more dancing, no sleep and then on Sunday night, after the Award Ceremony, time for partying like there is no tomorrow :)

I’d like to share something Byron Alley -our head coach, sent to all of us last night (emphasis is mine):

It’s important to remember that CSC itself doesn’t *really* matter. Nobody lives or dies based on our performance (at least not until the CSC 2112 Hunger Games edition), and it’s really not likely to earn you a promotion at work (sorry!) I’ve danced in teams that have placed 1st in some of the biggest swing competitions, and it was awesome, but not because of the trophy. (Well, maybe a little bit because of the trophy.)

The only lasting, valuable thing is the feeling of working together and accomplishing something beautiful. It’s about discovering that some of our preconceived limitations are illusions, and that we are amazingly capable human beings. And it’s about learning that when we work together to accomplish things, trying to ignore the needs of our egos and to be patient with our partners’ and teammates’ idiosyncrasies, that we discover that successfully working together is just as worthy a goal as the goals that motivate us to be a team in the first place.

We spend a lot of time focusing on the negatives, because we want to get rid of them. I’m a very critical coach because I believe it’s important to seek our full potential. I don’t want you to sell yourselves short. Personally I don’t care if you have great posture or hunch your shoulders. I don’t care if you wait for your partner to lead, or shoot down the line like a rabid beast. It doesn’t make you less of a person, and some of the most inspiring dances I’ve seen have been with a Mr. Offbeat Armleading and Ms. Wiggly Hairtrigger. Who the hell cares? The reason I care is that I want to share with you the joys of taking your dancing and partnership to higher levels. And especially, because I want to hold you to the standards you’re capable of.

But at this point, before the competition, it’s especially important to focus on the positive. It’s crucial to think about what you WILL do, not what you will avoid. And it’s crucial to focus on your confidence that you’ve gotten this far, and you can get out there and do amazing things.

I thought that was very inspirational. At least to me. Even though this year I am not competing with any of the teams. As for the individual divisions, well… we’ll see. I don’t feel ready. I didn’t get much one-on-one training. Only one, in fact. Add to that I couldn’t get my dance shoes either, so I think I won’t compete at all.

Also, I wasn’t able to get a new laptop so I won’t be deejaying either. You might be thinking, what’s the point of going then? And I’d say you’re right. I even sent a message to the Event Director explaining the laptop issue and he insisted that I went anyway. So I’m going. At least, I’ll make a lot of noise when my teams are competing and when N is competing. And taking videos.

Besides, it’ll be great to see old friends from all over the continent too.

So CSC, here we go!

KaBOOM!!!