Open Smooth

Overall Placement: 2^nd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcKDgXHxGBY

Even though we had competed just a week prior at Brandeis University, Tracey and I had set aside some practice time during the week in between to add in some more choreography to the mix. We really felt that our performance at Boston University was definitely a step up from where we were just a week prior at Brandeis.

Another major point of difference between the two competitions was the fact that we were much better matched on the floor not only in the number of competitors — there was only one other couple competing against us in Open Smooth at Brandeis — but also in the level of competition — said couple easily outclassed us. We definitely felt like there was some mystery as to how the results would go! It was nice to be competing against people more in our league, and solidifying our placement at just below Jason and Kailee and just above the rest, we are more than content with our results.

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Gold Rhythm

As is usual practice, Tracey and I competed in Gold Rhythm alongside Open Smooth even though we never practice or train for it. At this particular competition, it really showed. Perhaps it had something to do with being totally worn out from our Open Smooth dancing earlier on in the day, but we didn’t do very well at all. We took fourth place in Swing and sixth in Mambo (for a combined total of 6th place) after making the final from a semi-final first round, and didn’t make it past the first round semi-final in Cha-Cha and Rumba.

Novice Rhythm

Since Bolero was offered only as a Novice event, Tracey and I decided to jump in and compete it at the last minute. Since there were eight couples competing in the event, it was run as an eight couple final and we took second place. Tracey and I were sufficiently pleased with the placement, especially given that we only ever dance Bolero at competitions and almost never in between.

Gold Latin

It turned out that Latin went even poorer for us even than Gold Rhythm did. We didn’t make it to any final events, or even semi-finals for that matter. This was certainly no surprise as we were competing in Gold — as opposed to our usual Silver level for Latin — due to restrictions on spanning multiple levels between styles at this particular competition. Even if it weren’t for that, we were so readily exhausted by that point that we’d have just as well not competed at all.

Open Smooth

As before, this was the event that Tracey and I anticipated most. Due to the small size of this particular competition, we only had one other couple on the floor for Open Smooth. This turned out to be a perfect opportunity for us to give our new choreography a shot on the competition floor without having to worry as much about floorcraft with regard to other couples. As is plain to see from the video, we were easily outclassed by the other couple on the floor; Mike and Jess are surely veterans in Open Smooth. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful experience and we all enjoyed it.

Overall Placement: 2^nd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7xtWGALXg

Knowing that we’d get second place going in to the competition, the immediate placement results weren’t surprising in the least: we squarely took second place in every dance. However, one of the seven judges, Armin Kappacher, saw fit to place us first in Waltz! This is all that we could possibly have asked for — to take just one mark from just one judge in just one dance. Tracey and I are ecstatic.

Gold Rhythm

Overall Placement: 3^rd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtld4s8Trmw

Gold Rhythm also went fairly well and we were able to place better than expected considering, as usual, that it’s a style that Tracey and I don’t practice at all. The day of the competition, I surprised Tracey with just a measure or two of apart-work steps that I was able to kludge together based on videos of other couples (thank you George Cometa). She was happy that I had put in the effort, even if I did mess it up while performing.

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Silver Latin

Overall Placement: 3^rd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ4oqO5MjnI

Again, Tracey and I competed in Silver Latin just because we could. Since there were enough couples for a semi-final, we were racked up a few more Silver Latin points.

Gold Standard

Overall Placement: 4^th Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTAJPD8KBcg

Competing with a partner that I’d never danced with before, Margot and I were just happy to be able to dance Gold Standard together. On the plus side we didn’t take last place! It was certainly a pleasure.

Open Smooth

This was the event that we were most looking forward to. Especially after under-performing in gold smooth, this was a chance to redeem ourselves. And so we did; taking second place directly behind Jason Seabury and Kailee Donovan, Tracey and I are both ecstatic with our results.

Overall Placement: 2^nd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=upkzX8l7kNk

There were seven couples in the open smooth event and we were shocked as to how well we placed. Walking in expecting to take dead last and walking out with scholarships, gift certificates and cash prizes, I feel that our open smooth debut went fantastically well. Full results breakdown follows.

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Gold Rhythm

Tracey and I also competed gold rhythm and placed pretty well considering that we don’t ever practice it. At this point, though, we both agree that it’s about time that we actually learn some rhythm dancing properly. It’d be a lot of fun to pick up some choreography that we can play with. Specifically, we don’t have any apart work, and in gold rhythm that’s a shame to miss.

Overall Placement: 3^rd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2s1OqO1Gcg

There were seven couples in the gold rhythm final and the results breakdown for said final follows.

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Silver Latin

Since we were going to be there anyway, Tracey and I decided to dance silver latin together. As usual, we didn’t get all that far; a callback or two was the most latin love we’d see from the judges this time. While it’d have been nice to do well in latin, too, we’ve really just been concentrating on smooth dancing lately, so latin has definitely taken the back seat — for now.

Gold Smooth

First thing in the morning, Tracey and I competed in gold smooth. We did much poorer in our dancing than we had hoped for, but were able to make up for it in the open rounds. Personally, I chalk it up to it being first thing in the morning; I never move quite as well in the morning as I do at night.

Overall Placement: 3^rd Place

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBqSh8Hy9M0

The results breakdown below shows that actually we didn’t do all that poorly except in waltz, further corroborating the theory that morning events don’t go as well for us.

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Last weekend, I competed at the 10th Annual Holy Cross Ballroom Dance Competition with Kailee (Standard events) and Brittney (Latin and Smooth events). Altogether a beautifully run competition, as usual, competing at Holy Cross was a lot of fun. In addition to the dancing itself, there was a photo shoot session in which I posed with Kailee. As for placements, it was a very fruitful competition for us. Read on for full results.

Results

Since no detailed results are available, the following chart simply lists placements. If and when detailed results become available, I will update this post.

The Schedule

This competition was particularly difficult schedule-wise. It was bad enough that Harvard booked their competition over the date that Holy Cross had chosen well in advance. What made things worse was that I had decided to attend both competitions — on the same weekend — for as many events as possible. This left me with Latin, Standard and Smooth events at Holy Cross on Saturday. I skipped Rhythm at Holy Cross — which is why you don’t see any results for that style in the chart above — in order to be able to catch the championship rounds at Harvard (always a great demonstration of talent) as well as the showcase there.

The Events

Kailee and I were able to compete all of the International Standard events offered in the silver level. Four standard dances were offered as two double-dance events in our level, and we did fairly well in the Waltz/Quickstep event but fell quite short in Tango/Foxtrot. I do feel that Kailee and I have had some productive Standard lessons together with Mark Sheldon, and I can’t be happier with how those lessons have gone. Kailee was ecstatic with the results.

Since I was able to stay through the second style, Brittney and I were able to compete together for the American Smooth Events. One double-dance event and one single event was offered in silver, and we performed better than expected in both given our minimal practice and zero lessons together. Brittney was thrilled to celebrate her first ever Silver Smooth points.

Unfortunately, since I had to get to the airport on time with the appropriate preparations beforehand, I was unable to stay for the American Rhythm and International Latin styles and also missed the showcase.

The Results

The Surprise

In between the International Standard and American Smooth styles, BU announced a competitive fun dance: reverse role Rumba. Tracey and I decided to compete together, and actually placed! Tracey led a great few rounds of American Rumba and apparently I can indeed perform reasonably well as a follower in said dance.

We didn’t bother with any pictures or video for this competition, but you can definitely expect some for the MIT Open next month! Read on for a full recap including the usual results breakdown.

Competition Overview

All in all, the competition was terrifically well run. The vast number of judges employed over the two day competition was truly awesome, and the speed and efficiency with which line-ups, rounds, and callbacks were run was nothing short of amazing. I have yet to see any other competition that was run more smoothly. No competition is without its small organizational hiccups, but I have a huge degree of respect for the Harvard ballroom team and associated persons.

One thing that really caught my eye was how the paperwork — or lack thereof — was handled for adjudication. It turns out that they used a new software system, HustleComp, for the whole results and callback process, which was extremely smooth and slick. They had a free (open but private) wireless network set up which allowed online and instantaneous access to callback and results information. In addition, wireless hand-held devices (iPod Touch devices, namely) were used by all of the check-in staff as well as the judges in order to record callback information instantaneously and without the hassle of running scrutineer sheets back and forth. That’s right, no pen and pad, no mixed up or lost sheets, no fumbling to try to find out which number was circled, and no extra time wasted. Finally, they had several projectors set up around the room to facilitate dissemination of callback information. As a result, they seldom called out any actual couple numbers when doing callbacks, rather expecting each couple to stay on top of that information themselves. And what’s best about the whole setup is that it just worked for the most part. Hooray technology.

Results

Again, I think we outperformed my expectations for the competition despite the fact that we pretty much got creamed. I was especially happy to hear from one of my coaches that there is visible improvement in our dancing. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, though, as visible in the following full results breakdown.

Of note here, we did pretty well in smooth. I feel as though at this point I should take a smooth lesson or two (which neither Lina nor I have ever had before) in order to get a few things to work on within that style.

Looking Forward

Lina’s going to be studying flat-out until her step one boards, which she is scheduled to take two days before the competition at MIT this year. That leaves me practicing mostly on my own for the next month or so, which is actually quite nice as I have a number of things to work on by myself, especially in Standard and Latin. I’m looking forward to being able to correct a number of my own issues that have nothing to do with my partnership.

Of note, we finally did better in Standard than in Smooth! I think that we would have done better in Latin and Rhythm had we not been so worn out by that time (Smooth and Standard came first), but we had a great time nonetheless.

Lina sustained minor injury early on in the Standard rounds: somehow the square heel of someone’s shoe left a 2cm² area of missing skin on the back of her heel, unfortunately at exactly the place where the edge of her Standard shoes rub. We didn’t have time for any first aid response before the first round of International Foxtrot, but we gave it a go anyways. Apparently this was a bad idea. Less than ten seconds into the dance, Lina had to get off of the floor, as she couldn’t do any heel pulls — an essential follower’s step in International Foxtrot. I’m surprised that we got marked by two judges in less than ten seconds, and feel confident that our work in International Foxtrot over the last few weeks has not gone unrewarded, regardless of what the marks may say. The trooper that she is, Lina finished out the rest of the competition once we were able to patch her up with some gauze and medical tape.

Videos of this event may follow shortly, and updates will be appended to this post. Stay tuned!