Hillcrest Competition

Ooooooweeeee!

That was fun. This last weekend my partners and I had the opportunity of going down to Hillcrest High School and competing. I have three dance partners: Madison Lund (Smooth), Katie Thornhill (Ballroom) and Katie Guillot (Latin).

(A Little Explanation) 
The difference between the Smooth and Ballroom dances is not much. Smooth means that the partnership can break out of the classic ballroom frame more often, its separated-partner work and more playful. Ballroom is the straight pleasant faces and smiles as you maintain dance position for the entire song. To explain a little more about how Ballroom works. There are three brackets once you get to be my age: Novice, Pre-Champ and Amateur in that order. The Novice division is for the newer competitors and you are only required to do two out of the five dances, Pre-Champ and Amateur start to tack on the other dances.

(Ballroom) - Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep
(Smooth) - Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz
(Latin) - ChaCha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Jive

As you and your partner get better you will begin to "point-out" of a competition which basically means you've won the lower competitions enough times that now you are now required to "compete up"...(you following this?) You can never point out of the Amateur division. The next step for you would be to compete professionally.

I competed Novice and Pre-Champ Ballroom, Pre-Champ Smooth, and Novice and Pre-Champ Latin this weekend and I must say it was a workout. There are only a few other people who spread themselves that thin and they are all on Tour Team so that makes me happy. Now, I'm not the best at any of these divisions. We did place Second in Novice Ballroom and Pre-Champ Smooth which was very happy and exciting for us. Especially because the people who beat us are all on higher teams. That was the first time we had used a lot of our routines so it was nice to practice those in a competitive atmosphere: AND actually get through them. I am very excited for my partnerships. I think we are really going to do well in the future and our coaches seem to feel the same way.

{Sir Charles}