hello!
This past weekend me and my dance company DANCE est Joie, went to Branson Missouri to compete at DMI (Dance Makers Inc)
This was my first time ever doing a competition so I wasn't too sure what to expect but I for sure liked it!
The hotel was HUGE and the first night there wasn't too much to do if you weren't competing or watching, so everyone was pretty much walking around until the bonus classes started. I was already getting a little stressed which isn't good for me since I'm prone to panic attacks.
Saturday morning at 7am is when everything started. Got up, ready and had breakfast in one of the girls rooms before we went to warm up at 8.
All classes started at 9. Several hours of classes and a Jazz audition (which was a lot thrown at you so I didn't do too well but I didn't stress too much about it) we had lunch, went back to some classes then whomever was in the first lineup of competition dances had to get ready in the dressing room by 3:15. I had to miss the hip hop class which was a bummer.
I try to usually keep other people calm when they get stressed, saying like "You're okay, it's okay, calm down" lol but when I'm stressed it's like a whole different thing! Which for something like this I was getting a little stressed, and not really for any particular reason just because of the whole experience I guess? There were sooooo many people, and I don't do the best when I'm in places with a lot of people, but I thought I was doing pretty good that weekend considering what it could be.
I competed, thought I did pretty good! Got first place in 2 of my dances and second in the other one! (managed to get a chunk of hair stuck in my mouth that I couldn't move without it being obvious, and thinking my dress was coming down when it clearly wasn't) but you learn from your mistakes and make notes of things you can do for competitions in the future!
There was a big snow/ice storm coming in that evening, (as many of you are probably aware) and many many of the parents decided to leave that night. I was too tired to leave, so we stayed the night. The next morning it was pretty obvious we weren't going to leave for another day, so me and a couple of the other girls went to some classes and then entertained ourselves with ice cream and movies for the rest of the day.
On monday morning me and my mom had all of our stuff packed up, getting ready to leave that morning, she went down to the front desk and checked out. My mom came back up to our room and called my dad and he said that the roads from where he worked to our house were solid ice and that we shouldn't come home.
Of course, I was aggravated. If you've ever been stuck in a hotel you know my pain. It's boring, and my friend whom I had been hanging out with left that morning to go home. (It took her 5 hours to get half way! And it's a three hour drive.) Me and my mom watched HGTV all day and ate over priced hotel food for the fourth day.
Tuesday came, we packed all of our stuff up got in the car and LEFT! Roads were clear, there were only some parts that had a little more snow/slush that hadn't been cleared off yet but for the most part we made good time and I was happy to be back home!
If you even made it to the end of this long post, I hope you enjoyed my story/rant of this past weekend. It was a little bit of a crazy adventure, but for sure one I will always remember. Do you have any stories like this? Feel free to leave them in the comments, I'd love to read them!
-A
