Texarama 2016

This past weekend was Texarama!  We split Tiny's entries between the Junior category and the Ladies category.  We were honestly just really happy that she made the finals for her championship round in the Ladies category, since it is such a competitive division, and the people she danced against were formidable, and when she ended up winning, we were thrilled! I haven't had time to write a full post, but here are the links to her videoed rounds and our favorite pictures from yesterday.  Stephen Marino (the photographer) got some amazing shots of everyone, and these are the ones we loved the best!

Open Cha Cha, Rumba and Swing with Daniel.

Ladies Championship Semi-Final Round.

Ladies Championship Final Round.

Junior Scholarship Championship Round.

New Latin Dress Came In!

Her Latin dress we ordered back in January came in today!  We got an email about shipping less than a week ago, and we really expected it to take longer, since it was coming from Hong Kong!  We think it looks great!

Competition Jacket Came In!

So, Shara's dad bought her an official competition jacket for her birthday to wear in the ice-cold ballrooms over her costumes.  We went into the studio for a West Coast Swing class, and not only were we able to pick up her jacket, but we also got on the list for this weekend's events - the Professional Competition on Friday night, and a show with renowned Latin World Champions, Maurizio and Andra, during the Into the Woods ball.  We're pretty excited, and by we, I mean I'm pretty excited, and the stoic teenage female thinks it's "cool."

New Dress for January

Today was the day!  We picked up the dress from The Singing Seamstress today.  Here are the promised pictures.

She always looks that excited when I ask her to do anything.  For someone who is pursing her dream, she has an awfully "teenager" attitude a little too often for my taste.

Once she tried it on with shoes and did some dancing in it, we messaged the seamstress and decided to add an extra skirt layer to the back, so in addition to the crystals, it will get a slight design modification, to adapt to the extreme movement in her choreography.

Note the lovely new shoes, her new practice pair with the three inch heels.  She has been wearing 2 1/2 inch heels since she started last year, so we don't expect her to have any difficulty adapting to the new height.

Danciversary and New Dresses

Happy One Year Danciversary!  So, she celebrated one year of dancing with Fred Astaire on June 10th with a dance class, a balloon, and brownies that I took the Happy Father's Day tag off of and gave to her.

We also decided that since she's going to be a serious competitor and dancer, her dresses need to completely reflect that.

Which meant she needed a new costume.

We found a Latin dress for sale from a dancer who competed at Blackpool, and it shipped to us from Poland.  We had to modify the bra cups, since they were originally intended for someone with a smaller chest.

Obviously, that isn't Shara in the dress.

This is before we fixed the strap and the cups, so she wouldn't let me take a picture of the front. 

Since she's doing an Argentine tango for her Showcase dance in January, we wanted a dress tailored for it.

Which meant she needed a new costume, of course.

A friend we met during the production of Sound of Music I participated in happens to be a seamstress, and I found pattern pieces that we (well, I just told her what we wanted from each of the pattern parts, so really, it was all her) put together into an actual dress.  We went for a fitting on Sunday, and while it needs a couple of tweaks, it's looking pretty fantastic.  It's navy lycra with a fitted bodysuit under, a halter neck with criss cross straps, and a skirt with a point over her right thigh.

While we were killing a little time waiting to meet with the seamstress, we swung by the dance store to browse through dresses and see what they had.  We were particularly interested in a green dress she had tried on a while back, since it might match the new Latin dress.  Her Lita also mentioned being interested in taking her shopping for a new smooth dress for her birthday, so we were looking to see what the possibilities were.  Which meant we....just kidding.  I certainly wasn't expecting to buy anything.  She did find one she really liked, and she tried it on.  It was a really good fit, and I figured we'd keep it in mind, but while we were at the seamstress' house doing the fitting, her Lita messaged and said she'd pay for it if we wanted to go back.  Since we had to pass the store again to get home, and it was a fast fitting, we decided to stop back by.  While we were there, we found a pair of earrings that looked like they had been made for that dress.  They are a little heavy, but I found some stabilizing thingie for the back of her ear that is supposed to take the pressure off of the ear lobe, so I ordered them (I love you, Amazon) and they came in today.  They were only $1.99, so even if they don't work, it's not a huge loss.

Anyhow.  I'm sure we'll add more crystals.  I can't imagine NOT adding more crystals to something, actually.  We're not sure what we're doing with it, but we have time, since she's not planning to compete in it for a while.  Her next event will be a level passing on the 21st of this month (July) and Mini Match in August, though we're not sure yet what she needs to wear for Mini Match.

The Journey of the First Year (Part 7 - May: Lonestar)

The first of her two competition weekends was in San Antonio at La Toretta Resort and Spa.  We went to a local spa for her spray tan, this time.  We tried getting her tan hand airbrushed.  It was a little more expensive, but it looked a lot better, less streaky than the one she had in December from the spray tan shower.  We drove up to San Antonio for one night at the Hilton, since it was a lot cheaper than staying at the resort both nights.

We painted nails and toenails back in the room and had a terrible night's sleep, despite the king size bed.  The next morning we got up early enough to head to the resort for check-in and makeup.

 

 The view was gorgeous, and so was our room, but I had to stash our stuff quickly and head down for coffee.

Once she had hair and makeup done, she got set to dance.

It was an all Latin competition for her, and she only danced with Daniel.  She competed in mambo and bolero in addition to her regular cha cha, rumba and swing categories, and went head to head against a really great dancer a little older, but in her category. 

 

 As usual, I'm not the best photographer.

 

But the professional photographer got some really great shots.  Shara and the other dancer went back and forth winning categories, and in the final round, with five judges voting, Shara wiped the floor with the other girl in cha cha, lost all five votes in swing, and lost by one vote in rumba, giving her a runner up youth title.  She had a great time, though, and it helped to restore some of her confidence after the Foxtrot Debacle. 
 

Shara Lonestar May 2015 

After she was done competing, we enjoyed being at the top of a hill during a huge flood, hit the resort's water park the next morning between showers, and headed back home before the rain started up again.