Catching Up - Freddie Ball & A Day

So, this past weekend was the big awards ball and ceremony for our region.  Nominations are a huge honor.  Last year, Tiny didn't get a nomination, because she only competed once, and hadn't been at the studio very long.  This year she scored two nominations, one for Top Youth, and one for Top Competitor.  Even though she didn't win, she was very pleased to have been nominated. 

The real reason we attended, though, was because we knew two of her instructors had been nominated for Top Teacher awards, though it turned out that all three of them were! 

The dinner was delicious, both Matt and Daniel won awards, and the photographer who has been doing all of the dancesport events for our region was there, and he took an amazing picture of Shara with Matt.  The dance floor was packed all night long, and getting to watch Mark & Olga Elsbury was fantastic.  We were, however grateful to be heading home after a while, since we didn't get home until just after midnight. 

The next morning was A Day, and while Tiny isn't signed up to do a big number for Rhythm of the Night, we still enjoyed the classes all day.  We ran into the photographer (Stephen Marino, who is fantastic!) during the day, and he did an impromptu photo shoot with Shara & Richard, since we have tons of pictures with her & Daniel, and tons with her & Matt.  I wasn't expecting a full pictorial, but hey, no complaints here! 

Girl sees dance instructor...

 

 Her next event will be Starlight - I believe she is doing a swing with Daniel to "Confident", and she is in fifth gear working on her open rhythm routines for the Lone Star competition in August of this year.  Today she has a special coaching session with Mark Elsbury, and she is pretty excited about it. 

Lone Star Results Came In!

We got Shara's results and plaque from the Lone Star competition back in May, where she danced all Latin with Daniel.

So if we do the math, the girl she was going up against beat Shara four times (or six if you count the championship round) and Shara beat that girl eleven times (or twelve if you add in the championship round).

 

I will say that Tiny Dancer was pleased to hear that, simply because the loss in the championship round shook her confidence a smidgen. Taking first in every round at the competition the following weekend really helped, and knowing that the choreography that they put together for her was a reflection of their confidence in her ability to learn it helped, too. 

From here until the end of the year, it will be working on choreography for the October Spotlight, which will be an Open Swing to Uma Thurman and potentially a preview of her Dancescape choreography.

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.