Journal 4: Competition Chaos

This weeks direct progress on my project hasn't been accomplished besides sending an email out to Laurie to arrange an interview time and watching more dance videos. However it was the week that competition began again for the A.N Myer Dance Teams so I gained more experiences in my dance career that have shaped my dance life. These experiences that occured at the Terpsicore Competition in Guelph on March 10th 2015 have impacted me significantly. The successes that we accomplished as a team is bonding during this competition. We all took a bus to Guelph which took an hour and a half so there was plenty of time to talk to people we usually don't talk to and get to know our team a bit better since it was the start of a new season. As the team connected it was almost as if the nerves of our first competition melted in the air, anxiety vanished and excitement took its place. We all helped each other on the bus to do our hair and makeup so we were ready to take the stage as soon as we got there.

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For most of the day I was not nervous, until it came time for my solo. I have done a solo on stage twice in the past before but the nerves never falter moments before I go on stage alone. Yet this time the butterflies were even worse because as a senior I was left with little practice time at the studio so the juniors could have more time to practice. In the wings of the stage I could feel my heart racing as I heard the music of my song begin as it pushed me onto the stage. Once I was actually on stage the only challenge I encountered was fear but that slowly drifted away as I became more comfortable under the bright spot light. On stage I poured out all my emotions and told the story to the audience as well as I could. Only time would tell what the judges would say....

But soon it was time for audjudication and the judges began annoncing the awards. At the end of the awards to my surprise my solo came first overall against all solos over 13 years old. I was in shock. This experience boosted my confidence as a dancer and taught me to believe in my abilities when I try my hardest. Even though this wasn't a productive week with written work towards my project I think this week was overall a successful one. I learned the lesson to try your best in every situation even if you are faced with an obstacle. During my solo even with the issue of little practice I still stayed positive and did the best I could to accomplish my outcome. As a dancer it has made me grow and see the possibilities that could happen when you are confident. I feel like this will be an aspect of my project to how I have grown as a dancer from the example of my first solo to now and evolutionized. My next steps from this week is to take my experience into consideration when gaining my past experiences from Laurie and when reflecting on my old dance pictures and videos to explore who I am as a dancer. This will help me determine the influences on my passion to succeed in my passion project.