Hyperreal

This weekend past was the Scottish Competition in Musselburgh.

I was there with my partner for the complete event.

We’d entered the Intermediate competition, plus individually in the Lucky Dip.

To report the facts… We didn’t get through to the second round of the Intermediates. In the Lucky dip, I got through to the second round with another Intermediate dancer, while my partner reached the final with a partner who later went on to win the Advanced category with his partner.

Briefly stating my opinion, I think we were a bit hard done by not to get through to the second round of our category, but ultimately it doesn’t matter greatly – we we’re good enough to be in the final. I think we were both fortunate in the Lucky Dip with our allocation of partner, and think we both did as well as the results show.

Already people have been asking me if I will compete again next year. Well I fully intend to do the Lucky Dip at least. As for competing with a partner – probably. Anything can happen though, so who knows…

Despite our disappointment in the competition, the whole event was hugely enjoyable. Lots of good dancing, lots of good dancers, lots of good music.

Big thanks to the organisers, DJs, judges, and fellow competitors. Congratulations to those that did well. Commiserations to those who didn’t do so well.

Now I want to write a bit more about the weekend, as it happened…

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Friday…

Last year when I was only doing the Lucky Dip, I found the visit to the Brunton Hall on the Friday was very helpful in calming my pre-competition nerves. Being familiar with the venue and seeing some of the competition relaxed me – some of these folks were so vastly better than me I knew that my competition experience wouldn’t last long.

This year I was surprised at how calm I was about the whole thing, but I still thought that attending the Friday party would be a good idea for us. We’d be in Musselburgh ready for the competition without having to worry about travelling, and I thought it’d be good for my partner to get a feel for the place beforehand too, even if she wasn’t as nervous as I was for my first competition.

The night got off to a bad start for us though when someone was late and we missed the train we’d hoped to get. The whole journey was a bit of an adventure, as once we reached Edinburgh, we were entering unfamiliar territory, catching buses on routes we didn’t know, going to a part of Musselburgh neither of us had been to before, and then having to find our way from where we abandoned the bus to our hotel, in the dark.

Google maps are a godsend. That combined with the web site for Lothian Buses kept us right, and we managed to find our way with little difficulty and got to our hotel just past 10pm. From there we took a taxi down to the venue for the pre-comp party, and got in at about 10.30pm. Better late than never, huh? How did the world manage before the web?

Didn’t think it was as busy this Friday as it was last year… Still we had a good hour and a half of dancing – mainly practicing ourselves, though we had a few dances with other folks. Had a bit of a crisis when we had some problems with a drop… I don’t do many dips or drops, but we figured we should have a few for the competition. Unfortunately we had a problem with the lead/follow of one of them which meant we decided to abandon that one, and substitute it with another drop we hadn’t practiced at all. Think it was the right idea though, as it worked a lot better, and if I recall correctly, I might even have used it in the competition.

Worth going – helped get these last minute crisis sorted out helping to guarantee that the day of the competition would go smoothly.

After the party finished we were offered a lift back to our hotel in the new Ceroc-mobile. Unfortunately my navigating skills which had got us safely to the hotel earlier failed me (though on the google map those two road do meet!) Fortunately SatNav knows Musselburgh better than I do, and got us home to our hotel safe and sound.

Unfortunately, for varying reasons, neither of us got a particularly good night’s sleep. In my case, it might have been the Irn Bru 32 that I had finished off less than an hour previously that kept me awake… I’m sure nervousness about the competition also had a part to play to…

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Saturday…

Maybe got about 4 hours sleep before waking up at around half past 6, and after that there was no getting back to sleep. Did mean though that I had plenty of time to get ready, have a big-ish breakfast (I don’t recommend the Little Chef adjoining the Musselburgh Travelodge) and be ready to rock and roll by about half 10…

As it was such a nice day we decided to walk into Musselburgh, via Tesco (do they sell chilled water anywhere?) and arrived at the venue at maybe quarter past to half past 11.

Gave us plenty of time to nab a table for the Glasgow folks, get ourselves settled, have a bite to eat, and for someone to buy some shoes… The music started around 12 – a whole hour to warm up, practice, and get back into the zone…

At 1pm partnering up the lucky dip contestants was done. Unlike previous years where the guys line up, the girls line up and then move round a random number of guys; the pairing was done in a similar way to the comp at Blackpool – guys out one door, girls out the other, and then pair up as we all come back in.

Two things though… Unlike in Blackpool, all the pairings were made before any of the heats, so the folks in the later heats had longer to practice with their assigned partners. Good if you’re one of them, but I don’t think it’s fair really.

Secondly, Will the keener people be through the door quicker and thus in the queue earlier? And are the keener contestants also the better ones? Dunno. Interesting that the eventual winners, I guess, were right at the back of the line, as the man in that pairing had to be persuaded to enter to make up numbers.

Anyway, my partner was a girl from Dundee – I’d seen her around, but I don’t think I’d ever danced with her. After the partners were assigned and we found out what heat we were in (3rd) we got a chance to have a couple of dances before the heats started. I think we got a further chance to practice before our heat, can’t remember. We took up a position near both the Glasgow and Dundee crowds quite near the entrance, and a bit of distance from the stage.

That wasn’t really an issue though, as the judges had decided to walk around the dancers rather than stay up on the stage for the Lucky Dip rounds. (Except they changed their minds for the fifth and sixth heats after judging the first round of the intermediates – I wonder if this inconsistency had any effect on the results.)

I don’t remember a great deal about the warm-up dance or the competition dance. No idea what the music was. Thought we’d had quite a good dance though, even though we made a couple of mistakes…

Afterwards the results appear on a notice board outside scarily fast! And we were through! Numbers 42 & 75! Cool!

But no time to bask in the glory, as the Intermediate 1st round was coming up. We were in the first heat, and had to get our costumes sorted. My partner wore a rather nice red top with black trousers. I matched with black trousers, a black shirt and a red tie and cufflinks with a red highlight. I thought we looked pretty cool.

In no time at all we were on the floor. This time I selected a space near the stage to ensure the judges could get a good view of us, as in the past I’ve been aware of judges not always giving much attention to dancers off to the sides or at the back. I also hadn’t got round to getting anyone to video us, so that wasn’t a factor in choice of where to dance. Quick warm-up dance, which I thought was pretty good, then quickly into the competition dance – I think it was Pink Martini’s Let’s Never Stop Falling In Love – not a song I especially like or dislike, but not really a good song for my style which (I think) works better with something a bit more dramatic…

But we had been told to think of the song as our favourite song, and just go for it – and so we did. I don’t think nerves was a factor for either of us, we just danced, and enjoyed the dance. It wasn’t our best dance ever, and, of course, I have (over-)analysed why that was. I put it down to two factors – the music being the biggest one. I am not versatile enough to be able to dance well to this music. The second thing is probably that at that time of the day, without having danced for a good couple of hours beforehand with a variety of partners, in a relaxed environment, I will not be as good a dancer as I can be.

Oh well…

You can guess what’s coming next… As for the lucky dip, the results as posted very quickly after the heat ended. If we’re through to the next round our lucky number 7 would appear on the sheet of paper.

It didn’t.

We were a bit surprised, but more disappointed. A judge who didn’t realise we hadn’t got through congratulated us on a good performance. I think we took the news well… I saw a girl in tears when she couldn’t find her number on the board. In comparison, we shrugged our shoulders, and figured we get ready for the second round of the lucky dip, which we had both got into.

Before that happened there were a few chances to dance, and I had a couple of dances with my partner.

This was when my disappointment really took hold. I found I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. The failure to progress in the competition had robbed me of all my motivation. I tried to explain this to my partner. I’m not really sure how she took it, but she didn’t seem impressed…

I figured I needed to dance with someone else before the 2nd round of the lucky dip and see how motivated I was – and I had to find the best dancer possible to lift my spirits. And I did. And it did. I had a dance with an old friend who I always have fun dancing with, and I suddenly felt revived again. (The particularly good track we danced to must have helped also.)

I can’t remember if it was before or after the 2nd lucky dip round, but a bit later after a few dances with other people, I asked my partner for another dance, and we were back to normal. No matter what the judges think – we enjoy dancing together.

So, onto the second round of the lucky dip… Again we stayed up at the back, near the Glasgow and Dundee crowds for moral support (and also to allow videoing of our dancing. )

The other reason we stayed far back from the stage was that one of the judges had suggested to me and my partner than dancing at the front wasn’t always a good idea as you tend to literally get over-looked as judges have to make sure they are watching all the way to the back of the hall.

Again, I don’t remember much about the dancing, besides that I think I liked the music we were dancing to. I should take a look at the video taken, but I’m a bit scared to watch us and see what we looked like.

So, the results from this heat… Not so lucky this time. We didn’t get through to the Lucky Dip final, though my regular partner and her lucky dip partner did. Big congratulations to her for that achievement.

For me though, the war competition was over.

At least now I could watch it and relax knowing I had no further involvement.

Maybe it’s sour grapes, but I think we were better than some of the couples who got through to the second round of the Intermediate category – in fact, I think we were better than one or two who got through to the final, but I also think there were other couples knocked out before they deserved to be.

Watching the Advanced and Open categories was a pleasure, though I think there were one or two couples out of their depth… One thing that did strike me watching some of the dancers (especially the guys) was how little some of them smiled. Even as intermediate dancers, we had that sorted out – you need to look like you’re enjoying it, connecting with your partner, and having a good time.

Do dancers who can’t do that belong in these higher categories? Apparently they do, as some of these folks got through to the second (final) round…

I enjoyed all the showcases – the winner though was head and shoulders above the rest though.

There was only one team cabaret – and so by default they won their category. While it was a good performance, I can’t help wondering whether they really deserved collectively the largest prize of the whole competition. I wonder if their entry fee covered the cost of the prize (perhaps the prizes were donated, I hope so.)

The only other two competitions were the “reverse roles” where the girl had to lead the guy – entertaining – and a “Scot Challenge” a surprise event where the rules are announced on the stop – this time after last year having the follower blind-folded, this year it was the leader’s turn…

For both these competitions entertaining the crowd seemed to be the name of the game. I definitely think the best “couple” won the Scot Challenge, where they switched lead (and blindfold) a few times through their dance. Not so sure about the Reversed Roles – while the winning couple were entertaining, there were better dancers on the floor.

With all the competitions out of the way, next up was the prize-giving. This year they announced and had a certificate for the runner-up as well as for the winners who received a prize of a small amount of money, and bottles of champagne and whisky. Last year they just announced the winners and you could find out who had been “placed” by reading the score board outside. I forgot to check this year so I don’t really know who got placed, but would it have been so hard to also announce the third place from the stage?

Anyway, a big congratulations to all the winners, runners-up, and those placed. A fine achievement.

At the end of the the prize-giving, a cheque was also handed to DebRA, the sponsored charity this year, for a sum of £6,000 (or was it £6,500?) We also learnt that in the 5 years this event has been running it has raised over £35,000 for a variety of charities.

So, with all that out of the way, it was freestyle until midnight! (With a blues room opening a bit later, I think at around 10pm…) But first! Food!!!!!!

Though we’d all been snacking through the day, some of us didn’t fancy what was on offer from the competition caterers, for either price or selection reasons…

Anyway, these was a bit of a mass exodus as we all went off to find food. I was with a bunch of folks who went to the local chippy and then sat on the backs of the River Esk, watching the swans, having a bit of a laugh and eating our food. Good fun.

We eventually went back to the dance – we weren’t in a big rush… We’d been dancing all day and were exhausted. Back in the hall the main room was showing signs of getting busy again, but it was also getting hot… When the blues room got going it was both chilled music and chilled air… Much nicer.

I think I switched around between the main room, the blues room and the lobby bar area, not staying in one place for too long…

There was lots of good music in both rooms, and lots of good dancers.

Over the course of the weekend I theoretically had the opportunity to dance with some of the best dancers across the UK – but I stuck with asking only those dancers that I knew well for dances. It’s partly that the fab dancers intimidate me, but it’s also that a lot of them will know each other and want particularly to dance with each other, and I feel as a lowly beginner at these competitions who can’t even get through to the second round of the intermediates that they probably wouldn’t want to dance with me.

OK, so this is a bit of the evil of competitions showing up – it’s making me think I’m not good enough to dance with people above me in the competition hierarchy… But I didn’t mind really. I didn’t feel I was at my best, I’d had a knock to my confidence and I really only wanted to dance with friends who would make me feel good.

It worked – a girl I know from Edinburgh said the dance we had was fantastic. And it was. I doubt I’d get the same reaction or the same feeling from most of the winners of the higher categories.

So over the course of the night I probably didn’t dance as much I’d normally, and definitely didn’t dance with as many people as I wanted to, but I had a good night. We were shattered by the end of the night though, and were very glad to get a lift back to our hotel.

Before we left I had a chat with one of the scary English dancers I was just talking about. She remembered me from my visit down to the Big Bang where I had a dance with her. (I also danced with her in Blackpool.) From talking to her, maybe she’s not really so scary. Next time I meet her I’ll make sure and ask her for a dance.

The next morning didn’t really start until 10-ish, and we didn’t leave the hotel until after 11-ish, after having a brunch at the Little Chef (still not recommended) and an ice-cream from Burger King (much better. ) On the way back it was such a lovely day again we decided to walk until we found a bus or train… We managed to find the short-cut through to the bus routes and the railway station. We could have stood and waited no more than 10-15 minutes for a bus, but as it was such a lovely day we decided to walk further to the railway station where we could sit and enjoy the nice weather while waiting for our train. The journey from that point on was fairly unadventurous.

And that’s it!

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I suppose I should write about about the philosophical lessons of the weekend, but I’m finding it hard to pin down exactly what we learnt.

On not getting through to the second round, I learnt that perhaps I’m not as good a dancer as I thought I was, or that it is, but my dancing isn’t what the judges were looking for, or that it was, but they didn’t see us.

As far as the lucky dip is concerned, did I get through there due to better dancing by me, by my partner, by my partner and me (a synergy thing), or because of the way the judges watched us, or because of music that worked better for us?

It’s hard to know what to take away from this beyond that I enjoyed it, and that both of us are better dancers than before we started this.

The other big lesson of the weekend is that dancing with a better dancer can lift you up and allow you to achieve more, but the other side to that is that dancing with a poorer dancer will drag you down a bit.

Maybe competitions are evil… But everything besides the actual competition result I’d say was definitely good for us.

On the subject of “what the judges are looking for”, I was told by a fellow competitor that in the Intermediate category, the thing the judges are expecting is flashy moves; then in Advanced it is musicality; and when you get to Open, they expect flashy moves done musically.

I think my musicality is better than my flashy moves, but I’m certainly not ready for the advanced category. Maybe with sufficiently good musicality having flashy moves doesn’t matter so much…

Dunno – it’s not even my theory – but it’s something to bear in mind in the run-up to next year…

Anyway, just need to thank everyone again.

First my lovely partner. She was always keen, supportive and encouraging. Even when I knew I could do something better, she would always consider what she could do different to help. Any criticism was constructive. Such a good dancer, I’m very lucky to have had her as my partner, but as such a nice person, I’m even more lucky to have her as a friend.

My lucky dip partner was also a blessing. She was a pleasure to dance with, and I thank her for helping create a performance good enough to get us into the second round. I’m sure with a better partner she would have made it to the final too.

I want to thank the people who have given us support and advice over these weeks. We tried to take everything you said on board, and hopefully we achieved that to some degree and were better dancers as a result. Many, many thanks to you all.

I salute the judges too. Although I disagree with their collective wisdom in some matters, they have a tough job to do and I’m sure they tried to do it as best they could. In this case, I’d certainly prefer to be judged, rather than judge.

Lastly, big thanks to Scot and all those that helped out on the day. Of course, a competition and dance is pointless without the dancers, so thanks to everyone who was there. Especially those I danced with. (And I hope to catch up with those I missed soon.)

I hope to see you all again next year…