For this post you are going to have to backtrack quite a bit. If you recall, I am not caught up with last year. Old news...but most of the posts don't repeat themselves. It isn't like Christmas is going to happen again this month. However, ballroom competitions started last December and I haven't blogged about any of them. Yet, today I'm blogging about ballroom competitions that happened recently. I will eventually get those December ones on here, but I'm staying current...so this is what you get.
Here is a little history though. The Elementary school started up a ballroom program for 4th-6th grade. Both Daisy and Ivory were interested so we signed them up. It was a trick getting enough boys. Oh yeah, I did put Ivory's persuasion letter on the blog, so maybe I have mentioned ballroom before. Anyway, they got enough guys to start the program, but the guys usually dance twice and girls just share a partner. At the same time, June signed up for a ballroom class at school. Ballroom competitions happen around the same time. In December, they were the same day, but this last month, they had them on different days. Also, most of the competitions were smaller; just held at the high schools, but this one was at BYU. It was big.
I actually enjoyed it a lot more. In the smaller competitions, there is no selection process so everyone comes and there are tons of kids. Any given dance has multiple heats and it goes a long time. At BYU, there was only one heat for each dance. Teams had to be a certain size and it went very quickly. However, there was also the newcomer dances.
Man...I'm getting ahead of myself. This was all new to me, so I'll try to explain better. A team event consists of couples who dance designated songs. For instance, June was scheduled to dance the Tango. Other couples danced the Waltz, Swing, and Foxtrot. Then there is an All Around Couple. They get a mystery dance. They draw out of a hat and dance that particular style, so they need to be ready for anything. However, in the second round, they draw out of the hat for every couple, so really, everyone needs to be ready. In this case, June's surprise dance was Swing. The All Around couple just gets TWO surprise dances. The teams are judged all together and they get a bronze, silver, or gold depending on how they danced. Then they give an award and sometimes money to the top bronze, silver, and gold team. That is the team event.
There are also elimination dances. They will choose one style of dance and all the couples will compete from all the schools in different heats. Then they will call back dancers that they liked and they will keep eliminating them until they give the top 6 or 8 an award. These elimination events are usually pretty big starting with 100-200 couples. I think the elementary had 11 heats with 20 couples on the floor at a time. Anyway, these newcomer dances are before or after the team event, but they aren't connected.
So, now that you have a little history, let's see if we can get through this ballroom day. This was June's competition. It was all day. They had newcomer cha-cha in the morning and I was working so I missed that. But I got out to the Marriott Center just in time to watch June in newcomer Swing. Her partner was James and they did a good job, but they weren't called back. (She wasn't called back in the morning round either.) You can see her here circled.
The elimination rounds were finished then, but the team dance wasn't until the evening so we had some time to kill. There is stuff going all day though. They have competitions back to back, and whenever there is judging being completed, there are more dancers coming on. I actually think they have it organized very well. Junior High competitions are fun, but they are plain. The kids are all instructed to wear the same kind of outfits. (In fact, June almost got in trouble for having some glitter in her hair. Oops.) However, at the higher levels, the more outlandish the costume, the better. Most of the day, June and I sat and talked about dresses and costumes and glitter and dancing. It was so fun. Here is just a hint of the costumes. Every girl down there has a sparkly costume...guaranteed. And half the time, the boys are just as sparkly. This was an elimination event as well.
They also have formation dances, which are the ballroom teams. They dress in matching apparel and dance a number all together. Those are the coolest. We watched our high school team. I almost didn't recognize some of the people. They had all got matching tans and all the girls had dyed their hair black. I wish I had taken more pictures. Some of the costumes were incredible. The dances were so fun to watch. There was a robot number that was my favorite. The only picture I did take was of this following group because I thought the dresses were so ugly. They danced to avenger music and probably some Wonder Woman music, but I'm thinking the ketchup/mustard look is not attractive.
We did take a break and go out for lunch. We were looking for something that would not need to stay warm, so we stopped by Great Harvest to get some sandwiches. It is funny because they put on the board that every sandwich has lettuce, tomato, and onion. But they don't mention that they have mustard and pickle as well. June was not impressed with her sandwich, although mine was quite tasty. I got one with stuffing and cranberry on it. Our other treats were good though and we also got Jamba Juices. Here we are hanging out. It was actually a very fun relaxing day. Especially since I just got to watch.
In the evening, it was time for the team competition. Each of the Junior Highs are announced and they enter together. They have flags for their team color. The girls wear ribbons around their waste so you can see what color team they are on. For this event, June was on the gray team. I believe their Junior High had at least three to four teams. I think one was lime green, just next to them.
As I mentioned, June's assigned dance was the Tango. Her partner for this event was Eli. (One of the twins!!) Here they are ready to go.
And here is the video. Let's see how these blogger videos work. I never could get youtube to work, but I was happy that I could do the videos right on here. Just click play. You should be able to see them. (Not on the blog book of course.)
And I always try to get a picture of June with her partner. Although Ben came and somewhat photobombed this one.
It was a weird award ceremony. They always announce the bronze first, then silver, and then gold. So if you don't hear your team color in the first two groups, you know you got gold. Well, I didn't hear gray announced in bronze or silver, so I was excited. But then it wasn't announced for gold either. I had heard lavender so I was trying to decided if June's ribbon was a really ugly shade of lavender?? Turns out that they ran out of gold medals, so even though gray team got gold, they just didn't announce it. I'm not sure why? They went home with bronze medals because that was all they had left. But it probably was more humiliating that they didn't even announce that they got gold. Weird. Regardless, it was a very fun evening and June had a good time.
And, I'm just now remembering that they had a competition just a few weeks previous. I may as well get some pictures on here, since I won't want to come back and do a separate post. This was an event at a high school. It is very similar except a lot more kids dance. I believe you have to qualify at these kinds of events to go to BYU later. Or maybe that is just the elementary level??
June does not like that everyone comes in and sits on the floor. She says it isn't very comfortable, but I understand why they would want everyone close by to dance when they need to. Here is a great blurry shot of her on the floor with her teammates.
She was assigned Swing in this competition. And her partner was Declan. Here they are ready to dance.
And away they go. (Haha, this one was funny because they started with the wrong music. But they got it right just moments later.)
Their surprise dance was the Waltz. For some reason, I can't get that video to load. I'm impressed the others worked, so we'll just skip this one.
It was funny because I ended up randomly sitting by Briana's mom. Briana is in ballroom, but also percussion with Robyn. So it was fun to chat with her, but even funnier when she realized we were wearing the same style of shoe. Great minds think alike.
They ended with the same group dance, although none of my pictures turned out. It is hard to see one couple in a sea of people. And I believe that June's peach team got gold. Good job June and Declan and other teammates.
Ballroom has been very fun. It has taken up a lot of time around here, but I don't even mind the events and the cost has been minimal. We had to get some shoes for the little ones but most of the things we have had on hand. I like that it is a good social experience with a little bit of sport added in.
I'll try to get the younger girls' events on here shortly.
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