The Virginia State DanceSport Championships, 2008

Yesterday, Agnes and I took part in the 2008 Virginia State DanceSport Championships at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reston. This is a major regional competition, featuring amateur and professional dancers from up and down the East Coast - there were more than 7,000 registered entries, although - happily - not that many people were on the floor at any one time.

We didn't dance as many heats as we normally do when we compete; this time, we just stuck to the five International Standard dances that I'm trying to master - Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Slow Foxtrot, and Quickstep - and we danced them both as individual heats and in a five-dance championship heat (all five dances back-to-back with minimum time in between...think of a terpsichorean pentathelon). Things were especially tough for Agnes because she was dancing not only with me, but with Phil, one of her other students, and the schedule was such that she ended up dancing ten consecutive heats - five with me, then five with Phil - followed by a short interval, then the five-dance championship with Phil, followed immediately by the five-dance championship with me. Her pantyhose had melted into her shoes by the end of the day.

You might think that this isn't too bad, given that each single-dance heat generally doesn't last more than about 90 seconds (as long as the judges need to score all the couples, but no less than 30 seconds). However, since you never know which judge will be watching you when, and what that judge will be looking at, you always have to try to be perfect...which, in my case, isn't easy. It ends up being a stressful, but ultimately fun and rewarding time.

But you don't want to read about it, you want to see the pictures. I may be able to post some video later, but the stills will have to do for now...

Here we are, before we've done any dancing. We thought it would be nice to have at least one good picture without sweat and odd candid expressions:


This picture was taken by our friend Laurie (Phil's wife). I thought it was interesting because it shows how the traffic can bunch up on the floor. In all of our single-dance heats, there were eight couples on the floor. The floor is pretty big, but everyone never fails to end up in the same place at the same time at least once per heat...


The judges are always watching like hawks, evaluating things like posture, footwork, floorcraft (how well you navigate around other couples and compensate for mistakes and places where you can't dance what you'd planned) whether you're dancing on rhythm, and your general "presence" - whether or not you look like you're having an orgasmically wonderful time while dancing everything perfectly. This picture shows judge Ron Bennett marking his scoring sheet as a couple glides past:


In this picture (I believe it was from our Quickstep heat), Agnes and I are rounding a corner of the floor in full flight. You can see the concentration on my face and - yes - sweat on my fevered brow. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly never sweat in the movies. How unfair is that?

I loved this picture because I remember the moment Laurie shot it. We were zipping along and all of a sudden, there was another couple hitting a picture line almost right in our path. At this moment I'm thinking: "Where are they going? What are they going to do? Are we going to hit them?" As luck would have it, we missed them by a small margin as we zoomed past...


A happy-snap of Phil and Agnes in the on-deck chute waiting to dance their five-dance championship heat. Phil always brings extra teeth along for that handsome movie-star grin.

And the results? Phil and I each took second place in each of our single-dance heats (which, for a major regional competition, isn't bad). And in our five-dance championship heats, Phil took a second place while I took a first (I think it was a gift, but who am I to argue with the judges?). Here's the proud troupe at the end of the awards presentation:

Phil and I each got those nice, garish medals...Agnes, as the professional teacher, only got sore feet and the pleasure of dancing with two handsome fellows. I bought her dinner to make it up to her.

So that was our adventure at this year's Virginia State. We had a good time, saw some old friends, and managed to finish the day without falling down (although Agnes took an elbow right to the back of her head when another couple ran into her during one of her heats with Phil). I made plenty of mistakes, but still managed a respectable-enough showing that Agnes let me sleep in the house last night.

And sometimes, that's as good as it gets.

So today we're winding down, visiting the local grandchild, and generally getting ready to face the new week. On the upside, Harry Turtledove's new novel The Man with the Iron Heart goes on sale Tuesday (don't be standing in front of the door at Borders when they open, or I'll run you down). On the downside...well...we have to get past Monday to get there.

That odd sound you hear is me gritting my teeth.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo