Eye of the Tiger

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
(If you're a fan of the show Supernatural-you may have already seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTsxF47wx5M )

I can no longer say that I have never competed in dance.
The US Western Region Oireachtas was this past weekend. It was pretty overwhelming for someone who has never done any sort of competition before. I'm glad I went-but I'm still on the fence about if I'd ever do it again. It kind of re-established to me that I'm not much of a competitive person.
Preparing for it was great, I love feeling like I'm apart of a team and we're all working for something. The actual dancing for the competition part is fun-because, hello, you're dancing. (AND! I didn't get my nervous nausea!) After that it's wait, wait, wait for the recall list to come up. (If you recall it means you placed but you won't find out where you placed until the awards ceremony that night.)
So we danced (repeating: Smile, arms, cross over. Smile, arms, cross over. in my head to remember to do so while dancing). We felt we did well, and our teachers were pleased with how we danced. They were sure we had placed in the top 3. The elephant that was compressing my chest turned into a balloon as soon as my feet started moving on the stage.
A few hours after we competed we found out we had recalled. So then we waited and waited for the awards ceremony. We found out we placed 5th. Went up on stage, got our medals, and our picture taken. We were disappointed we didn't do better. But our teachers were proud of how hard we had worked, and how well we did that day. And hey, we were the only team from our school to recall and place. (And I got a medal at my first competition.) There's always room for growth, which is good.
Friday, Aly, Emma, Sarah and myself spent the day at California Adventure and Disneyland. Saturday was the day we competed. Sunday we spent at the Oireachtas to watch our champ dancers compete. Monday morning, early, Aly and I flew home.
As for the competing thing...like I said, I'm still on the fence about. The energy and atmosphere of the event is filled with anxiety and tension. Dancer's at this level are all great-and discerning who's better is insane because everyone was so talented. I don't know how the judges do it.
I personally dance because I love it. I don't care what judges say. I don't see the draw to dancing for 3-5 judges who sit and look for reasons to dock you down. I'd rather stick to performances. I know some people love competing-and that's awesome for them. At this point for me, though, I just don't see it. I don't thrive on the competitive atmosphere. I am more of a team dancer anyway. I like working with a team or being in a company/ensemble to create something people will enjoy watching. Team figures I could see myself doing again, but I don't think I'll be solo competing anytime soon. I'm grateful for the chance that I had to go, be on a team, work hard for something, try something new, and learn a lot about an area of Irish dance that-to me-had been previously unexplored.
I'll post pictures when I get them.