I dedicated 10 years of my life to competition dancing. Like most competition dancers, I spent almost every other weekend at competitions and conventions. I spent countless hours at hotels and in convention rooms, sacrificing most social engagements for dance. While the hours I spent dedicated to competition dance shaped me as a person and artist, there are several aspects of this world that seemed so normal to me, although they were somehow unexplainable to non-dancers. The world of competition dance can be seen like a small town; there are local celebrities, relationships, and drama. Looking back now, I can’t help but reminisce about the unique characteristics of a “typical” dance convention weekend. While dance will always be my one true love, The Office comes as a close second. Obviously, it was only fitting to combine my two true loves into one and show the craziness of a convention weekend through the characters of The Office.
1. Prepping the night before a competition or convention.
Otherwise known as, "Lets hope I didn't lose that headpiece or glove at the last convention". Also, who could forget about your convention class outfits?
2. Seeing the confusion of the other hotel guests who weren’t aware of the convention.
Still questioning if it's legal or socially ethical to allow that many sports bra and spandex clad eight year olds to run around in public
3. Waking up for convention classes at 7 a.m. Saturday morning and questioning if the "all faculty warm-up" was really worth it.
4. Claiming your "area" during convention classes with your studio.
5. Having specific Insta-famous dancers in your convention room and treating them as local celebrities.
I've seen your Instagram. How is your leg that high? Is it possible to be that good? Do you ever sleep? Are you even human?
6. Every single girl (and most likely boy) when the male hip hop teachers demonstrate:
7. Attempting to eat food during your 30 minute "lunch break".
Salad? Pizza? Pizza...
8. After jazz-funk/girl-frenzy/any Bobby Newberry class ever:
9. The sad reality of trying to learn convention choreography from the back of the room.
10. The small rush of panic when you saw your teachers or studio owner come in to watch the classes.
Everyone, remain calm, and move to the front of the room.
11. Warming up before competition night starts.
AKA attempting to convince yourself that your body is still alive.
12. When your number is called to go backstage just as you're walking in to the dressing room from your last dance.
13. The unparalleled feeling of accomplishment knowing that your dance just killed it.
"No, guys, I SWEAR I heard Travis Wall say that we were great from the judging table."
14. Seeing your teacher off-stage and knowing that you were going to hear about your mess up in their dance later in the week.
15. The somehow always full glass in every teacher and parents hand.
You weren't fooling anyone.
16. No matter how early competition was running, awards always managed to go until 1:30 a.m. Every. Time.
17. Two words: High silver.
18. Waiting in the elevator line to go back up to your hotel room after awards.
19. Waking up the next morning for another full day of classes, running on four to five hours of sleep.
20. Scoping out what convention swag you were going to bring home after the weekend.
Because only at a dance competition is there justification to buying $50 dollar sweatpants that say "DANCER" or "JUMP!" on the side.
