Hairspray and Lipstick

Just woke up after getting back from Purdure Uni in Indiana, its snowing!! The drive there was 6 hours (not the reported 4.5) and mostly in the rain. We arrived late and missed most of the welcome function :( We registered and found our host for the night, a postgrad named Jennifer who actually lived 20 mins away and wasn't dancing cause he partner pulled out at the last minute. 6 of us stayed with her including 4 newcomers and kevin and myself. I had to teach the newcomers to iron!! I ended up ironing a whole satiny dress between other cotton skirt layers. Eventually they stopped asking us question and let us sleep (at 2am).

We got up at 6am and startig getting ready, I'd just done my hair and started my makeup when a newcomer arrived saying she didn't know how to do her hair and had no gel/hairspray/hairclips. So I ended up doing it and then running late. As a side note, I never finished putting on all my makeup, I still haven't used my fake eyelashes or my proper lipstick or my top eyeshadow to match my dress.

The day itself was really really tiring. I danced 2 levels, Bronze and Silver and my lasting impression of the day is standing in line waiting to go on, I did it so much. I danced both American and Internatinal for both dances. The first section of the day was American Smooth (ballroom) and the first time I have ever done an American tango was the first round!

Final tally as follows:

Bronze Smooth(waltz, tango) - Quarterfinal (QF)
Bronze American Foxtrot - 4th place
Bronze American Viennese Watz - Second round (I'd like to note the first time Kevin and I did VW was friday for the saturday competition)
Silver Smooth(waltz, tango) - Semifinal (SF)
Silver Smooth (foxtrot, Viennese waltz) - SF
Bronze Standard (waltz, quickstep) - SF
Bronze Intl Tango - SF
Bronze Intl Foxtrot - 5th place (woohoo, apparently the improvement/hard work shows)
Silver Standard(waltz,quickstep) - first round
Silver Standardd(foxtrot, tango) - SF
Silver Intl Viennese Waltz - SF
Bronze American Swing - 6th place
Bronze American Mambo - QF
Silver Rhythm (swing, mambo) - SF
Bronze Latin (Chacha, rumba) - QF
Bronze Samba - QF
Bronze Jive - QF
Silver Latin (Chacha, rumba) - SF
Silver Latin (samba, jive) - SF

I would like to point out that I did equal/better in Silver than Bronze. There is this theory that the rounds are too crowded for the judges to see everyone in Bronze but Silver had the same number of people on the floor per round (approx 25 ppl).

The trend here is to hand out ribbons not medals which say first to sixth place. Each have a distinctive colour. Its not quite the same as walking away with a medal or trophy but its definitely easier to pack! The results are also announced throughout the day, actually straight after each final (have to love electronic judging - see below).

By the time I sat down at the end of the competition I was soo tired I could hardly move. My legs cramped at the end of ballroom (right before lunch) and I lost a toenail (I'm waiting the next one to go) from various occasions of being trod on. My legs in general are talking very loudly today about their overuse.

Final dance tally: 74 (number of times I had to dance each one)
American Waltz - 5, Waltz - 5
A Tango - 5, Tango - 6
A Foxtrot - 7, Foxtrot - 7
A Viennese W - 3, Intl VW - 2
Quickstep - 5, Swing - 5
Mambo - 4, Chacha - 5
Rumba - 5, Samba - 5
Jive - 5

Overall the competition was managed using a computer system. There were multiple screens wirelessly getting information and updating almost instantly, a huge projector screen showing the results and upcoming heats. When you lined up, the marshallers checked you off on palmpilots and the judges marked on palmpilots for almost instant results. There were no delays, nothing major broke(the wireless died occasionally). The judges each had a palmpilot to score competitors and by the time you walked off the dancefloor, the results were already submitted and if it was a quarterfinal upwards the results were already on screen. Another interesting judging note was that the judges called back the top whatever number from all the heats, but a part of each heat so there was less bias. Interesting system and one you can see has been perfected over the years. I have to say the MC and DJ both did an decent job.

At the end of the competition there were fun dances including Salsa, Merengue, same sex rumba, girl lead, guy follow waltz. They were very entertaining to watch and if we didn't have to leave to go home I so would have done them. If we had time to do these at Intervarsity I think it would be great.