All about the dancing

Besides all the dancing a big part of the fun is all the vendors.  There are shoes and dresses galore to try on.  We both tried on shoes and we each got a new pair.  Chris got Latin shoes and I got Standard/Smooth shoes.  We were both really excited for new shoes.  We looked at a million pictures, both of ones taken of us and Chris with his other students, Debbie and Linda.  We ordered some, so I'll have to show those when we get them of us in action.  Then I worked my way to almost every dress vendor I estimated that I tried on approximately $100,000 worth of dresses that day! So fun, and so exhausting. Some of those dresses are really hard to get into.  One of the dresses I tried on had these fabric bangles that were studded and the lady said she thought they were," a giggle."  I think that's the cutest thing I've ever heard.  They were a giggle. It was really fun trying on all the different styles and fun figuring out which ones look good on me.  

I took a ton of cheesy pictures like this of us together.  This one was Friday night we got dressed up to go to the Pro competitions.  Which were so inspiring!
I got a few pictures in before they gave a friendly reminder to put cameras away.  This one is the Standard dancing. Which had my heart pounding. I think I almost cried once, too.  It's so beautiful when they are all on the floor racing around in gorgeous gowns and crazy hair.  Especially Quickstep.  I was on the edge of my seat wondering will they or won't they run into each other. And if they do what will happen?  It was better than any thriller movie! 
I loved this chic's hair.  It was bright pink and it came to a long point in the back. A super cool cone head hair do. Loved it!  I finally really understand the difference between American and International styles. Chris always seemed so annoyed when I would ask. Now that I've seen it I understand how obvious it is.  I've been to other comps but I was actually paying attention this time.  It makes a lot more sense the more dancing you do yourself. I guess.  But it's kind of hard to understand when you just talk about it because several of the dances have the same name. But the steps can be totally different from each other.  They are all so amazing I don't know how to choose which dances to do myself.  I loved watching Standard it's so insanely elegant and dramatic with the head laid out like that.  And the crispness of it all.  But American Smooth(which is what I did this time) is probably more fun to do.  You open instead of staying in frame and get to be really expressive with your arms and body.  I love both of those. And then there is Latin vs. Rhythm.  I definitely like Latin better. I think it's classier and it includes Jive and Samba which are the most fun dances in my opinion.  Rhythm is really fun to watch but I don't think I'd want to do it competitively.  It's costumes are definitely the closest to naked and the best dancers are like wild animals on the floor. Neither of those things make me very comfortable. But Standard and Latin go together and Smooth and Rhythm go together.  You can just do one style or you can do 10 or 9 dance respectively.  I think I'd be more fun to do both.  None of this makes any sense. But, I'm excited. We both are. And yesterday we did some Standard basics, so that was fun. I'm looking forward to keeping up the dancing. 

The crazy thing about it is the whole performance sport aspect. What other sport has people dress up to the point that they are totally unrecognizable and are basically acting while competing. It's wild. And oddly addictive. I remember the first comp I went to. I was seriously afraid. I kept thinking, "THIS is what my husband does for a living!"  Now I'm hooked.  I think it's the dancing itself you fall in love with and then the competing just makes us goal oriented people work harder. (Just look at me with my sticky plastic gold medals.) And if you get to sparkle and have really crunchy hair once in a while, well, what's not to love!