Nationals 2018 recap
I’m finally home from Orlando and wanted to reflect on my experience at this years nationals.
This year I don’t think I’ve ever been more confident and scared at the same time. I knew I was dancing well and improving each day, but I so badly wanted to reach my goal that the fear of failure was heightened.
I danced my hornpipe without any traffic problems or slip ups (I fell twice in the practice room the night before so I was very afraid of this). I don’t think it was very high energy dancing but I didn’t die at the end and my technique was good. There were many things I would have changed but overall I was happy.
Then there was the disastrous 2nd round. I did a spin in my lead step and suddenly the other dancer was right in front of me. We collided, I struggled to recover, but we both kept going. Then in the left foot of second step our legs got tangled, but again we both kept dancing. Seconds later the judges rang the bell and rushed us off stage. My biggest fear was that they saw me as being too aggressive, and that all the collisions were my fault. While I was trying to get to the front I would never intentionally mess with someone else’s dancing. Despite all the issues, the re - dance went smoothly. My only complaint was that my third step wasn’t as good as usual because my legs got tired from doing almost the entire reel minutes before.
When we were waiting for recalls I felt as though I really had a shot, I honestly don’t even remember feeling nervous because I really thought I had it this time. In my ballroom they were doing boys sets, so I left to be with friends, assuming they wouldn’t pause the other competition just to announce recalls for ours. I was wrong. I get a text from my mom seconds after leaving the room that I had recalled. Confused, I sprinted back to the ballroom to hear them reread the list, with my number included. After 4 nationals I had finally made the recall!!
While I know it isn’t my best round, I was thrilled to get to do my set onstage. I can only really describe round 3 as okay, not my best, but not my worst either.
I really didn’t know what to expect with my results. I was happy to just be at awards with my wig and dance clothes still on (a rare occurrence in my competitive career), but even though my goal was to recall everyone hopes they don’t hear their number called for as long as possible. Of the 96 competitors I placed 46th. Unfortunately of all the dancers from the Mid Atlantic that had recalled I was the lowest. This doesn’t make me feel great about my oireachtas goals, but I’m already in a better place then I was last year. I haven’t looked at the marks thoroughly, but from what I can see every judge had me in the recall, and my highest scores had me as a WQ.
For now I’m recovering but I can’t wait to start working toward November!!
