"Let It Go"

So tomorrow is our first competition of the year... and I am surprisingly relaxed about it. It is just a solo/duet/trio competition that not my entire studio is participating in, but it is still the first time someone will judge my work this year.

I think I might actually be a bit more concerned this year about how the parent's at my studio will react to the routines. I want them to be impressed with the improvement and the uniqueness of all of our numbers and not just love them because it's their kids! I like that the parents are always moved by my work, even if the judges aren't sometimes.

I'd like to think that I educate my competitive parents enough to be able to appreciate good work from other studios, and some are really able to tell where their kids stack up in comparison. I don't like that "my kid should have won" attitude if they don't, because generally it is not warranted. We are all biased to our work, and parents to their kids, so I do understand that it can be hard to distinguish the subjectivity sometimes.

I will be the first one to admit if one of my student's deserved to win a category that they didn't... but I am also the first one to admit when one of my student's wins a category over somebody else who should have! I even jumped at a competition director last year when they awarded one of my student's 1st Overall Novice for her solo, when there was a student from another studio who had a higher score. They insisted I let the student keep the cheque and the trophy as it was their mistake, but I insisted that my student go award it to the other dancer. Sure that didn't make her parents very happy, but then really what were her parents happy about in the first place?

I want to be fair as a teacher, and as a fellow competitor with other studios, and I want my studio parent's to also be fair in their judgement of what is going on at a competition. Sure, there are times when they think someone was way over scored for their performance and will let me know, but I am quick to remember that someone from another studio might be saying that about one of my dances at the same time.

Dance competitions walk a very fine line of making everyone feel like a winner, but also truly rewarding the winners. That's why I am going to keep my perspective this weekend when watching my kids compete. What is doing "their best" for one student, is not necessarily matched by another's "best". I really appreciate when a competition spreads out the marks enough to note such differences in performances. That makes my job, as a teacher and the voice of reason, a lot easier when dealing with the students and their parents in regards to the outcome.

I will tell you one thing, that I do not do tears at competitions! Meaning, my students will not cry over results, or at least not that I will ever see. I want them to respect the judgement they receive and also be respectful to all their fellow competitors. Then if a kid cries over not "winning", their parents will then go in to a mad frenzy and proceed to go buy them a trophy in the lobby to make them feel better... which is rule #2 at my studio... no buying your kids trophies from the program table!

Honestly, the minute we walk out of a competition and all go for dinner together, it doesn't matter who won the bigger trophy out of the bunch. In fact, last year one of my Senior students won an award at a competition that was a gift of some sort that she already owned. She turned around and found a younger student from another studio, who was not carrying a trophy, handed it to her and told her she did a really great job on her solo. Now, going and announcing to our entire studio that she had done this would have defeated the entire purpose of helping to make someone else feel great about themselves as she did. There are only a few of us who know abut this, as there was no need to award her for doing such a nice gesture... I'm sure she felt rewarded enough inside. I never even mentioned it to her mom, but it sure does speak volumes about this mom's attitude that she has projected on her daughter about dance competitions!

So my goals for this weekend. 1. Let the kids enjoy spending the time together to watch each other's new numbers for the year. 2. Appreciate the performances of those students who have worked so hard to do their 'best'. 3. Appreciate the performances of those students who don't do their 'best' so that I can help them improve for next time.

Sounds easy enough right! And goal #4 - keep those "stage-parents" away from their kids so that my first 3 goals can be achieved!

Come on, every studio has them... it's just learning to deal with them that makes you the real "winner" that weekend!

"Golden Train"

I love to say 'I told you so'!

Not only did Tessa & Scott just rock last night, they helped to prove that less is always more!

From the costumes, to the music choice, right down to the simplest choreographed head turn, they were understated elegance.

All of the European teams last night of course donned the dramatic fru-fru costumes that they are known for. Three of the teams actually even used the same piece of music, which isn't even that good of a selection of music. They should take a note out of the book of simplicity, and just let their skating speak for themselves.

Maybe all of the over-the-top music, costumes and choreography these teams had are all just to hide the fact that their basic skating skills aren't as strong. This new judging system seems to really be working in ice-dance in helping to award the real winners. The skating skills are judged, musicality, choreography, and plain greatness! I don't like how in the other disciplines people can still win with falls or mistakes, based on the fact that they just load their programs with technical elements. Last night the two top dance teams both proved that skating has redeemed itself.

The same is true to me in dance... as really great dancing just speaks for itself. Put away all the big props, the 3-dimensional amazon costumes and just dance. There is of course a degree of creativity that is involved in making your students stand out, and that's where teachers tend to turn to elaborate costumes and set pieces. However, I think we all need to make sure that if we took away the props, and the kids performed in plain black costumes, that the dance would still stand on it's own as a piece of creative and strong work that you are proud of.

I'm sure there are thousands of little girls and boys alike today signing up for ice dance lessons at their local arenas. As a business person I see great opportunity here that cannot be ignored... I'm going to send the Russian Federation my resume so they will hire me to design their costumes for next year!

"Now Or Never"

A few people who know me might tell you that I'm anti-Olympics... which, for the record, is not true. I'm just anti-spending this much money on the Olympics, or on a 20 meter LED Polar Bear puppet for the Opening ceremonies!

I think the idea of bringing countries and athletes together to celebrate sports is a really great thing, I just feel bad for a lot of these "kids". I've been pretty much watching the Olympics non-stop now for a week, which is mostly due to the fact that all of my regular weekly television shows have been put on hold. And as exciting as I think it must be for these athletes, I can see a huge sense of fear in most of their eyes. They train for countless years for only a few seconds or minutes to win an Olympic medal... that's a lot of pressure!

I've been very impressed with the amount of coverage the Canadian channels are doing for these games, but I just have not been impressed with the amount of medals my country is winning. So my anti-Olympic spirit kind of kicks in there when our government spends as much money as they did to help our athletes "own the podium", and they just don't. A lot of these athletes are apologizing in their press conferences for letting down the entire country? I feel like saying to them, "don't worry, my life will go on, you didn't disappoint me that much!"

It helps me to put things into perspective when it comes to preparing kids for dance competitions. It might not be on the same scale as the Olympics, but to a 10 year a local dance competition is! Our first competition is now less than a week away and my kids are all exuding signs of excitement mixed with anticipation and fear. They're nervous, which I think is a natural response to performing, but I want to be careful that they don't internalize that pressure too much. That way if they don't perform up to their expectations, they can still be happy and proud of what they did do.

I think for every studio the level of expectation for a performance will vary, and for good reason. It's like any athlete, you can't just announce to everyone that they're a gold medal threat if they've never won an event before. You have to be realistic with your expectations. There is only one gold medal at the Olympics... which is not true with dance competitions, but I don't think Gold is good anymore? I think it's like the Double Platinum-Diamond Excellency Award now you are aiming for?!?!?! Not every student is going to win a Diamond award every time, and they need to know that it may be what they're aiming for, but it might not be what they win... and if they don't, life will go on for them!

On a really great note, a personal friend of mine actually is in Gold Medal contention tonight at the Olympics. Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir are sitting in 1st position after two rounds, out of three, in Ice Dancing. They skated brilliantly last night, and I just have this feeling that their beautiful romantic Free Dance tonight will be a winner. Luckily I don't teach tonight, so I will be able to leave the studio early to go home and watch them compete live. I get that they have dreamed about winning the Olympic Gold medal for many years now, and will be devastated if they don't, but I hope that's not weighing on their minds all day. There is something really magical about Olympic athletes who perform in that position as though they really do just love what they are doing, versus those who look like their defending winning.

It makes me kind of glad that dance is not, and will never be an Olympic sport. I don't even know how you'd judge dance on that kind of level, so let's just leave the controversial judging to figure skating. And in case you thought dance costumes were bad, you clearly missed the Russian Ice Dance team skate their aboriginal folk dance last night in these...

I bet they didn't order this out of a costume catalogue... but I'm sure I could find something pretty close in one that I've received! Who says all athletes take competing seriously!!!