Stepping Lightly: Hollywood Dancesport Ballroom Championships 2013

Amid the backdrop of La La Land AKA Los Angeles, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and Universal Studios, and the bizarre surreal events of the past week staring yet another anti government assault rifled crazy – this time selectively hunting TSA agents at the LA airport, The Hollywood Dancesport Ballroom Dance Competition (HDC) was the dedicated focus of attention of a large group of Divino Ritmo Studio students who trekked their way from Honolulu to compete in the week’s event.

I’ll tell this story cryptically through the many pictures taken by the group, rather than my usual longwinded rant. But not to disappoint those expecting at least some emotional catharsis, I will highlight several of the more memorable moments and features. Note that I will utilize my selective memory and exclude any unnecessary tales of drama or other embarrassing moments that should be buried and forgotten. I will follow this general blog with some reflections in a more personal account of a few dance heats in a part 2 – or maybe I wont.

The HDC is one of my two favorite dance competitions; the other one is the Heritage Classic in Asheville, North Carolina. They have many things in common. Both are medium size competitions. Most heats are contested by several high quality competitors; there are relatively few uncontested heats. Too small a competition yields too many uncontested heats; a large comp puts you in the middle of a cattle stampede, with heats starting as semifinal or even quarterfinal events. The road ahead is long and arduous. Too small is the Hawaii Star Ball; too large is the Emerald or Holiday Classic. Of course, too large is good medicine for competitors - in that you really find out where you belong in the lineup of competitors of your age and ability. But it’s no fun to be crowded together as sardines, with no room to settle into, to be corralled like cows, with the ballroom dance floor cut in half to accommodate twice as many competitors. A continuous mayhem and cacophony commands the event where the business of the competition is all-pervasive and there is little time for chatting or friendly banter, or finding an empty corner to meditate or compose oneself prior to your dance event.

Both Heritage and Hollywood have about 8,000 entries. Last year, Heritage dropped to ~ 7,000. This year, Hollywood’s 8,000+ represented a greater than 50% increase from two years ago when I last attended to compete in a field of 5,000 events. What do we attribute the increase in participation to? Simple, it’s the organizers: Michael Chapman, Mary Murphy and Jonathan Roberts. They were simply there – all of the time – tending to every conceivable chore, observing, and innovating, and keeping the competitors happy.

Just some of the things…….., easy friendly access to a beautifully adorned ballroom, a practice floor, BF and dinner buffets in an adjoining room with music and dance floor, free bananas and water in the ballroom, candy placed on the competitor tables on Halloween, free popcorn to munch on, a CD present with excellent representative ballroom music, an athletic bag which included a water bottle as a present, several outstanding lectures given by some of the best judges, a spectacular Halloween party that I was too tired to last through but I heard was outstanding, a post competition party that was held at a bowling alley??? – not many students had the energy to attend but it was well intended anyway. I really can go on and on….there was so much attention to detail and kindness shown that no one was left wanting……with one exception….the last day when the children were competing along side with the adults…….the chaos from a trillion children running around wildly with parents trampling competitors, cameras in hand, lunging toward the front of the ballroom to get that billionth picture of their adorable progeny.

By the way, the Hollywood Dancesport Ballroom Championship website was amazing, the results and heat sheets were available the day after the competition, and the full event was taped and available to watch by anyone interested just by typing: http://www.hollywooddancesport.com !!!!! Don’t know how long the streaming will last, so yesterday, I basically spent the entire day reliving the event and watched a good portion of my performances. This in itself was an added treat and really provided me insight on what I did right and the laundry list of what I need to work on for the future. And for those wanting to skip the geriatrics dancing want-to-be performances, there were amazing real dance performances to view…..make sure you bring something to munch if you start to watch….it is quite mesmerizing.

In the end, I think we all REALY must thank our teachers Lucas and Yanna for keeping us in line. I was grumbling about the pain in my foot, iced it when I could, and shared my ice pack with others similarly nursing injuries of their knees, feet and other body parts - aching and paining from the grueling week of dancing. HuH!!!! What about our teachers? They had to dance with all of us……to the extent that Divino Ritmo won one of the best studio contest awards with I believe what amounts to the most entries posted by any studio. (By the way, four of the students won top twenty awards, Yanna won a top teacher award, Marie won top solo award, and Paul won overall top Bronze student!) Back to Yanna and Lucas…..four days with hundreds of heats each day does take its toll. They both did a yeoman ’s job of taking care of us students. They did this with tact and composure. And not once did they complain about their aches and pains!!! At least not in my presence.

A few more inconsequential comments….

· I liked the venue very much - including the Hilton Hotel that the dance competition was held at. The ballroom and the path to the ballroom were very elaborately decorated to resemble the glitter and allure of Hollywood.

· The ice pack that I brought with me from Honolulu got a lot of use, by me and several other students to contain dance related injuries.

· A number of well-intentioned lady dancers made some kind comments about my dancing. I discovered that most of them were also physicians. Clearly we had the ballroom covered had anyone collapsed on the dance floor during the competition.

· I had to purchase an extra suitcase to accommodate the extra plastic and goodies accumulated at the competition. I walked to Marshalls (aggravating my foot injury) and found a lady who was also shopping for the same who gave me a 45 minute lecture on luggage before both of us purchased the same piece.

· Some of us LOVE desserts and showed this love.

· Our group spanned the ages of life representing just about every decade from the teens through the seventies.

· The food was decent and plentiful. It was buffet style except for one night when we had a sit down dinner.

· In addition to the organizers showing kindness and attention, those working in the organization were also there to please. This is not always the case in large competitions where assistants are often overworked and underpaid.

· Virtually every Hilton employee that I encountered during the week went the extra mile in helping me, was friendly and cordial and most of all professional. In preparing for my last three-dance championship heat, I was icing my foot in my room when the housekeeper that was cleaning came over and sympathized. She then brought over a pillow to put under my foot to keep it elevated and later a towel to wrap around it. She could have been my mother she showed such apparent sincere concern.

Finally, the pictures below were taken by others and sent to me. I have not included student pictures that I feel would be offended without their permission so this compilation is neither comprehensive nor organized, but rather formed by happenstance. I invite student contributions to the album or to add any comments. Please, those students whose pictures are not included are truly encouraged to email me their favorite picture and have them posted. Likewise, for those not liking what I have posted, I will remove the pictures immediately after being notified.