Dancing is the Poetry of the Foot

Dance competition this weekend. I judged. I was dreading it a tiny bit. I remembered last year, and how much writing I had to do, how busy it was, and how my back and butt hurt from sitting. But in fact it was like going to the dentist. You dread going, but once you get there it just isn't as bad as you remember. I actually had a lot of fun! Yes my butt hurt, but I was much faster than last year. I guess having more experience helped.

Thoughts:

It was my first experience doing Dance Jam. I think it is lame. All the girls get onto the floor and dance around, trying to be the one to win the dance paraphernalia the judges are handing out to the best dancers. The only problem is, nobody is dancing! They are just jumping around with their friends, dancing and yelling in our faces to win free stuff. At the last minute I finally thrust my shirt at the closest girl just to get it off my hands. Probably not what they were looking for.

I don't know what it is about judging that makes us judges very hungry. I mean, we are just sitting there on our behinds. Our brains are going a mile a minute, but there is no physical activity involved. The other judges and I are pretty healthy and rarely eat candy and junk, but being around all that free food (a perk of being a judge) just requires that we eat it. I did pretty well, but not as well as I generally do when I am at home.

One of the studios came out for two of their jazz routines and pretty much did ballroom, with heels and partners and everything. Not cool.

Said studio swept most of the awards. They deserved every award they got, but I felt so bad for the other teams! They had way too many numbers and I got a little tired of seeing the same people dance over and over again. How do those eight-year-olds remember so many dances?! And what is their secret? They all are so technically talented and the little ones are so together! As a former dance teacher, I would like to know the answers to these questions.

I knew one of my students was going to be competing, so I went to her on Friday and told her that I was going to be judging but wouldn't judge her numbers and couldn't say hi to her or anything. In fact, all her dances were in the morning on Saturday and I didn't even get there until the afternoon, so I didn't have to worry about ethics and all that jazz (haha get it?). When it was all over she and her sister came by the judges table and waved and said hi. I just smiled. What else could I do? We have to look neutral, and knowing people makes it look rigged. Not that I would ever score a team higher just because I knew someone on it, but it all about the "appearance of evil."