Have you ever panicked at a Karaoke bar?
How about butterflies during a board meeting, or hot flashes while public speaking? This is your body's way of telling you that you're escaping your comfort zone... and that's not such a bad thing.
Solving the Showcase Riddle
Here are some tips to keeping your next District Showcase fun, exciting, and productive. Doing that means you've become more confident, vanquished your fears, and solved the riddle.
1. Pick Some Fun Dances
Every showcase will start with the Country Western division. Now, before you scoff at the idea of cowboy hats and tight jeans, keep this in mind: This dance style gets your body moving, your face smiling, and both help cut away the nervous energy.
These are typically low criteria dances for most people. That means, they aren't the most important and essential dances they have been working on. Instead, they are being specifically utilized to log floor time, and give the showcase a positive starting point.
Recommendation: Try dancing each of these 1-3 times - Country Western 2 Step, Country Western Shuffle, Country Western Waltz, and Country Western Swing
2. Focus on the Minutes
It may take you 10 karaoke songs to feel like you own the stage, and that's the same feeling we'd love to develop for you on the dance floor.
Think of it this way - every 10 freestyles you add one of your 5 senses.
So after the first 10 you can FEEL your legs, after the second 10 you can SEE your partner, after the next 10 you can HEAR the music. I don't know how many freestyles it would take to SMELL the judges perfume, but we are working on it.
Recommendation: It usually takes 30 Freestyles to shake free of nervous energy, and 50 to feel like you do in the studio - so plan accordingly.
3. Big Picture
The purpose of this event is to compete with your comfort zone, not anyone else's.
So it won't matter what anyone else on the floor is doing. They are just a backdrop for all of the time and progress you've made in your lessons. Arthur Murray events are a great way to pressure test what you have learned so that way you can use it on a moment's notice without any hesitation.
Recommendation: Get to know the students from the other studios while you're waiting to dance. Who knows, they may even cheer for you when you get out there.
Final Thought
Your teacher will ask you to do a lot. No matter what they ask you to do, there will be a specific reason for it. Whether that is meeting someone new, or dancing more entries than you originally intended. After all, you didn't walk into Arthur Murray one day to learn to dance at a local two day event where there are dance judges present.
But there's a purpose for it, your teacher knows it, and chances are... you do to.
Riddle solved.
