Clothes May not Make the Man...
but apparently, they can break him.

IGB was Sunday night, and Steve and I were competing adult prechampionship standard. It was the largest prechamp field I'd ever competed in (17 couples, yay!), and we very definitively made the semifinal, with 4 of 5 or 5 of 5 recalls in every dance.

We danced at least the same as, if not better than the quarterfinal in the semi (though we did have some traffic problems and got stuck in some corners), yet we did not make the final. And several couples who did make the final were couples that we've beaten recently. The frustrating part was looking at the marks and watching our 4 of 5 or 5 of 5 drop to a total of 4 marks accross 4 dances.

I blame this on the fact that Steve does not own tails. And while he looked clean and presentable and I like a champion. (Even though I made my own ballgown... it really doesn't look it on the floor), I think the fact that Steve didn't have tails really hurt us. Because there were several couples who all deserved to be in the final, who all had the same number of issues, and thus the judges will, in many cases, reward those with a more polished look. In part, it is because we were dancing in an evening session and dancing at the prechampionship level... which means that we were dancing for spectating social dancers as much as competitors. The upside of this is that we got to have the bright stage lights in an otherwise darkened room and feel like performers as much as competitors. The downside is that we were in a situation where ballroom is being presented to the world, and that carries with it a certain image. At the prechamp level, it's not just about good dancing anymore. It's necessary, at that level, to have a look that tells the judges that you take your dancing seriously and that you have respect for your sport and art and craft and its traditions.

So, quite frustrating. Especially when we'd previously beaten about half of the couples who did make the prechamp final.

The plus side, however, is that Steve has recognized that he needs tails to be really competitive at the level at which we dance. I had been sort of prodding at this for a while, and he disagreed... and wanted to be frugal and delay getting tails as long as possible. And I understand that; I certainly have to be very careful about how I spend my money. But if I'm making a commitment to dancing, that requires committing completely, including investing a little in my look as a dancer. And I think Steve sees that now. Which is important and which is a definite good thing out of a bad result.

It helps that several pros (all three of our coaches), friends who are better dancers than us, and even strangers who are also better than us were all surprised that we didn't make the final and assured us that we belonged there. And any drop in the quality of our dancing we can blame on a lack of practice time directly before the competition due to Steve having had his wisdom teeth out a mere week before we were to compete.

It also helps that it's not the first time it's happened to me. The last time was in a final, where my partner and I were placed 4th after one couple we certainly should have beaten and one that we possibly could have beaten ... but again, the top three couples all had men in tails and women in thousand-plus dollar ballgowns.

So, all in all, the competition was a success, and we have room to grow and we will grow.

(Plus,it was nice to have my coach tell me I belong in prechamp. :-))

Oh, and the shows. Amazing. Simply amazing.