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We got a new wall in Quickstep on Sunday. 'Tis most cute. And mostly a swinging wall, which is nice, because so much of our routine is hopping, skipping and jumping. And it did have charlestons in it, toward the end, which are tremendously cute. :-)

Also made some changes to the first wall. It doesn't move as much now, but Steve seems happier with it, and as Tomas (one of our coaches) points out, quickstep has inherent in it a lot of momentum. So being light and having good musicality is more important. I think the way that we rebuilt the end of the first wall will fix some of the problems with overshaping and a waffly frame that we used to have. And if it doesn't work when we practice, we can always change it.

I'm glad we're competing again soon. It's great to have time that's spent developing and reinventing material and adding material, which has been the journey of the last 3 months (wow, it really has been 3 months since we last competed. That's a very startling thought, really -- it doesn't seem that long), but getting out on the competition floor is important, too, as competition is sort of a measuring rod for improvement, and a reminder of how far we've come and what's left to be improved. (As, you know, dance really is all about the improvement).

I am also excited about this competition since my greatest cheerleader and biggest fan, my mom, will be here for it. She's never seen me dance open, and hasn't seen me dance at all since Nationals 2 years ago. I'd like to think I've improved a lot since then, so I'm excited to see what she thinks. :-)

So now the challenge will be getting everything done with my new gown in time for the competition. It's getting close... stoning to finish, choker and wings to make, and that's it, really. The challenge with the wings is that I want two-toned fabric, but need to do the dyeing myself, and thus must find time for coloring. Which I still haven't entirely figured out. Though I think I have a much better sense of it now -- I think my flaw with my last attempt was how I attempted to dry the fabric. If only I could find the right sort of two-toned chiffon. But I guess you can't have everything.