Very Fine Dance shoes… or are they?

It’s Monday. Generally, the weekend after a showcase, I take Monday off to recoup from the excitement, nerves, and lack of sleep. However, with so much to do, and a mini holiday vacation starting Friday, I figured, what would be the point? So I’m gripping tightly to all things caffeinated and plodding miserably through my day. Thank goodness all my launches are NEXT month.

My stomach is fighting me though. Since I was stressed and frantic for most of the weekend trying to accommodate everyone, I kind of gave up on eating all fruits and vegetables for the weekend. Sans maybe a couple raspberries. Oh… and water. And then I indulged in pizza… at least 4 times… this week. Thankfully, the blood sugars sort of stayed normal. Though – the drop from 263 to 45 for no reason really had me second guessing myself.

For the most part, my routines went well. And since this may be the last time I will be doing a showcase like this for a while, I’m glad both routines were memorable in their own ways.

Typically when I do two routines, one generally gets overshadowed by the other. And I usually feel better about one moreso than the other. It happens. So I was convinced that no one would remember my nightclub two step routine once they saw my foxtrot/international rumba combo. And I was fine with that. The foxtrot is definitely one of my favorite pieces of the year! If not of my 4+ years of dancing. The two step was an experimental decision that I fought the entire time I was remembering choreography. God bless my instructor for his patience because I seriously would have slapped myself half way through. (I probably did… not gonna lie.) Being less excited about a piece doesn’t mean I can’t perform the shit out of it. So I did what I do best… smile and have a good time.

And then my shoe came unbuckled halfway through the performance.

I’ve never had a “wardrobe malfunction” during a routine. Particularly one that effects the most important feature of a dancer’s body. (YMMV.) But I dismount from the lift we have in the two step routine and realize… “oh hey… my shoe buckle just came undone.” So as the audience full of dancers have a simultaneous heart attack, I put on my best smile and wonder how the hell I’m going to finish this routine with a half on shoe. My instructor was none the wiser that I was thisclose to tripping someone. (Most likely myself.) Two step doesn’t really warrant itself to quick movements, fast kicks, or sharp turns. (I guess it could have been worse… I could have been doing a quickstep routine.) I couldn’t really kick my shoe into the audience or off to the side without risk of sending the projectile into one of the studio mirrors… or up at the ceiling… or at someone’s head.  So I just prayed that my flailing strap would stay out of my and my instructor’s way.

The routine ended without incident, sans a small ankle roll after a sitting hen dismount. (Which was the first time I was able to execute it correctly… ever.) Post routine, before the walk off, I yanked off my shoe, acknowledged the audience’s panic attack, and limped (because I still an a heeled shoe on the other foot) off stage.

Success is when your instructor has no idea something like that happened. (Though I think I might have modified some of the choreography to keep my shoe on.) And that the routine you deemed in your head as not memorable becomes the only thing that people continue to talk about.

PS – the other routine went great too. I’m very lucky to have an instructor I can “get into character with” and that piece was definitely theatrical. But I don’t think we’ll soon forget my shoeless wonder. At least he’ll have a good story to tell future students pre-showcase.