Travel Tips and Tricks to Competitive Dancing “On the Cheap”
In a recent post, Dancing: How much does it cost?, I described a sliding scale listing the costs of dancing which can range from almost zero up to thousands of dollars per year.
This is the first post in a series that will offer some suggestions on how to save money and make your competitive dancing as inexpensive as possible.
Start Small
So, you’ve taken a few dance lessons and you coach says “Hey have you ever considered competing?”. Well I have good news for you friends, neighbors and the six people who are actually reading this blog — <drum roll please> — It doesn’t have to cost you an arm or a leg. True, if you want, you can go all out, spend lots of money, then get a second mortgage or dip into little Monty’s college fund to support your dance habit, but then again, you can do it for a very reasonable amount. Read the rest of this entry
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How do you get to Radio City Music Hall?
![Radio City Music Hall [CC]](https://txcowboydancer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/radio-city-music-hall.jpg?w=185&h=246 "Radio City Music Hall [CC]")
I feel like the butt of that joke :
“How do you get to Radio City Music Hall?” And the answer is “Practice!”
Well today I did just that and it was an AWESOME PRACTICE! I am such a “high” and want to share it with everyone! No, I’ve not been taking drugs. Hmmm.. Does an extra large diet coke from Jack in the Box count as “drugs”? Well, if it does then that’s it, and that’s all I’ve had! 🙂
But I digress… I do that don’t I? LOL
Ok, ok, I just got home from a most AWESOME practice with my fabulous dance partner Donna. We worked for just under an hour and a half on 40 beats of our Two-Step routine. I don’t know how many steps that works out to because there were some syncopations involved.
All we were doing was going through every step, every move, very slowly and thoroughly and applying what we already know! It is amazing how many things we were able to correct or fix simply by slowing down the process so we could dig through the memory banks and dredge up those things our coaches have already told us to do. And *ahem* [BLUSH] do what we’ve been told. Then once we figured out what to fix, we did it over, and over and over and over and over.
I may be putting some teachers out of business here by depriving them of repeat business from inattentive students…. Read the rest of this entry
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Dancing: How much does it cost?
In some of my posts I’ve mentioned as an aside, that competitive dancing is not cheap. Because of that, a couple of the readers of this blog have emailed me to ask “Just how much does it cost?” To which I must answer, dearest readers, without qualification, and without my usual drama:
“A lot!”
I. Am. Not. Exaggerating. This wonderful exciting, fulfilling, passion is very expensive.
But it doesn’t have to be expensive, at least not at first:
- I am a competitive dancer and I’m working hard to progress to a point where I can “Turn Pro” meaning that my costs are on the high end of a cost spectrum which actually begins at almost zero.
.. - For someone just starting, who is curious and just checking out “this whole dance thing” it is possible to start with little or no cost.
.. - And most importantly, the money I’ve spent on dance has been worth every single penny. I would do it all over again, absolutely, without hesitation.
A while back I heard on NPR (National Public Radio) an interview with Karl Pillemer, the author of a new book: Thirty Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans.
I recall from the interview, that the number one piece of advice which Older Americans would like to pass on to younger generations is
“You shouldn’t wait to do something
which you really want to do.“
Do it now. And dancing, dear readers, all four of you who are actually reading this blog, is definitely one of those things which should not wait until “Someday“. Do. It. Now. You have been given a royal decree by my inner domestic diva. If you don’t go and do some dancing she may throw her bon-bons at you!
But I digress… Back to to the topic at hand. 🙂
If you are one of those folks who demand “instant gratification” then scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for the “quick and dirty answer”. But if you want a more developed explanation of the costs then keep reading: Read the rest of this entry
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UPDATE: Headed to the Oklahoma Dance Rush!
UPDATE 9:39 pm :
I posted the following to my Facebook page and after I did that I read it, thought it was mildly amusing so I decided to post it here to my blog as well:
I am very thankful for (1) being on the line staff so my 3 day pass is comp’d (2) a very good best friend who is “floating me a loan” and paying for my half of the hotel and my half of gas for the trip up and back this weekend (3) that I had already pre-paid my dance entry fees *before* I lost my job.
——
I’m excited to see old friends again this weekend and to be dancing with my awesome partner and with my Temp-Pro, Melissa Jefferies who is doing a Two-step with me so I can get a qualifying event while my Pro is down (temporarily) for the count and becoming rounder every day.
——
Yes, I’m thankful and excited for all these things. But is it too much to ask that once, just once, I have *everything* ready and packed for the trip say around 5pm the night before so that I can just relax and enjoy a nice DVD movie instead of frantically searching for where the heck all the stuff went since the *last* contest? Hmmm? Just once? Maybe? One day? *sigh*
I’ll be in Norman Oklahoma this weekend, home of Oklahoma Sooners! Boomer Sooner!
UPDATE: Last weekend I bought a ball cap at the ballpark but when I got it home I realized I had gotten the wrong kind, but of course I had taken all the tags off it and toss them at the hotel. So, I called up the University Bookstore phone number off the receipt I had and spoke with a really nice guy named Jason who is one of the managers, told him my tale of woe, and he said that I could exchange it without the tags. Yay!
The occasion will the this year’s Oklahoma Dance Rush. It should be a fun event with lots of dancing, competition, vendors and workshops. Here’s the details:
Apr 6-8, 2012 — Oklahoma Dance Rush
Norman / Oklahoma City, OK
Event Director: Beth Emerson & Mike Shoemake
WEBSITE: www.oklahomadancerush.com
— I’m ON STAFF: Teaching Line Dance
..
— I’ll be competing in Intermediate Couples
..
— I’ll be competing in Intermediate ProAm, but doing only a single dance to get in a “qualifying event” toward meeting the qualification requirements to attend the World Championships.
..
— Unfortunately I will have to scratch my one line dance that I had planned on competing. It just isn’t ready for prime time yet. 😦
See ya on the dance floor in Oklahoma!
Related articles
- The Texas Hoedown – Scrapbook Scribblings (txcowboydancer.com)
- Sometimes you just know…you’re getting better… (txcowboydancer.com)
Share with folks on the Interwebz :-)
Headed to the Oklahoma Dance Rush!
I’ll be in Norman Oklahoma this weekend, home of Oklahoma Sooners! Boomer Sooner!
The occasion will the this year’s Oklahoma Dance Rush. It should be a fun event with lots of dancing, competition, vendors and workshops. Here’s the details:
Apr 6-8, 2012 — Oklahoma Dance Rush
Norman / Oklahoma City, OK
Event Director: Beth Emerson & Mike Shoemake
WEBSITE: www.oklahomadancerush.com
— I’m ON STAFF: Teaching Line Dance
..
— I’ll be competing in Intermediate Couples
..
— I’ll be competing in Intermediate ProAm, but doing only a single dance to get in a “qualifying event” toward meeting the qualification requirements to attend the World Championships.
..
— Unfortunately I will have to scratch my one line dance that I had planned on competing. It just isn’t ready for prime time yet. 😦
See ya on the dance floor in Oklahoma!
Related articles
- The Texas Hoedown – Scrapbook Scribblings (txcowboydancer.com)
- Sometimes you just know…you’re getting better… (txcowboydancer.com)
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 