The Catskill Feis and The Power of Positive Thinking
So I had my first feis back after my summer camp and my "feis break". It was the Catskill Mountain feis in East Durham New York. It was at the Blackthorne Resort, it reminded me a lot of the place my family used to occasionally camp in Massachusetts, but with an Irish Dance take over. There was a pool and a food court area, etc. I think the feis was pretty well run, things pretty much ran on time, and they placed lots of people in my competition so that was pretty cool. There were a few cons but they weren't really the dance schools fault. The biggest was probably that the weather forecast said that it was going to be cloudy and even rainy, but it ended up being sunny and hot. We were using our umbrellas to protect us from sunburn. The resort itself was a little disorganized too, they didn't allow outside food but didn't have much to chose from, the bathrooms were also pretty groady. The ride was scenic and beautiful and they gave trophies so I will be back next year, just much more prepared for all types of weather. That and I'll probably eat a huge breakfast!
Before I tell you how I did I want to tell you about my bout with positive thinking. I had a friend in college that when I was having a horrible time being a music ed major, told me to "visualize myself succeeding" or "visualize myself doing this properly." I used to look at him like he was insane, but now that I've done it and something actually worked I think I've been going to try this mindset thing (and prayer, I also did some praying last night too) for a lot stuff. A lot of dance friends and tumblr friends told me to be relaxed and positive and everything will all fall into place. I also found myself getting stressed out from not having the best practice sessions this week so I spent a lot of time this week writing down and thinking about why I shouldn't be freaking out about my dancing. I told myself that I've been working really hard and that I was going to place in all my dances. That I deserve to place in all my dances so I can get into prizewinner.
Well...I placed in all my dances. :) Well, I should rephrase that, I placed in my core dances....no placement in Trad Set and I'm waiting to see how close I was.
I was very pleased with how today went. Despite there being the most people I've danced against to date and the fact that the floor we danced on was ridiculously small, I felt that my dancing was pretty good. I'm still waiting for the time that I dance in a competition like I dance in class but we'll see what happens. No glaring issues, I tried to fight for space, I tried to look happy. I'm still waiting on the comments to see what could be better, and I know there were finer things that could have been perfect, but I'm very happy with my dancing. It's only August. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring me. 4th place in Reel and Hornpipe (Very happy about this, third time dancing the new slow steps and I had a really tough judge for hard shoe) and 3rd place for Slip Jig and Treble Jig (2nd time in a row placing with this one and I had my changemant 2nd step this time around!) I also danced with 13-19 people so I really can be disappointed at all. Now to work even harder for the end of the month!
I'm going to start saying that I'm going to get 2nds and 1sts and see what happens. I now have SEVENTEEN third places! The humanity!
Kay
Before I tell you how I did I want to tell you about my bout with positive thinking. I had a friend in college that when I was having a horrible time being a music ed major, told me to "visualize myself succeeding" or "visualize myself doing this properly." I used to look at him like he was insane, but now that I've done it and something actually worked I think I've been going to try this mindset thing (and prayer, I also did some praying last night too) for a lot stuff. A lot of dance friends and tumblr friends told me to be relaxed and positive and everything will all fall into place. I also found myself getting stressed out from not having the best practice sessions this week so I spent a lot of time this week writing down and thinking about why I shouldn't be freaking out about my dancing. I told myself that I've been working really hard and that I was going to place in all my dances. That I deserve to place in all my dances so I can get into prizewinner.
Well...I placed in all my dances. :) Well, I should rephrase that, I placed in my core dances....no placement in Trad Set and I'm waiting to see how close I was.
I was very pleased with how today went. Despite there being the most people I've danced against to date and the fact that the floor we danced on was ridiculously small, I felt that my dancing was pretty good. I'm still waiting for the time that I dance in a competition like I dance in class but we'll see what happens. No glaring issues, I tried to fight for space, I tried to look happy. I'm still waiting on the comments to see what could be better, and I know there were finer things that could have been perfect, but I'm very happy with my dancing. It's only August. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring me. 4th place in Reel and Hornpipe (Very happy about this, third time dancing the new slow steps and I had a really tough judge for hard shoe) and 3rd place for Slip Jig and Treble Jig (2nd time in a row placing with this one and I had my changemant 2nd step this time around!) I also danced with 13-19 people so I really can be disappointed at all. Now to work even harder for the end of the month!
I'm going to start saying that I'm going to get 2nds and 1sts and see what happens. I now have SEVENTEEN third places! The humanity!
Kay
Comments
Post a Comment