Round and Round You Go!!!!

So you are getting ready for your first, fifth, 20th, or whatever number competition this is. You are having a lesson or more a week with your coach and hopefully practicing on your own. Maybe you are an amateur couple and you practice a couple hours every week to make sure you have your choreography down pat. Now you are a week or so away and you feel ready but what can you do to make sure you don't fall on your face?

Rounds, rounds, rounds, and more rounds.

Maura Garuccio has a little to say about it.

"DO ROUNDS!!!! Doing rounds is extremely important to get ready for a dance competition! It builds muscle memory but also gets you mentally prepared for the mental and physical pressure that you would have during performance. Simulations of dance competitions is the best way to get ready and enjoy the process."

Maura, who was a Italian Standard Champion, is now doing pro-am competitions with her students that range from 6 to over 60. She does rounds with them and even does rounds with her different students back to back to make sure she is prepared mentally to switch choreography (mental pressure) and physically prepared to take the amount of dancing. She also will do different lengths of rounds.

While most music for amateurs is around 1 minute to 1:15 she will make sure her students can do 1:20 to 1:30. Many times students only practice the routine once, but they also need the ability to do it more than once and connect the end to the beginning.

Other things that have been done when you are dancing is to have random obstacles. putting chairs or random people around to help you navigate a space will help you prepare for those things if they arise. Plan for the worse so you are prepared.

If you are mentally and physically prepared you can handle almost anything. There are some things that will always happen that you are not prepared for, but those you can take care of after the fact.