Sheffield Social 2006

It's that time of the week again when I make an update though I'm completely knackered!!!

Anyway, left the house at 5am and left ULU at 6am. Arrived in Sheffield at about 9.45am and had to give the bus driver directions to the Octagon Centre. Lucky for London's team I know the way... Anyway, spent a little time in the gallery in the Student's Union cause they wont let us in till 10.30am.

Competition started about 11.30am. First was the Basic Waltz which was just okay. Next was the Open Viennese Waltz though. It was a complete disaster. I didn't realise how difficult it is to dance Ballroom in the Octagon Centre until today. Gawdddd... we were this teeny tiny couple from London and we were messing it up completely. At one point someone crashed into us. Again, we were road kill, but this time we were dancing with the big boys (ICOXBRIDGE). We didn't get a single re-call. It dampened our spirits a little, but since we've not put much effort into the VW, we didn't want to complain too much. Then the Intermediate Tango. Having had a lesson with Jill the week before and having come in second at Leeds-Keele, we were hoping to at least get through a few rounds. We didn't get a single re-call either! It was pretty demoralizing. We even lost to Liz and Brad in the VW!!! Jill said that it was very weird we didn't get through any rounds though...

Sigh. Oh well... after that we just didn't really want to dance Ballroom for the day. We just wanted to get changed for Latin, but we kept getting re-called for the Basic Waltz. Jill tried comforting us though by saying it's more difficult to do well in the Basic events, which is true to a certain extent since you're competing against Advance dancers too. Anyway, we got as far as the Quarterfinals which was not bad I guess, though I know we could do better on a normal day.

Anyway, after finally changing into my new Latin trousers, I was feeling a little anxious. Did the judges really dislike us? Was it just not our day? Anyway, Latin turned out to be a whole lot better for us. We competed in the Basic Cha, Intermediate Rumba and Open Samba. Basic Cha we got as far as the semis. Though was a tiny bit dissapointed in not getting re-called for the finals, it's still a very good result. 5 out of the 6 finalists were Advance competitors. In the Intermediate Rumba we somehow managed to convince the judges we were good enough for the finals. 7 couples final. Only one other London couple. The rest were ICOXBRIDGE couples. We came in 5th beating Peter and Ly. 0_o No idea how we did it. The Open Samba was an even bigger joke though. We were in the finals with all the Advance dancers like Scott Bradley and Nicola, and Paul and Vesna! 3 Cambridge A team dancers, Oxford's best A team Latin couple and IC's best A team Latin couple as well. We felt like imposters. Like somehow we didn't belong with those couples on the floor. They're all Advance dancers and we're just this teeny tiny unknowns from London. Anyway, we came in 5th again... but we're really proud of ourselves cause we beat Paul and Vesna... doesn't matter if they dance ballroom for team, but they've been around for ages so that places them in a different league from us.

Unfortunately we were too knackered to give it our best during Team Cha. Managed the semis and then were knocked out but I don't think we cared at all. We were just too tired. Then during the knockout, it was just unfortunate London had to meet a strong team (Liverpool) in the first round, so we were knocked out. I was not sent out cause it was 2 ballroom dances and 1 latin. In a way, it was fortunate for me. I was ssssooo tired. However, I've never danced in the Sheffield knockout before.. guess I'd never know how it would feel like. The demonstration couple was Andrew Cuerden and Hanna Haarala. I have nothing else to say about them. *yawns*

Anyway, after the last Waltz, we boarded the bus at 11.20pm ish and made our way back to London. Was dead to the world most of the way back. Have uploaded my vids and pics and am having instant noodles.. yum yum... catch you later!