I must apologize for the month absence, but it's that time of the year again... march madness! I've barely had time to breathe coming up paddy's day! I wouldn't change it for the world- my legs are a little sore but that's all in the name of the sport, right? :-)
So, in 48 hours from friday afternoon to sunday afternoon, I had 5 shows, a parade and much dancing. We did the rounds- retirement homes, parades, festivals, churches, and pubs. I had SO much fun, and honestly the best paddy's day I've ever had. As I was sitting down in the pub on saturday night with some friends trying to forget how much my legs hurt, I had to remind myself that this was only my third year dancing. It sure doesn't feel like it! I can't believe that this time two years ago I could just about make it through the trad set St. Patrick's day, I'd never competed and I'd done two shows completely terrified not knowing anybody, in my school's adult dress. Now, I'm working to get into prelims, I had my wig on for more hours that I had it off over the weekend, and I have made some of the best friends possible. I don't think I could ever let Irish dancing out of my life now!
We got a new treble jig in our class a few weeks ago, which I was thrilled about. It'll probably end up being one of my oireachtas steps, which is really exciting! I was nervous at first, because I'm a very rhythmic dancer. I had my sounds and rhythms really sharp in the step it replaced, but this new step has a lot of tricks to it, so I was worried I'd spend all my time working on those and would lose the rhythm. In reality, the tricks came quickly so now I just have to drill a few parts to get even sounds. I actually love our new step, so much that I did it at every show over the paddy's day weekend! The first show I performed it at was just over a week after I learned it- not too shabby!
At the end of the day saturday, as I was sitting down with my friends from another class, one of the girls commented on how much she thought my soft shoe has improved. This honestly made my day, because let's be honest, soft shoe is NOT my strong point. I can jump, and that's about it. I'm not the best at graceful, light and razor straight legs. (One of the reasons slip jigs and I don't really get along) So for her to say that she couldn't believe it was really me dancing the soft shoe steps, makes me so, so happy. It makes the hard work not so hard, to know it really does payoff.
Speaking of hard work, I signed myself up for a boot camp fitness class to help get myself in shape, and if that goes well I may start working more with that trainer to work on my flexibility and endurance specifically. She has great reviews, but I have to explore for myself. More on that later!
Anyways, as always, thanks for reading this far, and let me know what antics you got up to this paddy's day!
