For a few years I had been bugging Mike to check out Ballroom dancing thinking he would love it. OK, well.. I’ll be honest I wanted him to dance because I would love it. Quite a few of our friends had children at the Ball room dance studio and I had attended their major performance every year and was always amazed at how amazing they were. Mike always told me no. Finally they offered Sept tuition free for boys and I told him to do it and then if he didn’t like it I wouldn’t bother him again. His final words on the subject were “I’m going to dance forever!”
While he does love dancing in and of itself I also think a lot of it has to do with this lovely young lady right here. He was smitten from the first time he saw her.
The first year at Ball room was interesting as he was getting to know the sport and he was getting to know her.
This year has been much different. They are now inseparable and he has truly come into his own with dancing also.
A few times this year from different mothers I had heard that he had turned into an amazing dancer. They weren’t saying good, they were saying amazing. After having heard this multiple times I decided to watch a practice myself which I rarely do. Honestly, he was so beautiful that I felt myself tear up. I was glad to hear from other mothers that this is a common reaction as I was totally unprepared for it.
They have been working extra hard this year taking on private lessons and working lots of extra hours. Again, I think his willingness to spend all the extra time has another incentive. Finally their private tutor said that she thought they were ready to begin competing.
So, we were off to Seattle’s “Quest For The Best” competition.
They are an amazingly beautiful couple and they did really well for their first competition.
In the sport of ball room (can’t believe I just called it a sport) partner match is pretty important. Height, hair color, fit, etc. As they go on competing it will be a big factor. Luckily these two lucked out so far as they are a near perfect match.
As of this time they are perfect height. Now the boy has grown 7 inches since Oct so I am not sure if that will continue or not. We shall see.
As for looks it is a tad freaky. They could actually be siblings.
Their hair color matches identically, they both have the same long face and the same eyes. Their noses differ a tad but their mouths are a really close match also. Freaky huh? But in the world of dance you couldn’t ask for better.
As for fit, these two are truly the other half of each other. I don’t know that I have ever seen two kids as young as they are fit together so naturally and effortlessly. They are truly comfortable together and their strengths and weaknesses are compatible and play of each other in such a way that it works for both of their benefit.
We were all shocked and proud when they came in second for one heat of the Waltz and third in the second heat. That was more than we had let ourselves hope for their first competition. (on a side note, look at the right hand of the above pic. See those super tiny kids? I was totally amazed at how small some of the competitors are. Seriously, there are like 5 year olds competing. And a lot of them! It was so strange I just couldn’t stop watching them. I wholly expected them to go take a nap between heats.)
I guess it is normal for a couple to be better at one than the other and for these two, they seem to do much better at Standard than they do in Latin. Of course that may change as they get more comfortable with the dances and with themselves. They are very technical as of yet and Latin demands a lot of flair. In the Cha-Cha they placed fourth in both rounds.
So dang proud of my boy and his girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment