A Balancing Act

By Ligaya Carlos

My dance partner, PB, and I recently participated in the Chicago DanceSport Challenge. We were thrilled with how we danced, doing well enough to qualify for USA Dance National DanceSport Championships in Baltimore. However, competing in Baltimore next year does not solely depend on us qualifying; our families need to be consulted and considered before a decision to travel and compete in March could be made.

Our partnership began over a year ago after attending my second standard class at Dancers Studio. PB approached me and asked if we could practice together after classes just to hone the skills that we learned for the session. It was a dance style that was new to me, so I welcomed the opportunity to practice with him to help me improve. Neli Petkova was the first to suggest that we consider dancing together. Soon, practice sessions became regular events after Monday classes, and we later sought coaching with Nic Westlake and Neli. These coaching sessions and practices were planned around the activities of our families and work.

My husband is a physician, and we have three kids. I am a homemaker and am also active in the Filipino community, especially our dance troupe. I also compete (since 2014) in American-style ballroom dance with Jeff Halverson, my professional dance instructor. PB and his wife both work and have two kids. PB lives north of Minneapolis, while I live twenty-five minutes south of Dancers Studio. The one main interest that PB and I share is ballroom dancing, and with seven people to prioritize plus work and other activities, we did our best to compromise and set aside time to train.

Initially, I didn't think PB was interested in competing, but he was encouraged and motivated by winning first place at Dance Fest early this year in a mixed proficiency event with Neli. We then participated in multiple showcases at Dancers Studio and finally joined the Twin Cities Open as an amateur couple. I thought the competition went extremely well despite the fact that most events we signed up for were uncontested.

We then hatched the idea of trying to qualify for Nationals, thus we set our sights on the Chicago DanceSport Challenge as our most logical qualifying competition for nationals. The date of the Chicago event meant that we were going to miss Halloween (trick-or-treating) with our young families.

We did well in Chicago, beating all couples except for one extremely good couple in a field of over a dozen participants, and successfully qualified for Nationals. This is certainly the highlight of our dance partnership to date, but what happens next is still up in the air. Competing in Baltimore (and continuing to dance together, in general) will only be possible with the full support of our families.

I know our situation is not unique in the adult amateur realm of ballroom competition. Every partnership is different, and the dancers in a partnership are also different, including backgrounds, support, and attitudes. In our case, we have two different families with several priorities involved, and they take precedence over any competition (over anything, really). It's certainly a balancing act!