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Lessons Learned at Dance Fest

A Smile is All it Takes

By Daniel Korus

Line Dance Fun at Dance Fest
Dance Fest is without a doubt the most fun dance competition I have ever been to. Concurrently, my favorite dance memory comes from Dance Fest last year. Dance Fest was my very first dance competition, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I remember walking onto the floor for my first ever smooth foxtrot dance thinking about how I was going to mess up, and everyone would laugh at me. I was also nervous because I was competing in newcomer with numerous dancers that looked so much better than me and I had no idea what I was doing. As I lead my dance partner onto the floor, my legs began to wobble and my lips began to quiver. I tried so hard to smile, but my face would not comply to the commands my brain was giving it. I went through the entire first round with an emotionless face and miraculously got a callback. I kept getting callbacks but I still couldn’t smile because I was too nervous and I was overthinking my dancing. All of my teammates and relatives were cheering me on but it only gave me a temporary smirk and I would immediately return to my blank thinking face.

Finally, the newcomer foxtrot final was upon us. I tried to prepare by pretending to be confident in my dancing skills and smiling like I knew what I was doing. I lead my partner on the floor in the corner of the long wall and knew that the audience would gawk at my emotionless face once again. The music began to play and it sounded familiar to me. All of a sudden I recognized it! It was Sweet Caroline; one of my favorite songs! As the crowd began to cheer and sing along, a smirk crept its way onto my face. That smirk became a grin, and the grin became a smile. Then it became the most giddy, happy, full open mouth smile I had ever had. I wasn’t even paying attention to the crowd or my dancing anymore; I was just having fun. Although we didn’t get first place in the newcomer foxtrot competition, I can say with confidence that my partner and I won in happiness. Now whenever I’m in a competition and I get too focused on my floor craft or footwork, I just think about that boisterous moment and let the music take control.

From this I learned how smiling can impact not only my dancing, but my attitude. If you frown at life, then you will probably get frowns back, but if you smile your way through life, you will gain confidence and a happiness that you don’t even understand. I don’t think this kind of impact on me and my dancing could have happened at just any competition. It takes a special one like Dance Fest to make me change my way of dancing. At this year’s Dance Fest, I had so many great moments similar to this and I am certain the Dance Fest continuously remains to be the most happy and fun competition I have ever been too.

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