*Sorry, once again, for the lateness of this post! I was waiting until all of the photos of the competition were uploaded onto Ivara’s VK page, but I’m still waiting and I want to share this post already. So, please excuse the lack of good-quality photos! I hope to add more later on. Also, this might be boring to read. I wanted to share every small, technical detail and so the result might be a little too much. Oops! Oh well! Read anyways!
Sunday, April 24th, was the inner-club competition at my dance studio, Ivara! I participated in the beginner’s group with a partner, Sergei, who also dances with me in the Tues-Thurs hustle intermediate class, taught by Igor and Tanya. For this division, we prepared a “program” of five movements, which, in the competition, we repeat about 4 times or so over the length of the song, so for about 2 minutes. Over the last couple weeks, we met several times with Mikhail (Alina’s husband, my friend, and a wonderful teacher) and once with Igor, to help with our footwork, arms, posture, timing, etc.
I also participated in the nomination of “ДнД Newcomers Импро”. I entered this section individually, without a partner. “ДнД” stands for “Jack and Jill” and the point of this division is to dance with 3 different partners in each round, without knowing with whom you will dance beforehand and without an opportunity to practice. Every movement is improvised and in the moment, so it highlights a dancer’s training/smarts and how well he or she can work with a partner. In addition to the rehearsal time with Sergei, I’ve been taking individual lessons with Mikhail every Friday for the past 6 weeks in order to learn new movements for ДнД and also to improve my technique. Other than this hour on Fridays, all of my dance lessons are taught completely in Russian.
If you all remember, Alina is the person who introduced me to the hustle and who encouraged me to participate in the competition. She and Mikhail make up the power couple of my dreams, and they are my favorite sources of encouragement and support. I see Mikhail as my coach and big brother. In our lessons, he always makes fun of me for getting tired too quickly and mocks all of my facial expressions. (I have an expressive face, I guess?) However, he makes up for this by making me laugh with his plethora of weird American pop culture references from the nineties. He mostly makes himself laugh with these however, and every once in a while I have to tell him to stop because he's embarrassing himself. He often tells me to be "cool as a cucumber" and it kills me every time. He worries about my knees and makes me put my hood up when we go outside. When I was cold in the beginning of our lesson last week, he unzipped his jacket and gave it to me. He didn't even mind when I got it all sweaty on the inside… That's real friendship.
^Alina and Mikhail dancing for fun during one of the breaks.
Alina takes a dance technique class on Sundays until 1:30, but she hurried to the competition to support Sergei and I, arriving right at 2:15, just as we finished warming up. She reminded us of everything Misha wanted us to remember and gave us some last minute tips before we lined up.
There were 20 partners participating in «начинающие», and 26 girls participating in DnD. After everyone dances in their round, each of the 5 judge gives you a “pass” or not, and then the participants are narrowed down to ¼ Final, ½ Final, and then the Final Final. The results of each round are posted on a wall throughout the competition. They look like this: (I was number 238 for ДнД, and 23 for начинающие.)
*Each letter (ABCDE) stands for a judge. If all 5 letters are on the same line as your number, that means all 5 judges passed you onto the next round. However, depending on all the results, you can usually pass on with 4 judges and, sometimes, even with 3.
Due to adrenaline and probably exhaustion, much of the day blurs together in my memory, but there are quite a few special moments that I want to always remember. I decided bullet points would be best:
All spectators usually clap on the first count of the music, to help keep dancers on rhythm and also just because it’s fun. Igor was the rhythm police for the beginning and intermediate groups. He would basically walk in a circle around the competitors, counting, “1,2,3,4” and occasionally running across the room if he saw a couple dancing dreadfully off-count.
^who knew my nostrils flared so much? You learn new things everyday.
In the 2nd round of начинающие, Sergei and I danced off count for a few steps. I had just hugged Alina after competing in the final group of the 2nd round of DnD, and then ran back onto the dance floor to compete in the first group of начинающие again. So I was already breathing heavily before the round started. Anyways, Sergei and I were positioned near Igor, Alina, and the judges. When we fell off count, Alina and Igor loudly clapped and yelled to help us back onto the music. Igor turned to the judges, exclaiming, “Don’t look at them! Don’t look at them!!” and tried to block their view from us. I could hear everyone’s laughter and general merriment as I was dancing and it made me happy. Despite this mistake, Sergei and I still made it to the next round with all 5 judges passing us!
Mikhail and Alina told me many times that it was important to smile while competing. However, it’s easy to forget about my face when I’m trying to follow my partner and remember steps. In the 3rd round, Igor was yelling at me to smile over and over again. He was, of course, yelling in Russian and I was so focused that I couldn’t hear him. I don’t think the language-learning part of my brain was turned on at that moment. But then!! - probably because Alina told him the word in English (or maybe he already knew), he yelled out “Aubrey, SMILE!” And I, well trained in following directions (and particularly responsive to things being yelled at me due to my childhood gymnastics career), immediately broke into a mega-watt smile and kept it frozen on my face. Everyone standing around Igor started cracking up and clapping for us. For the next half of that round, I noticed a lot more people smiling as they watched Sergei and I dance. The attention was exciting and so fun!
^Alina and Igor!
There was a long break before the finals of the competition. At this point, Sergei and I had made it into the final 5 partners, with all 5 judges passing us. Also, I had made it into the final 7 girls of DnD, with 4 of the 5 judges passing me.
During the break, I stretched on the floor, leaning against the chair that Alina was sitting in, watching the advanced dancers warm up and internally lamenting in how tired I was. Then, I looked up, and Mikhail was standing over me!! I was so, so, so happy! He told Sergei and I that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the competition, but Alina sent him updates on us throughout the day and he managed to make it in time to watch the finals. I jumped to my feet and gave him the biggest hug. As we continued to wait for the finals to begin, I watched him and Alina dance amidst the other partners - my heart swelling with affection for them both.
Alina, Mikhail, Sergei, and I huddled in a circle for last-minute tips and encouragement. Mikhail rubbed my back and Alina told me to smile as if I had never smiled before. There was only one other couple that received all 5 judges approval for the final round, so they would be our main competition.
^Sergei, Alina, and Me.
The first round of the finals was DnD. For this round, there are 7 guys and 7 girls. We all had a number pinned to our back or side. Ivan, the main judge and another one of my teachers, went down the line and one-by-one each guy blindly chose a slip of paper from inside of a trophy. On each paper was written the number of a girl, and then that guy and girl paired together for the final. The DnD final is kind of a lottery because you don’t know what partner you’re going to be paired with, and then you’re stuck with whoever it is and are judged together.
I actually recognized the partner who picked my name. He also takes classes with Tanya and Igor, but is more advanced than me and once came to our class to help out when we were short on partners. We were the last pair to dance.
How it works is.. the music starts and one pair dances but then, after 40 seconds or so, there is a phrase or a bell that is repeated to indicate that it’s the next pair’s turn to dance. The judges give a score from 1 to 7 (1 being the highest) based on this short segment of improvisation. Each pair receives one score.
We got a 7, 4, 3, 7, 5 and placed 6th in the finale. Although technically our dancing was quite good, there was one big mistake, in which we stepped off the rhythm. Most judges treat this mistake very harshly and this is the reason for our varied results. I was disappointed because I felt that it was my fault and that I let my partner down, but Alina pulled me into a hug afterwards and kissed my cheek, repeating “умница, умница, умница!” (clever, clever, clever!) and Mikhail said that I surprised him by how well I performed and that he was very proud. So, with the warm words of my dancing coaches nestled in my heart, I felt motivated for the final round with Sergei.
^Sergei and I dancing.
Igor told us beforehand to stand right in front of the judges and him for the final round. So, that’s what we did when our number was called out (23!). After we danced, we stepped back in line with the other dancers, turning so the judges could see our numbers and waited for the results. I was feeling quite good. Ivan called our number first. We stepped forward and ALL FIVE JUDGES held up a 1! We were unanimously judged to be the best!!! Ahhh it was the most amazing moment.
After everyone got their results, Alina, followed closely by Mikhail, ran out around the audience to the dance floor and we all took turns hugging each other and jumping up and down. Members of my dance class hugged and congratulated me. A couple people I’ve never met before congratulated me. I received a trophy and a medal and 2 certificates. Some random little boy hugged me. It was a happy, happy time!
I love my Moscow dance family so very much. As Mikhail said after the competition, “Это наша общая победа.” (It is our general, shared win.) This was a team effort. I’m a lucky kid to have such a talented, loving, inspiring circle of people around me. I feel emotional and teary-eyed when I think about it. I’m so happy to be here. What a tremendous, tremendous thing. I have a body that can dance, a mind that can think and respond, and then all the rest of me (maybe it’s my soul? I don’t really know) that can give and accept kindness and love. For some reason, I'm finding it all overwhelming to think about today.
^Tanya, Sergei, Me and Igor.
I feel like there are a million tiny elves in my chest hugging a million tiny puppies. I do think my heart has expanded, just like the Grinch in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Hmm, how’s it go? I’ll google it. Oh, yes. “Well, in Whoville they say - the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.” My heart grew three sizes, too. Not from the realization that the people in Whoville feel Christmas in more than just material possessions, but because of how it feels to love what I am doing and to love the people I am doing it with. It sounds like a little thing, but I really don’t think I’ve ever felt quite this way before. I love dancing the hustle and I still can’t believe that there are people, specifically Alina and Mikhail, who exist and believe in me and cheer for me and are as equally delighted by my success as I am. The more I think about it, the more I am in awe of how I made it to this place. It’s one of the most wonderful feelings in the whole world.
The rest of the quote is applicable as well: “And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of 10 Grinches, plus two!”
Thank you so much for reading and for all the messages from home and from Dickinson. Every email and kind comment means a lot to me.
Love,
Aubrey
P.S. After I got home and turned on my phone, I saw that the two Ivara group messages (one for each class I'm in) were very active with updates throughout the competition. I took a screenshot of parts of the conversation because I thought it was so sweet! I know that not very many of you can read Russian, but you can still get an idea of how involved and supportive everyone is. Also, my name in Russian is spelled "Обри". :) :) :)
