Showcase Reflections

The joy of performing in Showcase is owning the floor for a few brief moments.

For the weeks leading up to a Showcase performance, there is an obsession that rules my life. I am compelled to play the Showcase music in the car wherever I go. The simple becomes complex in the quest for the right dress, lipstick and shoes. Each additional lesson just reveals a new set  of corrections that need to be made. One week before Showcase, I am shaking my head and saying, “I will NEVER do this again.”

And then, the day comes. I am backstage with a group of who share my love for dancing. I applaud each of them as they give their best to their performance. We are on. I feel a thousand apologies creeping into my head but the audience is watching. It isn’t about me anymore. The instructors and audience are so supportive that I almost feel embarrassed.

The next 2.5 minutes takes all those frustrating fragments of the previous weeks and pieces them together into a picture that now makes sense. I was able to dance variations that I feared were outside my abilities. I have another great experience in communicating to the audience. One of the most wonderful benefits of the Showcase was having the dance floor all to ourselves for the duration of our song. The arms can fling, the grapevines can carry us the length of the room, and I can close the dance with my DIVA move with no inhibitions.

Another sentimental benefit is that these Showcase songs of ours have become special songs to Tom and me. We never had “our song” earlier in our marriage but now these songs will always bring a warm memory. We accomplished something together using the art of ballroom dance and beautiful music.

Our instructor will tell us, “If it was easy, everyone could do it.” So, I don’t feel guilty saying that it isn’t easy. I do say that I have moved forward as a dancer and I just might consider doing this again.

See You on the Floor!