{"id":7192,"date":"2019-03-11T06:12:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T06:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/?p=5914"},"modified":"2019-03-11T06:12:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T06:12:17","slug":"dance-competition-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/blog\/dance-competitions\/dance-competition-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The World of Dance Competition for Our Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dancers glide across the floor with undeniable spirit, grace, and confidence at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills<\/a>. As they proceed through heats, they move their bodies to the slow, slinky burn of the rumba, the dramatic rhythms of the tango, the sensual swirl of a foxtrot. This is a Team Match<\/a>, a homegrown in-house fun-spirited competition where many of the dancers (all FADS students!) are seasoned competitors \u2014 and many are easing into the world of competitive dancing.<\/p>\n

While they swirl and sashay in front of a crowd, many of the people involved with our studio had no particular interest in dancing competitively. In fact, many shied away from the idea \u2014 only to have powerful, 180-degree conversions.<\/p>\n

A Whole New World<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWhen I went in for the first time, I told them \u2018I just love to dance\u2019,\u201d says Shari Finsilver, who has danced at FADS since last summer. \u201cI just wanted to learn everything I can about it, but I said, \u2018I am not competing. That is not what I want to do.\u2019 I was emphatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few months, however, Shari agreed to participate in an in-studio event featuring a friendly rivalry. \u00a0<\/span>Much to her amazement, she loved the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had a ball,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In fact, she was persuaded by the experience to compete, and found herself renting gowns for a San Diego competition this past January. She wound up being so thrilled by it all, she signed up for three times as many heats as she first intended.<\/p>\n

\"\"Elevating the Dance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The competition in San Diego left her feeling radiant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first night we danced until past midnight, and then had to get up at 6 o\u2019clock the next morning for hair and makeup,\u201d she gushes. \u201cIt was a lot of fun. I did 10 dances, 148 heats, and I got first place in almost all the heats. It was fabulous. I won the Top Newcomer award.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shari\u2019s story isn\u2019t a rarity. Competition is often the catalyst that transforms a student of dance into a devotee.<\/p>\n

Competition Enhanced His Experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was the case with Michael Ziecik. When he started dancing with his wife three years ago, his attitude was decidedly blas\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have any interest in it when we started going to group lessons once a week,\u201d Michael says. \u201cThen one of my instructors convinced me to go to a competition, and that\u2019s when I realized I really had to learn how to dance. I realized, \u2018I can\u2019t delay this any longer!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Competing flipped a switch in Michael\u2019s brain, and dancing quickly developed into an obsession.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been in competitions before, perhaps in sports, you get your mind around it,\u201d he says. \u201cI just loved it. I had fun, and I realized I\u2019m actually enjoying this. The competition was the trigger point of me enjoying the whole idea of dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s All Friendly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael is quick to specify that ballroom dance competition isn\u2019t the kind of cutthroat competition prevalent in many sports, but more of a supportive community of contestants who enjoy what matches bring out in themselves and in others.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put the pressure on yourself,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it\u2019s not a win-or-lose kind of a competition. The people dancing are so nice, which makes sense when you think of how dancers need to work with partners. It\u2019s the kind of sport where you have to get along with other people. Generally, you\u2019re encouraging your competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competing In-Studio<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly the spirit that prevails at a Fred Astaire Dance Studio Team Match, which typically happen twice yearly. These events are different from your typical competition, where dancers wear numbers on their tuxedos and expensive gowns, are watched closely by judges, and are scored on individual merits.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"At our Team Matches, it\u2019s informal. As opposed to demanding judges eyeing competitors carefully, the emotional stakes are lower: Retired ballet pro Mary Geiger cheerfully refereed our February Team Match, deciding which team came out on top.<\/p>\n

Team Match Vision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of our enthusiastic students do wear dazzling outfits with fringes, ruffles, and special cuts of fabric designed to swirl through the air. One woman donned a tiered flapper-fringed catsuit. Michael Ziecik, normally attired in a tuxedo at a ballroom dance competition, wore simple white slacks and T-shirt to our recent Team Match.<\/p>\n

It makes sense. The big changes, Michael says, are on the inside. As a result of getting caught up in the energy of competition, he sees everything in a new light.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was learning dance,\u201d he says, \u201call these feelings started coming out: awareness of my body, of motion, of the music, of my partner, how your movements affect your partner\u2019s. In life, I\u2019m learning to appreciate that side of it. Even walking down the street, I notice things differently now. A different way of looking at the world. Now I\u2019m able to care about it and appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dance with us! Get ready for our next Team Match by signing up for dance lessons\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dancers glide across the floor with undeniable spirit, grace, and confidence at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills. As they proceed through heats, they move their bodies to the slow, slinky burn of the rumba, the dramatic rhythms of the tango, the sensual swirl of a foxtrot. This is a Team Match, a homegrown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[45,199,76,47,57,95,38,168,200,201,202,203],"class_list":["post-7192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance-competitions","tag-bloomfield-hills","tag-competitors","tag-dance","tag-dance-competition","tag-dance-lessons","tag-fred-astaire","tag-fred-astaire-dance-studio","tag-fred-astaire-dance-studio-of-michigan","tag-judges","tag-michael-ziecik","tag-shari-finsilver","tag-team-match"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}