By Vanessa Johnson
I enter a cool hotel ballroom on a Sunday in mid May. It’s the morning of the Michigan Summer Dance Classic and the forecast predicts a spring heatwave, but the heat hasn’t pierced through the quiet composure of the seasoned dancers around me. One of them being my coworker, David. Standing tall in his competition wear, he’s taking in the dance floor. How slippery is it? How are his routines going to fit on the floor? David has spent months training and working with his student for this day, but you can’t prepare for everything. Floorcraft is on his mind. A fundamental but complex skill, floorcraft is how leads avoid colliding with other couples on the dancefloor. In a controlled environment, like your private lessons or group lessons, there is a low chance of running into other dancers. The chaos of a competition, however, means a jostle or bump is more than possible. As I walk up to David, he breaks away from his concentration for a moment. We talk briefly before David excuses himself to go check on his student, Adell, who is getting her hair and makeup done. It’s ten minutes until the first event starts. I greet and send good wishes to the other professionals and their students. People from all four Michigan Fred Astaire Dance Studios are here. Not all of them are competing, though. Across the room a group of students from our Clarkston studio are sitting together. They came to support their friend, Adell, and their instructor, David, and maybe even to satisfy their curiosity by seeing how a comp actually works. Static plays through the overhead speakers, and the MC calls to the dance floor event number one. One couple enters the floor: from the West Bloomfield studio, a student wearing a peach ball gown strewn with pearls and her instructor. The DJ plays a waltz song and they begin to dance. Depending on the event and level you were dancing at, there was anywhere between one and four couples on the floor that day. A national competition might put more couples on the floor together, but this was a regional competition and had less participants. Adell and David are back in the ballroom. She’s wearing a mint green ball gown with lots of layers of tulle and dark blue accents, which David has matched his tie to. The MC calls their event, David takes Adell’s hand and leads her to the dance floor. They are also starting with a waltz, but this won’t be their only waltz today. Adell has signed up for 15 events! A waltz, tango, and a foxtrot, five times each, at five different levels. And they danced well in every single one of those events! But it wasn’t just because David is a professional. Pro-am competitions like the MSDC are where students, or amateurs, compete with other amateurs. Whether it be another pro-am couple, or an am-am couple, only the amateurs are being scored. At the end of the night, all of Adell’s hard work comes to fruition. She won the Michigan Regional Top Newcomer title along with a hefty glass trophy. “I am doing it again!” Having finished this competition with flying colors, Adell wants to go to the Fred Astaire national competition in Orlando, Florida this October! David told me after the competition that he already has notes on what to focus on in their next lessons to prepare for Orlando. He also wanted to leave some advice to anyone thinking about competing: “Just be present with your partner. Enjoy the time on the floor together and trust each other to have each other’s back. And as always if you ‘mess up’ just keep dancing!”