When Upleveling Means Going Back to the Beginning

Returning to the Dance Floor

After winning the World Champion title at the Closed Silver level in August 2018, I returned to the competition floor in August 2019, after an entire year off, and debuted at the more advanced Open level in American Smooth, one of four styles of ballroom dancing. It was quite a day at the Embassy Ballroom World Championships, full of emotional highs and lows.

After an anxiety-filled final lesson on Tuesday, it was all I could do to barely focus at work on Wednesday. I planned my week so I would be able to take it easy Wednesday evening. Thursday was the big day.

I didn’t get to bed as early as I wanted, but I actually slept through the night on Wednesday. The night before a big event, I often dream that I’ve overslept and wake myself up several times. Not this time!

I felt pretty good on Thursday morning, a little nervous but mostly excited. I got up around 6am, early enough to be able to take my time doing my hair, taking care of the dogs, eating breakfast, etc. before I had to leave for my makeup appointment at 9am. Even though I was wearing gloves as part of my costume, I kept with my normal competition morning routine and painted my nails while livestreaming with my followers on Facebook.