jaina

The end of 2018 means the end of my fourth year of Irish dance! Some highlights and memories from this year:

• 9th place in trad set at Oireachtas!!! I cracked the top 10! This was a very different competition compared to previous years, because we finally got an age split in the Western region. I was in the Under-40 category, and the level of competition was so high! Lots of people who hadn’t come to Oireachtas in the last few years, lots of people who used to dance as kids, lots of amazing dancing going on. And as always, lots of mutual support and friendship, because the Western region adults are so fabulous. I was just happy to recall, and to be top 10 was SUPER exciting! There were 4 of us from my school in our competition, and we placed 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th. We were really happy.
• I GOT A SOLO DRESS FINALLY!!!!! I love it with my whole heart. It’s exactly what I wanted, and it’s beautiful and flattering and I glued eighteen million rhinestones to it so I sparkle like a rainbow disco ball. 
• I FINALLY won Novice single jig! I almost cried when I saw the results, seriously. That just leaves hornpipe as my only Novice dance. I won it once this year, but there were only 4 people, and the other times I wasn’t even close. But part of the reason might be…
• I switched to competing both slow hornpipe and treble jig starting in June. This was rather a scary leap to make, but I felt like they looked decent enough to compete, and I wanted to feel more challenged. I really love slow hardshoe and it’s fun to see the progress I’ve made with it. 
• I hurt my left calf over the summer– the same place I tore it in 2015. It sucked, but I worked with an awesome physical therapist who showed me where I had serious muscle imbalances and how that was impacting my dancing, and helped me figure out how to activate other muscles when I dance so I’m not putting so much strain on my calves. It means a lot of work to retrain my muscle memory, but it’ll be worth it if it helps prevent injury. I pretty much had to skip all 3 fall feises other than teams, my novice dances, and the specials, and that sucked! I want to compete!!!
• One practice in July, Rori asked us what we wanted to work on, and Bethany said “I want to do a birdie!” and I said “I want to do an axel!” pretty much completely out of the blue. Rori kind of blinked at us, but she put them into our reels and slip jigs so we could try them out. I LOVE AXELS SO MUCH. Because of my injury I didn’t compete soft shoe this fall, so I’m excited to debut the steps with axels added at our feis in February!
• A bunch of the adult team members went to Ulta together to get a makeup lesson on how to do our team makeup this year. It was really fun and a bit silly and definitely pretty extra, but if you get the chance to have a former ballroom dancer named TylerRyan show you how to do fabulous dramatic eyes, take that chance!
• We switched to a new 8-hand this year- we had done Trip to the Cottage for the past 3 years, since I first started dancing, and now we are doing the 8-hand reel. It was a fun challenge to learn it, and I got to keep my top gent spot. We got 2nd at Oireachtas (out of 3) which was exactly what we deserved, and more importantly we danced it the best we could and I had a really great time onstage. It made up for the 4-hand, where I got a cramp in my toe right as the music started, and we ended up 4th of 8. :(
• Oireachtas as a whole was really fun. A lot of the other adults went wine tasting (it was in Portland), but Bethany and I basically lived in the convention center for 3 days and watched as much dancing as we possibly could. One of our U15s recalled for the first time after many years of competing, and it was so exciting to be there for her and support her as she danced her set.  
• Even with all the missed competitions, I had great solo results overall this year! I won a special for the first time (reel) and placed top 3 in 4 others, plus I had 5 Prizewinner first places!
• And oh yeah, not related to Irish dance competitions, but a bunch of us from my school did a Doctor Who Irish dance entry for the San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade called Time Lord of the Dance and we won a bunch of awards and got a standing ovation. Best performance experience ever. 

And now goals for 2019!

• Learn a new trad set- after 4 years of competing St Pat’s, I think it’s time. Multiple people have told me I need to be dancing Garden of Daisies with my dress, so maybe? It’s a pretty one. 
• Become a full prizewinner! Moving Novice hornpipe up is going to be difficult since there’s such tough competition in that dance for some reason, but hopefully at our feis and the St Ambroses, we can get at least 5 people and I can actually perform hornpipe the way I know I can.
• Place in the top 10 again in trad set at Oireachtas, or, if we get an adult championship and my teachers approve, I would like to compete in the championship. 
• Continue working on technique (turnout/cross/straight legs/pointy feet) and also work to keep my core and posterior chain engaged during dance, not leaving my calves to do all the work. 
• Work on flexibility, hopefully to include flexibility class at the circus center, with the end goal of improving my clicks. 
• Practice at home twice a week.
• Get back to the gym for strength and cardio training at least twice a week, or find some videos I can do at home.