Packing for Dance Competitions

This weekend is dance competition #1 for the season. The dancers and choreographers at Lake Area Dance Center have been working hard in preparation for this weekend. Packing for a dance competition is a little like packing for vacation. There are many things you need to bring, and you need to be prepared for anything.

I recently asked my friends on facebook and twitter what the top 3 things they can’t go to a dance competition or recital without (besides the obvious of costumes, makeup, shoes, etc). Some of the answers I got were:
* “Water, safety pins, glue” (from a Dance Mom)
* “Camera, safety pins, bobbi pins” (from a Dance Mom)
* “Cheerios, bobby pins, and a giant water bottle! ” (from a Dancer)
* “Extra tights, headphones, and hairspray” (from a Dancer)
* “My DeWalt drill, Mountain Dew, and sunglasses” (from an Instructor)
* “Underwear (to change into clothes), string cheese, security blanket from birth” (from a Dance Mom)
* “Snacks, mirror, and a dark sense of humor” (from a Dancer and Assistant Instructor)

My twitter responses seem to have disappeared, but I know there were a couple of Dance Dads that had responses in the line of: “Advil, a flask, and Mountain Dew.”

I’m getting everything I can think of that we might need in Grace’s Dream Duffel. Here are some of the must-haves I have come up with:
* A blanket to sit on or hold up while she changes into her next costume
* Flip flops they made at their dance sleep over (for wearing between dances, and after she’s done dancing)
* Makeup in case she needs a touch up before going back on-stage (including extra eyelash glue and an extra set of lashes)
* Hair spray, bobby pins, brush (in case of a hair emergency. We’re lucky, no hair changes)
* Clear beverages
* Snacks – looks like string cheese is a winner, though, we will likely have other non-messy/staining snacks as well.
* All accessories (shoes, hat, hair pins, earrings, tights – with an extra pair of each, undergarments, body tape, safety pins)
* E-6000 and extra rhinestones
* Dance jacket and change of clothes for after she’s done dancing
* Kindle/ MP3 player, i-pod touch, coloring books, etc. to occupy kids during long waiting periods
* Costumes
* Camera with a charged spare battery

I’d love to hear of other things you may think of that are not on any of the above lists. Please feel free to comment!

Additions made 4/6/12:
After our first competition, there were a few things we didn’t have, that we wished we had:
* Qtips (for make-up and lipstick mishaps)
* Kleenex
* Travel Toothbrush (lipstick on the teeth, or rushed mornings where that step was missed make this a must)
* Make-up remover wipes (we always had them last year, but ran out. I guess I forgot to replenish our stock)
* Baby wipes for after lunch and/or snack clean up.
* Hair glue (Grace has fine hair, and gets those little wisps after not much time – no matter how much hairspray we use)

I will continue to update this list as I come up with other ideas. I’d still love to hear yours. Feel free to post a comment!

What to Expect at Dance Competitions

It is less than one week away from the first dance competition of the season. All the dancers are working hard to perfect every step of their dances in hopes of achieving a Platinum ranking. They are working on their “dance faces”, keeping their arms straight, and making sure their feet make all the sounds they are supposed to. For some, this will be the first competition they have ever danced in, others have been dancing in competitions as long as they have been in school.

Thinking back to last year, I remember going in to competition season a bit clueless. After the season was over, I wrote a post about some of the things I learned. Here are a few things to keep in mind as competition season is underway:

*DO NOT take pictures while your dancers are dancing on stage. I can’t stress this enough! Most of the competitions have photographers taking action pictures. You can order these later. Having your own pictures on your own camera is not worth having your dancer disqualified! You can take pictures back stage, and during the awards ceremony, but NOT while they are dancing.

*Make sure you have plenty of rest time built into competition weekends (easier said than done, I know). Sometimes, competitions may run ahead of, or behind schedule. Make sure your dancer is there and ready at the time the studio recommends. Often, this will be 1 1/2-2 hours earlier than their scheduled dance time. This may mean very early mornings. Do not plan late nights at hotels – last year, we experienced more than one meltdown due to the extremely early mornings (and not just from my dancer).

*Make sure your dancer has enough to eat and drink. Breakfast is important. Your child will need the energy to dance, smile, and thoroughly enjoy the day. You will also want to have snacks and water available. A hungry or thirsty dancer will not be at his/her best.

*Though this may seem obvious – make sure your child uses the rest room before going on stage. When someone REALLY has to go to the bathroom, it is hard to concentrate on dancing their best.

*Be prepared for long days, long waiting times, and sometimes, hurried schedules. Our girls are scheduled to dance three times in less than an hour. If you consider the waiting back stage, dancing, getting back and forth to/from the dressing area, and costume changes, this makes for a rushed and stressful schedule. Try to keep calm, and just be helpful. Have a plan for those waiting times. Are you going to leave to grab a bite to eat before coming back for awards, are you going to stay and watch other dancers?

*Try not to push your dancer too hard. You want the dancers to have fun and to do their best. You don’t want them to be so stressed out that it isn’t fun any more. We all want to see our dancers get high scores, we want to see them earn pins, plaques, and trophies. We want them to best represent their studios. Most of all, we want our dancers to have fun! If they aren’t enjoying themselves, then what’s the point of having them there?

*Be prepared to hear Justin Bieber (or other “bubble gum pop” music) during awards ceremonies. During the competitions, you will hear all sorts of music you love, and music you hate. Embrace it. Enjoy the dances, and the artistry it takes to both perform and choreograph them.

*When my husband came to his first competition last year, he was overwhelmed by the amount of sparkles, glitter, and rhinestones. He was also surprised by the amounts of makeup, and fake eyelashes that even the youngest girls had on. This is just part of the competition world. The dancers want to wow the judges. Stage lighting is less than flattering for most skin tones, makeup helps their smiles really beam; sparkles help the costumes pop!

*Even at the largest venue, space feels limited. You are sure to find groups practicing their dances in any open space they can find. Be patient and understanding, they just want to make sure they are 110% ready!

*Have fun. Your dancer will feel all sorts of emotions: scared, excited, happy, sad, silly… enjoy the day; ignore the mood swings! Your sanity will thank you! Competitions are to be enjoyed. SMILE, and your dancers will smile too!

Meme 15 – Balancing facebook Friends

Once again, my husband, Jason Strate (@StrateSQL), is heading up a new Meme 15. This time, the topic is facebook. How do we balance it with all the possible people we could be friends with on there?

I have a lot of past high school classmates, friends, family, and co-workers (mostly past ones). My rule was always, “If I don’t know them in real life, I’m not going to be friends with them on facebook.” I have pictures of my kids, and details of my life that I don’t think the general public needs to see.

My struggle has been in answering the question, “What about the SQL Community?” They are an awesomely fun group of people I get to see a couple of times a year. Most people in that community seem to use twitter the most (and/or have their twitter feeds pushed to facebook). I have been told by people that I “should” be friends with some of the key people in the SQL Community on facebook. At the same time, I feel like not everyone really needs to see my whole life (especially if I barely know them). There are plenty of people I am friends with in real life, or talk to often enough on twitter, that it feels like I know them. Some of them I feel know me well enough that I don’t care if they see my facebook.

The problem is that I have gotten friend requests from people who I have had minimal twitter interaction with, and don’t really know. That’s where I struggle. I don’t want to be rude, so I go ahead and accept the friend requests. I go back and forth on whether or not to go back and “de-friend” some people that I barely know or talk to. That feels even more rude than had I just ignored their request in the first place.

What I do like about having so many SQL people on my list of fb friends is that I can tag them in photos from PASS events, and they can tag me. It also seems to help build relationships with people that I only see a few times a year. I enjoy that benefit. That also holds true for some of my husband’s co-workers that I am facebook friends with.

I am very interested to see what other people have to say on the topic. I may be changing the way I use facebook some after reading the roundup (or not, we’ll see)…

Sleepover Fun?

My daughter is turning 11 years old. She wanted to have a sleepover birthday party. Her original list included 5 girls. I said OK. Then, she suddenly had 6 on her list. By the time she made out her invitations, the list had grown to 8. One girl couldn’t sleep over, so she asked if she could invite someone else instead. I said no, 7 girls was enough (besides, the other girl was still coming and wasn’t leaving until 10).

Why I didn’t consult with my mom before the craziness of this event, I don’t know. Not two hours in to the party, one girl was crying, because after trying to take charge for a couple hours, another girl told her off. After that, they all gathered around the crying girl, said sorry, and carried on. Things were fine after that. They did makeovers, put on fake nails, somehow roped me into painted said nails…

My 6 year old couldn’t leave the girls alone. One of them kept yelling at him to leave them alone, while 2 of the girls thought he was cute (in that little kid sort of way), and kept wanting him to play with them. A couple of the girls played in a different room, while most of the girls were wrapped up in their nails. There were 3 obvious different groups here, and it was interesting how different they all were.

The volume 8 girls can create rivaled that of a football stadium. They were giggling, squealing, shrieking, and occasionally, all out screaming. There were spats (especially between 2 of the girls). There were tears. Mostly, there was lots of laughing, singing, and trying to talk over each other. I have no idea how my husband survived! I know my ears were ringing, and my patience for the drama ran thin by the end of the night.

As it approached 10:00, I had them start a movie in attempts to wind down. They had wanted to watch the Big Time Rush movie which I had DVR’d for them. This only seemed to rev them up more. At some point, they started calming down. Probably around 10:30, when we made the two teenage boys (who sleep downstairs where all the girls were) go to bed. At 11:30, I went down to check on them, they were pretty calm. I reminded them that they should start trying to fall asleep. I went down again at 12, 2 girls were up, a couple were right on the edge of sleep and awake, but I figured they’d be out in no time. At 12:30, I went to check on them, 3 girls were up and chatting. One of them was my daughter – the one who barely made it for New Year’s Eve. By 1:00, I had to get a little more stern. I told them to finish up their episode of Dance Moms, and turn off the TV. I needed to get some sleep too. By this time 4 girls were awake. They were, apparently, trying to keep each other all up. At 1:30, I gave up and went to bed.

The next day, there were 7 tired and mildly crabby girls up by 8:00 a.m. (that WAS taking into account the spring ahead time change). I felt half-dead. All the coffee I drank didn’t even kind of help. As soon as the last girl left, I went straight down for a nap. Shortly after, so did my 2 kids. Grace woke up from her nap still crabby, but dance class helped that some. Yep, I’m a mean mom, I made her go to dance after a sleep over.

When we talked about it later, Grace said to me, “Mom, I don’t think I’ll ever have that many girls over for a sleep over again!” Even she was overwhelmed by the noise and the drama between 2 of the girls. She had a lot of fun, but it was a bit much for her. I’m glad she learned her lesson. In case I ever think I will let her have a large sleep over again, point me back to this post.

Dream Duffel – Raising the Bar on Customer Service

Great customer service is hard to come by these days. When it happens, it’s worth letting everyone know about!

Last year, I saw many parents wheeling a Dream Duffel at dance competitions. I thought they looked really useful, but didn’t get one.

This year, Grace has 3 costume changes, accessories, etc. She is also dancing in 4 competitions, 2 recitals, and hopefully, Nationals in the summer. I decided the Dream Duffel would be the most useful thing to get to haul it all around. I had heard that January was “the” time to order one, as they usually went on sale then. The bummer thing, is that the website was all out of them every time I checked. Last week, I called to see if by any chance, I could order one over the phone. The woman told me I couldn’t order one if they were out of stock online. She did tell me that they were going to be putting a limited number on the website for order on Monday at 9:00 a.m. I put it on the calendar to go online and attempt an order then.

As soon as my kids left for the bus today, I went to the Dream Duffel website again. This time, there were medium Dream Duffels available, but none in the kit with accessories. Because I have had such a hard time getting one, I went ahead and paid the extra $10 to order the duffel and accessories separately. My Mom asked me to order Grace the personalized patch with her name on it, so I put that on too. I chose to pick it up myself (since they are located less than an hour away). It also saved $25 in shipping to do it that way.

A couple hours later, I called the company to see when I could pick up my order. The woman on the phone told me the times I could pick it up. I told her I had ordered a personalized patch, and asked how long it usually takes for those to be done. She said tomorrow or Wednesday, it should be ready. I asked if I could call tomorrow to see if it’s ready. I told her Grace’s birthday was tomorrow, so it would be awesome if it was ready then. She told me she would make sure it was. Then she said, “In fact, I will make sure it’s done today if you’d like to come today. I’ll go back there and make sure he does it in the next 10 minutes.” I thanked her and hung up. WOW!!

Talk about some great customer service! First, she told me when I could order them, then she helped make sure I could get it on time for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow! I’m quite impressed!

Another example of great customer service I heard about in regards to the Dream Duffel, came from another dance mom/instructor at our studio. The clothes rack on her duffel broke, she called for a replacement, and it arrived the next day! These guys are amazing!

FYI – the woman who told me when the limited supply would be available also told me that beginning at the end of March, preorders would be available. At this point in time, they are only able to take orders for items in stock. At the end of the month, this will change. If you haven’t got a Dream Duffel yet, and want to order one, check their site at the end of the month (or call and ask when you might be able to order one). You may not have it on time for your first competition, but from what I hear, the wait is worth it!

Rhinestone Stars – A Step by Step Process.

When I first saw that we had to make stars out of rhinestones for my daughter’s lyrical costume, I was intimidated. I can often visualize things really well, but the execution of creating things like that never usually turns out very well. Luckily, the dance studio gave us everything we needed to successfully recreate the stars from the sample.

Before I even began the project at hand, I took pictures of the sample at the studio. I took a front view, and a back view. Unfortunately, the back view didn’t clearly show me that the star needed to be on the shoulder, rather than in the middle. Luckily, I happened to be talking to some of the other moms who were rhinestoning the same costume up at the studio, who pointed out the correct placement of the star. Good thing I hadn’t done Grace’s yet!

First step to this project, was to gather all my materials. I also washed the table I was going to be working on. The dance studio gave us a printed pattern, which I taped on the table. I then taped a piece of wax paper over it, and a piece of blue tulle over that. Then, I was ready to begin.

Step 2: Outline the first star with E-6000, and fill it in. Next, start applying rhinestones all over star shape. Being a First-born aka perfectionist of sorts, meant I spent a bit of time and effort making sure all the rhinestones were touching, and created a star shape as best as I could. This task made a bit of a mess, but the end result was worth it.

Step 3: After realizing how fast the glue dried (I had to reapply glue by the time I got to the end of the large star), I realized I should only put the glue on one point at a time, then fill in the middle. I used this technique on the second star, only to realize the middle was a pain to do with all the points done first. By the third star, I had a system down of starting with one point, then doing the middle, then doing each of the other points around it. This made the last 3 go much faster.

Step 4: Once all the stars were done, I had to peel them off the wax paper (a brilliant idea they had here), and flip the piece of tulle with the stars on it upside down.

Step 5: After letting it dry overnight, it was time to cut the tulle down around the stars, and affix them to her costume. She had to be wearing the costume while I glued the stars on, so that the material would be properly stretched. If we didn’t do it this way, when she put it on, it could have pulled the stars apart, or ripped the dress. Grace was very excited to wear her beautiful lyrical costume. She was not so excited once I started gluing the stars on, at how cold it felt through the fabric! I was glad I had taken the picture of the sample on my phone, so I could zoom in and out to figure out exactly where to place which stars. Once all the stars were in place, Grace had to keep it on for a half an hour to let them dry. I think an hour would have been better, as the star on the back kept wanting to pop off. I just kept holding it on (pushing a bit) after she took it off. No re-gluing required!

God Bless America

Step 6: With the 5th star on the front, towards the bottom, we also had to glue two ribbons on. When gluing ribbon on, you need to be a bit more careful with the glue. I noticed some of the glue had gotten on another part of the ribbon, and tried to wipe it off. Apparently, my hands may have been a bit dirty, or something, as there appeared a smudge on the white ribbon. I think it has all rubbed off now that it’s completely dry.

The costume was complete, and ready on time for pictures the following weekend!

My Rhinestoning Experience – Using Gem Tac vs E-6000

Have you ever wondered what kind of rhinestone glue works best? Read on to find out what I have learned over the past few years (and I’ve learned a lot). I’m finding that the more I rhinestone jackets and costumes, the more I actually enjoy it. Call me crazy! It’s like a craft – it feels good to see how it turns out when I am done.

Here’s my brief history of rhinestone experience:

Two years ago, my hip hop class danced to “Ice Ice Baby”, the warm up suits we wore seemed appropriate. At the last minute, we decided to put our names in rhinestones on the back. Being that I had no experience with rhinestones, I bought peel and stick ones from the craft store. That was a bad idea for two reasons. First of all, the stickiness of the adhesive was not strong enough for clothing. I ended up having to go buy some glue. I bought the kind that was recommended by the dance studio (Beacon Gem Tac). Since I had to peel the backs off each rhinestone, then glue put glue on each one, it took A LOT longer than I expected. I think in all, it took me about 6 hours. At the end, I was very happy with how it turned out, and my rhinestones stayed on, while most of the other ones that had not been glued on (other people in our class) were falling off.

The next year, my daughter was invited to be in the competition classes. Little did I know how much rhinestoning was involved in competitions. In the end, it was worth it. The extra stones really glitzed up their costumes! Her dance studio gave us the rhinestones we were to use on the costumes, and suggested we use the Gem Tac to glue them on. It was nice not having to peel the backs off each of them, since there were likely several hundred. The Gem Tac was easy to use, though messy. The glue, though white, dried clear, so what little bits of glue did not stay under the rhinestone, was not obvious. This was good, since her ballet costume skirt was purple tulle. White glue spots would not have been pretty. The downside of this glue was that it bled through the fabric. I had to be careful to make sure the layers were separate, and there was something underneath the bottom. My folding table still has my name in glue residue that I have not been able to get off. I also discovered that Gem Tac doesn’t work well on velvet. The top of Grace’s ballet costume was velvet. It took a lot of effort to get the glue to stick and hold the rhinestones on. In the end, I figured out the right amount of pressure, and length of time to squeeze each stone on to make it work. This created a lot of extra time I didn’t plan on spending to get her costume done. I also ended up putting rhinestones on her dance jacket. In the end, most of the rhinestones stayed on through 3 competitions and 2 shows, though a few came off of her jacket after several washings.

Now, we come to this year. We moved to MN, and found ourselves at a new dance studio. In talking to some of the moms, they suggested E-600 for rhinestones. They said it will stick anything to anything. One of the dance moms, Barb, has lots of experience with rhinestones, etc. and said she swears by it. She used it to rhinestone both of her daughters’ costumes, jackets, and other dance gear over the years. She’s also used it to attach bling to her daughter’s Dream Duffel. Yeah, but how hard is it to use?? The answer is, not very.

I had already added rhinestones to Grace’s new jacket. The material was a bit more of a shiny material, with the logo embroidered on the back. I used the Gem Tac as usual, and after 2 washings, rhinestones started falling off. I decided to try some E-6000. They sell it right at the dance studio, and it wasn’t very expensive. I started using it to reapply the few stones that had fallen off. I was disappointed to see that there was a dirty-looking residue where the old glue had been. Maybe Gem Tac doesn’t stay good for a year? Barb told me that E-6000 lasts for years.

When we got her costumes, we were given a packet of 200 rhinestones to apply randomly on her tap skirt, and another packet with more rhinestones that we were to make stars out of. E-6000 and I quickly became friends. It was very sticky, but thicker than the Gem Tac (which was the consistency of school glue). I didn’t have to hold each individual stone on as I applied it. As soon as I put the glue on, it started to dry, which made it bond instantly to the fabric. Due to the thicker consistency, I found myself squirting the glue into a small dollop onto a piece of waxed cardboard. I then used the skinny end of rhinestone sticks to put just a dab of glue on the stone before affixing it. This system went really slick! I was able to do both costumes in the amount of time it took me to do that first one two years ago.

There was one thing I didn’t love about E-6000. When I was making the stars (another blog post to come soon on that ordeal), I had to slide the stones around a bit to get the shape just right. As I did, some glue got up the sides of the rhinestones. This dulled the sparkle of the stones some. I am going to go back and try to scrape some of it off, but I don’t want to wreck the stars, either. On the upside, the glue that did get on the table (not much) peeled right up like a rubber strip.

From now on, I will also be swearing by E-6000 for applying rhinestones. After we get Grace her Dream Duffel, we will try it to affix some bling too. I’ll add a comment once we try it.

What experience have you had with gluing rhinestones? What’s worked, what hasn’t?

Taking a Break From #GetHawt

The last few weeks, participation in Get Hawt has been dwindling. I guess the New Year’s resolutions have worn off. Either that, or people are just so busy, that they haven’t had time to blog about what they’re doing. My partner in Getting Hawt, Jen McCown (@midnightDBA) and I have decided that we are going to take a hiatus from the blog party.

We’d like to encourage you to keep working towards your fitness and/or weight loss goals. Keep checking in with your accountability partner. Keep blogging about what you are doing and what progress you may or may not be making. Don’t give up!

May the Hawt be With You!

Get Hawt – Week 8

This week, we were to blog about things we love. I love my family, I love my job, I love my water cup, I love dance, I love music, I love nature, I love to sleep… OK, that’s a lot of randomness, what do any of those things have to do with Get Hawt? Well, I can combine things that I love, in order to feel better in my own skin.

I combine my love of music with my love of nature. I crank up my MP3 player while I walk outdoors (or sometimes on the treadmill if it’s cold). Combining things you love to help yourself feel better (emotionally and physically) is a great idea. Try it!

I am feeling better in general now that I am drinking more water. I have more energy. I can’t explain it. My body feels less sluggish. I am sleeping better (slightly) now that I’m not drinking caffeine so late in the day. Keeping my designated water cup full of ice and water has been very helpful.

So, what did I do to make myself feel better this week??

Saturday: I babysat a 2 1/2 year old all day. I think running around qualifies as my workout for the day.

Sunday: I had to take Jason to the airport early in the morning. When I got back , I was so tired, I spent the morning in bed until it was time to take Grace to her dance pictures. We were there much later than expected, so I ended up picking up Culver’s for dinner. Not exactly a healthy choice, but it worked in a pinch. On the occasion I eat meals like that, I prefer to ignore the greasy fries, and focus on the protein from the burger.

Monday: I worked all day, but I did 10 knee pushups in a row with no breaks. That’s the most I’ve been able to do in a row! I also did 150 crunches with my legs in all different positions ( I call it the “dance way”). One leg up, then the other, ankles crossed, knees up but bent, etc…

Tuesday: I went to the gym. I wanted to try something new. All the elliptical machines were taken, so I tried the stationary bike. The seat was uncomfortable, and I kept slipping. After only a mile (which goes so much more quickly on a bike), I decided to switch back to the treadmill. Michael was in the gym with the children’s program. I found a treadmill that overlooked the gym. When he saw me, he kept blowing kisses at me, and saying hello. During the treadmill walk, I decided to try to run a bit. I ran about a tenth of a mile, and had to go back to walking. At . 8 miles, I was determined to run again until I hit a mile. It was tough, but I muscled through. Who knew .2 miles could be so hard??

Wednesday: Snow day. I shoveled several inches of wet, heavy snow for about 45 minutes. I’d say that was enough!

Thursday: We had a fairly nice day outside, and the kids were home. We decided to take a walk with the dog. We walked about a mile and a half. I have some mild shin splints – I’m not sure if it was from the bit of running I did the other night, or if it was from walking in my boots on the snow yesterday.

Friday: I did house-cleaning most of the day, and watched 2 kids in addition to my own. Tonight, I did 30 pushups (on my knees), and 194 crunches. Getting close! That short time in between reps makes such a difference!

Miles walked this week: 2.6 miles
Miles walked in the month of February: 11.3 (sad)