For a period of time during the early 2010s, Chicago had regular practicas, lead by Ruby Red. The practicas ran for about two hours, and met every week. You could pay for the month for a slight discount (I think there was a discount? Maybe it was just convenient to pay ahead), or pay by the week. There wasn't an expectation that you would make every single week, but there was a very important expectation that I recently realized not many dancers "grew up with." If you came to

Do any of these sound familiar to you? "I can't believe _______ made it into finals before me! I know I'm a better dancer than them!" "I completely embarrassed myself in the competition today" "My partners in the jack and jill are why I didn't make finals." I've heard them all, even said one or two of them after various competitions. This post is the first in a three part series on how to work on those competition feels. I want to tackle the feelings that underpin those state