1/2/2023 Competition Ready

First and foremost, we want to wish you a happy new year!! We had a fantastic New Year's Eve get-together with some of our friends and actually spent New Year's Eve having snacks, watching the ball drop (NYC time of course) working on costumes, and playing card games. It was the best way to bring in 2023, surrounded by people we love, doing what we love!

Now that we are officially in 2023, we are now in full fledge competition mode, with our first competition happening this coming up weekend. The girls have been working hard, training hard, and practicing a lot. Getting competition ready looks different for many different people. Here is what it looks like for us at the Rothrock House.

In the Rothrock house, we start prepping for the competition about a week in advance. For this particular upcoming competition, I will actually be sending my daughter up to Kansas City with her team a few hours before me since I don't get off work until about 4:00. She will be competing her solo Friday evening, which I am so excited to see it on stage.

One reason for sending her to KC early, besides just being with her team, is to make sure she is not feeling rushed and stressed out before she goes on stage. I will most likely hit KC shortly before she competitions and I want to make sure he has enough time to get ready, prepped, warmed up, and in the right head space because she performs. Being rushed would not be conducive to that.

The next step for getting competition ready is packing! While I've already gone into detail about how we pack for meals (and you can check that out on my earlier blog), there are more things to pack than just food. The first thing we focus on is her Glamergear bag. Now some of you may be asking, "What the heck is a Glamergear?", well essentially, it's a giant duffle bag that turns into a dressing room. While some people (not in the dance world) may think this sounds completely unnecessary, in the dance world, it's the best invention ever! These come in handy when your dancer is in multiple dances and has quick changes. This season my daughter is pushing 15+ costumes, and some pretty quick changes. She is also pretty modest and likes the privacy it provides her for changing, as it has a big changing curtain. This one bag holds ALL her costumes, ALL her shoes, make-up and hair supplies, jewelry, snacks and drinks, stage wear, and then some.

When getting the bag ready, each dance is in its own costume bag with a detailed costume list. This helps her make sure she has everything correct from tights, jewelry, headpieces, and more. It also gives her a way to stay organized. Typically, she will hang her costumes in the order in which she performs them that way she can just work her way down the row. (Dancer tip, pack your costumes from last to first that way they are in order when you lift them out to put them on your hanging rack). We will go through each and every costume bag, dance by dance, and make sure each item is there and accounted for. We will also make sure all her hair and make stuff and good and ready to go. The one thing I find us forgetting to get when shopping for supplies is false lashes. Luckily, you can pick those up at any Walmart (note to self, I need to go get some this weekend hahaha).

After we have successfully packed her glamergear bag, then I typically leave her to her own demise for packing her own weekend luggage, and I pack mine as well. I will then take my packing list for food and "kitchen stuff" and stock up on anything I have missed. We normally sit down together and plan out what we would like to eat on the weekend and that's how I plan my shopping list.

This time, we will have to pack and plan a little differently, she will essentially need to pack a separate solo bag since she is going up ahead of me. I'll bring everything else with her. Her duffel is so large it takes up a lot of room in someone's truck (like the whole trunk) so I'll bring it up with me when I make my trip.

Competition season is such a fun time of the year and I look forward to it every year, not just watching my daughter on stage but I love watching her entire team. They are amazing athletes and come alive on stage. I love sitting in the audience and I will 100 percent admit I am loud and obnoxious when I cheer for them, ALL of them. I love sporting my TDF gear and am proud to show our support for our entire studio. They truly are a family. Competition season is also a super crazy busy season, but truthfully, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I know this blog is a day late, and I'm going to have to cut it short as well. I can't wait for my next post to recap our weekend at the competition. Keep your eyes peeled for all the success I'm sure I'll get to share!

-Rothrock Mom