Well, kids.......................

Malaika & I did not make it to finals. On one hand, there were THAT MANY great dancers. On the other hand, the judges definitely seemed to favor Egyptian style, and my style is more of an Egyptian/Lebanese/Turkish/American blend. It was a very strange weekend:

It probably started with all the ridiculous toll roads in Illinois. And for all the damn toll booths, you'd think they'd have better roads!

Then, upon arriving at the hotel, we were pushing the luggage cart up the ramp and I did not hear Malaika say "wait" and gave the cart a big heave-ho.... right onto her foot!

The hotel itself had plenty of character. We both tripped over the unmarked "step-up" into the bathroom and, initially, the bathroom light did not want to turn on. It took the magical touch of the security guy (who is an entire story by himself) to get it to turn on. The perk, though, was the room was huge and seemed to have a built-in rehearsal area for us.

The small gym where the contest was held had NO AIR CONDITIONING. Oh my goodness!!! If that weren't enough, we had to wear cover-ups while we were not performing. It was torture.

Malaika & I both performed beautifully despite the heat. There were many wonderful dancers there!!! Even though we did not make finals, the audience really enjoyed our performances - I think that is because we were different than the standard Egyptian style. But it really seemed the judges favored the Egyptian style. I say this because the other dancers that I enjoyed most did not make it to finals either, and they all danced somewhat differently.

Lack of desire and bad online directions kept us from getting to the show on Saturday night, but we did discover a Subway with a telephone pole smack dab in the middle of the narrow parking lot! And, thanks to Kristina, the Ruby Tuesday restaurant we visited is considering adding a Strawberry-Mango margarita to its menu.

The world of competition dance is definitely a different brand of cat. We did meet some nice ladies and one of the vendors gave me a free set of bindis.

I think if I do go to another competition, I will go to one that has workshops with it so it does not feel like such a wasted trip if I don't move up. I am very proud of the dance I developed, though. It was definitely a learning experience, but I'm not sure that I've deciphered the lesson just yet. :P It was a very Twilight Zone kind of weekend.