Placements

Let's talk about placements!📷 Speaking from a loving space to bring awareness and encouragement here! The following is my humble opinion no one asked for📷

The dance competition is the system that makes our dance world and business spin. It motivates us to grow, learn, take lessons, attend workshops, and work on interpersonal skills. Competition creates opportunities for dance instructors. It creates spotlight moments to showcase the dancer's art. It creates opportunities for social interactions, to make friends all around the world, and to network. It helps you to know people and to become known. Lots of benefits. No question here. Competition is not a good or bad thing. As with everything, there are two sides to the coin.

It feels great to make finals and place. But what if that is not the case? How does it make you feel about yourself and others and dance alone? I've been competing almost all my life; I've been first, I've been last. I know how it feels to be on both sides.

Dance is an art. WCS has a lot of room for improvisation, interpretation, choices, show, etc. It's not an objective sport. So is the placement. it is a mix of many subjective (sometimes objective) factors.

I am begging you to please not identify yourself with your placement!!!! If it's high or low. Please, don't get unposed as you belong to a higher closed group of people if you are doing well at comps. It's easy to lose your sanity and feel superior when you are placing high. And it's also easy to slip down the slope when you don't make finals or place low more often than high.

Success can be very different. It's not only about first place at comps. Don't sacrifice it all for competition results. Because events are so addicting, we might fall into disbalance in other areas of life: health, finances, family, and friends. Do you take care of those areas? What if success is not giving up the dance doesn't matter how you place? What if success is life balance? What if success is not the number of views you get on social media but peace of mind, clarity, and joy instead of anxiety?

YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR COMPETITION RESULTS!!!

People who place higher than you are the same humans with their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. If someone is more musical or technical that doesn't make them a better human.

With all the benefits of competition, it also has a high potential for burnout. It can feed our ego but drain our soul.

Please don't allow it to ruin your passion for dance. Please don't allow it to ruin your relationships and health. Please don't allow it to make you look downward at others.

Competition is a game. Play. Laugh. Celebrate. Learn. Use it as a platform as a teacher or as an artist. Please don't take it so seriously that it controls you and your well-being. Make pauses, and take breaks to breathe and recharge.

Know your value. Work on your strong stable core so no competition placement would shake it. Stay curious about dance and the process. Think about what you can bring to the community, what you can give, how you can help, how you can create and share, and how you can use your gifts for good.

I wish you, me, and our community thrive and feel healthy about competition. Competition is not bad. It can be good. It depends on us what we make it. To unite or to divide.

You don't need a competition to prove anything. You are already worthy, loved, and treasured📷📷📷

With love and care, Maria

(P.S. Me usually: Let's make peace and dance for art's sake! I don't care about placement! Also me when the dance battle (slam tournament) starts: let's destroy them and do whatever it takes to show off📷📷📷📷iykyk) Dance Battle is the silliest, funniest, childish dance game ever)))