Competition in a month so every one is in the mood. Comp. class has become highly authentic since my partner came back: from music to costume & make-up are all meticulously chosen and applied. I dislike making-up as I think it hides the lovely natural face and it makes me feel so untrue, though, heavy stage make-up is just a thing a dancer needs to get used to before the real show is on.
Of course, the competition routines have been practised rather intensively. The routines actually hurt our heads- devising juniors' routines is harder than one can imagine. We need figures that flaunt, that means they need to be variations; we also need figures that can drift attention away from their weaknesses; we certainly need the figures that are familiar for dancers; and most of all, winning figures should be highly seminal if not original, and the problem here is 'how can we have seminal variations being put in reasonable orders to suit 12 couples?'