I had signed up for Verticalove’s Something Wicked right after the Girlie Show. I wanted to challenge myself with something new. So, I decided I would teach myself how to dance in ballet pointe shoes to the hip-hop song Ballerina by Belly. My concept was fusing the pointe shoes and elements of a ballerina costume with pole. I bought the shoes at the end of November and started breaking them in.
I had a great training plan set up for the New Year, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. I got hand, mouth and foot disease which prevented me from training for a bit. After that, I was sick for a week. And then shortly after that I pulled a tendon in my bicep. I got hit with one thing after another, making it difficult to consistently train. I suffered with my arm injury for a month and I then finally went to physio for treatment. I took time off completely while my arm was getting treated. Right when my arm was better, I had to go in for surgery on my breast implant…a week before I was to perform.
I managed to put a routine together in between all of that, but it was no where near perfected. I wish I had the opportunity to tweak the routine and clean it up. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to before the surgery so I would have to go with what I had. I put in tricks in that I knew well as I knew I would still be recovering. A week after my surgery, I practiced the routine twice and to see if I as going to have to make any changes. It went ok, so decided to stick with what I had. The next day though, my stitches really hurt and I was nervous that I pushed myself too hard. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to perform in 3 days.
I felt better after a few days of rest. The day of the show, I went to practice on the stage during rehearsals to map it out. After that, I went home to work on a few transitions and then rested until I had to get ready.
I wasn’t as nervous as I was at the Girlie Show before going on stage. The first half of the routine went as well, until my mask moved out of place. I decided to take it off, but didn’t realize it was double knotted so it not slip off easily. The top the the mask pulled my hair out of place right before my ending combo. I was disappointed that had happened.
The following few days, I was pretty bummed about the whole thing. I wasn’t thrilled with the pictures as I have taken time off training and not eating very well. I felt fat. I was being quite hard on myself. But then a friend reminded me that most people wouldn’t have even been able to do that at all. Let alone, recovering from injury and surgery. Despite feeling unprepared, I had pulled it off.
Things don’t always work out the way you want but the important thing is how you handle it, learn from it, and move on.