Ever since I've been dancing in Miriam Dance Company, competing in 2 to 3 dance competitions a year was an annual tradition for us. But, due to covid restricting meetings with over 5 people, we could not practice in our studio. Once the restrictions were lifted, the studio was busy again with activities almost 8 months before the competition. Every little thing was important, from picking out the perfect costumes and songs to practicing the dance moves over and over again until we could dance while sleeping. This particular dance competition, the 103rd National Dance and Arts Competition, was difficult for us because two of our teammates injured their ankles while practicing. We had to fill in each other's gaps, and Coach Park made us go through longer practice sessions.
All 20 of our teammates, harmonizing for one big piece, came from a lot of different places. Competing as a whole at a national competition was like nothing else. It wasn't about showing my own skills off, but to coordinate my moves to the dancers around me.
We performed a piece we choreographed as a team. It was a piece more contemporary, with some ballet-inspired elements, and a spoon of Korean traditional dance; my teammates attending dance schools had different stylistic elements that they wanted to include, and the mixed version of those all turned out to be visually aesthetic. It was also our first time choosing our own song to dance, as for the past years Coach Park would usually bring a song that she thought would fit our choreography. I trusted my teammates who were more experienced professionals in dancing at their dance schools.
Turns out our 7 months of practice did leave a huge impression on the judges— we won the gold medal for the team event in Contemporary dance! Since last time we won our silver medal in ballet 2 years ago, we were unsure about how much we could perform better. I'm glad that our collective decisions and works led to such a proud result.
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