Last weekend we headed down to LA with our studio to attend the Emerald Ball Dancesport Championships. This competition is one of the largest in the USA for Professional, if not always in numbers, certainly in prestige. I have to say, Wayne and Donna Eng, the organizers, run this competition so well. I love the stage and presentation of the couples and the massive screen in the background really adds to the atmosphere. The audience is great, too. In all, I think this is one of our favorite competitions in the USA.
Day One of the Emerald Ball
I won’t even call day one a “day”. We woke up bright and early on Thursday to pack and get everything ready. But we didn’t go to the airport. We went to the studio. It was almost like a normal day after that. We practiced and taught until 8:00. And at 8:00 sharp, we zoomed to the airport for a 10:00 flight.
That’s a pretty normal order of events for us. Because we travel so often, we try to cancel as few of our lessons as possible. So normally we fly as late as possible and teach our lessons before that. It just means we have to forgo a bit of sleep. That’s ok; we’re used to it.
We arrived in LA at about 12:30 at night. By the time we got our luggage and hopped on the shuttle, it was 1:30. Finally, at 2:30am, we fell exhausted into bed at the hotel. By the way, I did a quick review on the hotel. You can read about it here.
Day Two of the Emerald Ball
Emerald Ball Pro/Am Competition – Standard
Poor Simeon didn’t get to sleep much. He was up at 6:30am to dance with one of his students, Etsuko Nishiyama. She started early that morning, at 8:30, which meant Simeon needed to be downstairs and ready by 7:45. Simeon’s second student, Kendra Michaels, joined them a bit later to dance at 8:50.
I slept until 8:00, then roused myself to do some “chores”, ie computer work. We do a lot of computer work when we’re traveling to competitions. By 10:30, I was dressed and downstairs in the ballroom to cheer our girls on as they competed in their scholarship events. Another of the teachers from our studio, Lukas, was there with his student Annie Wang as well. I wanted to make sure I supported them as they battled for podium spots.
Around noon, another one of our students, Maria, came downstairs to meet me. I needed to do her hair for her competition. So with a parting “good luck!” to the three ladies in the ballroom, Maria and I disappeared upstairs. It took me about an hour to do her hair. When she was prepped and finished, I met Simeon in the room and we laid down to take a nap. At competitions, we need to find sleep wherever we can.
Emerald Ball Pro Competition – Latin
Two hours was all we got. Simeon woke up and dressed in a suit to go down to the ballroom to watch Anton and Jessica, our adult couple. I stayed up to get ready to compete. When we compete, I give myself plenty of time to get ready. Normally, I start getting ready about 5 hours before our first round. This way I never feel rushed. I ordered food from UberEats and sat down at the mirror to start on my hair.
For Latin, at the moment, my hair is easy. It still takes me a good 30 minutes to complete. I have to get it wet so I can straighten it fully. At the moment I’m sporting the half-up-half-down look, which I love. I take very good care of my hair, so my hair is long and full and healthy! It looks amazing with this hairstyle! I wish I could wear my hair like this for Standard. It’s so beautiful, and the way I twist the hair on the top makes it look like a crown.
Next up comes tanning cream layer one. Then makeup, then tanning cream layer two. Lastly, I coat my skin with a golden-bronze powder to set the tanning cream. I eat somewhere in there, whenever the food arrives.
Because it takes me so long to get ready, I always have the TV on in the background. The funny thing is, I never watch TV at home. But when I’m travelling, I like to get caught up on Law & Order and Friends. Otherwise I’m all by myself for hours at a time with complete silence…..
We were downstairs by 8:30 to stretch and warm up. At 10:00, we danced. It was a tough competition. The floor was crowded but no one was rude. This year, all of the competitors were rather polite on the floor. It doesn’t always happen like this, but it’s nice when the competitors are respectful of each other.
Oftentimes, there are parties and get-togethers at the bar after competing. Not for us. We were exhausted, and since we had more pro/am to do the next morning, we went straight to bed. Luckily for me, since I was dancing latin pro/am with my student, I just left my hair in and my tanning on, only washing my makeup off. It made getting ready the next morning and breeze!
Day Three of Emerald Ball
Emerald Ball Pro/Am Competition – Latin
Saturday was much better. We actually got about 7 hours of sleep on Friday night. In the morning we popped into the Executive Lounge for breakfast, then we were downstairs by 11:30 so I could dance with my student, Shaoshu.
I love dancing pro/am. Honestly, I love being with all of my students, and it’s so much fun to hang out together in the ballroom. Shaoshu danced a quick 5 dances; we waited for the awards, then had a two hour break. I peeked out into the lobby with the idea to grab a coffee, but saw some old friends and passed the time chatting instead.
Back in the ballroom I went, this time to not only dance with Shaoshu, but to cheer Simeon on with his student Caroline. Another teacher from our studio, Atanas, was dancing with his student Rumi, as well. Rumi looked great! She had just bought my most recent Latin dress, and it looked amazing on her!
Emerald Ball Pro Competition – Standard
I couldn’t wait for the awards or the rest of Caroline’s events. Simeon and I danced Professional Standard that night, which meant I needed to wash off all hint of my Latin side and dress up for Standard. Because of that, I needed an extra hour to prepare. In went an order for UberEats, then I ran into the shower to scrub off that tanning and start fresh with my hair.
We were downstairs again by 8:30 to stretch and warm up. Our first round was 10:30, and by the time we finished dancing and snuck back up to our room, it was midnight. We had so much fun dancing the Standard! We made the top 12, which was a great result. And we’re pretty friendly with our competitors, so that always makes it more fun.
Once again, we decided to skip the parties. We had lessons scheduled with our teachers the next day and wanted to get as much sleep as possible, which wasn’t much. The next day we were checking out of the hotel, which meant we needed to pack. On top of washing out that hair and gunk! By the time we finished everything, it was nearly 3am.
If you want to read more about the results of our many pro/am students with their teachers, click here! I wrote an article about it on our blog for the dance studio!
Day Three of Emerald Ball
We only got 3 hours of sleep. At 6am sharp, the alarm went off, and we dragged ourselves out of bed. We had kids dancing today, but luckily one of our teachers, Atanas, was there to coach them and give support. This gave us the freedom to train with one of our long time teachers, Nadia Eftedal.
Our lessons started at 9am in Laguna Hills, and we were up in the LAX area. That’s an hour drive, plus we wanted to arrive a little early to change and quickly warm up. And we always give ourselves an extra 15 minutes to account for unexpected traffic. Simeon had to run to the car rental facility. By 7:15, we had packed ourselves and our suitcases and set off for Laguna Hills.
After our lessons, we went to our favorite California lunch spot, a cafeteria style place called “Lemonade”. Seriously, if you’re ever in the LA area, find a Lemonade. The food is amazing. Our favorite Lemonade branch is in Manhattan Beach, which is also one of our favorite LA spots in general. Luckily for us, Manhattan Beach was directly on the way from Laguna Hills along the 405 up to Bakersfield, which was our next stop.
We had never done the drive from LA to Bakersfield, and it goes through some beautiful canyons. Simeon’s brother and sister-in-law are living in Bakersfield at the moment while she does her medical internship at the hospital there, so we wanted to visit them. We hadn’t seen them since February.
The drive was really beautiful, and a little surreal. You wind your way through these canyons and a gorgeous national park. Then, unexpectedly, it opens up onto a flat valley floor, covered with acres of agriculture.
Done with Emerald Ball – R&R in Bakersfield!
We only had two days – not even! – to spend with my brother- and sister-in-law, but it was very relaxing. They bought a house down there for their use during her time at the hospital. The house has a great pool with a waterfall feature and Jacuzzi tub. He had installed a small volleyball net, so we spent a lot of time in the pool. Our sister-in-law was up early every morning for her shift at the hospital, but both days she was back by 1:00pm, giving us plenty of time to play volleyball and swing in the hammocks.
Both Simeon and I come from very close families. The matriarchs on both sides of my huge family kept everyone closely connected as we were growing up. Simeon comes from Bulgaria, where his family was very traditional in staying close. As a result, we’re both extremely family-oriented, even though our schedules often conflict with that. So being able to spend even a day and a half with family is a powerful recharge.
Alas, it had to end! On Tuesday night, after another long round of volleyball and a bibimbap dinner, Simeon and I packed and climbed back into the car. We had an early flight back home to Seattle on Wednesday morning, so we decided to drive back to LA Tuesday night and spend the night at a hotel next to the airport. It seemed the simplest option.
What’s your favorite R&R?
I’ve always found a day or two with close family is the best r&r. What is your favorite way to recharge? Comment below! And if you enjoyed reading about our trips and how we compete, don’t forget to subscribe to my email list!
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