#hotstepperuk2015

30th of May                     -York Hall, Bethnal Green 

10 months of dance and the time had come for me to participate in my very first competition. It’s funny because I found about the Hotstepper during the What You Got Show (check post number 21) . I was given the flyer and having seen some dancers who didn’t impress me, I decided to ‘YOLO the ting’ and sign up. 

I attended the show with one of my old friends from sixth form and when I reflect back on the event I can definitely say that it was an experience. 

It began with the junior and senior selection that I watched. The groups were the most impressive. Almost each performance allowed me to feed off each dancers’ energy, the standards were set high boy!

BUT THEN... Young Flame came and shut things doooooownn... like fock mehn. They broke boundaries, their performance gave me an adrenaline rush for real. They were handdown the best senior and it’s shows by the fact that they won first place! Kash Powell really allowed them to put properly show off his choreography. From the execution, to the musicality, facial expressions, energy, formation and transitions, Young flame were really on point. 

It was past 1pm and I registered for the adult categories. My nervous began to kick in, I was surrounded by some dope ass dancers and I felt that I wasn’t on their level if I’m honest. But I attempted to use this uneasiness to my advantage and still warm up, despite the fact that I had not trained in over month because of exams. I entered for the solos and one hip-hop battle. When it came to solo selections, I got real nervous and I found myself being repetitive and simplistic in my opinion anyway. I found myself cringing because I knew I could do much better. I was put out my comfortable zone and I didn’t like it. I guess the fact that it was instrumental rather than an actually song also highlighted the need to improve my musicality.

Hip-hop battle selections were slightly better. There weren’t many dancers so they made us go in one group. The judges were given tokens which they would give to the dancers that they thought slayed. I felt a bit more comfortable in this, it was real awkward when I thought that the judges were cheering me on when really there was this guy behind me who was killing it. 

It was a long day and by 4pm, my friend and I decided to leave shortly after my hip-hop battle. I guess I didn’t believe in myself as much I needed to in order to show my true potential. But hey it is what it is, another experience allowed me understand the importance confidence and self-belief in dance.