As for the show itself, I'm super proud that I did it. I skated to Henry Mancini's "Love Theme" to Romeo and Juliet, and felt as pretty as Juliet on the ice in my lavender colored dress that I stoned myself. I had never stoned a dress before, and to say that I learned a few things along the way is an understatement. Essentially, patience is key, along with using large enough stones (at least 12 to 16ss), and using a good glue. I had a bit of an adventure with stoning the dress because I bought crystals that were standard sized (ss) 8, 10, and 12. The stones were MUCH smaller than I anticipated! Plus, I initially used "hot fix," swavorsky cyrstals, which required this special type of glue gun, which ended up not working at all. I couldn't get the stones to stick to my dress to save my life, yet the glue gun almost burned a hole in my dress--YIKES!! I finally caved and bought "gem tac" glue from a craft store, but initially didn't use enough of it. I eventually DID get the stones to stick, but I think I must've re-glued each stone about 4-5 times in the process. Unfortunately, I am still finding some of the stones that I dropped along the way. However, the dress was worth it, and I got a ton of compliments on it. I do plan on using the dress for some future competitions this spring.
As for the exhibition itself, as I said, I'm very proud of what I was able to do. It wasn't perfect by any means, but my biggest accomplishment was not panicking during the performance. I had a few instances when things didn't go right, but would just "Nope. You're not going to panic. Just keep going, and pretend that Romeo is dancing with you." We had a really nice crowd, and it felt nice to get cheers from the audience for my routine. :)
Now that the show is over, I had been focusing on trying to get all of my elements down to pass my FS 3 test. I had initially thought I would test this coming week. However, a few days ago, I made the decision to not test as I'm honestly not ready for it. It's mostly due to not having my change foot spin, which is just an awkward spin to do. I had been stressing myself out over it, and finally came to the conclusion that I'm just not ready to test yet, and, THAT.IS.OKAY! My coach is also totally cool with my decision, as I would much rather test when I'm confident on the elements, and get good scores, especially since they're the backbone to future elements that I will be working on. I've decided that I will keep working on my FS 3 elements, but do the test at a later point...maybe in a month or two.
In the meantime, I've also decided to enter my first skating competition since competing at the Delta level a few years ago. I'm planning on competing at the ISI Polar Classic in the Chicago area in January. For this competition, I'm planning on doing compulsories and my FS 2 level solo. Then, depending on how things are coming along for me FS 3 wise, I may do the Sweetheart Open competition, also in the Chicago area, in February, at the Open Bronze level. Then, depending on when I decide to take my FS 3 test, I may skate at the FS 3 level or Open Bronze level for my rink's competition. In addition, I will also be trying out for my rink's spring showcase (assuming that I will at least be in the adult number), and starting to work on USFS Pre-Bronze MITF this next semester. So, although I'm not testing my FS 3 as I originally planned, I have enough on my plate to keep me challenged, and when I am ready to take that test, I'm determined to do well on it.
For your viewing pleasure, you see my program to the exhibition skate through this link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x60ZKB5gAY
Picture of my skating dress:
Don't look down, and keep on skating!
Janet
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