Adversity and resilience in performance

From losing your footing to losing a hairpiece on the dance floor, adversity in performance is inevitable. Here's the newest post in the self-improvement blog series on how to deal with challenging situations and overcoming them.

Here are some undesirable situations that I'm sure physie girls/ladies can relate to:

• Sweat in your eyes
• Safety pins unclip 
• Memory lapse - forgetting the next move
• Hairpiece/jewellery falls off (seniors/ladies) 
• Muscle cramp

The aforementioned situations can hypothetically happen to anyone, so below is a collage of tips to deal with setbacks in performance (click to enlarge):

Beyond one's control

As we enter the month of November, junior repechage and zone championships have already come and gone. This means that competitions on the national level are underway.

Welcome to my newest instalment in the self-improvement blog series where I'll be discussing the factors that you can and cannot control in a competition setting.

Factors that are beyond your control:

• who your competitors are
• the judges' decision 
• how well others dance

Factors that you can control:

• being the best dancer you can be
• what you eat, how much you've rested 
• hours spent practising 

Focus on the things you can control and always stay positive.
Good luck to all the girls and ladies who are competing at nationals.

In the zone

The basics

It's October and zone championships are under way for the Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical Culture! Zone championships consist of team and individual competitions where girls and ladies strive to qualify for the national championships held in Sydney or simply have a fun time with all their physie mates. A zone comprises 8-12 clubs grouped together according to geographical/administrative regions. Locations with insufficient clubs to make a separate zone may be grouped into a distant zone, for example, clubs in Western Australia travel to Victoria for the championships.

Out of your comfort zone

Medallion for girls and ladies who competed individually.

Ladies in lycra,
oh so brave.
You are the ones,
who rock the physie stage.

Whether you are competing in a team with seven other inspirational ladies or individually on the floor with ladies who you do not normally dance with, all physie ladies are awesome just for getting out there.

In the zone

Once you've gotten out of your comfort zone (or stayed within your comfort zone) and decided to compete in teams or champion lady, it's time to get in the zone. So go ahead and immerse yourself in the world of physie.

Interclub #2 & Club Competition 2016

Interclub #2  

Packed my bag | Arrived at venue | Professional sports complex | Name ticked off | Got hair done | Hairspray was everywhere | Pinned on number | Checked my make-up | Warm up area | Did dynamic stretches | Hit the floor | Smiles all around | Danced with grace | Recovered from mistakes | Extremely fun experience | Thank you ladies | Super support team | Friendly practice environment | Still smiling now :)

Club Competition 

I recently competed in my club competition which was a fairly casual event with two judges from separate clubs. All girls from preschool to ladies were encouraged to take part even if they did not participate in previous interclubs or intend on dancing at the zone finals. The club competition was a perfect opportunity for girls to perform the 2016 syllabus in front of their friends and family. After the interclubs, I did not expect for the event to be so relaxed. I'd also heard from the ladies that club competitions do not count towards your status, for example, if you were a novice and you dance on club day or in a team ONLY that year, it would not progress your status (eg. beginner, novice, intermediate, open).

For the first few age groups the audience was patient and pretty quiet. Then as the preschoolers arrived, the hall filled with their excited squeals. Luckily, silence followed with the commencement of their dance. That being said, the BjPop which involved all age groups except for the ladies (sadly) ensued the biggest silence (with the exception of the soundtrack). The BjPop exemplified the inclusivity of physie, where the older girls helped the younger ones to learn the routine earlier in the year. Towards the end of the program was the biggest crowd-pleaser which was the men's marching challenge where brothers, sons, grandfathers, husbands and male relatives joined in to experience a taste of physie.

After a long day the antepenultimate event was the march past. All girls and ladies received a sash akin to pageant sashes where we pinned all our well-deserved badges and medallions to display. The shape of the medallion at this event was different too, it was circular and not triangular like the interclubs. Some ladies even showed me their special medal from the centenary of physie in 1992. After that, club photos were taken and presentation of awards concluded the big day of physie.

Interclub #1 2016

Firstly, what is an interclub competition?

• Basically, it's a competition organised by individual clubs rather than the association (eg. BjP, APDA). Around 10 clubs are present and the number of girls/women that enter vary with each age group and category. For BjP Physie, each club may only participate in two interclubs per year. Prizes such as certificates, medallions and fundraising raffles are presented at these events. 

Interclub #1 2016

In the late afternoon, I drove to the venue with my hair undone and not freshly washed which I planned be styled by the lovely ladies who were part of my club. Upon arrival, I had the impression that the venue was massive compared to my class location, however, nearly half of the floor space was taken up by audience seating making the performance floor an adequate size. Firstly, I had to register and get my number which was a very smooth process. I was actually expecting the number to be bigger, but I guess the little girls have the same size numbers too. Then, I headed to the makeshift hair salon where many clubs gathered to create awesome physie hair-dos. My hair was teased and transformed by an amazing physie mum. Soon after that, I got changed into my physie gear and sat down to watch a few sections of the competition. This was useful to see how the competition was run before my turn. Each age group/section commenced with marching and the awards presentations were done directly after the routines with the champion leading the marching off the floor.

After that, I went to the marshalling area with the other beginner ladies and started to warm-up. Soon after marshalling, it was time for the real deal. We marched on in the order of our competitor number, did our routines (with teachers in front helping us) and received our prizes. I would like to commend all the ladies on getting out there and competing for their very first time. 

Practice makes progress

Welcome to my third entry in the self-improvement blog series where I'll be sharing to you practice tips. Coincidentally, BjP's physie blog published a blog entry a few days ago with the same title. I have been drafting this for a while though so what am I to say? Great minds think alike.
Here are 10 tips for physie, dance and for performances in general:

1. Finding your right way to practise - Everybody is different and we each have our unique ways of learning. For some, practising one routine per day in depth can be effective while others may find that they need to go over each routine daily. Be sure that you find your practice style in order to maximise outcomes.
2. Rest and recover - Don't practise when you're tired because your body will not work efficiently. Make sure you have regular breaks and have a few days off before a major competition. 
3. Drawing or writing down your counts - This is like visualisation on a piece of paper. The example shows snippets of three of the ladies' routines. I've written in cues from song lyrics to help with visualisation. 

   

   Visualising a routine on paper
   Top to bottom: Exercises, warm up, swing

4. Observing others - This requires no effort for physical exertion. Watching others is a great way to see how others do it since it's difficult to watch your teacher/other peers when you are dancing.
5. Practise in sets of 8 counts - They say that you eat an elephant one bite at a time. As with any large task, smaller goals have to be attained in order to fit into the bigger picture. 
6. Practise until you can't get it wrong (rather than only practising until you can get it right). 
7. Slow it down - A lot of the routines are performed at a moderate to fast tempo, so slow it down in your personal rehearsal. (I know your physie teacher does this in class too because it works). 
8. Don't always start from the beginning - Going from the beginning every time will probably make your start really good, but remember that the endings are equally as important. 
9. Changing up the songs - Okay so I've taken this tip from my physie teacher. Instead of the 2016 soundtrack she used songs from previous years to test how well we really knew the moves (keeping in mind BjP renditions of songs means that tempo and number of counts are the similar year after year). 
10. Practise at the time of day when you will be competing. This is extremely important as you want to prepare your mind and body to work at that time of day. Knowing that you can do your routines at the scheduled time of day gives you one less thing to think about. I'm glad that the beginner ladies are scheduled at the same time I have my lessons. 

Above all, find something that works for you. If you don't see improvement after a while (it can take 4-6 weeks), then change the way you are practising. Everyone is different.

Countdown to competition season

Physie-goers all around the country are now gearing up for competition season. Towards the end of July until September, there are competitions to prepare girls and ladies for the zone championships, these include interclubs and club competitions. Interclubs as the name suggests are between clubs and dancers may only enter into two (BjP association, others might differ). Club competitions are intra-club and give an opportunity for the club community to see each other dance.

Here are just a few things that I have learnt:

• Impulse - one of the hardest manoeuvres to execute gracefully. The movement has to be fluid and it works the abdominal muscles. This move has been included in the 'floordrill' and 'advanced' routines. 
• Toe rises require a lot of balance and should be practised with a chair/barre.
• I have learnt that in marching, the thumb should be slightly bent to ensure that it doesn't create a gap with the rest of the fingers.
• All positions should be done in front of a mirror so that you know that it creates the desired lines and illusions. Sometimes you think that you are making a straight line when in fact it does not appear that way.

Attire

• My made-to-order leotard has not arrived yet, it'll turn up later this month. 
• A club jacket (optional) makes sure that make-up does not transfer onto your leotard, keeps you covered up, provides warmth and certainly a sense of belonging. 
• The BjP ladies' championships are not done on a lit stage but rather a sports centre. This means that you needn't go ridiculous with make-up. Remember, BjP also bans certain make-up products for juniors but there are no restrictions for seniors and ladies. 
• Tan, well I'll see about this one. Physie in this era has banned the tan for juniors and is optional for seniors and ladies. Dancers all have their individual complexion and BjP promotes positive body-image. 

I've saved the most important point last and that is to take care of your health.

• Have a healthy, nutritious and balanced diet which will provide your body with physie fuel. 
• Stay hydrated! Always have a drink bottle at every workout and avoid fizzy drinks for physie.