Hot Spot Dance Weekend Recap

By Emeroy Bernardo

So this past weekend was the last weekend of Hot Spot for the summer, and I've got to say it was the most eventful. Aside from teaching classes in the early afternoon, we participated in the competition being held that day.

Being that we recently had auditions earlier this month, the entire family wasn't ready to perform. But we did have the Hip Hop International routine ready to go. Only thing was that we were so caught up with getting things going for the regular season, we didn't get to practice the routine until an hour before tech time. We also had two members unable to perform that day so we had very little time to adjust formations and get the routine back in our system.

The original plan was to start at 2:30 sharp right after my class so we had extra time to practice. But two dancers were running late and I knew we were losing a lot of time. And at times like these, I get very
impatient. It is my belief that no matter how big or small the event is, you always give it your best. That's in terms of preparation, in terms of performance. Because if you don't give what your doing your
full 100%, then what the heck are you doing? Thank God for Zazen meditation and breathing. If it was me from 4 years ago, I would've chewed them out the minute they walked into the studio. But
saner heads prevailed for the most part. I do admit that I did give some condescending remarks and then the cold shoulder when they arrived, but who wouldn't be at least a little mad if the people you were relying on to be there didn't come on time.

The minute we started practicing, I had to let it go. Getting the routine changes down and complete were much more important at this point. We took about 40 minutes to fix all the formations, and only about 20 min to really run it a few times.

I've never been one to get excited days before a competition until the day of. And once that day comes, a whole rush of excitement just floods and overwhelms me. Today was no exception. I was antsy to just perform on stage, but minutes before we went on stage, my knee arthritis started killing me. They felt like they were being held together by a thread. I stretched, hopped, elevated and did whatever I can to dull
the pain. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to complete my flip, and along with that, I was afraid to fall of stage since the stage was small.

One thing that helped calm my nerves a bit was going on stage with my girlfriend, Stephanie. They were calling out all the birthdays and anniversaries of that day, and ours happened to be on that day. I got to share our story of how we met and how love we've been together. We got to spend a moment dancing with each other on stage. And I LOVE dancing with her. It's not like freak dancing or anything, it something I like to call Vibing. We're both performing for each other taking on different personas while we're vibing off each other's energy and dance. That was definitely one of the highlights of my day.

The overall performance was amazing, once I made it over my flip a fury of adrenaline started pumping. The pre-stage jitters were gone and I didn’t fall off stage. We were blessed to be rewarded with the second place trophy.

I’m thankful for us to be able to have performed this routine one last time.

Even though the performance was done, my evening of dancing was still beginning. I was also participating in the B-Boy battles alongside with Matt. My knees were killing me at this point, and really had no idea what to do exactly. I wanted to sit down and rest my knees, but I did want my knees to tighten up once they’ve cooled down. Nor did I want to stay on my feet the whole time because I knew my feet wouldn’t feel heavy from all the fatigue and walking around. So I decided to do a little mixture of both, and mainly focused on just having fun with my friends to keep the mind off it. I personally feel like I do better in random unplanned battles than at jams because I tend to anticipate it for too long and psyche myself out. I didn’t want to anticipate the battle, I wanted it to feel more spontaneous.

I would have to say that this battle was probably the calmest I’ve ever felt. Though I did notice myself repeating some of my footwork patterns, everything felt clear in what I was doing and I didn’t feel rushed when I was dancing. Matt and I went up against some amazing B-Boys, many of which I thought would beat us. In the end though, ironically, we won thanks to the support of the crowd, who also played the role of the judge. I’m thankful for everyone who cheered us on.

Apart from the injuries and the last minute practice, I’d have to say that this day was a very humbling day. It wasn’t exactly a Hip Hop International atmosphere, but there was still an amazing group of talent all around us. It made me want to work harder in what I do. One thing my knee arthritis taught me throughout the day was to push through the matter how much it hurt and to rest and have fun when it matters most. Hope that makes sense. =]

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