Our very first DCD Challenge submission was in the category of Musical Interpretation. Speedy and I performed our Waltz from Maskarade routine, which was the first routine I created specifically for the Challenge.
Speedy loved this routine and we had quite a lot of fun with it!
I was thrilled to earn 129 Points for this first submission, and we won the Le-La-Ru Award for the highest scoring performance of the event!
Some of my favorite comments:
"The simplicity of design was perfect for the dog while the music enhanced his strengths"
"Leash work lovely - appeared as part of the waltz itself"
"Looked and felt like a waltz. Nicely done"
"Looked like a waltzing couple"
Some constructive criticism:
"Some positions unclear"
"Speedy missed, or didn't follow through, on a few cues"
This will always be one of my favorite of our submissions!
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Our second Musical Interpretation submission was an ode to the Coal Region, where Speedy had spent his puppyhood! We chose a piece called "Yiddish Polka", which was a Polish Polka. This fulfilled the requirement for an international genre.
I'll share a secret here. This wasn't actually a fully choreographed routine. I had some idea of what I wanted to do, but Speedy and I made four videos, each one more or less improve! Then we chose the best one to submit! While I would not do this with Dean or Tessa, Speedy loves to improv and we really had a great time doing the whole series of videos this way!
We earned 122 points for this and it was very well received.
Some of my favorite comments:
"Dog was having fun and moved with energy . . . also has a sense of strength, agility, and humor"
"I was impressed with the smooth transitions"
"It's obvious how much time and work you and Speedy have put in together and it's lovely to watch the two of you work as a team"
And, constructive criticism:
"Would have liked to have seen more axial movements to capture the humor and imagination of the dance"
"The floor patterns were clear, but the downstage left quadrant was hardly ever used"
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Musical Interpretation was our first submission, and our final submission. In the end we needed only 100 points in Musical Interpretation to finish this off! I decided to have a "contest". I filmed some more improv with Speedy to a bluegrass piece that he really enjoys dancing to. And I had a film done of Dean performing his "Bolero" routine. Dean won!
Bolero had gone through some changes since the original version that we submitted to Audition in our first Challenge event. We had taken Judy Gamet's From Dream to Dance and had almost completely reworked it! The performance that Dean and I did for MI was actually slightly shorter than the full routine that we created.
Dean did his performance of a lifetime on this video take! I am very proud of him for it and I consider this a very worthy "final leg" toward our Championship!
The judges apparently agreed with my assessment of the quality of this routine! We earned 153 points - the most that I have ever earned for a Challenge performance!
Some of my favorite comments:
"Dean is smoother and smoother in his dancing, so the improvement is quite obvious to this judge"
"I really like the way you do weaves. It makes the dog look elegant and athletic"
"You do a great job together. It's years of working together
and your teamwork shows through"
Constructive criticism:
"I would like to see you do something else with your hands besides putting them on your hips so much"
"I felt it needed more sweeping moves"
"Try to find a color scheme that makes Dean stand out"
I look forward to doing more MI work in the future!
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