Heat Convention and Competition

 Serafina had her last regional dance competition of the season.  It was at an old Doubletree Hotel near the San Jose airport, so we didn't get a room.  We arrived at 8am on Saturday so she could take the workshop classes, and then after the last class, it was into a dressing room to get ready to compete.  

This was the most crowded, chaotic dressing room I've experienced.  I was sitting near an outlet, which was great later in the night when I needed to charge my phone, but it was downright frightening when a mom plugged in a hair straighter and disappeared for a very long while making me extremely concerned she was going to burn the hotel to the ground.  

The girls didn't seem to mind all the action in that small room.  Here's Serafina doing Kavni's hair.  

The "Junior" division was up first and Serafina had two routines to perform.  First up was Show Jazz.  Still her ugliest costume.  

Her jazz routine was also in the Junior division.  Evan, the lone boy in the routine, did not perform with them so they had to re-choreograph the dance so Serafina started out in the middle.  Her dad managed to come down to the hotel in time to see her dance.  He also got to witness the sheer lunacy that is a dance competition in full swing. 

These girls are so cute I can barely stand it! 

Then it was time for awards.  Here's Stella and Serafina getting silly with their selfies. 

The jazz routine placed 7th for "large group" routine.  This is an excellent showing in a very competitive category. Serafina got to accept the award. 

But the big deal was Show Jazz taking not only 1st in their category, but also winning the highest placement ("Fire"). And if that wasn't exciting enough, at the end of the award ceremony, they announced that just one routine won the "Entertainment" award and would be one of three routines invited to perform during the closing ceremonies.  Show Jazz won!  

There wasn't much time to celebrate because it was time to dance again. Up next: the Teen and Senior categories.  Here's Linda, Megan and Serafina ready to perform their hip hop routine. 

Last dance for Serafina was Lyrical. These two routines also did really well and placed.  But by the time awards were over, I could barely see straight.  We had been there for over 14 hours and we were both fully exhausted.  

But the thing with dance conventions is that it doesn't matter how tired you are from the first day, the second day comes for you at 8am.  So back to the crappy Doubletree for more workshop classes, including a ballroom class taught by a Dancing with the Stars performer. 

Here's a sweaty workshop selfie with Linda and Ananda. 

After classes, all the Show Jazz kids had to hurry up and get ready to perform again for the closing ceremonies.  This time there was no dressing room, so it was bathroom stalls for changing and hotel hallways for hair/makeup.  Here's Serafina and Ananda getting ready.  

It was really cool that the Show Jazz was included in the closing ceremony since only three routines were "Entertainment" winners out of hundreds that competed over the weekend.  Once we were done, we went home and I just relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  Tom picked up some Indian food to celebrate Mother's Day and I was extremely appreciative.