Last weekend, I went to my first competition of the year in Philadelphia. We went there to attend Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). Overall, I did pretty well, placing 2nd in both classical and contemporary! The day of the competition was very calm, not very stressful at all, though there was definitely still some nerves. It felt really good to be performing on a stage again, after many months of quarantine! Although it was different than what usually happens in the competition, it was still a great experience and opportunity. How it worked was that each dancer could only go into the theater 30 minutes before their open stage. Each category had two groups, and those groups had up to 15 dancers each. The number of people in the audience was also different because of the virus. For this competition in Philadelphia, there could only be 30 audience member, not including the judges. In the dressing rooms, either before or after the performances, dancers and teachers had to wear masks at all times. Then, whilethe dancers were backstage, we had to bring a plastic bag for our masks and other belongings we bring. When going on stage, most dancers took it off to give a better execution. Though these rules help ensure the safety of everyone there, of course there was some small issues, such as messing up the makeup under the mask and not having the most amount of time to get ready and prepared at the venue.


Publish Date: 11/15/2020