Saturday night I attended a bellydance competition in Atlanta with my wife, Lara. She was one of the contestants. She performed an Egyptian cane dance that she had recently choreographed and, boy, was she nervous. I mean, who wouldn't be, right? Having someone judge your performance is not very different than publishing a book, releasing it out into the world for others to enjoy...or, bad-mouth. They're both artistic creation and interpretation. It makes you vulnerable to do something like that.
So, we get to the studio (nearly an hour and a half early) and take our seats to await the show. Other dancers started arriving. At one point, my wife noticed the arrival of one dancer and made some comment about her being very good and that she would no doubt win. Now, I know nothing about bellydance or these other dancers. Well, that's not entirely true. I know only the little bits I glean from my wife, which isn't much.
Well, the first and second contestants danced and did a mighty fine job. My wife was a bundle of nerves, I'm sure. She was, no doubt, thinking of everything that could go wrong. Lara was the third contestant to dance. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. There was no technical difficulties with her music or her routine. (Although, the last contestant's music CD failed to play and she had to improvise to another song, which she had never heard. I think she did a marvelous job at improvisational dance, even if I'm not educated in bellydance. She surely had more nerve than I did to get out there and just take that leap of faith!)
When it was over, and the judges tallied their votes, the MC began announcing the winners beginning with third and second-place. Two women who did a phenomenal job took those positions. I was perplexed by this news as I thought one of them would have won. One of the women (it alludes me which one it was) was the dancer my wife predicted would win. I was not expecting what came next. The MC called my wife's name for the grand-prize winner! Yes, you read that right. We were floored.
Lara went up to take her place beside the other two dancers and I thought she was going to cry. Hell, I could've cried, I was so happy. I waited as she hugged and thanked the other dancers and judges. She told me later that one of the judges (there were two by the way--both professional bellydancers), said her technique was executed perfectly. And, the woman running the sound, who was also from Egypt, commented that she was proud Lara represented the dance so well. Man, I couldn't be more proud. Therefore, I decided to dedicate this post to my wife, Lara, whom I couldn't love more. By the way, the post's title is an inside joke between us. She'll get it.
Here's a video one of the other dancer's husband shot. I don't know who he is, but I want to thank him! I hope you enjoy watching it:
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