An alarm beeps. An elaborate costume is set on a hanger. A variety of makeup products and hair pins are strewn along a vanity.
This can only mean one thing — it’s competition day.
The beginning of each competition day is different. Some dancers may head to school for a bit before a nighttime competition. Some may arrive at the venue for a full-day session. Some travel to the site of the competition the day-of.
One common starting point regardless of these factors is preparing hair and makeup. Where this preparation takes place, however, will often vary.
“It really depends,” Jonat said. “At local competitions, I would usually just come home, do my makeup, and then leave in my warm up [clothes], and then when I’m at the venue warming up, I would just change into my costume, like 20 minutes before, but when I’m going away to compete, I often leave on the same day, so it’s like a travel day, and then I do my makeup and hair in the car.”
Rurak’s hair and makeup routine will take place either at home or at the hotel if she’s competing out-of-town. For her, it’s usually accompanied by some extra rounds of practice.
“I’m usually pretty focused when I get up and I do my hair and makeup, and I usually go over my dance a few times when I’m getting ready, or play the music.”
From there, it’s time for the dancers to set foot in the venue. Upon arrival, depending on the competition, they’ll be brought to a space for them to set their bags down and begin warming up on their own or with their group.
“It depends on the competition, because some of them we’re stuck in cramped little rooms. And then usually, with the bigger competitions, we have more space, or sometimes we get our own little rooms for each studio,” Rurak shared.
When it comes to routines and feelings ahead of the performance, both tend to be pretty consistent, according to both Rurak and Jonat. There’s always a bit of a nerve-wracking element to being on-stage, but ultimately, that gets overtaken by the locked-in mindset of focusing on performing.
“I would say that I’m pretty nervous, but I’m also pretty excited, because I enjoy dancing on stage,” Rurak said of what a typical pre-performance routine looks and feels like for her. “I usually try to walk in, I do a bunch of planks and warm-ups backstage, just to keep warm.”
“It is nerve wracking, but at that point in my warm up, I’m usually pretty locked-in, I guess, focused on myself, headphones in,” Jonat said of what goes into performance prep on her end. “I just go [backstage] on my own and I’m just waiting backstage with my headphones, doing planks and stuff. I don’t really like to watch the people before me, just because I feel like that will make me get in my head. So I kind of just stay to my own, I hug my teacher before I go, and just take deep breaths and positive self-talk.”
Group performances, of course, will look different.
“It’s a bit different just because we’re doing more of a group warm-up, and we don’t need as much of an intense warm-up,” Jonat explained. “It’s usually an hour and a half, hour and 15, when we actually start warming up.”
“Usually, for groups, we all do a warm up together, and we run it a lot more than we would run our solos,” Rurak added. “When we’re about to go on for solos, [warm-up] is based on preference — on how much of a warm-up you want to do, or how many times you want to run it. With groups, we all do the same thing.”
The stage has been set. Choreography has been perfected. The spotlight is waiting for these dancers to take the stage.
The performance starts now.