Tevling

Tom danced with both Elaine and me today. Based on my experience, that is a lot of pressure. He seems to have handled it well.

We all got up, dressed, and out the door before the coffee break. We have been waking up earlier, but three people in a small space trying to cram themselves into folk dress takes a little longer. We weren't in a hurry either.

Tom and Elaine danced just before lunch. They had time to warm up in the practice room to the other diplom dancers and watch some of our friends dancing before they went on stage. Then, with yellow armbands proudly displayed, they stepped onto the dance floor in the only group of five couples dancing diplom. They did a lovely job, but I have to confess that I was focused on taking pictures of them dancing and didn't actually watch them dance.

We ate lunch and then, as Tom put it, it was all about me. We took some horrible turns in the warm up room, remembered to smile, and headed out to the gauntlet. The dancers before us came off, and the very entertaining MC called our names. There is always huge applause for bronze dancers, but it was especially comforting to hear it after my name. I had started shaking as soon as we walked onto the floor.

We had a plan: Face the judges and the musicians, but not the audience. Smile. Relax. Stop shaking! We danced and it was wonderful, but terrifying. All I remember is thinking 'listen to the music' and 'smile'. Somehow (ask Tom) we stuck to the edges of the floor. We were smooth when we needed to be smooth, bouncy when we needed to bounce, our hands were in the right places at the right time. We danced three times through the Lillhärdal, Tom tells me we made it exactly once around the floor each time.

When we were finished, I could hardly breath. In my application I had written that my mother made my bunad, so the MC called me up to show off all of mom's beautiful embroidery. I couldn't think straight my heart was racing so fast. We'd done it!

We headed back out the way we came, but this time it wasn't a gauntlet. It was a crush of friendly faces. Friends from Högs Gille and Furudal, friends from the US and Swedes I've met elsewhere. I've never heard so many kind words in such a short time! I could only hope the judges felt the same way. Later, I was looking down from the balcony and Leif looked up, caught my eye, and gave me a thumbs up. It's reassuring when the coach pats you on the back, even if it's from across the room.