I love going to dance events! On the weekend of August 18, 2023, I will be attending the Florida Sunshine Dance Symposium and Challenge Competition in Tallahassee, Florida. In September and October, I will be going to Calpe Swing Fiesta in Calpe, Spain (followed by a month-long stay in Spain, and a 17-day cruise back to the US from Barcelona) and in November I will be attending Triple Step Travel’s Dance Exchange at Sea, a five-day dance cruise to the Bahamas. People that I know are planning trips to Camp Hollywood in September or Lindy Focus in December. Anticipating these adventures eagerly, I began thinking “What are some tips I could share to help people get the most out of attending a dance event?” So here are my top 7 tips:

1. Arrive healthy and well-rested.

This is important and may require some advance planning. The Florida event is in my hometown, so I just need to take care not to do any late nights before it begins. But the trip to Spain requires an overnight flight to Europe. I find these flights grueling. I was lucky enough to find an inexpensive flight that stops in London, so I will be staying overnight near the airport and flying the next day to Alicante where I will just rest and relax for five days before going on to Calpe. Avoid stress getting to your event. Working with a travel agent (like me) can save you time and money as well as stress. (Call me!)

2. Attend the workshops.

If there are workshops, attend them and learn as much as you can. In addition to improving your dancing, you will meet new people and possibly meet someone you might want to dance with later at the evening dances, if those are offered. You will increase your confidence and I always enjoy the dancing itself in the workshops. You don’t have to remember all the patterns which are taught to get a lot from the experience of just moving your body in a different way.

3. Take care of your body during the event.

Eat well. Plan how you can get nutritious meals during the event. You might want to bring some nutritious snacks, like energy bars or fruit, to workshops.

If your event will last more than one day, make sure you will get some quality sleep. I know it’s tempting to go to workshops all day and then dance until very late, only to get up and take more workshops the next day. I have attended Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden three times. Two of those three times I got the flu, mainly because I wasn’t sleeping enough. Not only does becoming ill affect your enjoyment of the event, you will find it much more difficult to focus and learn; and you will probably pass that illness on to others at the event. Something else to take into consideration about sleep is what your sleeping arrangements will be. In my experience, if you share a room with more than one other person, the quality and quantity of your sleep will suffer. If you are with one other person and you want to go to sleep, you can close your eyes and turn over. They will probably stop talking. Not so if there are two or more others in the room. I found this out at a convention I attended where I was sharing a room with 2 other women to save money on hotel costs. It was a miserable experience.

Stay hydrated. Take a water bottle with you so it will be easy to drink a lot of water.

Come back next week for Part II, Tips 4-7 for Getting the Most Out of your Dance Event.