Emma's Individual Competition

Emma had to be at the high school by 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The girls were supposed to wear white shirts and black skirts, then do their hair however they wanted.She participated in the foxtrot, swing, cha-cha and paso doble. Her dance coach told all the kids to enjoy participating, but don't count on winning or even getting a ribbon, because there are so many dancers. She didn't want anyone to get their hopes up. There were up to 80 dancers in many of the categories. Each dance has a 1st round, quarter finals, semi finals and finals round. (One dance actually had 3 first round heats because there were so many dancers.) Emma and I agreed that if she got past the first round in one of her categories, she'd be happy.
This is Emma with her shortest partner (she had a different partner for each dance. This was her partner for the foxtrot.) Well, she made it past the first round in all four of her categories, and then she made it to the finals in the paso doble! It was her last competition, so I started gathering my stuff and putting on my coat when she finished the quarter final round. Then I saw her standing in line for the semi finals and I was surprised, so I took a video. Then I saw her standing in line for the finals round and I was confused! I was thinking, "what the heck is she doing over there?" But she did a great job and earned a sixth place ribbon for the paso doble...a dance I wasn't even aware she knew!
They line them up in couples, then let out a certain number of couples on the floor to be judged. This video is Emma doing the paso doble during the semi-final round.