I tried my hand at action photography for the first time on Sunday at the Crown International Dance Competition, which is the biggest one day dance competition in Australia. Many styles are performed — all the dancesport (latin, ballroom, New Vogue), plus the theatrical events (hiphop, jazz dance, ballet, modern expressive, tap, theatrical, break dancing).

I danced a theatrical piece at about 10 AM, and two hiphop pieces at around 8 or 9 PM. In between, I took some photos. It took me half an hour of random snapping for me to get an idea of the settings I needed to use.

Unfortunately, many of the photos are quite grainy because I boosted the ISO to 400, 800, even 1600 in some cases. ‘This is ridiculous,’ I thought a few times. ‘The ISO is as high as it gets, aperture as wide as possible but it’s still blurry. What are you meant to do?’

Then I looked around and all the other people with the big cameras had mega flashes. Ah! I geddit.

So if you’re interested in my first attempt at sports photography or would like to see the story of a dance competition played out in pictures, have a look at my Flickr Crown International album.

Dancesport, such as this Latin American Youth Open final…

…and theatrical, such as the International Dance Organisation Australian hiphop semi-final

On Friday night, I went to a Christmas dance social. One of the boys I danced with was a good lead but his rumba basics were circular. I like to think of rumba as a dance of right angles so the roundness of it all began to unnerve me.

I should learn how to foxtrot. I suppose I have learned it before but my teacher taught it as a series of steps to memorise. It never felt like a dance. As a result, I haven’t been able to retain it.

I had a dance competition on Saturday. I usually compete in the troupe events, where you dance in a group. This Saturday, at the last minute, we decided to enter a trio in the duos/trios hip hop section. That’s when all the competitors are on the dancefloor dancing to the same music at the same time. The judges then pick their favourite combinations. I don’t like these sorts of events (which are much like dancesport competitions). The reason is that the combination that wins is the one with the most energy and biggest moves. There is no opportunity to do anything subtle, creative, or technically correct. We did get into the finals, though.

As usual, I didn’t stay for the results. That’s mostly because I never go to competitions with the aim to win. I go to competitions to support my team mates.

On Saturday night, I helped run a 1920s murder mystery party. I had fun dressing up to the theme. I felt terribly daring, defying the Prohibition by drinking a glass of wine.

	Ms Suzie Pantsoffyou at the Tracy Speakeasy.
Ms Vera Totheleft was accompanied by Mr Dee Pinthort.
	Ms Jess Kidding is a Chinese triad member on gangster exchange with the Tracy Gang in Chicago.