I went with my dance studio to Revel Dance Competition and Convention in Los Angeles, near LAX, this past weekend. 

Revel is a dance competition as well as a convention with well-known choreographers. You can audition for scholarships in next year’s event, talent agencies like MTA, a chance to become a Pro Reveler and travel with the company and/or  audition for scholarships to performing arts colleges like AMDA. The competition was Friday and Saturday night with awards at 10 pm each night. Everyone is awarded a certain metals that’s based on the amount of points each of the judges give you. There is gold, high-gold, platinum, high-platinum, and the highest award is called the ultimate revel metal. From there, there are 10th and 5th overalls in each category along with special awards for choreography and performance. The top scoring dance or revelation from each category gets to perform in the closing show, late afternoon Sunday.

Convention is Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 2pm with special choreographers that teach us dances as well give advice for succeeding in the dance world. It is an interesting experience, I love hearing what they have to say and the choreography is fun but since I was in the senior room this year it was really hard. It is also extremely tiring dancing on the concrete, rug covered floor trying your hardest to get noticed. I like convention but definitely prefer competing. 

I dance at Santa Barbara Dance Arts and last weekend the whole company went down to Los Angeles for Revel. I had to get ready right away for my solo. When we perform we have to first warm up and stretch and then put on full stage makeup, even fake eyelashes. I watched everyone else in my company perform their solos, duets and trio until awards at 10pm. I got a platinum for my solo. The next morning, we went to convention and after, I had to get ready for my 3 other group dances competing that night. Awards were at 10pm and I got a high-platinum for each of my dances. Awards ran late so my friends and I in the hotel room stayed up late. When we woke up, we luckily got to skip the first class to pack. We went to a convention and the Revel Remix Closing show was right after. One of Santa Barbara Dance Arts’ senior dances won the top revelation and got to perform in it. It ended at 4:30 but we made it home at 6:30. This whole weekend I spent inside eating only hotel food and grubhub, so I never got the chance to find somewhere interesting to visit in Santa Barbara.