Having Junior Jiselle Lim competes in ballroom dancing A Ball

by Calvin Bonn

Forget stage fright—junior Jiselle

Lim doesn’t have time for that. Although fying to Ohio to compete in a nationwide dance competition seemed daunting at frst, Lim was able to settle her nerves as the opening bars began and focused on the dance foor, her partner and the next minute and ten seconds she had to wow the judges.

This particular competition is one of the “most pres competitions to Nationals. also Lim’s frst time competing in an independent ly run competition that was not run or judged by people within Lim’s studio.

“It’s def nitely not as real until you get on the foor,” Lim said. “It was open to a lot more people and the competition was defnitely a lot harder.”

With the added pres sure from the magnitude of the competition, Lim felt “jittery” be fore performing last November. To cope, Lim found comfort in her pre-dance “ritual” of doing hair, makeup, tanning and dresses to prepare for the performance.

“I'm numb right before I dance. And then when I'm on the foor, I don't really remember anything. I'm going through my routine and having fun trying to dance and pay attention to my partner,” Lim said. “When I get of the foor, it's like I can breathe again. I'm out of breath, but I def nitely miss it right when it stops.”

Lim’s hard work paid of, as she placed frst in her single dances and fourth in open scholarship. Scholarships can qualify her for monetary rewards in upper age di visions, but even without the money, Lim learned a lot from this competition.

“I put out my best so that my results what I want them to be,” Lim “I never really competed with that many other peo ple, but now I have a bet ter gauge of where I stand with other competitors and on what I need to improve on.”

Lim has been dancing since she was four years old, but has been ball room danc ing for three years now with the Fred Astaire Studio in South Redondo and specializes in international Latin dance. Lim had done competitive Irish dancing previously, but wanted to try something new.

“Right before COVID, I wanted to get back into dancing. I found out that there great “camaraderie” at the studio. Caredis feels like the “family atmosphere” of the studio is what keeps her coming back.

“I've become really good friends with Jiselle because we both love dancing and we're both growing up doing this type of sport,” Caredis said. “It's nice to have someone my age doing this because I've been dancing for a long time and I didn't really have any friends my age doing this. So it's nice to have someone in high school dancing, to have that kind of friendship.”

Lim agrees that the “welcoming” and “supportive” people at the studio is one of the best parts. Owing in part to Lim’s constant presence at the studio, their friendship has developed as they meet the time commitment demanded to be competitive dancers. Lim spends five days a week practicing her skills and routines at the studio for a couple hours

“I defnitely had to learn how to balance school, and that was a whole new thing that I wasn't used to because taken dance as seriously before,” Lim said. “But I think people should defnitely give it a try, even if you think that you have two left feet. It's something diferent and really enjoyable!”

Lim plans to continue dancing and to go to more competitions, as her love for the people at the studio and her passion for dance keeps her going, as it is such a large part of her life.

“I think the social aspect of it is a breath of fresh air,” Lim said. “ It defnitely opened up new doors for me. I'm not mad that it overtook my life.”