Last month Madeline and I spent eight days in Nashville, Tennessee, for a national dance competition. Although I loved spending time with my girl, and I love our dance family, this was not a vacation I would have otherwise chosen.
We learned last August that nationals would be in Nashville, so I booked a hotel, a Westin, in downtown Nashville. A few months later the company that puts on the competition, In10sity, announced that nationals would be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Unfortunately, In10sity did not secure a block of rooms at the Gaylord. Instead, the host hotel was about 15 minutes away in downtown Nashville. After 2021 nationals I vowed that I would be at the host hotel for following years, but that didn’t include when the host hotel was far from the competition venue! The Gaylord had no availability, so instead I found a place called The Inn at Opryland, which was a Gaylord hotel and appeared to be walking distance from the Gaylord. I switched our reservations to there and hoped for the best.
One nice thing about having nationals in Nashville was that it’s an easy drive from Indianapolis. Madeline and I left around 11 am, made a couple stops on the way, and arrived in Nashville in the late afternoon (we also gained an hour due to changing time zones). We spent a couple hours getting settled, then headed to the nearby Opry Mills mall to go bowling at Dave & Buster’s. We didn’t end up at Dave & Buster’s, though, because Madeline had really been wanting to see Dr. Strange in the theater, and there was a movie theater right beside Dave & Buster’s that was showing the movie about 45 minutes after we got there. We bought tickets, walked around the mall a bit (and discovered a German bier hall!), then saw the movie, which we both loved.
When we got back to the hotel Andrew told me there was something for me at the front desk. It was our anniversary, and he’d sweetly sent me something. I went down to the desk, but they didn’t have a package for me. It turned out I had failed to indicate the hotel change on one of our travel trackers, and he’d sent flowers to the downtown hotel I’d originally booked. Oops!
The next day, Thursday, was our only free day. Madeline and I went to 12 South, a fun area about a mile outside of downtown with upscale shopping and dining. We bought her a super-cute custom backpack at Stoney Clover, which I’d never heard of before. We ate at a place called Burger Up and shopped a bit more, including a quick stop at the downtown part of 12 South (aka The Gulch) to exchange some pants at Lululemon. On our way back to the Opryland area we stopped at the downtown Westin and were able to get my flowers. Yay! After relaxing in our hotel room for a while we spent the evening at the Opry Mills mall. Madeline bought a cowboy hat (when in Rome/Nashville . . .), and we ate dinner at the German bier hall, where I had an excellent beer flight. We spent a little time in the hotel pool, which was freezing, before calling it a night.
Friday we were able to see a little more of Nashville before Madeline’s call time. We at pancakes at The Pancake Pantry. That place has legendary wait times, but we probably were only in line ten minutes. It helped that we were willing to eat outdoors, which dozens of people in front of us were not interested in doing. We did have to go inside after eating to pay at the register, and it was quite loud in there. Despite the heat, both of us were glad we chose outdoor dining. We stopped by Dolly Parton’s hotel, The Graduate Nashville, just to look around. Then it was time to get ready for competition.
Madeline can do 100% of her hair and makeup herself, which is a huge improvement from even a few years ago, where I had to do most of the work. When she was ready we packed up and headed to the competition venue. We’d been advised to park in the mall parking lot and walk to the venue at the Gaylord, and we found our way pretty easily.
The competition venue was NOT what we’d been expecting. I thought we were at the Convention Center that’s part of the Gaylord, but that was not at all correct. The Event Center is a separate building — a pole barn, really, with concrete floors and metal walls — from the Gaylord Resort. It’s where they do a massive holiday event in the winter. In10sity had broken the building up into two stages using lots of curtains. When you entered the Event Center you were beside Stage One and had to pass the backstate area to get to the dressing room. That is never ideal. The girls’ dressing room was small and cramped. And there was nowhere to get food or a drink in the Event Center. To get anything to consume, you had to walk a couple hundred yards to the actual resort, which was filled with teenagers attending a convention.
Madeline competed ten dances at nationals: two solos, a trio, three small groups (four to nine dancers), three large groups (ten to 19 dancers), and a line (20 or more dancers). She is in the ”Elite” category, which means dancers are “very active competitively and are part of a comprehensive and intense training regimen.” The dances are scored by three judges who can each award up to 100 points, which means the total possible points is 300. In the Elite category, 270-284.9 points is scored at Platinum, and 285 points and above is In10se Platinum. Six of her routines scored Platinum points, and all three large groups and the line scored In10se platinum. The competition was so tough, though, that only the line even placed. It made it to seventh.
On Sunday a bunch of the girls in Madeline’s company had a party at the Gaylord’s water park, Sound Waves. Madeline was competing during the party (only one time was available for the party, so they took it!), but the passes were good all day, so we joined the group after awards and enjoyed several hours outside.
A lot of Madeline’s teammates had Monday off and decided to go to Broadway for some line dancing. Madeline again had to miss most of the activity, but we did get there in time for a few songs with friends.
For me, the competition week was capped off by a really bad migraine. She finished dancing Wednesday early afternoon, and we went back to the hotel and napped. I woke with a terrible headache, and by the time it was over I’d vomited. Fortunately I only get migraines once or twice a year, and that’s the first time I’ve ever had one bad enough to throw up. It was not fun.
On the upside, I’d had the foresight to schedule massages for Madeline and me the morning after the competition ended. I’d received a recommendation for Urban Oasis Nashville, and it was definitely worth recommending! We did a ”couples” massage so we could be in the same room for our massages, and my massage was one of the best of my life. I’m sure it was partially because I really, really needed some help relaxing, but also my therapist was really skilled. I highly recommend this place if you’re in Nashville.
I’ll write more about Nashville in the future. I feel like I need a few days away to get some perspective. Overall, I did not enjoy the area where we stayed — which I started referring to as the armpit of Nashville — but know that I didn’t experience the best of the city. I would definitely go back there another time but am in no hurry, and I really hope we don’t have to do nationals there again.