After a couple months of looking, I finally found a competition partner who seems to be compatible in terms of personality, goals, height, and level. The only problem is that this person lives in another city - 55.5 miles away. So every practice session requires one of us to drive a 111-mile round trip.

We've planned out what looks to be a 5 day/week schedule taking the best of the local resources available in each city: typically 3 days/week here, 2 days/week there.

Question: am I crazy to do this? At the moment I feel fairly positive about things, despite having spent an extra hour each way sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic this evening. (I actually live within walking/biking distance of my workplace, so fighting traffic on a daily commute is something I haven't had to deal with in several years)

if it's any consolation, my partner lives 50 miles from me, and we've been competing for 2 years and love our dancing. The main difference is that we live in ireland, and i can travel the 50 miles in about an hour with no problem. My advice would be: don't try to practise 5 times per week, and try to find somewhere to practise which is half way, so you don't have so far to drive. We practise 3 times per week and dance socially once perweek. Each practice is quality work. The rest of the time think about the dancing, visualize the dancing, even practice specifics on your own. Remember - the right partner is priceless.

Congratulations on finding the right partner so quick.
May you and your partner reach your goals.

55 miles? Consider yourself lucky. I know many people here in the midwest who commute by plane just to practice with their partner! Dancing is still a pretty young sport here in the US...it is certainly extremely difficult to find a partner at all. I would gladly make even a 3 hour commute if I could find the right person.

The halfway point is a great idea though...look in small towns between your cities for little jazz/tap studios. Many small towns have these kids dance places and they are almost always really cheap to get floor space from.

M

Are you serious? ONLY an hour commute?

My partner travels 2 hours each way 4 days a week for practivce - and I do 2 hours 3 days. It's worth it, you know.

There are couples that commute from... Connecticut to Washington, DC, or Pennsylvania to northern New Jersey.

If you pick a partner based upon convenience, you are missing the 'big picture'...