On the 21st and 22nd, we had the Netherlands Championship at Thermen Bussloo. It was my fourth time competing, and this time, I had the absolute joy of doing it alongside my best friend, Whitney Cox, who was in her second year at the NK.
We created a really cool Aufguss called “Hide & Seek.” In this performance, we played two little girls, Lily and Lucy, who move into a new home. But there’s a twist—rumors say the house might be haunted. Naturally, the girls want to play hide and seek in the garden as soon as they arrive. Their mother warns them to be inside before the lanterns turn on. The lantern starts flickering after their first round of playing, and the girls don’t make it back inside in time. That’s when things take a spooky turn, the girls become possessed. The whole Aufguss unfolds in this eerie, abandoned garden setting.
The championship was a blast, with incredible shows from all the participants. I was lucky enough to catch quite a few of them. Whitney and I were scheduled for 4:30 PM on the first day, so we started our morning by getting ready together at my place, doing our hair, makeup, and setting the right mood for the day.
About an hour before our performance, the nerves started to kick in, and we moved our things over to the theater to prep. At the NK, you get 15 minutes to set up everything inside the sauna—decorations, ice, water, you name it. During those 15 minutes, we realized we’d forgotten one of our special effect lamps. Cue a little extra stress! But, thankfully, we had a backup lamp programmed into our light script that still worked, so the effect we wanted was saved.
Once we were set up, we got into character and started playing silly games with the guests, waving them inside. As the doors closed, we focused up. I was a bit worried that the stress from forgetting the lamp might throw us off, but we looked at each other and said, “Let’s have fun!” And we absolutely did.
The moment we stepped inside, we were in full character, and we enjoyed every second of it. We even nailed a tricky throw that almost never works for both of us, which made me even happier.
Our performance earned us 1st place, and now we’re super excited to head to the Aufguss World Championships in September, also at Thermen Bussloo.
If I could give any advice to those competing in a show Aufguss, especially in a duo, it would be to stay focused together, prepare everything in advance, and if something doesn’t go as planned, just look at each other and remember why you’re doing this. For us, it was all about sharing this awesome show with our audience and, most importantly, having fun!
I feel so blessed to say that my best friend and I are the Netherlands Champs!
