|
|||||
Saturday morning began early with people starting to arrive at 8:00 to help decorate and set up chairs and tables. The volunteers were incredibly efficient and the hall was ready in 20 minutes. Grant and Bill had decorated the night before, so everything was all set for the doors to open at 8:30. It was a beautiful day, sunny and mild. Thanks to 90% of the dancers pre-registering, there was never a line-up at registration. Grant Gadbois, Annette Cyra, Bridget and Jennifer MacCallum, and Susan Clark kept everyone flowing in nicely. I hosted the first part of the day, and introduced our opening instructor Jo Miller who drove all the way from Richland, Washington to teach us her really fun dance "Cartoons" to the song "Witch Doctor". Jo did a great job of patterning her dance to the sections of the song which many people remembered from their youth. We also squeezed in a lesson from Carmel ("@ The Hop") Hutchinson who taught her dance "This Way". Then it was time to start the choreography competition. In our unique competition, new dances are taught and then judged by any of the dancers who wish to participate (this year well over 90% contributed their votes). Afterward the scores were tallied and an average score determined. Averaging the scores makes it unnecessary for everyone to take every single workshop. Three choreography competition workshops took place in the morning and four in the afternoon, leaving the evening for general dancing, performances, and awards. Of course there were lots of dance breaks and entertainment which broke up the day. The choreographers, in order of their workshops were: Jenifer Reaume (Vancouver area), Betty Clarke (Vancouver Island), Christy Fox (Vancouver area), Charlotte Skeeters (California), Ember Schira and Lisa Strong --taught by Ember (Vancouver area), Ernie "Hutch" Hutchinson (California), Bev Sutherland (Saltspring Island) Lunch was "in", catered by the centre’s staff. Due to popular demand in previous years, our deejay, Ember Schira provided dance music even during the lunch hour. Some people just won't sit down! At 2:00 we were entertained by 3 Mini Teams (Duos and Trios). The Urban Chipmunks drew first spot. Betty Clarke and Claire Gent were very cute as Alvin-type chipmunks. Next came the Bavarian Buckaroos, husband and wife team Len and Kirsten Person. In the German folk costumes, they swigged beer, slapped their shoes and put smiles on everyone's faces. Susan Clark and Bridget MacCallum added a teammate this year, Bridget's young daughter Jennifer who has become in just one year a very stylish dancer. These entertaining routines were then considered by the attendees who voted for their favourite team. (Results below.) The choreography competition continued until 3:45, after which there was entertainment and one more dance workshop. Lyndsay Ryan (from the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia) taught us an Aussie dance, Terry Hogan's "West Texas Waltz". By late afternoon
everyone was ready for something relaxing but fun, so that's when we had our
annual "Crazy Time". This portion of the event has developed out of such
craziness as last year's Bag Dancing, which was a little hard to top. But this
year I think we got even more laughs with the contest I called "The Produce
Pass". You had to be there, but it involved passing items of produce up one
leg, across the front, and down the other leg. Jeans were required apparel for
the men as this presented a little bit of a challenge for the women doing the
passing of the produce: a lemon, a banana (some with big honkin' knobs on them
too), and a hard-boiled egg except for one we were not sure about. (At least
that was the story.) We had 5 couples, 2 representing the US, 2 representing
Canada, and one couple of Kiwis from New Zealand. And wouldn't you know it
would be Graham Harris of Auckland to have the most fun with his banana. During the dinner break, dancers had two options: 1) take a two-hour dinner break for a nice leisurely dinner at the myriad of restaurants within walking distance, or 2) they could order in food (or they could have brought it) for dinner and then be treated to some quick line dance lessons by Ember Schira who breezed everybody through some of our favorite recent line dances. The "Late Part Day" began at 7:00 with general dancing for the majority and, for the instructors, an informal get-together where they could meet each other and where we had some photos taken. There was one dance workshop as part of the evening festivities. I taught the beautiful "Bellissimma" by Craig Smith, the dance that won the recent choreography competition at "Battle of the Boots" in South Africa (from 24 entries!) Hours of dancing followed featuring many of the most popular recent dances. A break was offered by Western Spirit dressed as the California Raisins. Many thanks to Western Spirit for all the hard work they put into this routine. General dancing went on until 11pm at which time only a few hearty souls were left standing. * * * AWARDS * * * Team Awards Mini Teams winners were Kirsten and Len Person, the "Bavarian Buckaroos". Choreography Awards 1st place certificate and $100 cash award: Chirsty Fox for "Hip To Your Jive" 2nd place certificate and $50 cash award: Bev Sutherland for"G.I. Rhythm & Blues" 3rd place certificate and $30 cash award: Betty Clarke for "High & Low" Congratulations and thanks to ALL our choreographers. The general feedback was that this was one of the strongest years for new dances and many instructors were interested in more than the top 3 dances! That's terrific! STEP SHEETS of the
DANCES TAUGHT
|
||||||||||
