First published Sept 2012
Many hopes are raised at the beginning of the dancing season. Summer dances although very nice have the disadvantages of irregular membership, heat and the inevitable feeling that summer there's a better party going on - usually with a considerable quantity of sausages.
My dancing season has got off to a cracking start.
Tadcaster - a two room venue with a grand main room floor taking a large body of dancers and a series of connected smaller rooms upstairs where blues, tango and WCS tunes were offered. There were more super dancers than you could shake a stick at, and a wide variety of tunes. I really enjoyed being able to buzz between the two rooms and find quality music to which I could dance. This venue is better than Berko thanks to the quality offerings in the main room.
Northwich - Keith Davies' freestyles for Revolution Dance are very well attended. So much so I was hardly surprised to bump into a couple I knew from Bournemouth in the margins of the event at the beginning of September. It all very straightforward here - big hall, good floor, a wide range of music and tea and cakes just when you need them. I only wish they went on a bit longer because with so many fab NW dancers in attendance it is hard to get to all the people one wants to dance with. But its a massive draw and I'd rather go to a dance that leaves me wanting more than one where I'm bored before it finishes. Point of order - the bacon sarnies at Lymm Truck Stop are now served on ordinary white sliced bread which makes them so much appealing. That said I was called on to make a tough sausage decision there too - I got it wrong, take care in your answers people!
Leeds - St Chads - what a hot night it was but Mr Uren played a variety of cracking tunes and there were some high quality dancers there. Its a very good floor and although the heat would have put off many, the energy of the dances was high. Its top weekday night and deserves your attention if you're in the area. Lovely atmosphere, welcoming people.
Welsh Champs Weekend - Cardiff
Fri night: Barry Memorial Hall & Theatre - "Dance with the Stars" this is always a bit of a social night as well as a chance for dancers to size up the opposition and get in some final practice. In the event some of the male competitive dancers seemed out to make a point: their dancing was very one sided and their attitude seemed testosterone driven - in the end most were found out by the judges happily. Its a joy to see people here that I only see once or twice a year. Sure enough it was a grand evening's dancing and the stage was well set - including a glorious array of trophies.
Saturday: the Championships day was long and tiring for all involved. The host from Ceroc South Wales are notoriously energetic so we have to run to keep up. My own view was that there were too many heats and that the heavily subscribed categories should have been cut back more harshly in the early stages. The cream rose to the top and the semi finals and finals were entertaining and nail-biting aside for some shameless showboating which - again in my view - caught the judges eyes more than it should. The right people won (broadly) - the few that were robbed will live to fight another day. In the main the qualities of musicality and connection were missing from too many couples who fell by the wayside even but was absent in a few who got to the semis and I can think of one overall winning pair where the lady was little more than a passenger.
The final freestyles of the evening were curtailed due to the event over-running and so freestyle was cut by nearly half, I'm sure the organisers will look at that again for next year.
It is worth mentioning the atmosphere - which markedly improved on last year and closer to the wonderfully intimate and vocal relationship between crowd and competitors at the Coal Exchange in the first year of Welsh Champs. The place was buzzing. Fundamental to the success of an event like this is the hard work of the Mark and Lyndsey and their team - they make it happen as if by magic though in fact it happens by lots of bloody hard work. The cherry on the top of their particular cake was their compere, Steve Thomas, who's erudition, enthusiasm and professionalism was matched only by his love of the good, or more often semi spectacular, double entendre.
Sunday: Funked Up Tea Dance - the less said about the Funked Up category at the competition the better: the first heat of this on Saturday had arms and legs flying all over the place, this went through to some acrobatic antics in the final too. Dinas Powys is a village where they dress for band practice and it has a lovely hall. The event was as usual a real highlight with so many relaxed dancers to chose from, cakes and tea in formidable supply and a chance to just unwind. It was spectacularly good and extremely funky!
A word too on CurlyWurly's regular monthly Sunday night in Huddersfield (and yes I did drive 300 miles from South Wales to West Yorkshire to do both events). CWs has moved to a new venue - a dark satanic mill with a dance studio in it. Tristan Dance Studios is the home of Snickers Saturday and so familiar to some of us. It has a bar and soft seating, a lovely floor and plenty of space. It was dreamy to hear Dave on top form delivering the familiar and the challenging and simply stacks of stuff we haven't heard before. There's loads of reasons to celebrate the move to this bigger venue, the substantial number of new faces being one. But it was still Curly and very much Wurly at heart - and for that we should be very glad!
And finally heads up on the first freestyle from Ceroc Newcastle and the wonderful Kerry Rutherford - a Sparkling Freestyle on 22 September which I'm sure will be a great success. More details here.
Many hopes are raised at the beginning of the dancing season. Summer dances although very nice have the disadvantages of irregular membership, heat and the inevitable feeling that summer there's a better party going on - usually with a considerable quantity of sausages.
My dancing season has got off to a cracking start.
Tadcaster - a two room venue with a grand main room floor taking a large body of dancers and a series of connected smaller rooms upstairs where blues, tango and WCS tunes were offered. There were more super dancers than you could shake a stick at, and a wide variety of tunes. I really enjoyed being able to buzz between the two rooms and find quality music to which I could dance. This venue is better than Berko thanks to the quality offerings in the main room.
Northwich - Keith Davies' freestyles for Revolution Dance are very well attended. So much so I was hardly surprised to bump into a couple I knew from Bournemouth in the margins of the event at the beginning of September. It all very straightforward here - big hall, good floor, a wide range of music and tea and cakes just when you need them. I only wish they went on a bit longer because with so many fab NW dancers in attendance it is hard to get to all the people one wants to dance with. But its a massive draw and I'd rather go to a dance that leaves me wanting more than one where I'm bored before it finishes. Point of order - the bacon sarnies at Lymm Truck Stop are now served on ordinary white sliced bread which makes them so much appealing. That said I was called on to make a tough sausage decision there too - I got it wrong, take care in your answers people!
Leeds - St Chads - what a hot night it was but Mr Uren played a variety of cracking tunes and there were some high quality dancers there. Its a very good floor and although the heat would have put off many, the energy of the dances was high. Its top weekday night and deserves your attention if you're in the area. Lovely atmosphere, welcoming people.
Welsh Champs Weekend - Cardiff
Fri night: Barry Memorial Hall & Theatre - "Dance with the Stars" this is always a bit of a social night as well as a chance for dancers to size up the opposition and get in some final practice. In the event some of the male competitive dancers seemed out to make a point: their dancing was very one sided and their attitude seemed testosterone driven - in the end most were found out by the judges happily. Its a joy to see people here that I only see once or twice a year. Sure enough it was a grand evening's dancing and the stage was well set - including a glorious array of trophies.
It is worth mentioning the atmosphere - which markedly improved on last year and closer to the wonderfully intimate and vocal relationship between crowd and competitors at the Coal Exchange in the first year of Welsh Champs. The place was buzzing. Fundamental to the success of an event like this is the hard work of the Mark and Lyndsey and their team - they make it happen as if by magic though in fact it happens by lots of bloody hard work. The cherry on the top of their particular cake was their compere, Steve Thomas, who's erudition, enthusiasm and professionalism was matched only by his love of the good, or more often semi spectacular, double entendre.
Sunday: Funked Up Tea Dance - the less said about the Funked Up category at the competition the better: the first heat of this on Saturday had arms and legs flying all over the place, this went through to some acrobatic antics in the final too. Dinas Powys is a village where they dress for band practice and it has a lovely hall. The event was as usual a real highlight with so many relaxed dancers to chose from, cakes and tea in formidable supply and a chance to just unwind. It was spectacularly good and extremely funky!
A word too on CurlyWurly's regular monthly Sunday night in Huddersfield (and yes I did drive 300 miles from South Wales to West Yorkshire to do both events). CWs has moved to a new venue - a dark satanic mill with a dance studio in it. Tristan Dance Studios is the home of Snickers Saturday and so familiar to some of us. It has a bar and soft seating, a lovely floor and plenty of space. It was dreamy to hear Dave on top form delivering the familiar and the challenging and simply stacks of stuff we haven't heard before. There's loads of reasons to celebrate the move to this bigger venue, the substantial number of new faces being one. But it was still Curly and very much Wurly at heart - and for that we should be very glad!
And finally heads up on the first freestyle from Ceroc Newcastle and the wonderful Kerry Rutherford - a Sparkling Freestyle on 22 September which I'm sure will be a great success. More details here.
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