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Dance Season No 11: CurlyWurly: Supremacy

Last night's CurlyWurly was astonishingly good.

I'm not going to try and analyse all the factors which were at work here.  The likelihood is that others would chose different priorities to me.  What I will say is that I had a great time, as good a time as I had at any venue anywhere ever (my venue list has 101 names on it).

The feeling exceeded the expectation I was feeling knowing the roster of super dancers I was about to encounter.  It was the kind of dance I enjoyed 3 years ago when CW first came onto my radar: all the more welcome because I thought that the kind of dance night was extinct.  I feared there was no demand for social dancing to nice music where dance style didn't matter, and that enjoyment of dance was the only goal.  Tango, WCS, blues and slow Ceroc co existed in harmony because no one form was carried for more than a couple of dancers.  More than a hundred people turned up I reckon.

The first timers said they'd enjoyed it, those returning after months away said they were glad to be back and the regulars had a feast of new dancers to choose from given there were double the recent numbers.

The blinds were drawn to keep out the sunshine, the early birds explore all that floor space, the hosts worked hard.  The room heated up, the jelly wobbled, the chocolate was devoured, the floor filled and yet never felt crowded.  The music was there for people with a passion for it (not as some intellectual challenge), the speakers bluesed, rocked and rolled, tangoed and ballarded. Sunday night passed in the blink of an eye: measured time turned into experienced time (kairos - "the supreme moment" of classical Greek thought was achieved).  At the end, buzzing people hugged, arranged next meetings and lingered in the rainy car park reluctant to let go of that virtual group bond which had formed.

It may be chance that makes the events - but I doubt it - it is about group willingness to by into the concept, overlook the little issues, dive into the music and come out the other side.  The hosts for this event NEVER paint on smiles, always ask how it's going and always bribe us with chocolate and jelly. There's something akin to the appeal of home cooking about this event: it is a comfort in the world of big business, small minded big business at that and it continues to be a regular fixture in my diary.

To my mind they are the best at it: last night they did it again.

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