Mindpoke dance

Oh Lord I found this was still in the draft folder - apologies - in retrospect it was quite perceptive.  But this was mostly written five months ago. SN April 2014 So imagine it's last November....... Last year I posed the question  about how the English regions might respond to the excellence happening in Scottish and Welsh dance competitions.  The answer in the case of the Midlands champs is not much - or at least not enough in terms of promotion.  There is a glimmer of hope in the proposal for a Northern (England) dance championships - I look forward to the realisation of the idea but would warn the organisers that it has taken four extraordinary people to get Scotland and Wales to their levels of excellence. The team that look after the Scottish Championships are many - front of house, design and production of prizes and medals, a tried and tested set of DJs and a trusted group of judges who represent the best - with Scottish judges in the minority. ...

So my seventh year of weekenders began - as it has begun for the last six - with a trip to Southport for a Ceroc do.  As it happened, as generally happens at all Southport weekenders (except the summer ones), the sun shone brightly to such an extent that we had some daytime dancing out of doors.  There's still a lot to be said for a small patch of decking, folding French doors and dancers of sunny disposition.  This can - with the wind in the right direction and a bit of Autumn sunshine happen at Pontins at Brean Sands but the revellers at Southport get the most reliable outdoor treats. Camber Sands Pontins has no such facility and no real prospect of have one. The bar area has been much improved for dancing but the space is still very warm.  Stu Bassie's enhancements, from grotty to grotto have improved the ambience for the WCS sets - presumably distracting them from all that counting ;-) It provoked me to quote Dante Alighieri at a dance weekender...