Skip to main content

Scottish Champs 2013

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.  The team effort extends to the teams of competitive dancers and their supports: South Wales, Essex, Yorkshire, Scottish groupings and beyond.

In Wales something similar has found a different but winning formula.  Both events keep on giving

I'm an unrepentant and unapologetic champion of most dancing in Scotland and I think with good reason: its a special place where dancing holds a different place in the social structure.  People have a different attitude to dance and don't need to prove themselves through competition.  That they chose to do competition is delightful - especially a competition for charity.  The metropolitan bias of English dancing is uninformed and unrewarding, especially at the moment - the regions need to take a greeter hold.  Scotland and Wales are the places to go for good dancing - and not I'm sorry to say, England aside from a few exceptions.

So despite the police road block, the police escort, late arrival at the APP, and assorted traumas associated with dance competitions in general - I had a great time.  The gathering of dancers for the tea dance and thereafter for Sunday Roast in the local Wetherspoons was perhaps best of all - chance to chat to old friends and make new ones.  Breaking bread together still brings dancers closer together than dancing :-)

Can't wait for the next one.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dance Season No 8 - Camber March 2013

I coughed and wheezed my way through this dance weekend and didn't make it to the end, surrendering to practicalities and the all too evident feeling of being at the limits of my scant energy most of the time  It's the ultimate frustration starting out a dance with an intention of giving your all and then finding the energy leaves you and the opportunity is lost.  I should start, therefore, with an apology to all those lovely dancers assembled on the South Coast that I didn't dance more and I didn't dance better. That said I was glad I went because the highlights were considerable and the alternatives much less interesting. And to some extent one always feel a little better as one dances. Early March is a tough time to hold an event like a weekender.  The weather was bad on arrival, calm on Saturday, cold on Sunday and snowy on Monday.  I was really impressed with the commitment of many of the people who work hard to make these weekenders.  Stu Bassie's in...
Post a Comment
Read more

How a Competition is born - making it happen

The birth of a new competition on the Ceroc dance circuit gives me chance to talk to some of those involved to illustrate what it's all about. To kick this off I sent over a few questions to one of the key people in the drive to create Northern Championships, Jamie Stormer. Photo credit: Terry Hills Jamie is a well respected Ceroc teacher and successful competitive dancer.  He works for Ceroc Addiction (which covers Shropshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Manchester).  This area has become something of a powerhouse of competition dancing and Jamie has been instrumental in bring on new dancers to the competition circuit. A week ago Jamie was competing with great success in Ceroc UK Championships - now he's busy on the final preparations for Northern Champs which I first previewed here . The other day I asked Jamie via email a few questions about this new competition with a view to sharing them with you:- SN: How did you get the idea for Northern Champs?  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The things we're not talking about...but we should be

Given that many a dancer's internet forum serves about as much clarity as a three year old a megaphone, I thought it was time that I expanded the conversation on social dancing into areas where many won't tread, or because of their bizarre rules on posting can't tread.  So here are five conversations we could be having but we don't... 1) where are all the people with disabilities in dancing?  We know why they might be put off, but we also now that there is both commercial sense and genuine appreciation of dancers with disabilities.  We have teachers in our midsts, we have perfectly good venues (deposit what some might suggest) and we have stacks of dancers eager to dance with people with disabilities (hidden or visible).  But they don't come.  What does that say about us? 2) we have still not stopped idiot men "teaching" on the dance floor and most especially teaching drops.  How is this acceptable on a dance ...
Read more