Northern Climes: Northern Champs anticipated..

Northern Champs 2015

Cerco Addiction's Northern Champs - a midsummer party and dance competition combined hit the ground running last year with a three day even that many regarded with great fondness and this years was event has been keenly anticipated. It wasn't just the innovations and enthusiasm of the crew - it was in truth a different kind of championship. A championship where sitting outside with an ice cream was to be enjoyed as much the intricacies of picking a winner in Lucky Dip. Relaxed, confident and still competitive.

So there was much expected of this year's event and it brought dancers from London, Scotland, Essex, Wales and the South West so the players are set for a good battle for medals.

It started this evening (as I write at 3am) with a superlative freestyle where Sheena Assiph provided a play list of the familiar and the extraordinary. Ceroc Classics mixed with the most challenging tracks one might find. All good fun - along with a testing line dance lesson from Julie Gunn (CMJ Australia).

The line up of dancers was rather special with new and promising dancers mixing with some very familiar faces. Splitting them if they are all on top of their game will be hard.

New judges too - including Jen Hoy, Gary Stubbs and Lyndsey Bennett will need to bring their critical faculties to bear on a host of marvellous dancers.

So at 1am when we all said goodbye, it was for some a short break to be back in the hall at 9am: one can only admire the bottle of the Manchester crew who don't baulk at lost sleep.

The competition will be great tomorrow and you can still come along and buy a ticket on the door. I suspect it will be very well worth it.

S

27.6.2015

Comments

Ceroc Southport Feb 2015

Most of my weekenders look remarkably like this from about an hour in....until they finish 60 odd hours later. They are the most fun you can have but they can be daunting. They are full of great dance enthusiasts and ideal places to combine learning new dance styles and techniques in a concentrated wine. They are the peak of dancing finesse (or they should be see below). I know that the behind the scenes staff worked very hard to get this Southport event (called Blush for reasons that are unclear until the biting cold of an Irish sea wind brings out your rosy cheeks). Pontins seem to invest money here and there in this site but it's starting to show signs of wear. The floors in the pub were grim in places - but mostly manageable. Not for the first time a layer of cheap varnish proved to be a reminder how not to treat a floor. That stayed with us as dust most of the weekend. The cracks and bumps near the bar were an adventure. ...

How a Competition is born - the local view

Photo: Jonathan Hunter For this Q and A I'm quizzing someone with long experience of dancing in the North West, Blackpool born Hannah Lonsdale is a an experienced social and competitive dancer with her partner in wine Julie Duane. Hannah knows the Northern and Scottish dance scene well so she's ideally placed to reflect on how Northern Champs is going down amongst her fellow dancers. SN: Kicking off with a local question, what will Northern Champs do for dancing in the North West? HL: The North West has so many great dancers, some who already compete, some are looking forward to giving it a try and some who haven’t even thought about it yet. Ceroc Northern Champs brings the opportunity to home turf and gives everyone a chance to show what they can do in front of a friendly local crowd and a great atmosphere. Jamie and the team have worked really hard to make sure that there are accessible categories for everyone, no matter how little or long they have been dancing. L...

Ceroc Northern Champs - A hot day in Manchester

And so it begins... Lucky Dip parade - the queue of doom The judges for Ceroc Northern Champs Glittering array of dance talent Introduced by our host Jamie Storey Long day ahead Amongst the competition there are copious freestyles DJ'ed by Messrs Sambridge and Gammon There's a fantastic atmosphere with vocal support, brisk but entertaining compering from Jamie and a host of diligent Ceroc Addiction staff slaving away to keep this competition moving. No clear winners yet - but a a huge variety of Ceroc styles and people form Wales, Scotland, London and Essex - it's a nice size of competition. Hot hits already: - TVs with the winners numbers - plenty of freestyle time - music by genre - A BURGER/SARNIE/SALAD van in the car park! More later :-)

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