Categories
competitions

More video than you can shake a stick at

Click here to see videos of all of our dances at last weekend’s SouthernStar Midsummer Classic.  Thanks again to our awesome videographer Jeff for wielding the camera and enduring many hours on a metal folding chair!  Here’s one video from the playlist just to get you started.  This is silver-level swing; we got straight first places from the judges for this one!

Click through to YouTube to see the rest.

Categories
competitions

SouthernStar Midsummer Classic 2009

Every competition we participate in brings new pleasures.  At this year’s SouthernStar Midsummer Classic in Tampa, FL we got to see a couple we met last year as spectators, John and Theresa, “graduate” to the next level and become competitors.  They are such nice, fun people–last year, despite our being strangers to them, they agreed to take video for us with Daniel’s digital camera.  Now they are obviously on their way to becoming great dancers: they got two 1st places and two 2nd places out of the 8 events they entered!  Yaaay, John & Theresa!

With our former photographers now sharing the competition floor with us, we needed someone new on video duty.  Our extremely obliging friend Jeff, who teaches with me at Macon State, made the trip to Tampa with us and spent the whole day Saturday in the folding chairs of the spectator area, wielding the camera.  We are so glad to have videos of nearly all our heats.  Thanks, Jeff!

Considering how little we’ve been able to dance and practice since we went to Raleigh back in February, we went into this competition with minimal expectations.  We were rewarded with excellent results!  Our goals were to place better than we did last year and to make one callback in each of the Challenge events we entered.  We achieved all of those goals except for one Challenge where we didn’t get a callback.  So we are very happy with our results and with the positive comments we got from other dancers.  It’s pretty exciting when a Championship-level dancer looks you right in the eye and says “You guys are really good!”

Here are our results:

  • SouthernStar Rhythm Challenge (Cha-cha/Rumba/Swing): did not advance from semifinal
  • Bronze American Rhythm (C/R/S): 2nd place out of 8
  • Bronze American Smooth (Waltz/Tango/Foxtrot): 2nd place out of 7
  • SouthernStar Smooth Challenge (W/T/F): advanced from quarterfinal to semifinal
  • Silver American Rhythm (C/R/S): FIRST place out of 4; this event was a $50 scholarship from the Dayton chapter of USA Dance.

Because of some scheduling conflicts we’ve decided against competing at the Derby City Dancesport Championship in August and are instead aiming for the High Point Classic Dancesport Championship in October in High Point, NC.  After this past weekend we are very excited to keep improving our dancing and to do even better at our next comp.

SouthernStar Midsummer Classic 2009

Categories
lessons

Better Than Chipotle

We had our first lesson today with Wayne Brockman at Academy Ballroom Cumberland.  Wayne is a certified adjudicator with 3 decades of competitive experience.  A year ago, he left his successful studio in Colorado in his daughter’s hands and came to Georgia to teach with his sister.  We are glad he’s here!  The lesson was outstanding.  We worked on waltz and tango, focusing on body flight and volume, correcting our posture and footwork.  I had no idea it was possible to learn so much in one hour.  I’m eager to practice what we learned today and already excited for next Friday’s lesson.

During the lesson, Wayne was correcting my position in closed hold.  As I shifted in order to “dance it to the left,” my concentration momentarily broke, captured by a sight nearby.  “Hey!” I exclaimed.  “There’s a Chipotle right across the street!”  Wayne burst out laughing.  I tried in vain to reassure him that I would, in fact, choose a lesson with him over a burrito from Chipotle.  I would!  Really!

Categories
competitions lessons

Preparing for SouthernStar Midsummer Classic

Our registration form for this year’s SouthernStar Midsummer Classic in Tampa went out in the mail today, so it’s official–we are going!  By the end of the month we also expect to register for the Derby City DanceSport Championship in Louisville, KY.  It’s going to be a busy few weeks but we’re looking forward to making up for the last couple of months during which we didn’t get to do much dancing. Daniel’s knee is all healed up and he is ready to get busy!

We are especially looking forward to Tampa because at least one of our friends will be making the trip with us to serve as photographer, videographer, and cheerleader.  Since we are the only dancers in our chapter who travel to competitions we are always on our own–that’s why we never come back with any pictures to share!  This time will be different, so stay tuned for pics at the end of this month.

On Sunday we head up to Atlanta for our first lesson with a new instructor.  I don’t want to identify him without his permission, so for now I’ll just say he comes highly recommended and has a long and distinguished dance career.  We are looking forward to getting to know him and working with him to improve our dancing.