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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

4 replies on “SouthernStar Midsummer Classic 2009”

I just want to congratulate you on your achievements. Great job on your FIRST place!!!

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