Categories
dance events USA Dance

Dancing For Our Heroes

At last night’s “Dancing For Our Heroes” charity dance at the Aviation Museum in Warner Robins, USA Dance #6059 Greater Macon  and USA Dance #6100 Houston County raised just over $2,000 for each of two organizations supporting our military and our veterans.  Hearts to Heroes and the Wounded Warrior Project each received a check for (if memory serves) $2,085.  Hooray!

It was an excellent event, too.  Our two chapters did an amazing job and thought of everything from table decorations to door prizes.  The turnout was great, the hors d’oeuvres were delicious, and the dancefloor was packed.  A few couples even came from Atlanta to attend.  We met one couple, Bob and Vanessa, who will be competing alongside us (and possibly against us!) at the High Point Classic in October.  They are awesome dancers and very friendly people.  Bob helped me fake my way through a West Coast Swing, which was big fun!  Later, Jim Riley allowed me to step all over him in a quickstep–I got up expecting a foxtrot and learned a whole new dance instead.  SSQQ, SSQQ, SS, lockstep, rinse and repeat!  The quickstep is just one more reason to keep up one’s cardio endurance, let me tell you.

Daniel took some good pictures last night–here are a few of them. Click each thumbnail to open the full image.

The Macon Telegraph was on hand last night taking photographs and interviewing dancers, but I haven’t found an article online yet.  If I do, I’ll post it.

Categories
Friday Night Dance Parties lessons

Tango and waltz workshops coming soon

Clint Rauscher of Tango Evolution, assisted by our own Joyce Newman, will be teaching two Argentine Tango workshops in Macon on September 20 and October 18, with plans for a regular third Sunday workshop if turnout is good for those two dates. Each workshop will be 2 hours followed by a one-hour “practica” (practice time). Click here for details and online registration.

On Sunday, September 27 in conjunction with our Sunday Night Dance Party, Jim Riley, assisted by JoyDawn Perry, will teach a 90-minute workshop on technique and styling in Waltz. Last week, Jim, JoyDawn, and I got together and he demonstrated for me some of the material he plans to teach. Having seen what Jim has planned, I can safely say that this workshop will be great for those who already know some waltz steps but want to add more movement, flow, and grace to their dancing. Jim will also teach a short routine you can use for practice or social dancing. Click over to our Fall Dance Workshop page for information.

Categories
dance events dancing in the media

Son of Return of Media Blitz!

Local TV station WMAZ ran their promotion of the “Dancing for our Heroes” event as part of their “Scene 13” weekend entertainment roundup on last night’s 11:00 news and again on today’s morning news. Here is the story; our event is the first one presented in the package:

Hope to see everyone at the Aviation Museum tomorrow night!

Categories
dancing in the media

Return of Media Blitz!

Maconites, tune in to the 11:00 news on WMAZ, channel 13, on Thursday the 27th.  During the “Scene 13” feature you will see members of the Greater Macon and Houston County USA Dance chapters (including yours truly!) dancing and promoting this coming weekend’s “Dancing for our Heroes” event.  The feature will also be rebroadcast around 6:40 a.m. on Friday the 28th and will be online under the “Entertainment” section of 13WMAZ.com.

As soon as I can get a link or an embeddable video clip, I’ll post it.

Categories
dance events social dancing

Dance trifecta

Around here, the dance scene always slows down over the summer. A lot of people are traveling, so not many events are scheduled. As the summer winds down (our schools start early, so for all intents & purposes the summer is now over), the dance events wind up. On Friday we attended the monthly dance at the Howard hosted by John Herren et al.; tonight is our Sunday Night Dance Party, also at the Howard.

Last night we went to Warner Robins for Dance Houston County‘s monthly social.  They have recently moved their monthly dances to an excellent new venue, the Warner Robins Conference Center.  The facility offers nice chairs, adequate air conditioning, and most importantly, a good floor!  The Houston County chapter offered free admission to last night’s dance to anyone who had bought a ticket to the Dancing for our Heroes event that is coming up on August 29.  Their chapter president, Kristin Streilin, said that hardly anyone had paid to get in, so it sounds like ticket sales are going well.

But if you don’t already have a ticket to Dancing for our Heroes, I know that some are still available.  The event is a fundraiser for the Hearts to Heroes chapter of the Wounded Warrior Project and will be held at the Museum of Aviation’s “Century of Flight” hangar.  Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door and are available from board members of Dance Houston County and USA Dance Greater Macon.

Categories
dancing in the media

Media blitz redux

Just received via email a link to WMAZ’s video from Friday. Fortunately (since I was exhausted and probably speaking gibberish), they did not use any of the interview clips but instead put together a nice montage of all of us dancing.

I will post this on the Video Gallery page as well.

EDIT: I’ve removed the video from the main page since it auto-plays every time one visits the page, which is not much fun. Check the Video Gallery page to see it.

Categories
dancing in the media lessons

Media blitz!

Photos from the SouthernStar Midsummer Classic competition are now available here.  We are in the American Smooth and American Rhythm divisions.

Also, last night a reporter/cameraman from WMAZ showed up at our First Friday dance at the Sports Hall of Fame.  He took video of us dancing and recorded short interviews with Paula and with me.  I don’t think the video made it on the air but they did put a story on their Web site (those are my feet in the photo slideshow!).  If I can find the video somewhere I’ll post it.

I was not expecting to be interviewed or to stand up in front of the First Friday crowd and tell them about our competition results, as Paula asked me to do.  Thank goodness I had changed clothes and put extra make-up on!  We had come to the dance straight from a lesson in Atlanta with Eddie Ares.  Eddie is a fantastic instructor but he works your tail off.  We worked on waltz and foxtrot and now we have “homework” to practice before our next lesson on Sunday the 16th.  It takes a good teacher to say “You must re-learn the basics” without demoralizing the students.  But in the end, the only demoralizing aspect was Friday afternoon traffic leaving Atlanta.

Categories
behind the curtain lessons

It all depends on your definition of “fun”

Just realized that I have spent the weekend with two of my favorite sadists: Eddie Ares and Jillian Michaels.

Yesterday, Daniel and I attended Eddie’s “Creating Impact” workshop at Academy Ballroom. It was a fast & furious 90 minutes of rumba and cha-cha exercises focused on making our dancing stronger, sharper, and faster. Very little partnering, very few breaks: just dance, dance, dance. At the end when we were chatting with Eddie, I said “Thanks for the butt-kicking!” He chuckled but then said “Well, conditioning is really important.”  Best of all, all the exercises are compact enough patterns that we can practice them at home–provided I can remember them!

He is right about the conditioning, of course. My cardio endurance is better than it used to be, but it could be better still, and my muscles could be stronger too.  So today I did Jillian’s “No More Trouble Zones” workout.  She describes it as a circuit training workout: it is all toning exercises, no cardio, but fast-paced enough that it gets your heart rate going too.  Do a few of her “Surrenders”* and see if your heart doesn’t beat faster.

Eddie’s class was fun.  Jillian’s workout…not so much.  But because her workouts are so challenging, I always feel like I’ve accomplished something after I finish one.  And that’s fun, at least.

*If you don’t know, don’t ask. Trust me.