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“Aaaaaand, she’s back!”

(my friend Steph Thompson’s ballroom instructor’s tagline every time his dancers completed an underarm turn)

Sunday afternoon saw us back from the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in Baton Rouge, LA just in time to host our Sunday Night Dance Party for an awesome crowd.  Thank you, everyone who attended!  The Gumbo competition was a great experience and we are so glad that we went.  Although we didn’t place as well as we’d hoped, we had a fantastic time and got to see all of our comp buddies as well as meeting some new ones.  The Louisiana Gumbo chapter of USA Dance is full of nice people and they put on a well-run, classy, enjoyable competition.  Our only regret was not getting to do more sightseeing around Baton Rouge, but at least we did get a great view of the river Saturday night from the terrace at Tsunami.

The highlight of the comp came on Saturday afternoon when we lined up on deck with 10 other couples for the Smooth portion of the Open American 6-Dance.  While we were lining up, 8 couples were on the floor dancing the Smooth portion of an Open 9-Dance event.  Daniel got everyone in the on-deck area to sway back & forth and wave our arms in unison as the Viennese waltz played for the 9-Dancers.  By the end of the song, all the judges were staring and everyone, including us, was laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes.  The announcer said, “All of you on deck, cut it out! I’m getting seasick!”  So when we lined up for the Rhythm part of the 6-Dance and the 9-Dancers were dancing swing, Daniel cued everyone to do the basic swing step together.  He led us through underarm turns and everything.  It was hiLARious.  Rumor has it that someone got this exploit on video, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, click through for some video that our various dance friends captured for us.  I also have a few pictures but WordPress does not seem to want to upload them right now, so look for those in a later post.

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Friday Night Dance Parties social dancing Uncategorized

Sunday Night Dance Party: “Our Triumphant Return” Edition

So it turns out that this month, the 4th Sunday is the same day we will return from the Gumbo Championships in Baton Rouge.  We’ll get off the plane at 1:20 p.m. and head back to Macon just in time to set up for our dance. Since we will have tales to tell and, hopefully, ribbons to show off, we hope everyone can come and help us celebrate a great competition experience.

Join us at the Howard Community Club at 7 p.m. as usual on Sunday, June 27.  Daniel would like me to particularly remind everyone that song requests are welcome, so please bring any CDs with songs you’d like him to play.

See you soon!

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behind the curtain in other news

Our Mascots

An anticipatory lull has taken hold here at DLDancers HQ as Daniel and I count down the hours till our departure for the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in Baton Rouge this weekend. So I thought I’d take a moment to introduce the Internet to our three mascots and most loyal supporters.

Tango is about 4 years old; Daniel got him before we started dating.  Tiger is 3 months old–we just got him from our dancer friend Jodi Williams (she has more kittens available if you need a mascot of your own).  Mackie is the baby of the family at only 5-6 weeks old.  Daniel found her wandering lost in a parking lost last week and brought her home.

None of them has any aptitude for dancing but they are all excellent at lounging, pouncing, meowing, eating, and being adorable.  (You know: the things dancers do when we’re not dancing.)  We will miss them when we head off to BR.  Special shout-outs of gratitude are due to Shane Trayers who will be on cat patrol while we’re gone.  Thanks, Shane!

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dancing in the media in other news

Buzz & Jessie’s Paso Doble

I was already excited about Toy Story 3 (I just love those movies), but after seeing this, I am officially All About It.

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competitions

Gumbo Countdown

We set off for the Gumbo Dancesport Championships in 12 days.  It must be time to start obsessing about getting ready.  This will be our first time flying to a comp.  It’s gonna be a major troop movement.  We are dancing in some events where costumes are allowed, and some events where they aren’t, so I have to decide about taking my gowns and whether to check them or try to carry them onto what’s likely to be a wee little aircraft.  Last year I bought this practice dress for Smooth and I just got an outfit (this top and this skirt) for Rhythm, so I will be pretty well fixed without gowns too.  As a fan of packing light, I’m tempted not to take the gowns, but I don’t know yet.

At this point it’s much more fun to obsess about packing and preparations than to really focus on any possible shortcomings in our dancing.  As always, we haven’t practiced as much as we’d like or taken as many lessons as we’d hoped for, but we have our new routines and we are pretty good at selling a performance.  Plus, we are both really up for a vacation, so we want to make sure we enjoy this trip regardless of our placements.  Dressing up, pinning on the number, and putting on the show is half the fun.  Being in a new place will be the other half.

Not that a ribbon or two wouldn’t be nice.

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dance events

Tangoing into the hearts of millions.

Well, hundreds.  Okay, several dozen.

Yesterday was the Madison Studio recital at Zuver Center and we had a great time.  Huge thanks are due to Kelly & Steve for coming out to cheer us on and to video our performance for us.  We got lots of positive feedback on our performance, which is always wonderful to hear.  After doing a lot of competitions and less formal exhibitions, it felt a little strange to be up on the stage all by ourselves with the audience watching us. In a perfect world I think we’d have routines choreographed just for this purpose–something with lots of flashy open work and very few steps in closed hold.

This video clip also shows the group that danced right after us, which was the Czardas number from Swan Lake.  Most if not all of the Czardas are in the ballet class I take on Thursday nights.  When the class danced its number later in the program, Daniel asked me why I wasn’t out there with them.  I just gave him a look.  But I am planning to go back on pointe again later this year, so maybe next year?

Here’s the video–let us know what you think of our performance!