(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.

Senior I Smooth:

Senior I Rhythm:

Open 6-Dance Smooth:

Open 6-Dance Rhythm:

Adult Silver Rhythm:

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!

On Friday, April 16, Daniel and I, along with Paula East, visited Carlyle Place to perform an exhibition at their Red Hat Society luncheon.  Paula had arranged to do a short demonstration with Will Norris, the activities director (and favorite beau of all the Red Hats, I’m fairly sure).  Then Daniel and I got to dance 3 dances: waltz, cha-cha, and foxtrot.  It was so much fun, and it all came together so quickly that I didn’t have time to get nervous.  Paula called me on Tuesday to see if we could do it, and I went to see her last night to pick up some music and get a rundown of the planned program.  As she pointed out, it’s a good thing we have worked together before and can do this sort of thing with no rehearsal!

We danced on the stage in the “Grande Ballroom,” where someone (probably Will) had even put down a wooden floor for us.  The Society ladies were a great audience and very welcoming, and Carlyle Place itself is absolutely gorgeous–perfect landscaping, elegant public areas, and delicious food: we got to eat lunch after we danced, and packed away an embarrassing quantity of chicken salad and croissants.  I even ate 2 strawberry tartlets (don’t tell)!

Our friend Agnes Bikus, who is also on the board of USA Dance Greater Macon #6059, was kind enough to capture our performance on video:

but I play one every Tuesday night at Madison Studio.  Thus the studio director asked me to play the Queen in their spring ballet, “Swan Lake Selections,” which took place last weekend.  My parents were in town, so they got to see me perform.  I’d like to say that was a happy coincidence, but they actually rearranged their plans (their usual visit happens on my birthday) so that they could could say they were still attending their daughter’s ballet recitals now that their daughter is 37 years old!

Conveniently, last weekend was also Daniel’s birthday, so they got to celebrate with him, too.  Yay!  Daniel brought his trusty Handycam to the show and recorded my star turn.  I am posting clips from Scene 1 and Scene 3 here.  In Scene 1, I appear briefly.  In Scene 3, I am onstage the whole time, but for much of the scene I’m watching the others dance.  Watch to see what happens at the end of the scene.

It happens all the time when I meet new people.  They find out that we are ballroom dancers, and they say something like this: “I would love to dance, but I’ve got two left feet!”  A popular variation is “My wife wants us to learn to dance, but I’ve got two left feet!”

These people seem to think that the ability to dance comes from innate talent rather than from instruction, practice, and experience.  Yes, at a more advanced level, or in competitive dancing, talent is a factor.  But no one, no matter how talented, walks onto the floor for the first time and walks off the floor a world 10-dance champion.  Everyone had to take that first lesson, go to that first social dance, make those embarrassing mistakes.

Brand-new ballroom dancers do have to get over an initial “hump.”   To have fun at a ballroom dance one probably needs to know basic steps in at least 3 dances.  I think the learning curve is more significant for men, who have to lead and therefore must think one step ahead.  Getting familiar with music is necessary too.  Daniel used to turn up the car radio and ask, “What can we dance to this?”  Soon I could quickly identify the right dance for any song he played.  Songs at social dances are often short; if you have to ponder too long, you’ll miss the dance entirely. So it’s true that getting started is the hardest part, because there is a lot to learn.

And yet I don’t want to suggest that learning to dance is hard.  It’s challenging, but in a fun way.  My point is that you do have to learn to dance–and everyone can.  Natural talent helps with, but doesn’t replace, that process.  Even the best dancers still make crazy mistakes.  The fact that Daniel and I have won a few blue ribbons doesn’t make us immune to stepping on each other, losing the count, giving bad leads, failing to follow, doing foxtrot steps to tango music, or crashing into other couples (and some of those things happened on the comp. floor!).

Our friend & instructor Paula East says that “all you need are two left feet and a good attitude.”  That good attitude is the real determining factor–if you have that, the feet will eventually take care of themselves.

Saturday, November 7 was the second annual Stars over Macon Ball.  This event is co-sponsored by the Medcen Foundation and USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter #6059 and it benefits Hospice of Central Georgia.  For the second year in a row we had a great turnout, fantastic music by the Celebration Band, beautiful décor (put together by volunteers including yours truly!), and some amazing dance exhibitions.  The unstoppable Eddie Ares brought two couples to Macon to show us how it’s done: Joe Locurto and his amateur partner Lynne Riddle; and a young professional couple, Jeremy Norris and Emily Loyless.  Eddie also agreed–swayed by raucous audience participation–to return to Macon and give us a workshop in 2010.  Exciting!

As fantastic as the whole event was, for me the highlight was seeing Fran Kirsh recognized for her hard work on Stars over Macon and her dedication to ballroom dancing.  Since her back surgery in August she has not made it onto the dancefloor, but she was at the ball in a well-deserved blaze of glory.  Her hard work in 2008 made the first Stars over Macon possible.  Now it is on its way to being a gorgeous tradition, and the Hospice House is on its way to completion.

How about some pictures?

UPDATE: I talked to Paula East this afternoon.  Our chapter and the Medcen Foundation have set the date for Stars over Macon in 2010.  It will be October 23.  Mark your calendar!

We hope to see you all tomorrow afternoon at the Howard Community Club where Jim Riley will be teaching a workshop on the Waltz.  Here are the details:

You will learn

• footwork and styling,
• leading and following,
• timing and rhythm, and
• a choreographed routine to use for practice and social dancing.

This workshop will help you add elegance, grace, and movement to your waltz.

The workshop will take place from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., then our dance will start at 6:30 p.m. as usual.  Cost is $20, which includes admission to the dance along with the workshop.

If you have any questions please call or email Daniel or me.  See you tomorrow!

In October we are competing on two consecutive weekends.  Can you believe it?  One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 was to do 3 dance competitions; by the end of next month we’ll have done 4.  Woohoo!  Here’s where we’re going:

On October 18 we’ll be dancing at the SouthEastern Amateur Challenge that is part of the Hotlanta Dance Challenge in Atlanta.  Our own Eddie Ares is the brains behind Hotlanta and it is, as they say, a Really Big Shew.  The Southeast Regional Championship is no longer held in Atlanta (as it used to be every year), so hopefully this event will become a draw for amateur couples as well as pro-am competitors.  I’ve not yet been to Hotlanta even as a spectator–as much as I am looking forward to dancing, I’m looking forward to watching even more!

The weekend of October 23-25 we’ll be in High Point, North Carolina at the High Point Classic Dancesport Championships.  This competition is organized by Wayne Crowder, the same gentleman who runs the Triangle Open where we had so much fun back in February.  So we expect to enjoy this one a lot.  We may also have some long-lost friends coming to watch us dance.  Hooray!

That will probably be the end of our competitive trajectory for 2009, which means it’s time to sit down and figure out where we want to go in 2010…Montréal, perhaps?

Granted, we Southern types have already been in school for weeks, but Labor Day weekend is the traditional end of summer.  Time to pack away the bathing suits and lawn chairs and get out the pencils and notebooks–or in our case, the pencils, notebooks, and dancing shoes!  Paula East has been working hard on her new schedule of classes and also on helping us promote our workshop at the end of this month.  If you are interested in attending the workshop and haven’t already talked to Daniel, Paula, or me, please call or email one of us soon.  It is filling up really fast!

Paula is also offering a full slate of classes this fall.  You can visit her Web site for the schedule and registration information; here’s a rundown of the classes she’s offering:

• Fridays beginning September 4 at the Macon Health Club: Social Ballroom with Dianne Kent, 6:30-7:30 p.m. ($40.00 per person, 4 week session)
• Thursdays beginning September 17 at the Macon Health Club: Advanced Ballroom (Bronze level & up), 7:15-8:45 p.m. ($60.00 per person, 4 week session)
• Sundays beginning September 20 at the Wellness Center:
  • Beginning Ballroom/Refresher, 1:15-2:15 p.m. ($40.00 per person, 4 week session)
  • Semi-Advanced, 2:30-3:30 p.m. ($40.00 per person, 4 week session)
  • Advanced Latin Dance, 3:45-5:15 p.m. ($45.00 per person for 3 classes: Sept. 20, Oct. 4, Oct. 11)
• September 21 at the Wellness Center: complimentary lesson for a new class, “No Partner-No Problem.”   Sign up that night for the class, which will begin October 12.
• Mondays beginning October 12 at the Wellness Center: No Partner-No Problem, 7:15-8:45 p.m.
  • 1st half of class: Line Dancing ($35.00 per person, 4 week session)
  • 2nd half of class: Ballroom, ($35.00 per person, 4 week session)

It’s time to hit the dancefloor!

At last night’s dance we floated the idea of offering a workshop in conjunction with one of our upcoming dances, probably in early fall.  We want to get some feedback about what people are interested in.  We are considering offering 2 or 3 one-hour workshop sessions in the afternoon, followed by a dinner break, and then our dance in the evening. Everyone could sign up for the session(s) they want to attend.

To give us some specific feedback, could you please take a minute to answer the following poll?  The link will take you to the poll Web site. Thank you!
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