At Labour weekend I was fortunate to be able to attend the F.A.T.D Junior and Juvenile NZ Championships, which were held at the Uni -Tech in Auckland.
This was a very well run event, which ran on time to the minute. Couples from all over New Zealand attended it and the main centres were all represented with couples and adjudicators.
Craig Wilson of Sydney, Australia also attended the Competition. Craig is a past Australian Amateur and Professional Champion and present member of the Federal Association of Teachers of Dancing Australia.
The event culminated on the Sunday evening with the North Island vs South Island teams match, which is an event where couples from each Island dance against each other on behalf of their respective Islands.
The adjudicating panel was equally balanced with equal numbers of adjudicators from the North and South Island, and with the addition of Mr Wilson from Sydney it was set to be an interesting event.
This event was duly won by the South Island and the shield promptly packed away by Heather Brown for carriage to the South Island. There result was not without controversy with some claiming that Mr Wilson had been bribed, but it is my opinion that there is no foundation to this. However, it is probably not known to the organisers that Mr Wilson had been made an Honorary South Islander prior to the event.
The standard of Dancing over the weekend was varied with many top couples in the Modern and Latin sections, dancing with energy, excitement and athleticism, but lacking severely in their understanding of the basic technique of dance. From my point of view, this posed the adjudicators with the dilemma of tradeoffs between the exciting, entertaining and athletic dancers and those dancers who were obviously more technically aware, with a better understanding of the music, technique and the origins of the dance. Whilst I admit that you can't bake a chocolate cake without the sugar (or sweetener additive) and in competition dancing must consider all aspects of the performance displayed I couldn't help feeling that less choreography and more substance would have been desirable from some of the top competitors. We all know, for example, that Italy's Massimo Giorgianni & Alessia Manfredini have amazing creativity and entertainment in their performance, but they do nottradeoff their technique.
On the whole the standard of dancing was good, and I was surprised at the number of talented couples in the Auckland region.
The event will be held at the Trafalgar center in Nelson next year and provided that the Christchurch Branch of the FATD can demonstrate support for its competitions in Christchurch in the meantime, then the event is likely to be held in Christchurch in 2002.