Well! what can one say. No word can express an evening that went off with a rip roaring BANG! thanks to Mr Maurice Edwards and his team
I can truly say that the hype started some months ago, with the announcement that the Canterbury Championships were going to be made something special and that our very own Brendan Cole along with his lovely partner Camilla had been invited to demonstrate at this inaugural show.
Over the weeks that followed, students put in a lot of work to prepare themselves for the big day, then the week before the 15 June became a nightmare of people wanting to buy tickets, I became very worried that the venue would be over sold, every night was chaotic with students flat out practising.
Finally the day arrived, Adjudicators and front line personnel were asked to wear evening dress and I could see why upon my arrival at the venue at 5pm. Maurice had excelled himself with lighting and layout, every bit as good as international championships that I have attended. The place was packed with spectators and the floor was awash with colour from the female dresses. There was a record number of entries, with 92 couples for the competition proper and over 60 entries for the partnership excluded events which were held in the afternoon. In the Adult E and D grades up to three heats were held with semi finals for C grade Modern and New Vogue. There were some heats held in the Juvenile and Junior events, but I feel there should have been more as it was very hard to judge 9 and 10 couple finals, Senior events were well supported with heats being held.
The standard of dancing was much higher than I have seen in the past, this I feel is a reflection of turning the Canterbury Championships into something more than just another mundane competition.
As time moved on the hall slowly became more and more crowded with people arriving for the demonstration at 8.15pm and of course there would be no show with out RUGBY!!!!!!!!!!! which was being shown in the main bar of the Riccarton Club, this bar was also packed, along with the restaurant. Then just before 8pm, the fire alarm goes off and everybody had to evacuate the venue out into the pouring rain and cold, there we all stood until the fire brigade gave the all clear for us to return. I must say that the dancing fraternity handled this situation very well
Let the show begin, back to the competition and finally the Show, down went the lights, spot light onto the matador, the crowd roared and so it began with a cape dance followed by Paso, Cha Cha, Samba, Jive and finally Brendan & Camilla's rendition of the sensual and passionate Rumba, there was not a dry eye in the house, this was followed with a standing ovation from the crowd, then onto the floor came amass of children all carrying a single rose individually wrapped, this I thought was wonderful, that so many children were made to feel special by presenting the couple with a small gift, but it did not end there the crowd wanted more, Brendan and Camilla agreed to dance again, and Brendan spoke about the importance of sound basics and proceeded to dance a basic Rumba to show how well it can look. Still they were not allowed to leave the floor as Brendans Mum requested a Jive, which is one of the couples best dance and wow did they Jive, what a finish to a wonder full show.
The evening finally finished after midnight with some top rate dancing in the higher grade competitions
On a final note I would like to thank Maurice Edwards for a well organised Championship producing a programme that run like clockwork in view of the hickups that occured and look forward to next years Canterbury DanceSport Championships