The Rising Stars Festival was held in the newly refurbished Shirley St Albans Club, Christchurch and was one of the more sociable Festival I have attended for a long time
The Festival commenced at 5 p.m. with partnership excluded events which was very well supported by dancers, family and friends which is more than I can say for the DanceSport graded events a maximum of 20 covering Juvenile, Junior, Adult and Senior events. One may say "you cannot run a Festival with such low numbers", but yes you can if you have the support of other dance forms, such as Salsa, Ceroc, Argentino Tango and Rock n Roll
The Salsa event attracted 10 pre entered couples, with more couples entering on the night. A heat and final was needed. The enthusiasm of these couples was very evident watching them practising on the side of the room, with there supports gathered around was very refreshing.
There were no entries received for the Ceroc event, although a time spot had been set down in the programme. When it came to this event the M.C. called for couples wishing to dance the Ceroc event to take the floor, low and behold it was full
Sadly though the DanceSport graded events could only manager to attract a maximum of 4 couples per event.
Having decided I needed to acquire more information for my Web site, I thought it would be a good idea to add more reports of Competitions along with the report of the National Championships, hence I switched on my long term memory.
Adult 'B' Standard although on first glance the 4 couples appeared to look good, on closer inspection a lot of unnecessary faults were evident, the foot work of chasses, locksteps and all P.P. figures, all of which the last step is a toe. Did I see this? no! Huge heels the majority of the time. I do not expect this in high graded dancers. We now move to gapping. Some of the Ladies seem to be pulling away from the Man, from the waist down, I would like to see vertical lowering and allowing the Man to place them on their foot, then in P.P figures Ladies appear not to complete the 2 step of whisk and telemarks, they then take it upon themselves to turn into P.P. and cross the centre line causing the Man to fall out of his P.P. figure. Please Ladies wait to be lead from the Man.
Now! Gentlemen or are you Gentlemen on the dance floor "Gentle" Quoted from the Oxford Dictionary 1. not rough or severe; mild, kind (a gentle nature.) Man 1. Adult human male. 2. a human being. One couple in the 'B' graded appeared to be at war, and at the end of the event the man walked off, without his Lady. Please do not show your grievances on the competition floor, choose a suitable place to discuss grievances in a GENTLEMANLY MANNER
Grooming! Gentleman to complete your correct Competition attire you need white waistcoats and patent leather shoes, not calf leather, these are training shoes. Ladies, I look at your shoes, some of which are dirty with worn down heels. Make up! don't say it, I hear it all the time, but! it is only a small competition, I cannot be bothered. "Quote Miss. Karen Hardy at her lecture in Nelson last year" How much time do you put into training your dance programmes'!!!!!!!! many hours, so why not training in the art of grooming. Each time you prepare your body for a competition you will do something different. Take photographs or video yourselves at each Competition, look to see how you look and try to better the make up. Tanning the body is essential for both Standard and Latin American, admittedly not so dark for Standard and not a few hours before you compete, at least 3 days before. Remember grooming is part and parcel of being judged, and with couples being of a similar standard in their dancing, I will use grooming to finalise my decision At 7.30 p.m. I had to leave the Festival to oversee a DanceSport Display of Latin American at a Basket Ball game between the Canterbury Rams & Otago, at the WestpacTrust Centre, Christchurch. What a great venue to hold National Championships at. Although a Huge venue at ground level one does not notice the greatness of the auditorium and around the floor there is sufficient room for corporate seating.Upon returning to the Festival at 9 p.m. I was amazed to see how full the venue had become. From a financial point of view, I looked at dollars on seats and a few dollars were made this night. The atmosphere was great, I assume all the people had arrived to support the Salsa and Ceroc as, I new very few faces and as reported earlier entries for Salsa and Ceroc events were very good.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt by DanceSport Competition Organisers, from these two events. Smart "street clothes" were worn, entries were great and supports were many. Perhaps trying to make it a condition of entry, that only Competition attire be worn by Adults, for 'C' grade and above, this way we may be able to attract more people to dance and encourage our Social Dancers to have a go at Competitions without the expense and feeling silly and out of place against those couple in Competition attire.
The Festival ended around 10.30 p.m. the bar remained open and the D.J. continued to play popular dance music, where once again the Ceroc, Salsa & DancSport Dancers and supports danced and socialised until midnight.
Congratulations to Karen and her team of helpers for a great night. I look forward to many more at other DanceSport Festivals
The moral of this report is, our DanceSport Competition industry must look to change as we are on the road to destruction