Author: WebKeeper

West Coast Swingin’

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/14/2017 08:04 PM

For the next couple of weeks at Capital Carousels, we will be West Coast Swingin’-at least during the teaching session. This dance will be a natural stepping stone from the dance we learned last year at Capital Caper, You’re Something Special To Me. For those of you who attended the West Coast Swing clinic this past June in Kemptville, this dance will not be the one taught there, but will include a couple of the new figures that were learned there. Arlo and I will be teaching this one so get ready to expand on your West Coast Swing!
Speaking of teaches, we turn our attention to Capital Caper this year and what will be taught there. Here is the list:

Friday afternoon-Phase 3 Quickstep
Friday evening-Phase 4 Tango
Saturday morning-Phase 5 Foxtrot
Saturday afternoon-Phase 4 Cha

This year Steve and Irene will be teaching a nice variation of rhythms. A rare chance to learn dances in a fun and informative way from some top notch instructors. Don’t miss out! See you at the Caper!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/06/2017 05:24 PM
Wishing all of our club members, friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving this weekend! May we all be blessed with the goodness of time with family and friends and of course, the bountiful harvest at our tables. Enjoy it however you choose to celebrate!

This coming week at the club, it will be a full dance program on both days. The dances we have learned recently you will notice are listed on the dance program twice. This is no typo! To gain more experience and familiarity with our teaches, we will begin featuring them in this way on our program for a few weeks following the teach. We trust you will enjoy this extra practice time. Pat and John will be watching as the dances are danced thru and if a significant trouble spot is noted, a quick review of that will take place in between the dance throughs. Not a full teach, just a spot review. Practice is always good!

If you haven’t looked at our Coming Events section lately, you might like to take a look. A few dance events coming up are Fall Fest-a combined square and round dance. Gavin has advance ribbons for that dance for $10/person. They will be $12/person at the door. Of course, our Capital Caper is coming up as we have been spotlighting in the past few weeks. Gavin of course will accept your registration at the club for that. Come for the full package or just select the teaching levels you would like. You have the flexibility and as always, a fun and good learning experience with Steve and Irene Bradt. After Capital Caper, our very own Ghostly Gala will happen on Wednesday, Nov 1! Not only is this a Halloween celebration but also a 5th Anniversary for Capital Carousels. We always have ingenious costumes from our members and will look forward to seeing “who” will arrive at our Ghostly Gala this year!

Get out your calendar and reserve some spots for some great dance opportunities ahead in our area. Again, have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the time however you intend to celebrate!

Capital Caper Weekend 2017

Originally posted by Donna Stewart September/28/2017 06:37 PM

As of today, it feels as though Fall has FINALLY arrived! With Fall, we think of the beginning of our dance season and when that starts, Capital Caper is not far behind. This year, the Caper will be held On Friday, October 27 thru Saturday, October 28. As in many years past, the ever popular, Steve and Irene Bradt will be with us! They will be putting us through the paces, learning some new moves and perfecting others!! I’m sure we all feel we have those dance moves that need perfecting! As in the past few years, we will have 4 teaches and a final dance on the Saturday night. Steve will be doing the cueing on that as well, as he has done in recent years. Also in the past few years, a lunch on Saturday has been included in Capital Caper. Some lovely sandwiches and tasty desserts have really hit the spot and all on site at Parkdale. No more wondering where to have lunch locally, working the commute, parking, eating and enough time to get back to Parkdale to begin the next session. This has been a popular addition to the Caper event and we are pleased to include it again this year.
Not only is it nice to see the Bradts again, it is also nice to see our out-of-town guests as well! We always enjoy dancing as well as the social aspect of the Caper.
“How can I sign up?” you ask. It is as easy as downloading the flyer right off of our website here! You can find it in the Coming Events section. If you are a club member and attend either our Wednesday or Thursday clubs, you can conveniently bring your registration and fee in to Gavin personally. If you live out of the area, Gavin’s address is found on the registration form.
The dance season is just beginning and some of the special events that go with it! Come and join us at Capital Caper! We will reserve you a spot on the dance floor!

New Dance Season Has Started!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart September/15/2017 06:40 PM

Well we have officially started our 2017-2018 dance season here at Capital Carousels! It was nice to see everyone after our summer break! The one thing noted about our first week back at Capital Carousels is that it seems that first week always feels like summer! Higher than average temperatures, but it didn’t stop the dancing at Parkdale! It was also nice to see some of our friends we haven’t seen in awhile, even beyond our summer break! Thanks for coming out and we hope to be able to see you more often. We also hope that those of our members who are affected by various ailments will begin feeling better and able to join us. You are missed!
We began our first week easing into things by just having a dance night. A good way to find our dance feet again and get reoriented to dancing. This coming week, we will be starting in earnest where Pat and John will be teaching a phase 4 rumba to both our Wednesday and Thursday clubs. This year, we thought we would do something a bit different by having our teach a bit earlier in the program and our coffee a little later in the program and after the teach instead of before. We will start with a warmup set of rounds which will get us limbered up, and then begin the dance teach. Our goal is for a session of 30 minutes for the teach. Our thinking was to have the teach earlier when we are a bit limbered up and minds still “fresh”. Coffee later in the program will be more around the 1/2 way point and nice to have that extended break at that point.
We will try this new format for awhile and see how it goes. We hope you will find yourself more refreshed for the teach and enjoy the extended break afterward.
Just a gentle reminder that Capital Caper will be coming up on October 27&28 this year with the Bradts. I know we have known about this for awhile now and the start of the new season always triggers our memories about this event. Gavin is hoping to have many registrations from our club, so please make plans to attend and as always have a great time with Steve and Irene and seeing some of our friends from other areas. You can get your registration form off the website or there will be some at our regular club days. Very convenient to get your registration and payment to Gavin in person. We look forward to seeing you at the Caper!

Welcome Back!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart September/08/2017 07:20 PM

Hello everyone! I can’t believe the summer is coming to a close and although some of us may be saddened by this, I am sure that everyone is very happy that our new dance season is on the visible horizon! YES! We will be back to dancing this coming Wednesday and Thursday! Same time! Same Bat Channel! By now, those of you reading this have probably already received the letter which was sent out via email from Gavin giving you the details of our upcoming season. We all look forward to seeing everyone and hearing about everyone’s summer and also getting back in our dance groove. To slide in to the dance routine, we will be starting with an all dance day with no teaches on both Wednesday and Thursday for our first week. I have the dance program posted on the website now, and can be easily downloaded and printed out if you so wish.
This coming week is looking lovely weather wise and we look forward to seeing you all at Parkdale! Don’t forget your dance shoes!

Thanks for A Great Season!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart May/18/2017 02:13 PM

Thanks Capital Carousels! That sure was a great closeout dance we had last night as we definitely got in the spirit of our “Canada 150 Birthday Celebration”. We had a great turnout as you can see with lots of “team spirit” as we all came in our Canadian Red and White! We were definitely a walking billboard for Canada 150 and Pat and Jill Ivay definitely put the finishing touches on our decorations all around the hall at Parkdale! Great job as always guys! We started the night off right in celebration of our great country by singing our National Anthem, “Oh Canada”. We had 4 sets of music last night and before each set, we had a Canada “Did You Know” or “On This Date In Canadian History” segment. I think we all learned a few things about our country that we may not have already known! Speaking of dance sets, Pat Black put together a great dance program which was primarily all Canadian themed! Either done by Canadian choreographers, artists or Canadian producers! What a wealth of talent we have here! New this year, we had some free door prizes to give away-all Canadian themed! Congrats to our door prize winners, Teena, Ian, Sharon and Ann. We also had a Share The Wealth drawing! Congratulations to Mike for becoming a part of the illustrious, “Wealthiest Canadians” exclusive club!
In the middle of the evening, as promised, we held a very short Annual General Meeting and took care of some needed business. We also had an election of officers last evening and here are the results:

President-Gavin
Vice President-Ziggy
Secretary-Arlo
Programmer-Pat
Social Convenor-Ian and Ann
Director At Large-Wayne and Toni

A special thanks for those returning members who agreed to remain for another term. Arlo and Pat, we appreciate your dedication and hard work on behalf of everyone at Capital Carousels. Thank you! We would like to welcome Ian and Ann, Wayne and Toni for joining the team. Not only is your help most welcome, it is always nice to have others with perhaps a “fresh look” at what’s going on with the club. We look forward to your input and helping hands at Capital Carousels! It has been great having Pat and Jill serve with us this past year. They have done all asked of them from setting up decorations for our special events and also arranging and sending out get well cards as needed. We appreciate all of your work and will appreciate all your work “in the background” next season. Thanks! Ziggy and Jenny have been with Capital Carousels since its inception. We thank them for their many contributions to the club. Ziggy has served as President and has helped keep things going smoothly through all our departments. Directly involved with the creation of our policies and bylaws for the club, getting involved in teaching including some beginner rumba lessons. Also actively promoting round dancing through attendance at EOSARDA meetings, performing demos and some local advertising. Jenny has been there with him throughout much of this as well as their work on refreshments for the club and club events on many levels. From serving coffee and tea, to organizing potlucks, or to catered events. They have been there “in the thick of it” and we thank you. After 4 years on the board, Ziggy has decided to resign from the Presidency and Jenny from the Social Convenor position. They have experienced their own personal struggles with their health this past year and have decided to dedicate some time to themselves and well deserved, I might add!! Despite all this, Ziggy has graciously decided to fill in the Vice President position as an assistance anywhere he can. Thank you both for all you have done for the club. Your contributions do not go un-noticed- THANK YOU! Last, but not least…Gavin. What can we say?? It has been a challenging year indeed and you certainly picked up and took the reigns when needed. You have also been on the board since its inception and have always been a source of sound advice and reason in many discussions we have held as a club! You have always come across with common sense and grace and we are very lucky to have you. Thank you for accepting the position of President while also holding the Treasurer position so ably! How fortunate we are! We look forward to working with you in your new role!
So after all the “official” stuff was concluded, and all the dancing was done, Uri and Teena, on behalf of the Capital Carousels members, presented some hanging baskets to our President, Teaching and Cueing Staff. I am sure on behalf of Ziggy and Jenny, Pat, John and myself, we would like to extend a big thank you. We appreciate your faith and loyalty in us and in our club. Thanks!
When all the dancing, meetings and presentations were done, it was time to eat! As usual, it was a tremendous spread as provided by our members! Lots of sweet and savoury items to try and some indeed with a Canadian theme! How ingenious of our members! To finish it all off, we had a tremendous cake, with a Canada 150 theme and even a Capital Carousels logo on it. It is my understanding that Ian and Ann’s daughter did this cake and not only was it beautiful, it was delicious as well. Ian and Ann are definitely getting a head start on their new Social Convenor role and by the looks of things last night, we are in good hands!
This season created its own set of challenges, and thanks to a collaborate effort from the executive and its members, we have a game plan for next season. We look forward to seeing many of you back in September and have a wonderful summer everyone!

End of Season Around The Corner!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart May/06/2017 04:31 PM

Where does the time go we all say! It flies by! That’s where it goes. This week will the last week of the session for both our Wednesday and Thursday clubs. Our Wednesday group will be finishing off the review on Right Here Waiting For You-RB5 with Pat and John and our Thursday group will be looking at the Whip Family in West Coast Swing with Donna and John as an end of season review. Our Monday club actually has 2 more sessions, as our facility was closed Easter Monday extending us to May 15. We will be covering a dance called I Can Love You Like That-BL5 to finish things off for our 4-6 club.
Our dancing of course is not over though as we have one more dance on Wednesday, May 17 designed as a get together for all of our clubs! This year, in keeping with multiple celebrations nation wide, we will be having a Canada 150 Dance! It’s not every year we get to celebrate such a milestone for our fine country!! Pat has put together a fantastic program made up primarily of Canadian choreographers, artists or others in the Canadian music industry! We have many talented Canadians to fit the bill including a few within our very club with their own choreographies! Well done! To keep with the Canadian element of our dance, I will be starting each set with a few “Did you know??” facts about this great country of ours. For the first time ever, we will also be awarding door prizes (no purchase required) that also carry a Canadian theme! You can pick up your door prize ticket as you sign in. Now in order to become Canada’s newest millionaire, you will need to purchase “Share The Wealth” tickets which Gavin and Pat will be more than happy to help you with at the door.
As this is a year ending dance, we will be conducting a short Annual General Meeting about midway. We held meetings a few weeks ago at both our Wednesday and Thursday clubs to keep this meeting short and to the point so we can resume dancing. We will be electing our next year’s slate of officers and please remember we have openings and would be happy to have your help in whatever capacity you are able. Please consider helping us out.
What would a Canada 150 dance be without a lot of patriotic Canadian red and white about?? Pat and Jill Ivay do a tremendous job for us with decorations and along with all of their ingenuity, the dancers provide a lot of atmosphere when they come dressed the part! If you would like to dress in some red and white, please do so. Let’s be a walking billboard for Canada 150! You can expect our entourage of camera paparazzi will be about as well so “strike the pose!”
There is nothing like attending a fun dance with lots of great music and great friends to socialize with. Am I missing something?? Ohhh….FOOD! How could I forget?? Well of course we will be having some delicious treats at the end of the evening in either a sweet or savoury variety! Why not both?? Nothing like lots of variety of finger type foods which have been brought and prepared by our own members! Tea/coffee and cake will be provided by Capital Carousels as well. Please check the signup sheet at the registration desk this week and be sure to sign up to bring something either “sweet” or “savoury”.
At this point, the remainder of programs for the season have been posted on the website here. Also the Capital Caper section of the website has also been activated where you can find the registration flyer and information on all things about Capital Caper.
Our season may be coming to a close, but we are still in the party mood! Canada 150—Here we come!

Happy Easter!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart April/08/2017 10:54 AM

We had a very nice start to the weekend with wall to wall sun and warm temperatures. Over the day today, it has become overcast and has been raining. Look on the bright side! This rain should green things up quite nicely!
As our season dwindles away, we have been doing reviews as requested by many of you. Pat and John have been giving us some much needed review of tango with the dance Black Tie Tango. Promenades, links, viennese turns. Feeling like it’s coming together and fills in some of those blanks most of us probably had. We will have continued review of this dance next week. Thursday has been working on jive figures and specifically some found in Cat Daddy with both Pat and Donna. Sailor Shuffles, glide to the side and traveling sand steps are primarily what we have been working on this past week. We will continue with Cat Daddy next week with “the mooch” among other figures. Our Monday club has also been back these past couple of weeks where we have learned a nice phase 5 waltz called Forever We’ll Be In Love. Many of our Monday group will also be attending WOW in London in June and Donna has been putting dances on our program we just might see on theirs! This Monday, our group will not be dancing with the centre being closed for Easter. We will be back the next week though, where we will be starting a phase 4+2 rumba called Tears In Heaven.
Toward the end of the month, on the 26th and 27th, we will be having a group meeting to discuss next season, providing you with information your executive has discussed at our recent meeting, and in return, looking for your ideas and comments! We look forward to hearing from you!
We have about a month left to go in this season, with our final dance being on Wednesday, May 17 celebrating Canada’s big year with a Canada 150 Dance!! We will be celebrating all things Canadian so please come dressed in red and white! Canadian dances, door prizes, share the wealth, decorations and of course, refreshments! We will also be holding a short Annual General Meeting to cover needed yearly business and get back to dancing.
Swing Into Spring and WOW are also on our radar at Capital Carousels. Be sure to register soon as time is drawing closer! Swing Into Spring will be featuring Jerry and Bonnie Callen on rounds where a slow two step clinic will be conducted and perhaps a phase 4 foxtrot or 2 on the agenda. Sounds like a good weekend. At WOW this year, the Preskitts will be the featured instructors. Hailing from Washington State, they are a bit far from home and all the more reason not to miss this rare event! A real “diamond in the rough” this couple with years of teaching experience, beautiful dancing and amazing choreography. Hope to see you there. There will be a phase 3 teach on Friday night during the evening program. On Saturday there will be a phase 4 and 5 teach and a full dance program on Saturday night. A review is also offered on Sunday morning to solidify those dances learned over the weekend.
Lots of dancing left here at Capital Carousels and beyond. Dance shoes-don’t leave home without them! Happy Easter everyone!

Canada 150 Dance-Our End Of Year Party!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart April/08/2017 10:17 AM

As we approach the end of our 2016/2017 dance season, we look to our end of year celebration here at Capital Carousels! With our great country celebrating a landmark birthday this year, we plan to jump into the festivities with a Canada 150 Dance! On Wednesday, May 17 we will be brimming with Canadian Pride with many Canadian flags and red and white all around. We encourage everyone to come dressed in something red, white or both to help celebrate this wonderful country of ours! To keep things Canadian themed, we will have some music on our dance program from Canadian artists and choreographers. We will also have a few door prizes that are Canadian themed up for grabs. Feeling lucky? We will also have a “Share The Wealth” drawing and some lucky winner to be Canada’s next millionaire! We will also have some very quick “Did You Know” segments just prior to each dance set with some facts about Canada which you may not be aware of! What is a dance without some refreshments? We will be having some yummy treats as well so save your sweet tooth!
Our end of year dance also is when we have our Annual General Meeting covering some needed items to move forward to our next season. Our goal is to keep this meeting short so we can continue the dancing through the end of the evening. We do hope you will be able to join us. The evening will be from 7:00-9:00PM and a nice way to end our dance year.
Come and help us celebrate our nation’s 150th and let’s get this party started early!

The Flock Returns!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart April/01/2017 12:51 PM

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Canadian Geese returning home and in large numbers! Whether you see them, hear them or both, they can be spotted in many farm fields and parks around. As with the return of these beauties, we also anticipate the return of our own dancing snowbirds! The coming of our spring session usually is a good sign and we begin that this week! With the coming of spring, our Monday club resumes dancing phase 4-6 level and learning dances via instructional video. We will begin with a lovely phase 5 waltz by the Gloodt’s called “Forever We’ll Be In Love”. On Wednesday, we will be starting our spring session with an all dance night. A great opportunity to get reacquainted with those who have been away. Last Thursday, we had a bit of a survey with our dancers there, asking if they would like to review some of our recent dances, or have an all dance day. By popular vote, we will be doing some review of Herb’s Green Peppers and perhaps another glance at Viennese Turns.
With the coming of our spring session, you once again have the opportunity to sign up for a session fee or pay per dance day. Prices remain the same as they have been all year. Gavin and Pat have returned from their trip south and will be manning the registration desk to begin our spring session!
Looking forward to seeing all of our winter travelers and hearing of all your adventures. Hopefully we’ve had the last hiccup of winter! See you all on the dance floor!