Dance Season – Capital Carousels Round Dance Club

2019/2020 Dance Season Wrap-up

Anyone else in need of a haircut these days? I just might let Eileen loose on mine. It couldn’t look any worse.

Seriously though, I hope everyone is staying healthy through this stressful time. Who would have thought in early February, when we first heard of a new virus on the other side of the world, that our lives and dance season would be affected so quickly?

To recap our past season, we did have very successful Fall & Winter sessions with another Capital Caper workshop in October, featuring Steve & Irene Bradt, followed in December by the annual Christmas benefit dance in aid of Parkdale United’s “In From The Cold” program.
Several new dances were taught to the two dance groups in addition to those taught at the Caper. If your memory needs refreshing, these dances are listed in the “Dance Cuesheets” link when you select “Dance Season” in the main menu.
Many thanks to our teachers Pat, John, Marg, Ziggy, Jenny, Susan & Doug.

Now here’s some good news courtesy of Arlo. Some of you may be aware that Pamela & George Hurd have an instructional website which was accessible for a fee. To lift dancer’s spirits and weather the Covid19 storm they have decided to open the site up to dancers free of charge. I have spent some time going through the site in a download frenzy and think I now have pretty much all of the material downloaded. I will start uploading some of the dances we are familiar with to Dropbox once I have their titles updated to indicate phase level and rhythm. Head to “Videos” in our website’s main menu, enter the password and you’ll be able to access them from there. There is also information there on accessing the Hurd’s website directly if you wish.

At last the weather is more spring like these days which I hope will help lift people’s spirits. Stay safe and healthy everyone and let’s hope we will be dancing again in the Fall.

Valentine’s News

Last Friday was Valentine’s Day. There was plenty of red to be seen at the club and at coffee break, plenty of cake to be eaten.
Of course there were those who didn’t get the message about wearing red, like the guy on the left in the picture below. The lady beside him tells me she had definitely reminded him. He says that she reminded him 10 minutes before he went to get dressed so he forgot. Any men reading this will certainly understand where he’s coming from.

That’s Lyn behind practicing a dance move in her Valentine’s skirt.
Thanks to Pat I. for the photos.

Although our numbers are down significantly with folks on vacation, we have learned a couple of new dances. A phase 4 Cha “Little Spanish Town” taught by Ziggy & Jenny and a beautiful phase 4 slow two step, ” Wake Up Dancin’ “ by Sue & Doug. Both these dances are on “Dropbox”. Look for “Spanish Town” in the 2019 Swing Into Spring folder. We’ve also been honing our skills reviewing some difficult moves from dances we’ve learned previously thanks to John & Marg.

Another recent addition to Dropbox is “Besame Mucho”. This dance video previously had terrible audio and the cuing was extremely hard to hear and understand. I’ve been able to match Donna’s cuing to the video so it’s much more useful now.

A reminder to be sure and check your email before leaving for dance, especially if the weather looks dubious, to see if dance is cancelled. I’ll also endeavour to add a notice to the website as well.

Spring is hopefully just around the corner.

Happy Holidays!

The club’s annual “In From The Cold” Christmas benefit dance took place on the evening of Friday 13th. The evening started with a pot-luck dinner at 6PM followed by an evening of dancing until the reality that it was Friday 13th hit the computer and hearing assist causing both units to stop working. Both are up and running again. The hearing assist is sporting a replacement power supply courtesy of Value Village and the computer after extensive testing has been declared fit for service again. In spite of the gremlins it was a very successful evening with $756 raised for Parkdale United Church’s “In From The Cold” program. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the evening! I will have some pictures (courtesy Ziggy) in the “Gallery” hopefully before too long.

The website has been updated with the dance calendar for the next session which will run from early January to the end of March. Monday dancing starts on Jan 6 and Thursday dancing on Jan 9 for 12 weeks. Monday dancers please make note that Feb. 17th is Family Day so there won’t be dancing that day.

An upcoming change to the website will be the addition of a password to access the Dropbox videos. Once this is done I’ll email all our club members with the password. If you haven’t received it once it’s in effect please email WebKeeper@capitalcarousels.ca and I’ll email it to you. If you know someone in another dance club who’s been using the videos to improve their dancing please give me their email and I’ll send them the password.

It’s now officially winter and you can expect some stormy days when you’ll wonder if dancing is on. Please check your email before setting out to see if there’s a cancellation notice. I will also try to get a cancellation notice front and center on the website as well.

A number of dancers are heading on vacation in the next couple of months. Safe travels to all.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah and Happy Dancing in 2020.

Carousel’s 2019/2020 Dance Season About To Begin!

I’ve forgotten. Is this a bolero or a foxtrot?

Can you believe it! In less than 2 weeks the Fall dance season begins at Capital Carousels. It’s time to figure out where you tossed those dance shoes back in May.

Pat has been busy making up dance programs and the first couple are posted on this website so please check them out and start reviewing if you’d like.

The fee structure this year is the same as last year, $5 per dancer for each dance day if paying in advance for a complete session, otherwise $8 per dancer if paying each dance day.
Monday dances will run from Sep. 9 to Dec. 9 with no dancing Oct. 14 and Nov. 11.
Thursday dances will run from Sep. 12 to Dec 5 with no dancing Oct. 31.
The club’s anniversary dance will be held this year on Friday Oct. 4 and the “In From The Cold” benefit dance on Friday Dec. 13. Both dances will be potluck with the hall opening at 5:30PM and dinner starting at 6PM.

“Capital Caper” takes place this year on Oct. 25 & 26. One change to note, there will now be an additional dance on Friday night following a shorter teach.

That’s about it for now. Look forward to seeing everyone on the dance floor very soon.

2018/2019 Dance Season “Windup” Party

Capital Carousel’s final dance of the 2018/2019 season took place with a potluck dinner, AGM and dance on the evening of Wednesday May 15th. A big thank-you to our social convenors Ian and Ann and all those who helped with or contributed toward the dinner.

Looking back on the past season and the changes required in the operation of the club after the retirement of our cuer Donna, things went quite well. In large part this was due to Donna’s loan of her pre-cued music to the club, a core group of equipment operators, the ability to create and share dance session playlists via email and the encouragement and feedback from dancers in attendance each week. Work was done and will continue next season, adjusting the cued music sound levels to reduce the operator’s need to make adjustments during the dance session.

Teaching this past season focused mainly on reviewing the 2018 Capital Caper dances and problem areas from other dances. Thanks Pat and John and also Ziggy & Jenny who filled in on Thursdays while Pat was on vacation.

A short AGM was chaired by our VP, Ziggy.
Club positions filled for the 2019-2020 season are:
President …………….. Ziggy
Vice President …….. Gavin
Secretary …………….. Arlo
Programmer ……….. Pat B
Social Convenors … Ziggy & Jenny
Treasurer …………….. Tom
Webmaster ………….. Mike
Directors at Large .. Toni & Wayne/ Robert & Jean

The fee structure for next season remains the same at $5/person per dance if signing up for a complete session and $8/person per dance if not paying for the complete session.
The Fall 2019 dance sessions will begin Monday Sept. 9th and Thursday Sept. 12th.

Capital Caper 2019 this year takes place on October 25th & 26th so please mark your calendar and get your registration forms in early to help finalize attendance numbers. You will find a link to the registration form here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing you again when dancing starts in Sept. 2019.

April Update

Well spring is supposed to arrive any day now but I’m not holding my breath!

We are now into our Spring dance session which started Monday April 1st for the 3-5 group and Thurs. April 4th for the 3-4 group. The session will continue for 6 weeks for both groups, dance dates can be found under the “Club Calendar” menu on the website. For the Monday group please note there will be NO dancing on Apr.22 which is Easter Monday.

In other news the flyer and registration form for Capital Caper 2019 is now available. There is a section devoted to Capital Caper 2019 on the website under the “Capital Caper” heading. This years Caper will be held on Oct. 25th & 26th. It would be helpful to the organizers if you could get your completed registration form in as early as possible so they can get an idea on what attendance looks like. Past Capers have been well attended events with top notch instruction from clinicians Steve and Irene Bradt so don’t miss it.

“Swing Into Spring” is fast approaching. It is being held at South Grenville District High School, 1000 Edward Street North, Prescott, Ontario on May 3-5. The round dance program includes instruction at the phase 3 and 4 levels with dancing from easy rounds to phase 3 and 4 with a limited amount of phase 5 dances — as well as an “Introduction to Round Dancing” for those wishing to get started round dancing. The dance flyer can be seen at http://www.eodance.ca/flyers/190503SIS_Flyer.pdf

As always our regular dance programs are available on the club website several days ahead of the actual dance date so you have some time to do your homework on dances if you wish. Remember there are demos of numerous dances on our Dropbox site at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1cagnq30wix91y3/AAAXgiEtaP7syL7S3sE2MHQOa?dl=0

Enjoy!

Winter Session Starts Next Week

Happy New Year everyone. It’ll soon be time to dance off the calories from those Christmas goodies!

The Monday group will start dancing on Jan 7th with the session running for 11 weeks until Mar 25th. There will be no dancing on Monday Feb 18th, it being Family Day and the church closed.
The Thursday group starts on Jan 10th running for 12 weeks until Mar 28th.
Fees are the same as the Fall session; $5 per dance for dancers signing up for the complete session ($55 total for Monday dancers and $60 total for Thursday dancers.) If you pay for individual dance sessions it remains $8 per dance session.
If a dance session has to be cancelled for some reason, ie stormy weather, no heat at the church hall, etc, you’ll be advised by email (or telephone if you have no email), so it’s always a good idea to check your email before heading out to dance just in case.
The programs for next week’s dances are now posted on the website. There are no teaches next week, just plenty of dancing! Looking forward to seeing everyone back on the dance floor next week.

Final Week Of Fall Session Dancing

Is that a “Step Hop” that Santa’s doing?

Next week is our final dance week of the Fall session. It’s probably not that hard to believe with snow on the ground for a couple of weeks now!
In addition to our regular Monday and Thursday dance sessions next week, don’t forget our Christmas Party night next Friday Dec 7th. Doors will open at 5:30PM with a potluck dinner starting at 6PM. Dancing will start at 7PM and continue until approx. 9 – 9:30PM. Again this year admittance to the dance is $15 with all funds received being donated to Parkdale United’s “In From The Cold” program which feeds 125 – 150 needy people each week. Donations of $20 or more will receive a tax receipt.

The Winter dancing sessions will start on Monday Jan 7th and Thursday Jan 10th. The website will be updated with more Winter session information after next week so please check back then. I’ll be sending out an email to all dancers once the update is done.

If you wake up to inclement weather on a dance morning and wonder if dancing has been cancelled please check for an email from the club executive to that effect before leaving home. If you don’t have email an attempt will be made to contact you by phone.

Hope to see you at the party next week!

Just 2 Weeks To Go

Dust off your dance shoes because there’s only a couple of weeks before the start of Capital Carousel’s 6th season.
If you were dancing with the 3-5 group on Wednesday evenings in the past, please don’t forget that your group will now dance Mondays from 10AM-Noon starting on Monday Sept. 10th.
The 3-4 Thursday group will start on Thursday Sept. 13th from 10AM – Noon. As always please remember to bring your own coffee mug to help save the environment. Dance rates this season for the 12 week Fall session are $60/single or $120/couple if paid in advance or if paying weekly the cost will be $8/person.
This season without Donna at the helm things will operate a little differently using a group of “operators” that Donna trained last year to handle setting up and tearing down of the equipment and playing pre-cued music much of which is cued by Donna.
The club’s anniversary dance this year will be held on Friday Sept 21st. There will be no charge, hall opens at 5:30PM with a pot-luck meal at 6PM.
The annual benefit dance in support of Parkdale United’s “In From The Cold” program will be held on Friday Dec 7th. The dance will start with a pot-luck meal at 6 PM (hall opens at 5:30PM). Donations of $20 or more will receive a tax receipt.

Don’t forget this years “Capital Caper” will be held on October 26th and 27th. You can find more information about this excellent workshop and dance event on the club’s website under “Capital Caper Weekend”. A link is included to print out a registration form to fill out and mail in as well.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the dance floor soon!

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!