2019/2020 Dance Season Wrap-up

Just in case my computer has the virus!

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.

Capital Caper 2018 Wrap-up

Another very successful Capital Caper was held this past weekend ( Oct 26 & 27 ).
Four dances were work-shopped by Steve and Irene Bradt; “In Times Like These”, a phase 4+2+2 West Coast Swing; “Life Is A Slow Dance”, a phase 4+2 Waltz; “Emotion”, a phase 5 Bolero and “Nostalgia”, a phase 4+2 Rumba.
Cue sheets for all these dances can be found on the club website’s Cuesheet page and demos of the dances performed by Steve and Irene at the Saturday evening dance are now on Dropbox at the link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4blylyk5dewqqhj/AACNVd9Wh77C_v9xz0icUEi9a?dl=0

Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this event such a success. A special thanks to the out-of-town dancers who traveled considerable distances to attend and as always Steve and Irene Bradt for their excellent instruction.

Thursday dancers remember there is no dancing this week on Nov 1st.

Remember it’s Halloween this Wednesday night. Please be careful  when you’re trick-or-treating and don’t eat too much candy!

Snowbird Returning!

Yes, it is that time of year again when we expect our snowbirds to return to the roost. Some have been gone all winter and some have taken a few weeks here and there, but we expect all will be coming back to roost very soon. We look forward to seeing our friends again! Finding out what wonderful adventures they have been on and also finding out about any dancing they have been doing. We will all have some news to swap in any case!
For those of you returning this week, our workshops on both days will be brand new dances and both chas! Pat will have returned from sunny California and will be refreshed so she and John can begin their teach on this new and very popular cha on Wednesday! It is a very nice dance and certainly has been on my list of dances I have wanted to learn! Donna and John will be starting a cha as well on Thursday and we will also be reviewing some basic concepts about dancing cha and incorporating that into our teach over the next couple of weeks. We have been so pleased to be getting such positive feedback on “reviewing the basics” recently and will keep on the bandwagon with that throughout this teach.
According to the almanac, we can probably expect one more blast of cold before the warm weather and spring take hold for good. Nothing like a cha cha to get all those good endorphins flowing and positive energy spread about on the dance floor! Look forward to seeing the whole gang back in the coming weeks!