Back to Dance!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart January/08/2017 10:41 AM

Hi everyone! The holidays are over, January is upon us and it’s time to get back in the groove! Our Wednesday and Thursday clubs will be resuming this week on the 11th and 12th and we look forward to seeing you all there. For those of you who are spending your winters elsewhere, we hope you are enjoying your time away from all the cold and snow here in Ottawa and are still getting plenty of chances to dance.
From the letter sent out to our club members about a week or so ago, you will note that we will be having meeting to coincide with our break time to fill you in on what is happening here at Capital Carousels. As many of you have noted to us, we have had a decrease in members for various reasons mostly related to member illnesses. We will be having a general meeting to discuss this and then resume our dancing. For those of you who are elsewhere for the winter or unable to attend, you can expect to receive an email recapping what was discussed at the meetings. These meetings will be held on both Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Still lots of dancing here at Capital Carousels as we embark on 2017 so don’t forget your dance shoes!

Capital Carousels Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart December/17/2016 08:55 PM

How nice it was to get together as a club on December 9th! Capital Carousels held our annual “In From The Cold” Christmas Dance and we had a bit of everything there! Feasting, Singing, Storytelling and yes….Dancing!! We began the evening with a vast array of food made by our members. Yes-potlucks are the very best!! Lots of main dishes to choose from as well as many types of desserts to satisfy the sweet tooth at the end of the meal. After dinner we heard different members stories of the holidays. Everything from a Redneck Christmas, the story of Christmas trees in Aruba and the meaning of Hannukah! After that, we had a very interesting version of the 12 Days of Christmas-complete with audience participation!! Yes, we did come for some dancing and we had plenty of it to end out the rest of the evening. We also had a lot of Christmas dances to keep the atmosphere festive!! Along with all the fun, we also were there for a special benefit for Parkdale’s “In From The Cold” program. As we know, Parkdale feeds about 200 less fortunate people in the Parkdale area and we are proud to announce we collected $620 for the cause! A very special thank you for our 29 attendees as without you, we would not have been able to reach this goal! Many thanks everyone!
Lastly, the night would not have been the same if it had not been for Pat and Jill Ivay and their amazing decorations-including some new ones they made. Thanks so much for making the hall so festive for us all. Also, thanks to Ziggy and Jenny who keep everything under control in the kitchen. They run it like a well oiled machine! Also thanks to all of you for your assistance with table and chair setup, food table setup and help with setting up decorations with the Ivays. Thanks to Gavin as well for his keeping track of donations for our special benefit. Last but not least, thanks to Pat Black for her involvement with the Christmas party as a whole! Pat was instrumental in moving our party to Friday night, the idea for the potluck and also the storytelling and singing!
Thanks to all of you who came out and at Capital Carousels we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Enjoy your break and we will see you in January 2017!!

Christmas Dance This Coming Friday!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart December/04/2016 06:39 PM

Looks like Santa has got himself in a heap of trouble this year!! Too bad he has been so busy up at the North Pole or he could have participated in our dance sessions! Always an opportunity to get on the good side of the Big Guy! Sorry for your dilemma Santa!
This week is the final week of our Fall Session for 2016. Our Monday club is finished with its dance teaches this session and we will be enjoying an all dance session complete with Christmas dances and special Christmas treats! Very much looking forward to this one! Our Wednesday and Thursday clubs will be working on the West Coast Swing Dance, “You’re Something Special to Me”. As John and I have been mentioning, if you are the practicing type, please try and dance the dance and also practice some whip family figures if you’d like! Very good news this week as Lyn and Mike have already uploaded the West Coast Swing dance figures which John and I had done last Thursday and are now available on DropBox! If you need the DropBox link, you can go to the Links section at the top of the page here and in the dropdown menu, you will see Dance Video Sites. The DropBox link is found at the bottom of that page. We do hope you find them helpful and special thanks again to Lyn and Mike for all of their hard work on the videos and the DropBox site. I will still be running practice sessions to hash cues this week prior to the start of both Wed and Thurs clubs, so if you’d like some extra practice time, please feel free to join us.
Alrighty then! When the regular sessions are done this week, there is only one dance left for us this year—our “In From The Cold” Christmas Benefit Dance this coming FRIDAY NIGHT!! All of the festivities will be starting at 5:30PM for a Meet & Greet at Parkdale. Our Potluck Dinner will begin at 6PM so be sure to bring your favourite dish-either a main dish or dessert. Capital Carousels will be supplying the dinner rolls and butter so we are covered there. If you have not already signed up for food, you may do so this week. The list will be located at the registration desk. We will be allotting sometime around an hour for the meal as well as a Christmas song with group participation which Pat promises will be funny and memorable for everyone and I am sure it will be that. You are in for a real treat! Also if anyone has any Christmas or holiday memories they would like to share with the group (it doesn’t have to be too long), please let Pat know so she can fit your memories into the evening. After the meal and entertainment have taken place, the dancing will begin! Pat has put together a wonderful program for Friday night which includes not only dances we have learned so far this year, but also many Christmas dance to really get us in the spirit! Donna will be cueing some of your favourites so be prepared for lots of floor time this Friday night! As you know, our Christmas Party has not just been a time to come together as a club and enjoy and celebrate good times and good friends. We are also here on a more serious note and that is to help those in need this holiday season and beyond! Parkdale United Church has an “In From The Cold” Program in which they feed about 200 less fortunate in the Parkdale area per week. As a gesture of our thanks and goodwill to Parkdale, we allot our proceeds from our Christmas dance to go to the program. Capital Carousels covers the cost of the hall for the evening and Donna donates her services for the evening. All proceeds taken in at the door go directly to the program. We ask for a donation of $15/couple and any donations received for $20 or more will receive tax receipts. Christmas is a time of giving for many and any donations received will be happily accepted.
Won’t you come join us for this fun evening?? A night of many celebrations is in store this Friday evening. See you there!!

Capital Carousels “In From The Cold” Christmas Dance

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/26/2016 07:58 PM

Isn’t it hard to believe we have only two weeks left in our fall session? We’ve had fun dancing and learning dances, celebrating our Anniversary and attending Capital Caper. Soon we will be having our Christmas Dance. A time for fun and fellowship with our dance friends.
Our Annual Christmas Dance benefitting Parkdale’s “In From The Cold” Program will be taking place this year on Friday, December 9 beginning at 5:30PM. We have a few new things planned this year. Not only the date has been switched to Friday night, we will also be starting the evening with a Potluck Dinner! Potlucks are always such a hit! Please bring your favourite dish and we know we will all have a wide variety of dishes to try. Not so new however is the fact that all money taken in at the door will be donated to Parkdale’s “In From The Cold Program”. This program feeds approximately 200 people a week, helping those in need. We ask for a donation of $15 per couple and for donations of $20 or more, tax receipts will be provided. After dinner, we will have all dancing and you can expect a few holidays dances will be on the program. Ziggy will be providing some more details in a separate email so stay tuned!

Please Note!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/26/2016 08:19 PM

Just a couple of quick notes. I had an email from Jerry Callen today that the location for the WOW Weekend 2017 has changed. It is located in another school in London as the school they normally use was unavailable. They have released new flyers for WOW Weekend and I have the newest flyer posted on the website now. I have also sent Arlo the newest flyer which he will be converting into paper form and available at the club. If you have an older flyer, please discard. Next year’s festival will be a really good one with Randy and Marie Preskitt as clinicians. They are excellent instructors and we have done several of their dances including Right Here Waiting For You, When You’re in Love With A Beautiful Woman, Beat Of Your Heart and Laurann to name some. Please consider attending what will be an excellent weekend of dance!
Secondly, John and I will continue to put the West Coast Swing hash cues on before the start of the regular session for those wanting a practice opportunity. This will take place on both Wednesday and Thursday. We do appreciate everyone’s interest and extra effort in learning this new rhythm. It can only help and you all are to be commended! See you next week!

West Coast Swingin’ at Capital Carousels

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/18/2016 09:09 PM

In the past few weeks, we have been West Coast Swingin’ at Capital Carousels! Building on what we learned at Capital Caper with Steve and Irene Bradt, we are working from the ground up learning everything from good starting position in West Coast Swing, the families of figures in WCS-sugar, passing and whip families and lastly the figures themselves! With many of our members with little to no previous experience in this rhythm, we are all working with a learning curve for sure, but the swing is coming along nicely! It is nice to see so many of our dancers really working hard at our workshops! This past Thursday morning, after putting on some practice hash cues before our morning started, it was so nice to see many of our dancers taking the initiative and just getting up and using the practice time!! Bravo to you all! John and I were so impressed, we have decided to put these practice hash cues on prior to both our Wednesday and Thursday sessions. These are purely voluntary for anyone taking our WCS workshops, but it is an excellent opportunity to gain more practice time. We do have some ground to cover in the next few weeks to get through the workshop and dance that goes with it, so please consider taking the extra time provided. Speaking of time…if you are the type of person who practices away from the club, you are in luck as very little room is required! Remember, we dance in a slot with this rhythm and some floor space in your kitchen, hallway or living room would work just fine. You also have the video demo of the Bradt’s doing the dance on Lyn and Mike’s DropBox site for reference. Every little bit helps!
West Coast Swing is a rhythm which has been gaining momentum in the round dance world in the past 5-10 years and we are happy to be bringing it to Capital Carousels. We appreciate everyone’s initiative to try it and I promise once you feel more comfortable with the figures, you will definitely find your groove for West Coast Swing!!

A Couple Of Our Own Win A Big Honour!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/12/2016 08:06 PM

On October 30 at this year’s EOSARDA FallFest, a couple of our own were bestowed a great honour! Gavin and Pat Currie received the Trillium Award of Merit from the Ontario Square and Round Dance Federation for “exemplary service to the square and round dance community” in Eastern Ontario. Having served in many capacities, not only at the club(s) level, but also at the Association level for numerous years they have more than met the criteria for this award. Our own Pat Black presented Pat Currie with a lovely bouquet of flowers on behalf of Capital Carousels. Pat says she never felt she deserved any recognition for this as Gavin did it all, but beside Gavin stands a woman who has supported his endeavours for many years. Very deserving of recognition as well and she really was thrilled with the bouquet!
Our Gavin has held posts in various square and round dance clubs for many years balancing the books in many of these clubs. He has also been involved in EOSARDA with roles which include booking halls and leaders for dance events, working with Square Time delivery and again offering sound advice on financial issues involving the Association.
It felt a bit like a family affair with Pat presenting the bouquet on behalf of Capital Carousels, and also our own Peter Courdin and Karen Remy, representing the Ontario Square and Round Dance Federation, presenting the Trillium Award for Merit to Gavin.
Well done you two! We at Capital Carousels have always known the depth of dedication you have held for not only this club, but with every endeavour you are involved in with square and round dancing. A very hearty congratulations from all of us at Capital Carousels!

Ghostly Gala 2016

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/27/2016 06:51 PM

What a fun evening had by all who attended Capital Carousels Ghostly Gala 2016. Our 4th Anniversary dance! As you can see, we had an array of costumes and this year, John and Marion Mowle were judges for best costume and I didn’t envy them having to choose. They had it narrowed down to these 3 deserving sets of recipients though. Congratulations Peter and Karen, Ziggy and Jenny and Uri and Teena. Now what’ll we wear next year?? We also had an abundant Share The Wealth which Arlo won. We now hear he and Maureen are now sunny themselves on the French Riviera. You’ll never win if you never try!!
What would our Ghostly Gala be without dancing? I have heard several comments today as to how nice the program was last night. Special thanks to Pat for creating that for us. After all that dancing, we did create an appetite, and as per usual our cake and refreshments at the end of the evening were top notch. Thanks to Ziggy and Jenny for the cake once again.
I hope to have pictures of our Ghostly Gala up on the website for all to see next week. Stay tuned!
At this point, we have made it through Thursday’s dance group and are one day away from Capital Caper! We wish safe travels here for Steve and Irene and look forward to a fun filled dance weekend (and probably a visit to Swiss Chalet in the next few days I expect as well). Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow afternoon! Rest up and don’t forget your dance shoes!!

Capital Carousels Ghostly Gala Etc.

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/22/2016 11:35 AM

Yes, it is that time of year again and believe it or not, Capital Carousels 4th Anniversary! Time sure has flown by! This dance is certainly one of the highlights of Capital Carousels dance season and it just seems to get better every year! Lots of people in costume with lots of shocked looks and laughter as well. Despite whatever we are wearing though, we all seem to be able to dance. It must be in our blood!! Get it! Hee Hee! We have a lot of fun and a bit more of a relaxed atmosphere with all dancing and no teaching sessions. We get a chance to give our brains a bit of a rest….for a few days anyway. Pat has included a few halloween themed dances for the program and a few creeping doors and blood curdling screams may be heard as well. It is Halloween after all! As we have in the past we will dance throughout the entire evening and have our Halloween treats at the end of the night. There will be prizes for best costume and also a share the wealth. Imagine, you could end up as best dressed and the wealthiest person in town by the time the Gala is over! Always a fun time and nice break from our regular routine. Please come and help us celebrate our club’s Anniversary. You’ll have a howling good time!
In years past, our Thursday dance has not taken place due to other church activities, but this year we will be dancing on Oct 27-day after the Ghostly Gala, but we will not be dancing the following Thursday-Nov 3. Please take note, Thursday dancers!
Where the Ghostly Gala is, Capital Caper cannot be far behind. It will begin this Friday afternoon with the first of 4 teaches from the ever popular Steve and Irene Bradt! Lots of variety in rhythms this year and a nice chance to catch up and visit with our out-of-town guests! Looking forward to a great weekend with lots of great new learning opportunities, fun dancing and time with our dance friends! Life is good!
The dancing will be continuing on Sunday afternoon with the rebirth of EOSARDA’s Fall Fest! Bob Summers (Basic and Mainstream) and Andy Himberg-Larsen (Plus and A1) will be on squares and your cuer, Donna Stewart will be on rounds in between Andy’s square dance tips in the Plus-A1 Hall. A very special presentation will close out our very busy week of dance at Fall Fest when our own Gavin Currie will be receiving the Trillium Award for many years of dedicated service in square and round dancing! Looking forward to seeing many of our gang there as we cheer Gavin on!
Rest while you can gang and pace yourselves. This week we will be dancing at a feverish pace. I’ll be seeing you on the dance floor!

Capital Caper Coming Up!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/16/2016 09:49 AM

Just 2 more weekends until Capital Caper! Steve and Irene Bradt will be returning to our Nation’s Capital with an interesting mix of dance rhythms to teach this year! We will be starting on Friday afternoon with an Intro to West Coast Swing! This will be an excellent opportunity to learn a new rhythm where everyone in our club is basically on the same playing field! No experience necessary for this session. We hope you will join us. In the evening, there will be a lovely phase 4 foxtrot presented which we think all will enjoy. On Saturday morning, a very popular phase 5 rumba will be taught which will be a wonderful addition to our dance experience. Based on what many round dancers worldwide are saying, we think you will like this one! On Saturday afternoon, Steve and Irene will be finishing off the teaching adding a phase 4 mambo! As we have a very limited amount of mambos in our dance portfolio, this will definitely be a welcome dance to our mambo selection! Capital Caper, as always, will be topped off with a night dance on Saturday night where Steve will be cueing all evening. Remember, not only does this weekend provide us with new dances to learn and a night of dancing on Saturday night, it also provides us a wonderful weekend to reacquaint ourselves with friends who visit us from outside our area. We also are treated to a wonderful lunch on Saturday where we get a chance to sit down and catch up on things.
Both Summer Caper and Capital Caper are Capital Carousels chance to provide enhanced learning experiences not only to our own dancers, but also to those who visit us from other areas. To host these events requires many helping hands and support from dancers to continue. If you have already registered, thank you for your support. If you have not, it is not too late. Pat Black will be accepting registrations at our club dances for the next couple of weeks. Please consider registering and helping us to continue to offer these dances weekends for the years to come. Thank you!