Welcome to 2018!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart January/07/2018 12:44 PM

Hello fellow dancers and welcome to 2018! Our winter dance session starts this coming Wednesday and Thursday and we look forward to seeing everyone! Luckily for us, it seems our cold snap will be giving us a reprieve this week so we can journey out. After all of our festivities over the past month, it’ll be nice to get back into a routine and our favourite form of exercise-DANCING! To get back into things this week after our month away, we will having a full dance only this week at the club. The programs are posted and you will see we have all of the dances we learned in the fall session on the program—just to keep you in practice!

Please remember, this is a new session and you have the opportunity to pay for the full session up front, or pay as you go. Please check out the “Dance Season” link at the top of this page for all the details.

We continue to have members will ongoing cold and flu issues as well as other ailments. We wish everyone continued strength and better health in 2018!

Thanks For Your Support!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart December/10/2017 12:27 AM

On Friday night, Capital Carousels held its annual “In From The Cold” Christmas Party. As we get ready to break for the holidays, we get a chance to enjoy good times with friends with a great meal and lots of dancing! A favourite pass time of ours! With our potluck dinner, we had lots of food and lots of variety to choose from! Ian and Ann kept things under control in the kitchen and we thank them for keeping things streamlined where the food was concerned. Many of us made more than one trip up to the buffet table! It was delicious, but then we already know what great cooks we have at Capital Carousels. After our meal and social time, we had time to burn off a few of those calories with some dancing. We had a lot of variety of rhythms and something for everyone to dance to. We also had a number of holiday dances to get us wrapped up in the season thanks to Pat’s innovative program! If the songs of the season were not enough, Pat and Jill did a fabulous job on the decorations! You’ve taken Christmas lights to a new level! Thanks for all your hard work! Also thanks to everyone for your help with putting up and taking down tables, kitchen cleanup, floor cleanup, equipment put up and take down. We all make things easier with helping hands.
As we all know at the club, we have had a number of people out with illnesses this past fall, and this current flu/cold strain has really hit a number of us. We missed all of you who could not attend, and we wish everyone a HEALTHY new year!
Support happens in so many ways and dancers are known for their generosity. Parkdale United Church means so much to us as a club, it only makes sense for us to want to give back. With Parkdale’s “In From The Cold” program, we have the opportunity to do just that. With our donations, we help the church to feed needy people in our area on a weekly basis! I have often said this is the time of giving and this is such a special way that we can do that. I am thrilled to tell you that this year, Capital Carousels raised $813.50 for the “In From The Cold” program! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! This amount is more than what we have contributed the past couple of years and $200 more than last year. Thanks so much for your generosity! This party is an event where can celebrate the season with friends, food and dancing. We also have an opportunity to give back! The best of feelings!! Way to go Capital Carousels!
Well our dancing for 2017 is over now at Capital Carousels and we look forward to our new year in 2018! Our Wednesday group will start back on Jan 10 and our Thursday dancers, on Jan 11. More opportunities to dance those dances we’ve just learned, review some others and learn some new ones. Along with the club, there are also some outside dance opportunities available. Just check our Coming Events section.
Have a great holiday season everyone and cheers to a fabulous time on the dance floor in 2018!

It’s Our Final Week of the Session!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart December/01/2017 07:39 PM

Yes, we are at the final week of the session and also the final dance for us for 2017!! As a wind down for our fall session, we will just be dancing at the regular club sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. You will notice dances we’ve learned this session and also Christmas dances as we get into the Christmas Party mood for our annual “In From The Cold” Program on Friday!! The doors will open at 5:30 and as we set up, we will start our Potluck buffet at around 6:00. We will have a nice leisurely hour to eat and chat with our friends (and maybe a trip or two to the buffet line-all you can eat!) But not to worry about the extra pounds you think you may have put on, as we will be starting the dance right around 7:00. Just to reiterate, although everyone already knows, this dance is open to both our Wednesday and Thursday dancers. We have lots of dances for everyone to dance and out of 25 dances, I see 18 of those which our Thursday group can dance as well. Lots of dancing and fun times for all. Remember this dance is in support of Parkdale’s “In From The Cold” program which helps feed about 150-200 local people in need weekly. Every dollar coming to Gavin on Friday will be going directly to Parkdale. We are asking for a donation of $15 per couple. For anyone who would like to donate $20 or more, you will receive a tax receipt from the church. Gavin requests that if you will be paying by cheque, to please make the cheque out to Parkdale United Church.
Looking toward next year, just a note that we will be starting up again on Wednesday, Jan 10 and Thursday, Jan 11 for the winter session. The winter session will be 12 weeks in length with identical fee structure as the fall session-$84/single or $168/couple for the session fee or you can pay $10/person weekly. Just a heads up to our next session.
Lots of dancing ahead for us all and we will be capping it off with a wonderful evening of dancing and socializing with special friends, all in benefit for a great cause. We hope to see everyone this week and at the party! Get your dance shoes ready!

‘Tis The Season Of Giving

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/24/2017 08:45 PM

Our dance season has just flown by hasn’t it! It is hard to believe we are about to embark on the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. For the 5 years we have run as Capital Carousels, we have chosen to give back to Parkdale United Church by donating to their “In From The Cold Program”. This program feeds between 150-200 people per week who are in need of a healthy meal. We are always delighted to take our Christmas Party as a chance to have a wonderful evening with a dinner and dance, and enjoy each others company. Through our donation at the door, we are also able to directly contribute to the “In From The Cold” Program. All the money received at the door goes DIRECTLY to this worthy cause. We are asking for a donation of $15 per couple, but for anyone who donates $20 or more, you will also receive a tax receipt. Thanks so much in advance for your contributions!
So what will happen at our “In From The Cold” Christmas Party? The party takes place on Friday, December 8. The doors will open at 5:30PM and we can expect to be eating by around 6:00PM. As everyone should know by now, this is a potluck dinner. We have some wonderful cooks in our midst here at Capital Carousels and nothing like a potluck dinner for us to be able to sample some of these excellent dishes! As in years past, we are signing up for either “sweet” or “savoury”. Ian and Ann have created a signup sheet which will be on Gavin’s table for your convenience. Plates and utensils will be supplied. You might be best to bring any utensils you might require to serve up your potluck dish.
We will take about an hour for our meal and then we will have our dance after that. As in years past, we will have some Christmas dances on the program and you will notice in the next couple of weeks, Pat will have some posted on our programs to give us a chance to practice.
This dance will be our last one of the year before we take our Christmas break. We always have a great time as we celebrate the holidays and also experience the joy of giving. Happy Holidays to all!

What A Week!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart November/03/2017 06:45 PM

It certainly has been a busy week at Capital Carousels!! Last weekend, our annual Capital Caper Weekend took place where we welcomed back our longtime instructors, Steve and Irene Bradt! We also had many Capital Carousels members, along with visitors from the Montreal area as well as some from Southwestern Ontario. Thanks to everyone who came. We hope you enjoyed your weekend! Things started off on Friday afternoon with a phase 3 quickstep called, Puttin’ On The Ritz where we had plenty of practice on our quarter turn and progressive chasse and also the strolling vine. On Friday evening, we learned a very nice phase 4 tango called After Midnight Tango where we had a lot of emphasis on technique. After a good night’s sleep, we got into foxtrot mode on Saturday morning with a phase 5 dance, Mommy’s Shoes where many of us were exposed to the continuous hover cross. After a nourishing lunch where we had a nice variety of sandwiches, cheeses, veggies and fruit along with some squares and cookies for dessert. Also a nice opportunity to catch up with some people we haven’t seen in awhile. On Saturday afternoon, we finished off the teaches with one which Steve and Irene wrote, a phase 4 cha called That’s What I Like About You. We finished off our weekend with a night dance where we got to enjoy dancing to Steve’s cueing. We also had a chance to view the Bradts doing the dance demos and then we got to dance them all twice. A busy weekend for sure! Capital Caper wouldn’t be possible without the tireless work of Pat Black on the basic structure of the teaches and dance program and syllabus, Gavin Currie for his work with registration and Ian and Ann Webb for their work on planning refreshments and the Saturday lunch. Also thanks to Brian and Ann Gibbs for their work on Friday’s refreshments, Arlo Speer for equipment setup and takedown and all of those who helped out with setup and takedown at Saturday’s lunch-including some of our visitors. Now, we go back to our club and review the dances for our future dancing pleasure. Thanks again to all who attended!
Not to be finished this week, Capital Carousels had a special milestone on Wednesday! Not only was it our Annual Ghostly Gala, but it was also our 5th Anniversary Dance. As you can see by the picture posted here with this blog, we continue to have some very creative people coming in costume! With the help of the song, Purple People Eater, dancers paraded around the dance floor showing off their costumes. I was judge this year and although the decision was tough, the prize winners were as follows: 2nd Runner Up-Joe and Gail Larabie (flower and weed), 1st Runner Up-Ziggy and Jenny Segstro (patient and nurse) and Winner, Pat Black and Charlie Stuart (hotdog and coke). After a frenzy at the 50/50 table, Robert Read won the prize. Congratulations to all! As always Pat and Jill Ivay did a fabulous job on decorations and Ian and Ann Webb did a superb job on refreshments along with two cakes-one for Halloween and one for our Anniversary. Be on the lookout for pictures which I will post in the gallery here when I get them. It was a smaller crowd then we would have thought, but the weather was not on our side with rain and wind. We thank all of those who came out and “braved the elements”!
Thursday was a quiet day as we had no dancing due to other events at the church, so it gave us all a chance to recoup! Starting this week, the Caper reviews will begin. On Wednesday, Pat and John will start the foxtrot review of Mommy’s Shoes. On Thursday, Ziggy and Jenny will be back with us in teaching mode beginning the review of the cha, That’s What I Like About You! Lots of good dancing ahead! See you on the dance floor!

Capital Caper is One Week Away!

Originally posted by Donna Stewart October/20/2017 07:55 PM

Are you ready for a fun dance weekend? Well, we just happen to have one coming up next weekend with our Annual Capital Caper Weekend. Be prepared for a busy Friday and Saturday when Steve and Irene Bradt will be back with us! Are you looking for a review of some standard quickstep figures? Friday afternoon will be just the ticket for you. Are you feeling fairly comfortable with phase 3 tango, and want to step up to some phase 4 tango? We will have a really nice tango which would be a nice introduction or refresher for phase 4 tango. Do we have any foxtrot lovers out there? Me! Me! Our most advanced dance this weekend will be a phase 5 foxtrot. Steve and Irene will be guiding us through it all and we will be “tripping the light fantastic” before our Saturday morning teach is over! Lastly, Steve and Irene will be presenting their own phase 4 choreography on Saturday afternoon as the last teach which will be a phase 4 cha. Life is always good with a little cha cha!
Hard to believe that Capital Caper is almost here! The anticipation is building! We hope to see you there!

For those who participated in the West Coast Swing teach this week, Lyn has recorded the dance and some teaching segments as well. Mike will be posting those on DropBox hopefully sometime this week. I will let you know when they are posted. Arlo and I will be available to help with anyone who wishes to practice the Man’s Underarm Turn (or other part we learned last week) before the regular session begins. Time for this will be tight on Wednesday night, but we should have sufficient time on Thursday morning. This is not mandatory—just for anyone who might be interested. Have a good week all!

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!

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!