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.

Thanks for A Great Season!

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!

Canada 150 Dance-Our End Of Year Party!

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!

End of Season “Officially” Here!

Well, it is officially “a wrap” for Capital Carousels 2015-2016 season. We closed out our season last Wednesday evening with a Black and White Ball. I guess you would never have guessed that from the picture! Thanks to all who came out and enjoyed a full evening of dancing and then some! Pat included many of the dances we learned this year and Donna even added a few in between tips for those who cared to dance. Jenny and Ziggy outdid themselves with our Ice Cream Bar at the end of the evening. A nice treat indeed to end the evening! Our Annual General Meeting also occurred about midpoint where a few changes were approved for our Bylaws and where our Executive was decided upon for the coming season 2016-2017. The following will be a part of your Executive for next year:

Ziggy Segstro-President
Vice President-Vacant
Secretary-Arlo Speer
Treasurer-Gavin Currie
Programmer-Pat Black
Webmaster-Donna Stewart
Member At Large-Pat and Jill Ivay
Member At Large-Charlie Stuart
Social Convenor-Vacant

Ian and Ann Webb have agreed to do refreshments for Wednesday’s group and Brian and Ann Gibbs have agreed to continue to run refreshments for Thursdays group. Ian and Ann have also agreed to cover refreshments and lunch for Summer Caper. Those responsibilities have yet to be determined for Capital Caper. Please consider helping us out and thanks to the Webbs and Gibbs for their contributions!
As you may notice, there are 4 lovely hanging planters in our picture. These were not just there for ambience or decoration, but were provided by the dancers for 4 entities in the club which are believed to go above and beyond the “call of duty” for the club. Those happy recipients were Ziggy and Jenny, Pat Black, John Mowle and Donna Stewart. I am sure I speak on behalf of all of these worthy people, and thank you all for the lovely flowers. I know we were all “tickled” to receive them!
We had a few paparazzi about again at our Black and White Ball! I would personally like to thank Ziggy, Pat Ivay and Charlie Stuart for helping me out with the photos for this event as well as our special event the previous week with JL and Linda Pelton! Pictures really do sometimes say more than words and add so much more interest to our website. I could not do it without you guys! Thank you! Speaking of pictures…the ones from JL and Linda’s visit are now in our photo gallery on our website here, including a few contributed by JL and Linda themselves. Thanks for the memories! I am still awaiting another source of pictures from our Black and White Ball. When they come in and are posted on the website, I will let you know.
As we go on a bit of a “hiatus” this summer, our website updates will not be of the weekly variety, but more of “on a need to know” basis. As per usual, I will let you know of any updates occurring. We will be having a club executive meeting fairly soon to talk about our upcoming season, lessons and the future of 4-6 dancing in our club and other things I am sure. We shall keep you notified via our website updates so check your email periodically this summer! Ha! Ha!
Enjoy your summer everyone! I know some of us will be doing some dancing in one way or another and I hope we will have a chance to meet up some this summer! Enjoy your summer, whatever you are doing!

Capital Carousels-Black and White Ball

Our 2015-2016 dance season at Capital Carousels officially finishes this Wednesday, May 18th with our Black and White Ball. A special occasion which gives us all a chance to dress up a bit in our black and white best! Dance the night away with our all dance night! No teaches! Pat has put together a program which contains many of our taught dances this past season and a few extra! In between our scheduled dance tips, Donna will also be cueing the two dances we learned at our Monday 4-6 Interest Group and I will also add the two dances taught at Swing Into Spring-time permitting of course.
Along with all the dancing, we will have a short intermission break during the evening to conduct our Annual General Meeting.
Some dancing, socializing, having fun and refreshments at the conclusion of the evening are in store for you. Sounds like quite a way to end our season! This is open to all who attend our club whether it is Wednesday or Thursday so please come on out! Cost for the evening is a very reasonable $5/person or $10/couple. Come on out and strut your stuff on the dance floor! We will look forward to seeing you there!

Happy Mother’s Day Etc…

Our 2015-2016 dance season has concluded……well…..almost!! We have 2 more weeks of dancing with Capital Carousels this spring. This coming week is our long anticipated week with JL and Linda Pelton! JL and Linda are cuer/instructors from Dallas, Texas and in conjunction with a vacation they have been planning to our area, they will also be spending part of it with us at our dance club! We are fortunate to have them teach a couple of dances for us, and we will also remember they are in “vacation mode” and allow them a chance to dance as well. Donna will cue the regular dance program both days. We invite both our Wednesday and Thursday dancers to attend both days (Wed-7-9:30PM and Thurs 10-12PM) for the low cost of $5/person for both days! Please remember after Thursday’s session, we will have a wonderful spring potluck at the church! We will all look forward to some scrumptious potluck dishes from our infamous cooks at Capital Carousels and also a chance to socialize after our two days of dancing. I can’t wait! Please remember to wear your name badges to our Wednesday and Thursday sessions. I realize we all know each other, but it’ll be helpful to JL and Linda as they are new in town. It should be a great couple of days on the dance floor this week!
The following week will be our final dance, “The Black and White Ball”. Please come dressed in something black, white or both. It will be all dancing and no teaches with, I believe, all of the dances we have learned this year including a couple of others. We will also be having a short annual meeting including the election of some new officers for the upcoming year. We need you! Please consider putting your hat in the ring for those positions which will be “up for grabs” this year. To finish off the night, Capital Carousels will be providing the refreshments. Cost will be $5/person or $10/couple. Sounds like a fun night! The paparazzi will be out the next couple of weeks, so please smile for the cameras and sign autographs as needed! Ha! Ha!
It’s been a great season gang!! Thanks for supporting Capital Carousels throughout the year! We couldn’t do it without your loyalty and support! As a thank you from Capital Carousels, we are providing these “windup” events at a reduced price with a lot of bang for your buck! We look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks yet!
And lastly…….Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Moms out there! You are a treasure to us all!