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  "Let them in Jackie.  I think we are now ready to go!". 
  
  By Sunday at around 11am, Doug felt confident enough to let the dancers in.

  

  "So my workshops are Friday 10am & 2pm, Saturday 11am and 4pm.  I will give you your dinner show ticket after you present your registration envelope and I stamp it 4 times - once per workshop." 
  
  Most of the S- Z's came to all of Kelli Haugen's workshops.

  
  
  Judges for the choreography competition included Judy McDonald, Guyton Mundy and Kermit The Frog.

  

  Peter Metelnick went through great lengths to hide his smoking habit.

  

  Scott Blevins emerges with a new look every few months.
  
  

  Maurice Rowe and Melissa Daum host their own cabaret and open mike piano hour every night at 10pm.

  

  Jo Kinser and Kathy Hunyadi  assure Max Perry that he still has the top Diva status.

  
  "Look up in the sky.  Is it a bird? Is it a plane?  No it's ....."
  
  
  
  Simonman!

  
  "Anyone else want to come learn my new dance?"

  Everyone has their niche, and Mark Cosenza's is with the Drag Queens..

   
  

  "Yeah, I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off either, but it really is a great event!  Guyton rocks!"
  
  Eve Yeaton phones in her report to Carol Craven's line dance list.

  

  When Simon's not flying around the dancefloors, Doug & Jackie have him clean them.

  

  "You mean this doesn't qualify as a contra dance?!?"

  
  "Contra dance or no contra dance, I do plan to take that dance back to my class in Southern California!"
  Lou Ann Schemmel discusses her dance selections with Bryan McWherter.

  
  "Darlings, you must all come back again next year.  And those who bring me a Dalmatian will get $5 off of their event pass".

  Pictures courtesy of CJ
  Captions courtesy of Mark.
  .

   

Event Directors: Doug & Jackie Miranda

Being a first time event, it was amazing to see such a terrific response for this Las Vegas extravaganza.  It also was an honor to be instructing along with so many terrific and well known names as evidenced below: 

It was also great to see many other familiar faces who just came out to play such as Judy McDonald, Fran DeWar, Eve Yeaton and Jo Kinser.

The workshop rooms were very versatile as they were all in one section on the second floor.  The configuration allowed the ability to separate from one large room into several smaller rooms.  During the day, the division was into 6 rooms and at night, a couple were combined into one large room offering the opportunity for a larger open dance floor.  But in addition to the one open dance room at night, there also were several other rooms out there available for dancers to utilize to play their own CD's and to review workshops.

The format for Thursday and Friday night proved to be an interesting experiment.  The nights allowed for a pre-determined playlist based on input from dancers suggestions along with a few slots for requests.  Many praised this and many were not quite satisfied with that approach. Personally, I admire Doug and Jackie for this experiment, but have to say that personally, I would go with a playlist that includes the dances that are going to be played, but not necessarily dictate the order.  While it does offer the opportunity to go away for awhile knowing you are not going to miss a dance you want to do, it does take away some of the spontaneity that I think makes Open Dancing the most fun.  On Saturday however, without the predetermined playlist, there were a few times when a couple of instructors asked for their dances in the main room only to find less than 20 folks on the dance floor.  (In one case, I counted only 7 - yikes!!!) So with or without this approach, DJing is always the most tricky and difficult part of pleasing the dancers.  Despite the few gaps, Doug & Jackie succeeded here thanks to the outstanding efforts of Mike Sliter and his team of DJ's - Maurice, Melissa and Jill.

I believe it should be up to the instructors to be more responsible when requesting their dances as they should be reasonably certain that enough folks are going to come out and do it.

The demos were held on Friday morning for the Friday dances and on Friday night for the Saturday ones.  All of the dances were repeated over the weekend and I heard nothing but great things about that approach!  Most everyone had their classes reasonably filled both times through.  The complete workshop schedule can be found here.  My usual list of favorites will not be possible due to the larger number of workshops I had to do (with 2 workshops per dance, the total came to 6).  However, I was able to view a lot of nice ones and I managed to take a few classes.

Waltz Is The Key - Max Perry: I missed this dance the first time at our event, but was so glad I took the class this time around.  I loved this dance and it was not quite as difficult as I expected.  Yes there are many counts, but once you get the patterns down, it's about as hard as learning two intermediate dances at once.

Shimmy Shack - Simon Ward & J. Shuttleworth: This is an oldie from 1997 but a goodie.  Easy enough to pick off of the floor.  And the music, Love Shack, most of you are familiar with.

Maybe I Could - Robbie McGowan Hickie (Taught by Kathy Hunyadi):  Easy and fun.  This was a dance I had learned on my own for the Tarheel dinner show.  Check it out.

Not A Brick Outta Place - Mike Sliter: Another one I attempted to take the class on, but was called out for to do other activities.  The dance looked good from the demo.

  The Lucky One - Bill Bader: Recommended from others at the event.  Enjoyed the music even though I'm usually not a big Alison Krause fan.

Wishes - Vivienne Scott: Very popular already....

Other dances previously recommended:

Every Little Step - Glen Pospieszny: Got this one down now and it is even more fun to do.

 

A Deeper Love - Yvonne Anderson: Both Glen and Eve love this one as well as myself.  Definitely will be taught at our Thursday night class.  Another excellent country dance from Yvonne is What I Like About You.

All Out Of Love - Doug & Jackie Miranda: Great music and fun dance.  This one had the energy level of Sometimes When - another fun Miranda production.

Round Round Baby - Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs: One of these days I'm going to have the time to learn this one.

Make Your Mind Up - Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs: Already a favorite of our Thursday night class.

Sum'm Sum'm - Guyton Mundy: Already a favorite with me and our Thursday night class.  Let's Get It Started is also quite popular.

Chingford Cha Cha - Michele Perron: An oldie but goodie.  Check this one out if you missed it the first time around.

Cube Libre- Simon Ward & Rachael McEnaney: Fun stuff! 

What It Is - Scott Blevins: Filled the floor everywhere it's been done.
Mood Swing - John Dembiec (taught by Scott Blevins): First place choreography winner at Windy City.
Funkalicious - MIL (taught by Scott Blevins): This was done more than any other dance....

It Doesn’t Matter – Crazy Chris (taught by Max Perry):  I took this class next to Glen Pospieszny, Yvonne Anderson, Jackie Miranda and the “Minnesota Dancers” and we had a blast learning this and we also figured out a few changes we made to some of the arm movements.  Probably one of the most fun times I had taking a class over the entire weekend. 

The choreography competition also produced some wonderful dances! 

I thoroughly enjoyed Attitude by Noel Castle and it took second place overall. 

The first place winner was Stickin' With It by Maurice Rowe and Melissa Daum. 

Another dance that place second in the individual heat is already a favorite here in Chicago - Satellite by Lucy Strack and Betty Maddox.  Some of you may recognize these two from their previous hit dance Blindsided.

One more fun dance I must mention was from Scott Shrank and his Southern Atlanta danceteam called Co-Sla (Pronounced Coleslaw).  The music used in the competition was a version of Walking On Sunshine by Nikki Cleary - although the step sheet only lists the Katrina & The Waves version, I prefer the Nikki Cleary one.  I can only deduce this didn't place due to some problems with the original step sheet.  (I linked to the corrected version).

Scott Schrank and Eve Yeaton (Middle) pose with some more of the Southern Line Atlanta Dance Team (in blue).

Finally, Netty Mesa had a terrrific entry called Dance Floor which placed 3rd in the individual heat and I also learned a Waltz that also took 3rd (Hold On It?) as well that was good, but the dance name escapes me (so anyone reading this that can fill me on it and send me a step sheet, please do so!). 

My teaches were Superstar , Under The Boardwalk and 10 Rocks.  All went well so please check 'em out when you have a chance!   Video clips of all of these dances are now online!

To order a video of all of the dances taught, email CJ. (These videos are excellent and turnaround time is very quick!)  The dinner show didn't take much time up and again was a lot of fun to watch and participate in.  So many fun acts to report on, so little space.  But some of the show highlights are below! 

Simon Ward and Maurice Rowe hamming it up for the audience.


Vincent & Felicia Chia performing a beautiful routine.


Simon Ward, Doug Miranda, Max Perry and Guyton Mundy performing YMCA (also performing but not pictured were Scott Blevins & Bryan McWherter)

Overall, a great event.  The hotel was a bit smoky in the casino area however and my eyes were burning.  Fortunately, the dancing was away from the smoking.

Special thanks to all those who helped me and Yvonne celebrate our birthdays over the weekend and a special thanks to Peter and Alison for there very "special" and indescribable gifts.  (It wasn't anything racy so don't go there...)

I also want to shout a very special hello to Shari Loecher from Minnesota, who despite an unfortunate hiking accident, still attended the event - crutches and all.  I look forward to seeing you and the rest of the Minneapolis gang - Linda, Denny, "Teach Survey Queen" Dodee, Judy, Jan and the rest.... again real soon.

For other great event reports, I’d invite you to check out Yvonne Anderson's Top Notch Report,  Vivienne Scott’s Stay In Line and Netty Mesa's website.