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  "Welcome to Windy City Line Dance Mania 2004". 
  
  Risqué as it was, most of the dancers appreciated the special welcoming committee of Jo Kinser, Simon Ward and Debi Bodven.

  

  "Yeah, I handle A-C and F-H.  Sometimes I do special Q requests and sometimes when the Event Directors aren't looking, I handle the S's." 
  
  Some of the volunteer staff at the registration desk provided more information than they really needed to.

  
  
  Charlotte Skeeters arrived a day early to make sure that her dance would be performed to perfection.
  

  "Hey is that Italian I smell - yummy! I'm sure hungry, it's been almost an hour since lunch.. hey that looks like the sauce my mother used to make..."
  "Uh... would you like to try some?"
  
  Eve Yeaton was happy to share her meals with anyone who stopped by.

  

  "Now this is how you spin around to attract the attention of your customers..."
  
  Judy McDonald's pole dancing workshop was not included in the event price.

  

  "Let's make a few changes to the Windy City Workshop Schedule...."
  
  JP Potter was featured in the main ballroom all day on Saturday.

  

  "This is it?!" 
  
  We couldn't squeeze any spots for Bryan McWherter to be in any of the workshop rooms, so we gave him a nice table out in the hallway to teach on.

  
  "Smile for the camera"
  "Mark, where is my pay... you promised me I'd get paid yesterday...now where the hell is it!?"
  
  Mark Cosenza and Doug Miranda spend some quality time together. 
  
  
  Dancers Judy and Micki from Colorado slept in their dance clothes so they could be all ready for the 9:00am class without having to get up too early.

  
  "OK, we're starting now!  Hello!  People!!"

  Eve, Mark & Glen were a bit perturbed when no one would get on the dancefloor during their workshop.

   

  "Hey, I'm scheduled for that table in 5 minutes."
  
  We had to hurry up and snap Judy McDonald, Peter Metelnick and Alison Biggs picture before Bryan McWherter's workshop started.
   

  
  

  "I still have plenty of CD's available.  Many would work great with Judy's Pole Dancing workshop."
  John Robinson sold his little heart out at the event.

  

  "Welcome to Windy City Lovefest 2004!"

  Yvonne Anderson & Jackie Miranda and Simon Ward & Charlotte Skeeters share some special moments.

  

  "Oh, what's the matter Joanne"
  "Sniff, Sniff, No one wants to hug me!?"

  

  "Happy Trails to you, until we meet again!"

  Pictures courtesy of CJ, Vivienne Scott and Mark.
  Captions courtesy of Mark.
  (Sorry the pics were limited this year and to all of the instructors we missed!)  For a more comprehensive display of photos, go to Vivienne Scott’s Stay In Line website.

   

Event Directors Glen Pospieszny, Eve Yeaton & Mark Cosenza

Going to an event is a pretty exhausting experience, however, running and going to an event almost goes beyond exhaustion yet somehow, we love it.  Before going into more details about the Windy City weekend, please don’t take this as my attempt at an actual event report, but rather my relating my viewpoint of the whole experience from an Event Director’s perspective.  For an actual event report, I’d invite you to check out Vivienne Scott’s Stay In Line website for a non-bias viewpoint. 

The Thursday night party filled the room even larger than last year and over 80 percent of the pre-registered dancers already were present.  Our first plan will be to do our best to secure an additional room for dancing at the Thursday night party.  (We tried to last year, but could not get it unfortunately….)  Still, I didn’t see anyone having problems finding a spot on the dance floor whenever their favorite dances were being played and the energy in the room was amazing.  Seeing dancers from many of my other favorite events from across the country all centrally gathered where “East meets West” was a thrill seldom experienced.

Throughout the weekend dancers were given terrific workshops from top name instructors such as  

Windy City Instructors (courtesy of Vivienne Scott)

In addition to this, we also presented a couple of mini workshops from your event directors Mark Cosenza, Eve Yeaton and Glen Pospieszny

There were 5 rooms of workshops going on with the fifth room dedicated for beginner dances.  The 8000 square foot main ballroom not only included some terrific and popular workshops during the day, but also included some great Open Dance interludes between workshops thanks to the tireless work of DJ Louie St. George in the main ballroom.  Several times during the day I found myself running in from the hallway as I heard some of my favorites being played such as Max Perry’s Possibility Foxtrot and Michele Perron’s Push. 

The demos were held on Friday morning for the Friday dances and on Friday night for the Saturday ones.  Sunday workshops were reserved as a second teach for some of the instructors more popular dances.  This was really appreciated by the dancers as the main ballroom was filled on Sunday for Peter Metelnick’s Round Round Baby as well as John Dembiec’s 1^st Place Choreography winner Mood Swings.  Yvonne Anderson also reported having more in her Sunday workshop the second time around for Deeper Love thanks to the dancers who got to see this terrific dance done during the nighttime open dance.  And both Eve Yeaton and I witnessed our room filled with dancers on Sunday as folks learned Superstar  from Eve and my brand new dance Under The Boardwalk after missing the first time around.  Overall, one of the most frequent comments I received was a huge thanks for having these second teaches so that the dancers could better balance their workshop choices when it came to having two different dances they wanted to learn.

My favorite new dances over the weekend included:

Mood Swing – John Dembiec: As mentioned, this was not only the top dance of the choreography competition, but my favorite dance overall.  It’s a rarity to find a dance that is fairly easy to learn and fun enough so that an intermediate or advance dancer wouldn’t tire of it by the end of the song.

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. 

Deeper Love – Yvonne Anderson:  Yvonne’s dance seemed like a challenge, but Glen reported that he was able to grasp this one fairly quickly.  This definitely will be taught at our class.

Cuba Libre – Simon Ward & Rachael McEnaney:  This one was so new that it didn’t make the schedule, but was taught in place of a few others.  I will need to check out the lesson at the Vegas Explosion in September to get a better understanding of the restart… we have so many new dances to teach, this one can wait a few weeks, but it is terrific!

Sixteen Tons – Jo Kinser: One of Glen’s top five.   I missed the class, but heard terrific remarks about this one. 

All Out Of Love – Doug & Jackie Miranda:  Those who liked the Miranda’s Sometimes When (another dance from this same music artist) will equally enjoy this dance as well.  The music was so much fun and anytime I take a class from Doug and Jackie, I never leave without a smile on my face.

Round, Round Baby – Peter Metelnick and Alison Biggs:  Comments on this one were terrific!  I plan to learn this at the Tampa Bay Classic in November.

Back To The Island – Charlotte Skeeters: This was a cute dance and the class had a great time with Charlotte.

All That Jazz- Cherryl Tonner (Taught by Rachael McEnaney): Heard some great comments on this one.  I will need to take a better look at it.

Dances I already have reported on from Tarheel and other events included:

Whatever You Want – Guyton Mundy & Judy McDonald (taught by Judy)

Steppin' Out - Max Perry

Push, Zest Appeal  – Michele Perron

Party Til Dawn, What It Is, L8er, Two Time Trick – Scott Blevins

Sum’n Sum’n – Guyton Mundy (taught by Larry Harmon)

Funkalicious – Rachael McEnaney

Everlast – JP Potter

Larger Than Life – Simon Ward

Summerlove, Again, Switchblade USA – John Robinson

Imagine – Bryan McWherter

Make Your Mind Up – Metelnick & Biggs

Givin’ It Up – Hunyadi, Metelnick & Cosenza

Check out the complete schedule of all the dances taught. 

Order your 2004 video of all the dances taught here!

Some of Mark's favorite folks from the Bay Area:
Hongying Wang, Leslie Brazelton, Charlotte Skeeters and Carole Wiegand

The choreography competition offered up some terrific dances and the comments I received from the judges on this year’s competition was excellent.  Two heats of dances were taught and the top 2 from each heat were presented on Saturday night.  This year, we had a tie in one of the heat’s so 3 dances were presented.

The top 3 from each room were as follows:

Heat 1
1 & 2 (Tie) – “Under Your Spell” – Bracken Ellis
                    “Summer Wine” – Winnie Yu
3 – “Forgotten Footsteps” - Christopher Petre

Heat 2
1 – Mood Swing – John Dembiec
2 – Mean Women Blues – Millie Scheel
3 – Postage Due – Jody Wittman

Overall Winners from the Face-Off, which include event passes to Tampa Bay Classic, JG2 Marathon, and the Line Dance Showdown in Boston were:

1^st Place – John Dembiec

Received $150; a Kick-It One Year subscription and other merchandise plus the opportunity to instruct at next year’s event!!!

2^nd Place – Bracken Ellis

Received $50 plus Kick-it merchandise

3^rd Place – Winnie Yu

Received Kick-it merchandise

Special Thanks to Kick-it owners Peter Blaskowski and Beth Webb for their prize donations as well as the event directors for JG2, Tampa Bay Classic and the Line Dance Showdown! 

A couple of notes regarding the competition:

This is meant to be done as an opportunity for folks to present new dances to some of the instructors as well as the dancers.  Based on this, I can tell you that several of the dances that placed will be taught elsewhere – especially Millie Scheel’s Mean Women Blues and Forgotten Footsteps by Christopher Petre.  Unfortunately, only one dance can be the ultimate winner, but the increased exposure was an opportunity not afforded at many other events.  One bonus with letting the judges walk through the dances during the daytime portion is that they were able to walk through the dance to see if the steps flowed as comfortably as they looked.  It was not the intention on every dance to get each down perfectly in the allotted 20 minutes of teaches time, but it did allow our judges get a feel for the dance and flow of it.  Watching all of the daytime judges perform John Dembiec’s dance during the final face-off was priceless! 

The dinner itself went very smooth this year with everyone in one room with the table sign-up sheet.  This alleviated the pressure of running to find tables and sit with people you know since this could be handled in advance.  The show was much shorter this year and I heard great complements regarding Doug Miranda’s hilarious “Simon Says” as well as Janet Martin’s dance team routine done to a 50's Theme, Yvonne Anderson's touching rendition of the Judd's "Love Can Build A Bridge" (where the entire audience was holding hands and swaying by the end of the song) and Rachael McEnaney and Simon Ward’s super-terrific solos.  

As for Open Dance, a few glitches occurred on Friday night as Louie was reviewing a large number of the new dances with not all of them filling the floor.  Given the high number of dances taught, the time to perform ALL of these dances is just too costly as far as dance time went.  Backup DJ John Lindsay quickly helped out here with a solution by offering an alternate room for doing the more popular dances.  The following night, we attempted to have all of the instructors do quick reviews in the alternate room (with a schedule), and even though it improved the open dance on Saturday leaving the floor available for the popular dances, it did provide a challenge for keeping on schedule with all of the instructors and times. 

DJ Louie needed his bottle of Bailey's to deal with all of the requests!

So based on some suggestions from others as well as some thoughts I had myself, next year, we plan to have a couple of hours scheduled during the day (one at noon and one at the end of the day) for open dance with the emphasis on the newer dances.  Not only will this help our dancers have another shot at doing some of their favorite newby dances, but also give our DJ an opportunity to see which dances are popular enough to fit in to the nightly open dance program and not clear the floor.

We still plan to have a second room for reviews for some of the harder or less seen dances, but this should also help lessen these reviews so that the instructors can fit everything into the 10 minute review slot…..

Special thanks go out to all of the instructors and especially the volunteer staff who worked hard all weekend with the registration desk, hospitality suite and particularly the very difficult task of putting the floors in!  Debi Bodven and Gale Erskine also did a terrific job with preparations of the event registrations, preparing the Step Description books, name badges and keeping their event directors informed when issues had occurred.  I cannot thank everyone enough since this event wouldn’t have been possible without these folks.

Unfortunately, my cameraman CJ was only there for us on Thursday due to a personal emergency, so pics are scarce - sigh.... but we do have some decent shots to share with you all.

Those of you who know us, also know that we are very open for additional suggestions and appreciate your direct feedback.   To read more comments from others on the event, click here!