Scandinavian Masters 2010

The 2nd Scandinavian masters took place in the beautiful City of Stockholm at the SAS Radisson Blu hotel. Event Directors Marianne & Ingemar Kardeskog had invited a great range of staff to the event to cater for all possible tastes. Scott Blevins, Kate Sala, Robbie McGowan-Hickie and Craig Bennett were on hand for the social dancers, and Sam Robins, Nicola Lafferty and Arild Lekanger were there to teach in the Swing Room. As well as a main room for social dancers where the workshops would take place and a swing room, there was a fast track social room for non-stop requests plus super-fast teaches of the dances being taught in the main ballroom! Talk about catering for everyone!

On Friday evening the event began in the main room with a social and workshops from the choreographers. Ingemar and Marcus kept everyone dancing until late with a great mix of music, from beginner to advanced. In the swing room there were beginner workshops from Arild and Sam & Nicola to teach the basics of West Coast Swing and an introduction of West Coast Swing Jack & Jill, where Sam took it upon himself to force everybody in the room to sign up! Pressure...
Saturday started early with a wonderful breakfast and then some great workshops. Dances taught over the weekend included the following; from Scott Blevins we had ‘Trouble Is’, ‘Murder Machine’, ‘Oh Ruby’, ‘Cold Blooded’ and ‘Cha Cha Tonight’. Kate Sala taught ‘Pantaloons’, ‘Yolanda’ and ‘Plan B’. Robbie McGowan-Hickie taught ‘All Cool’, Burn It Up’ and ‘Work It Out’ and from Craig Bennett we had ‘Latin Crazy’, ‘For The Lovers’, ‘Standing In The Shadows’ and ‘Running in the Wrong Direction’.
Workshops in the Swing Room continued with Novice and Intermediate classes, accumulating in a fun Jack & Jill competition. Again, Sam made sure almost everyone in the room had been signed up to compete and even threatened to lock everyone in if someone tried to leave. The competition ran with great success and our winners, Fredrik Wallin & Merete Brandli were presented with two free passes to Worlds 2010. Congratulations to everyone who competed, we hope you all enjoyed the experience.

After a quick break for another great meal, the main room opened for the evening. Kicking off the show for the Saturday night were Sam & Nicola with their West Coast Swing routine, followed by Tiina Aalto and Juho Paivenen from Finland impressing the audience with their Pro-Am Couples routines. Sam and Nicola then finished the show with a mixture of line and couples dancing to the theme of Annie Get Your Gun. Social dancing then continued well into the small hours, and everyone went to bed exhausted but happy after a fantastic night’s dancing.
Sunday morning arrived quickly enough with another busy day. The swing room became the Scandinavian Masters competition room as competitors from all over Scandinavia battled it out to become Scandinavian Champions in Choreography, Pro-Am and Line Dance. The judges included Scott Blevins, Nicholas Cort from Sweden (our newest Masters Judge), Kate Sala and Nicola. They all had a difficult job with all the talent on show. Congratulations again to everyone who danced! You were all magnificent.

Sunday didn’t offer just competition though, the main room held workshops again from Kate, Craig and Robbie all day with lots of social dancing in between. The variety at this event was amazing!
After a long day of competition and social dancing, the awards presented and the dancers all danced out, it was time to say goodbye. Thanks to everyone who attended the event, all of the staff, helpers, DJ’s and Instructors. It takes a lot of background work to put on such a diverse and well run event, so a special thanks to Marianne & Ingemar for such a fantastic job!

Keep your eye out for the launch of the new World Dance Masters website to find out whats happening at the Scandinavian Masters 2011!