The 3rd World Swing Masters took place between 6-8 August 2010 at the 4* Grade II listed Palace Hotel in Manchester, UK.
Preparation
For the World Dance Masters Team the “Weekend” started as early as Tuesday! Transporting lighting & sound equipment, computers, paperwork plus MUCH more to Manchester and preparing for what was to be an amazing weekend ahead. Wednesday was the 1st Official day we could access the venue and the majority of the spaces we were to occupy, so without hesitation or hindrance we descended on the Palace Hotel early to ensure everything was set as soon as possible.
Pedro Machado and his 3 man Pro Dance Floors Team (www.prodancefloors.com) arrived by 10:00am to start unloading, marking and laying the 5 ProDanceFloors we were to have laid in the Grand Room, Whitworth Suite, Buckingham Suite, Directors Suite and Palace Room. Whilst they forged ahead in record time, we were busy planning with the hotel the logistics and planning of the event. Believe us when we say these events are a true team effort and that an unbelievable amount of time & planning goes into it.
No sooner had Wednesday started then it was already Thursday morning. This started with Sam giving Jamie a lovely morning wake up call at 07:00am (URGH). With lots to do we were all of a sudden a flurry of activity, Sam with his iPhone in one hand, Blackberry in the other, Walky Talky headset on and 12 dozen things flying through his mind. DJ Big Dave & his wife Pauline (www.bigdavegastap.com) arrived with even more sound equipment, which had to be transported around the venue and set up. Thank goodness for the lifts! The whole team worked hard all day, Nicola Lafferty, Elizabeth Lafferty, John Lafferty & Sydney Smyth spent all day ensuring all the material was ready to go and the event was ready to go flawlessly as possible.
Airport pick ups, check ins, sound and lighting equipment setup, prop deliveries & set up, registration set up, seating, trophies, dressing rooms, balloons and more. PHEW! And that’s just the start. By now the ProDanceFloor boys had done themselves proud and had all the floors down and fixed in place. 18:00 was nearing and that meant one thing – Masters Elite Show Team practice. As we’re sure any of our Show Team will tell you, at our larger events, they literally have 2 to 3 hours to learn & master the choreography, and often it’s changing as they are learning it. A difference this year was the performance’s choreographers – Superstar Champions Jodie Seedel & Emily Drinkall. To say it was such a professional job is an understatement. The Show Team sweated getting the choreography perfect and we are sure it showed as we had unprecedented positive comments about the Variety show. Many Thanks to Jodie and Emily for doing such a fantastic job.
Warm Up Party
As many of you will know, and some of you won’t, for the 1st time in it’s 8 year history, World Dance Masters 2010 held an Official Warm Up party in Copperface Jacks under the venue. This was a phenomenal success. With around 75 people expected, we actually had 176 attendees! Hosted by Jamie Whalley, Ed Lawton, Danny Last, Pedro Machado & Rob Fowler this was an 5 hours of fun, dancing, games and singing to get everyone ready for the weekend ahead. The Quiz went down a storm with the eventual winners being ‘Drunken Feet’ from Buckie, Scotland.
Followed by Pedro storming round the room with vodka jelly babies, LOTS of line dancing, west coast swing dancing took place in what was probably the 1st major amalgamation of both line and swing dancers boogieing the night away. Along with all requests were the great party tracks – Oops Upside Your Head, Time Warp, Hand Jive, Macarena, Grease Medley and many more.
The evening finished at 02:00am with everyone happy and craving their bed, however a select few stayed up and carried on the party in Tempus bar upstairs.
3rd World Swing Masters – Buckingham Suite
WCS commentary courtesy of Lee Easton
We can hardly believe that our 3rd World Swing Masters is already over, without doubt our best event yet. With attendee's from all over Europe, the USA and even Russia it is wonderful to see the growth and expansion of West Coast Swing.
Pros for the weekend were Brennar Goree & Torri Smith, Deborah Szekely & Robert Cordoba, Paul Warden & Catriona Wiles, Lee Easton & Fabienne Henshall and the Fabulous John Lindo. We also saw a lot of the wonderful Rachael McEnaney, who has to divide her time between the WCS room, Competitive Line Dance & Social Line Dance room all weekend, no easy feat we can tell you!
Swing Masters were concentrated in the Buckingham Suite where the lights really helped to build a fun and cool atmosphere. Each night was themed to create a mood – with Friday being “House of Blues”, Saturday was “Saturday Night Red Light” and finally Sunday “Mello Yellow Smooth Grooves”. The air con worked itself out after the first day (Human error). Our late night venue was Copperface Jacks where we danced until 4am Friday night extended until 6am on Saturday and on Sunday night we wrangled an extension in the Buckingham Suite until 3am with John Lindo's music closing out the event. Yes it still wasn’t over – many people headed down to the closing party in Copperface Jacks until 5am. The last of us awake saw the first of the staff leaving for home Monday morning.
With a secondary workshop room upstairs we covered a wide range of levels from absolute beginner to advanced and subjects such as Choreography, Basics, Connection, Breaks, Variations, Shag, Musicality and footwork in our WCS classes and 2-step was a scream, hope you all enjoy learning it as I do teaching it.
Show's were fantastic as you’ll read below. It was the first time that Carolina Shag was demonstrated at the highest standard or at all in the UK. The response from the audience was amazing for every act. Look out for the poll on-line for your favourite performance.
Swing competitions were a big success with over £800 in cash awarded, trophies, as well as event passes for Europe's coolest events and of course, WSDC points in Novice and Intermediate. Below is the top 5 placing for all divisions:
Strictly Swing - Novice
5th Paul Buckley & Susan Minor
4th Rob Day & Michelle Fletcher
3rd Grigory Lebedev & Conny Griehsler
2nd Jean-Christophe Saville & Vicky Wood
1st Thomas Escaravage & Virginie Escaravage
Strictly Swing - Open
5th David Higgins & Lisa Jane Ferrie
4th Peter Fradley & Kate Lovegrove
3rd Paul Harris & Anna Lumsden
2nd Steve Hunt & Melanie Boyle
1st Steve Hall & Sarve Didar
Jack & Jill - Newcomer
5th Abhilash Mathews & Adele Collins
4th Caro Abulin & Emma Bond
3rd Nigel Pontee & Vivi Mentula
2nd Nigel Pontee & Helen Hanlon
1st Manal & Rachel Martin
Jack & Jill - Novice
5th Thomas Escaravage & Laura Carvill
4th Grigory Lebedev & Linda Ratcliffe
3rd Rob Lawrence & Kate Lovegrove
2nd lam duy Nguyen & Vicky Wood
1st Randal Boyd & LeeAnne Forsen
Jack & Jill – Intermediate
5th David Higgins & Anna Lumsden
4th Rafael Quixada & Dora Makhouf
3rd Paul Harris & Katia Avlasevich
2nd Matt Oakley & Sarve Didar
1st Steve Hall & Naomi Hulbert
Massive congratulations to all of our winners and everyone that entered. It was nice to see some of the "Line Dancers" crossing over with 3 of them making it to the Novice final. Also, congratulations to one our "Swing Dancers" who won the Newcomer Pro-Am division in the main line dance competition room. We hope to see and encourage more and more cross over at the event in years to come. There is also discussion of a Swing Pro-am division being created for next year! Do you like the idea? Let us know your thoughts on that via our CONTACT US form.
Finally, a huge thank you to all of you that came and helped us make this a fantastic weekend!
Show Time
Friday
Friday’s Showtime at World Dance Masters is usually centered on West Coast Swing, and this year was no different. Fantastic and superb performances from Paul Warden & Catriona Wiles dancing a smooth WCS, Brennar Goree & Torri Smith performing the Carolina Shag, Lee Easton & Fabienne Henshall dancing their Country 2-Step and finished off with Robert Cordoba & Deborah Szekely, who performed a WCS routine to one of the most famous WCS tracks – “How Long Can A Fool Go Wrong” a sight to be hold with their incredible musicality.
In an addition to the WCS this year, we were also treated to a pirate’s themed performance by Team Unique Vision from Finland who were competing in the Cabaret division which was added to the show which was very well received, and our Showcase Duos competition with duos from England, Scotland and Sweden competing to “Fame”. Check Facebook & YouTube for videos of each performance.
Saturday
Saturday’s show time kicked off with Mr Guyton Mundy from the USA with the kids crew performing a Street Dance to “Imma Be” by The Black Eyed Peas, followed by Jenny Stephenson’s Studio #1 performing a Street Dance routine, with some of the boys taking their tops of for Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” which had the room in fits of laughter and applause. Not to be outdone Guyton called Jenny out for a dance-off, a great sight watching these 2 power houses of street dance battling it out…Until that is, Jenny brings out her secret weapon, 7 year old Star Spooner. Star battled for her life and finally defeated Guyton who was bowing down to her as the crowd went wild.
Closely following this was Emily Drinkall who performed her Superstar winning Cha Cha with such presence on the floor. A couple who mix line and swing in their careers, Lee and Fab were to take to the floor, performing an exclusive routine especially for Masters. And we weren’t to let up, Sydney Smyth performed her 1st Place Masters Invitational routine to “Popular” from the hit musical Wicked, which a little help from Mr John Lindo. John then performed a West Coast Swing lead and follow with Rachael McEnaney AND Deborah Szekely AND Catriona Wiles. Is there no end to that mans talent? A popular couple for the weekend, Brennar & Torri performed their 2009 US Swing Open Young Adult 1st Place routine to “White House” by Vanessa Carlton, a winner from the start.
Finally it was time for the Pièce de résistance – The Masters Elite Show Team. This is always the highlight of the performances, showcasing the huge amount of talent we have within our event. And as we’ve said before, with such little time to perfect it, it’s always amazing to see how polished the group routine is. With so much positive feedback, rapturous applause and continuing buzz on Facebook and YouTube it is undoubtedly our best Show Team demo to date.
Close Party
Following on from the Official Warm Up Party, we also had an Official Close Party, with everyone from competitors, spectators, social line dancers, west coast swing dancers, event staff and everyone in-between letting their hair down. Copperface Jacks was opened at 11pm with DJ Ed Lawton, with the Social Line Dance room staying open until 1am, and Buckingham Suite till 3am, there was something for everyone, and once all the other rooms had closed, Copperface Jacks ran until 05:30am when it was finally time to call a close to the whole event.
If you have any constructive feedback, positive or negative, the only way we can improve our events is via your direct feedback. You can fill in our online survey HERE or contact us through the website HERE.
Finally, we’d just like to say Thank You to anybody who attended and to EVERYONE for your continued support. Make sure you check out Facebook and the website extra regularly to ensure you’re getting the latest up to date information!
Happy Dancing
World Dance Masters
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