World Dance Masters 2010 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 3 to 4 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.
Social Line Dance – Whitworth Suite & Directors Suite
Social commentary courtesy of DJ Big Dave
Friday
First up Friday Rob taught a funky Zoomba beat one called “Cha Cha Your Body” & a cool West coast called “Quoyote's Twist & Groove” And Kate taught a lovely waltz called “Emotions” - Awesome track.
You'll have heard mention of the others perhaps recently - All quite new though - All well received. Rachael's Snap Your Fingers, Peter & Alison's Commander/Don't Give A Blank, Scott's Trouble Is, Craig's Pack Up, Dee's Fashion & Shaz's The Club Is Alive - Love them all :-) Dance of the day from the DJ Booth was Snap Your Fingers.
Andrew DJ'd the 'Social Room' until around 11pm - And then we danced until late in the main ballroom - Earlier in the ballroom Irish Tommy DJ'd & Guyton & Will taught a cool new funky dance, which was a hit with the social & competition dancers alike - Let Me C It (Get Cool).
Saturday
We managed to get up to get things going at 10.00am Saturday morning!!
Andrew was in the workshop room looking after the music for the
choreography competition with judges Dee Musk, Shaz Walton, Craig Bennett, Rob Fowler, Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs.
Andrew was in the workshop room looking after the music for the
choreography competition with judges Dee Musk, Shaz Walton, Craig Bennett, Rob Fowler, Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs.
Choreography Competition
This year was more successful than ever with 33 entries to the competition with many beginner, intermediate and advanced dancers. The placings were as follows:
Choreography Competition
2nd - A Star In Heaven (Rebecca Armstrong)
3rd - Room Service (Rebecca Lee)
2nd - A Minute Away From You (Lottie Hertzman)
3rd - Hot Hot Hot (Helena Jeppsson)
2nd - Zip It (Ryan Hunt)
3rd - Angel Of Inspiration (Stephen Rutter & Claire Butterworth)
ALL CHOREOGRAPHY ENTRY SCRIPTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM OUR SITE HERE
The 3 winners are teaching their dances on the Sunday workshop schedule. Overall winner was Mighty Good Time and as a result Joyce will be featured on the Worlds 2011 instructor/choreographer roster as well as being featured on the World Dance Masters website in September 2010 as their “Featured Choreographer”. As well as this all dance scripts for every entry are also on the site. Be sure to check out her page in the Social section of the site.
I (Dave) was in the social/workshop room where Rob taught a lovely smooth country cha cha called Gypsy Rosa Li - A great dance really well received - Then Kate released her new Alexandra Burke one Drip Droppin' (Start Without You) - A cool/catchy rumba/mambo - Rachael taught another smooth west coast called Cyclone - Peter & Alison's new one was a lovely night club called Johnnie Walker's Eyes (Lady Gaga/Speechless) - Great new dances. The room was also full for Guyton's “Imma Be” & Scott's “Murder Machine” – Peter & Alison also taught a beaty pop one called Je Ne Sais Quoi, Will Craig “Trouble Maker”, Craig Bennett “For The Lovers” & Andrew “Can't touch”, all popular teaches.
Dances of the day - Kate's Drip Droppin' & Rachael's Cyclone.
Sunday
On Sunday Rob taught a really cool waltz call “Wonderland Waltz”, the 'Dance Of The Day' I'd say - Ray Scott & it sounds like Chris Rea's Road To Hell - Lovely track - Kate had a new one too, a neat easy one called Pantaloons (Charleston style). The choreographer competition winners workshops were all well supported It's Alright (Beginner), Mighty Good Time (Intermediate) & Cry To Me (Advanced) - And to wind up the day Dee's “Aphrodite” & Peter & Alison's “One Step Leads To Another” also went well too - Cool intermediate pop ones.
Some of the most popular of recent releases in social dancing over the weekend - Faith & Desire, Everything I Do/Bobbi With An I, Haunted, Trouble Is/No Salvation, Hands Up, Oh Ruby, Plan B, Must Get Free/Corazon Cha, Latin Crazy, NY Cha/Murder My Heart/American Girl/Play For Keeps, Rah-Rah/Broken Heels, Fashion, Quarter After One, Don't Kill The DJ, The Stroma Dance, Tik Tok Drop, One Last Dance, Shoes Of Another Man, My DNA, Martini Moments, Night Owl, Stoked & Gave It All Away ... To name but a few!!! – Then all the popular oldies & classics too.
Great to see some dances catching on though that are already favorites of my own like Zenyatta's Waltz & Be Back Soon - Lots of requests for Neville & Julie's most recent Burn It Down too & Nonononono a catchy fun one going well.
A great night dancing on Sunday evening, with a diverse crowd. The Whitworth Suite was scheduled to finish at 11pm, but we actually danced until 1am! It was awesome to work with a great choreographer line-up & to see all our regular Masters friends from UK/Europe/USA.
From Sunday evening requests the most popular dances from teaches over the weekend I'd say:
· Rob's Wonderland Waltz & Gypsy Rosa Li
· Guyton/Will's Let Me C It, Imma Be & Trouble Maker
· Kate's Drip Droppin' & Emotions
· Scott's Trouble Is & Murder Machine
· Craig's Pack Up & Dee's Fashion
· Rachael's Snap Your Fingers & Cyclone
Just about everything was requested though!!
SCRIPTS FOR ALL DANCES TAUGHT DURING THE EVENT CAN BE FOUND HERE
Then the bad news Monday morning - Packing up the van with 4 rooms of gear! Appreciation to Masters for inviting me to DJ - And a big thinks to Pedro for great quality Pro-Dance floors in all the rooms (& keeping a team on-site all weekend to keep it all spot-on) - Well done to Sam & all the Masters team, especially Jamie who never stopped! Rachael too, who has to share her time between the Competition, Swing & Social rooms all weekend - She never stops, but we miss seeing more of her in the social room being selfish - But a big big thanks to her for trying so hard to be in there as much as possible over the weekend. Thanks to all the choreographers who danced in the social room with us - As dancers (& DJ's) we need to appreciate more who they are that do those extra miles over & above their workshops/recaps to make the social dancing so much more special.
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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