Swedish Dance Masters 2010 looked set to be a fantastic event. Event Directors Göran and Åsa had again set up an impressive line up of guests including Swing King John Lindo, Sam Robins, Nicola Lafferty, Shaz Walton, Lee Easton, Fabienne Henshall, and Mr Guyton Mundy, as well as World Famous DJ Big Dave. Also in attendance were special guests Carey Parson from the USA & Team Unique Vision from Finland along with Hollands Pim Van Grootel, Norways Arild Lekanger, Nicolas Cort & Benny Jeppsson DJing in the beginner room, Zumba instructor Marlene Björkdahl and from the Masters Team was Jamie Whalley. A truly international event we're sure you'll agree.
For some of the team the weekend started on Friday morning... you guessed it... very early - 4:30am in Sam & Jamie's case. Everyone had arrived safely at the gorgeous Stenungsbaden Yacht Club by 4pm on Friday, ready for the event to kick off at 6pm. Swedish Dance Masters takes the form of not just a competition but a social & workshop weekend, featuring a main line dance room, a West Coast Swing room holding workshops and Jack & Jill competition, Beginner line dance room, secondary workshop room with the addition of street dance, body isolation & Zumba workshops this year, and of course no weekend event would be complete without SHOWTIME!
All of the workshops were well supported; with everyone enjoying what was on offer, with even some inexperienced dancers tackling some of Guyton’s advanced choreography. The beginner room was especially busy, with a full dance floor for the majority of the weekend. Teaches for the weekend were as follows:
Guyton Mundy
"Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
"Imma Be" - Black Eyed Peas
Club Can't Handle This [Adv] (Guyton & Carey Parson) Script To Follow
"Club Can't Handle Me' - Flo Rida ft. David Guetta
Ooh I Like It [Int] (Rachael McEnaney & Ryan Lindsey)
Ooh I Like It [Int] (Rachael McEnaney & Ryan Lindsey)
"We No Speak Americano (I Like That)" - Yolando B Cool, DCup, Nabildon (UK radio edit)
Let Me C It [Adv] (Guyton &Will Craig
"Let me C it" - Get Cool, featuring Petey Pablo, From the "Step up 3D" Album
Shaz Walton
"Written in the Stars" - Tinie Tempah ft. Eric Turner
"2012" - Jay Sean Feat Nicki Minaj
Nicola Lafferty
"Hip To Be Square" - Huey Lewis & The News
"How Sweet It Is" - Michael Buble
Fabienne Henshall
Lady Madonna [B] Script To Follow
"Lady Madonna" – The Beatles
Friday kicked off straight into the swing of things (get it) with both a workshop from John Lindo in the West Coast Swing room that was full to bursting, as well as the 1st of many teaches from Guyton. Dinner followed - the exquisite food we raved about last year was just as nice this year. Some changes to the dining room, but still the same great taste. Following dinner, the workshops carried on in succession in the main line room and WCS room until 11:00pm when it was Showtime.
And what a show it was. 1st to the floor were John, Lee, Nicola & Fabienne who performed a Lead & Follow WCS routine, ending with Johns legendary multi lead! Next up, the man that needs no introduction, Guyton. Back by popular demand, he was joined by the very talented Carey Parson, displaying some poppin', lockin', breaking and some impressive moves. Everyone was wowed. Following this was Lee & Fabienne performing their 2 Step routine. If you were at Worlds 2010 you will have seen this wonderful routine. And last but certainly not least Team Unique Vision. TUV are the undefeated World Dance Masters Cabaret Champions presenting some of the most creative & intelligent choreography our judges have seen. They performed their winning Zombie routine from Worlds 2009. After the show, we had a midnight workshop with Shaz, then social dancing until around 4am!
No sooner were we in bed than the alarm clocks went off to be up for Breakfast and a start to the day with the choreography competition. Judged by Shaz, Lee & Guyton and MC'd by Jamie, this year we had an impressive 22 entries. Winners in each category were:
Beginner
Got U - Stig Ekstrom
Got U - Stig Ekstrom
Intermediate
Not The Same - Helena Jeppsson
Advanced
Carrickfergus - Malene Jakobsen
All of the winners got the chance to host their own workshops later on Saturday and teach their dancers. Scripts for all of the choreography entries can be found on our website HERE
Following the announcement of the winning entries, it was overdrive for workshops with a quick succession of workshops in Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced line dance, West Coast Swing, Zumba with Marlene & Body Isolation with Carey, both of which were packed. Dancers couldn't get enough of the diverse offering. With a stop at 1:30pm for lunch then straight back into workshops in all 4 rooms, it was a real dance fest, only slowing a little for DJ Benny's Golden Oldies 2 hour special - there's SO many dances we'd forgotten we loved, it's like falling it love with line dancing all over again.
Dinner at 7:30 followed by lots more social dancing and the Saturday show. A pre show warm up performance at 9pm came courtesy of Team Unique Vision, who performed a new Werewolves routine in amazing costume and make up - the effect was stunning. Then on to the main show at 10:30pm. First to the floor was Sam & Nicola performing a Cha Cha, closely followed by Lee & Fab dancing their latest WCS routine to 'Walking in Memphis', receiving rapturous applause. Next came Guyton & Carey dancing their latest dance 'Club Can't Handle This' along with their Swedish Crew of dancers, lots and lots of fun. Then it was the turn of the Masters Team together who performed an excerpt from the Worlds 2010 Show Team routine. If you didn't catch this at Worlds it is a MUST SEE - you can see by clicking here. Again as the night before, show time was ended with TUV who performed their Worlds 2010 winning Pirates routine, a haunting performance. A selection of videos of the shows is on our Facebook Page. Again open dancing carried on until 5am - we all had very tired feet by the end of it.
On the social line dancing side of things the weekends two most requested floor fillers were Snap Your Fingers & Shoes Of Another Man - Others hits included Rain Against My Window, Dog-Gone Blues, Drip Droppin', Broken Heels, Time To Play, Wakira/Wak Waka, Pack Up, Amame, Mojo, Ease On Down, Hands Up, Time To Swing, All Summer Long & Plan B with Playing With Fire was still huge too as it is most places. Because of the workshops Guyton's You're Amazing & Shaz's Written In The Stars were especially popular - And the Country big hits were Louisiana Swing, Rhyme Or Reason, Quarter After One & Bobbi With An I - Night Clubs rule too - Popular recent ones including Everything I Do, Haunted Gave It All Away, Jesse James & Trouble Is with a few doing Rachael's Don't Miss A Thing. Also there was a long list of classics too including Holding On To Yesterday, Poetry In Motion, Guardian Angel, Feel, Evergreen, With These Eyes & Where We've Been.
There were also quite a few floor filling 'Euro' dances too - As well as We Speak No Americano the most popular included NoNoNoNoNo Not So, Mi Rowsu, Cry Me Out, Blue Sky, Respect & Wade In The Water.
As we said before the Beginner/Improver room was very well supported, with favourites including Brazil, People Are Crazy, Chica Boom Boom, Under The Sun, Singing The Song, Walking In The Rain, Fujjiama Mama & Don't Kill The DJ - Craig's latest waltz Know Me By Now was much requested too - At the other end of the spectrum popular requests included Cyclone, Sentimental, Tik Tok Drop, Stoked, Oh Ruby & Private Dancer - Lots of Guyton & Shaz's dances too, especially Guyton's SOB & Shaz's Hypnotized.
Classics of all levels too - The floor was full for the likes of Irish Stew, Crazy Foot Mambo, Bosa Nova, Zjozzy's Funk, Higher & Higher, Stitch It Up, Chill Factor, Not Like That, Charanga to Pot Of Gold, Ja Da Boogie, Shakatak, Caught In The Act, NIMBY, Black Horse, Stop It, Hold Your Horses/Ice Breaker, We're Alive, Doctor Doctor - Through to classic competition event favourites like Swing Your Chains, Slow Burn, Chill Factor, SXE, Jukebox, Deeply Completely & Have Fun Go Mad.
Sunday meant we arrived at our competition. WCS workshops, Beginner room and social dancing carried on throughout so everyone had an option. The competition was great. 1st was Pro-Am. Sam danced with his students non-stop throughout until everyone had shown what they could do. Next was the line competition, dance A, B and C in close succession to finish in time for lunch. The standard is always improving, and we always enjoy seeing our Swedish dancers compete with the biggest smiles on their faces - check the photos on our website if you don't believe us.
Following lunch was award time and a great conclusion to a fantastic and successful event. We would like to thank Göran and Åsa and everyone involved in putting on such a fantastic event.
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