February 2002 Newsletter

From the Desk of the President of GCC UDABDA 

This past month has been a whirlwind of USABDA events for us. We attended four days of the Intercontinental Dancesport Festival in Daytona Beach, along with Tim and Linda Jowers. Although it is held every two years, it is still one of the best events provided by USABDA. The cost averages approximately $50 per day not including a room. That includes at least six-hours per day of group lessons taught by world class instructors such as Timothy and Michelle Mason, Dan Callaway, Ed Simon and Michelle Officer. It also includes all the daily competitive events you care to or are able to enter, as well as thrilling dance demonstrations by the professional teachers. We concentrated on the smooth and Standard lessons while Tim and Linda focused on the Latin events. In addition to the private lessons, the week offers everything the amateur dancer could want — and certainly way more than our poor feet could handle. Still, we hated to see the week end and we are looking forward to the next DanceSport festival. If I had a wish, it would be that the Intercontinental DanceSport Festival was held in Daytona every year!

We also competed in the Manhattan Amateur Classic competition held at Columbia University in New York. The only drawback to this competition is that it had restricted entries due to the sheer volume of competitors. As a result, we were only allowed to enter four events, two smooth and two standard.  Since all of my family lives in NY/NJ metropolitan area, we were able to stay with one of my sisters, and most of my family was able to watch us compete. They all exclaimed how much they enjoyed watching the competitive dancers, and two of
them are seriously considering taking lessons of their own. All in all, it was a fun and very enjoyable weekend, one that we look forward to repeating next year.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Another year has passed for your GCC-USABDA. We have continued to improve our club. We have lost some members but we now have approximately 89 active members who we see dancing at least several times per year. We continue to offer our twice-monthly dance format and attendance seems to be holding steady with the previous year.  We do see a slight decrease in numbers occasionally due to the development of the Augusta USABDA chapter, but we are happy to see their organization growing. It provides us with more options to dance! Although our original web site crashed, we now have a new and improved version, provided by our web master and Hustle impresario, Bob Sitko. As usual, Pamela Melton continues to publish and distribute our monthly newsletter. Great job, Pamela! She has also been instrumental in establishing the USC Gamecock DanceSport team. Both she and Valeri Ganiev have been providing expert leadership and coaching for the team, which competed in its first intercollegiate competition in North Carolina this year. Their outstanding results are a credit to USC, Columbia, and to the entire team. We look to see even more from the Gamecock DanceSport team in the future.

We offered two workshops this year that were well attended, Argentine Tango and a smooth and rhythm workshop taught by Wayne and Marie Crowder, USABDA Latin champions. We also offered several beginner waltz, foxtrot, cha cha, rumba, and swing workshops taught by our local amateur dancers. These workshops were held at a variety of locations throughout the Midlands, and we have even been invited back to several of the locations to continue with our lessons. Thanks to all our dance teachers who offered their time, patience and energy to spread the joy of ballroom dancing throughout Columbia.

In 2001, we continued to add to our video library with several new offerings. Don’t forget, there is no charge to check out the videos — all we ask is that you leave a deposit.  Upon return of the tape your deposit is refunded to you.  Once again we gave a $300 Scholarship at the Southeastern Regional DanceSport Competition in honor of Charlotte Elfe, who is sorely missed. In addition, we are fortunate to find ourselves in an even better financial situation than last year due to the exceeding generosity of two of our members. We are extremely grateful for their donation to our organization and will do our utmost to ensure the gift is used for the benefit of our amateur dancers. Finally, we want to extend a special note of thanks to all the professional dance instructors who have supported us with lessons, group classes and group USABDA dance lessons throughout the year. We wouldn't be where we are with our dancing if it weren’t for you.

From your Board of Directors, and from me personally, thank you for all your help and participation in 2001. Let’s continue the success of GCC-USABDA in 2002!

Report from the 2002 Intercontinental Dance Sport Festival in Daytona, Florida

from Tim & Linda Jowers

Below is our summary on ICDF:

1. The shows alone were worth the trip.
2. The workshops alone were worth the trip.
3. The competitions alone were worth the trip.
4. Not to mention being with hundreds of other dancers all week long and easy access to first class instructors and more.

This conference is ideal for anyone who is a beginner or intermediate dancer in any area. Every workshop was full of useful information. For instance, we took mostly Latin classes and could go back again for standard (ballroom), rhythm, and smooth. The framework is 4-5 classes per day and some are general topics like “Head and Arms” or “How to prepare for competition” and the others teach various dances at beginner, intermediate, or advanced levels.

A few of the great points of the conference:
- The dancer should embody the perfect man or woman. You want to be the leading man/lady of a movie rather than the comic relief. (Dan Callaway)
- When you create a body position you are creating one of four characteristics.
1. Design: very interesting stance like a statue
2. Direction: pointing/looking in a direction so that the audience will wonder ‘what is s/he looking at?”
3. Space: creating space by the opening of your arms for your partner to walk into or otherwise showing space in which you are dancing.
4. Rhythm: The music has a rhythm. You dance with a rhythm. Your partner dances with a rhythm. As these combine, inter-relate, and synchronize, a new, more complex, and more beautiful rhythm is created. This is called “polyrhythm”. (Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova, US Amateur Latin Champs)

Mambo Tidbits

GCC USABDA has purchased some new CDs for our audio library. Several of them are mambo versions of The Beatles tunes and they add a new twist to familiar standards.  The songs are really fun renditions and we hope that you like them. With the dance of the month of January being Salsa we thought it appropriate to have some new tunes for you to enjoy.

Speaking of enjoyment, Susie Thompson, former US professional Rhythm champion, was a guest teacher at Columbia’ s Ballroom Company. For those fortunate to take coaching from her, you know what a special experience it is.  To say that she is incredible is an understatement. Anyway, I have never been able to dance Mambo correctly because it is supposed to be danced on the “two” beat. Even when I count the music as: “two, three, four”, I really was dancing on “one, two, three”, because I couldn’t seem to find where the hell the “two” was. She explained that we shouldn’t worry about finding the elusive “two” because as long as we find “one”, the “two” is directly behind it! Is that simple or what? Even I can find the “two” now — but that doesn’t mean that I can dance to it — that’s a different problem entirely. But now that I know where to find the “two” it should make the situation easier. It will just involve a lot of practice.

Since the Mambo is an off-tempo dance, you always stay in place on the “one” beat and move on the “two” beat.  The mambo basic step consists of the following (Man begins with (A) and then does (B), while Woman begins with (B) and then does (A): (A) 1. Feet together — hold first beat. 2. Left foot forward — count two. 3. Right foot in place — count three. 4. Bring left foot back together with right foot — count four. (B) 1. Feet together — hold beat one. 2. Left foot back — count two. 3. Right foot in place — count three. 4. Bring right foot forward together with left — count four. Mambo Box step consists of: (A) 1. Feet together — hold first beat. 2. Left foot forward — count two. 3. Right foot in place — count three. 4. Left foot to the side — count four. (B) 1. Feet together — hold first beat. 2. Left foot back — count two. 3. Right foot in place — count three. 4. Right foot to side — count four.

2002 Dance Dates:

March 9 & 23
April 13 & 27
May 11 & 25
June 8 & 22
July 13 & 27
August 10 & 24
September 14 & 28
October 12 & 26
November 9 & 23
December 14 & 28