There were 71 people at the November 11^th dance, making French Night a success, thanks to Donna Swinbank and Alliance Francaise. With 44 people attending the November 25^th dance, Paul Lagatore had a good sized group for both Waltz lessons in November. For our viewing pleasure, Paul danced a Swing with Sharon Royall, a Cha Cha with Margot Simonson and a Fox Trot with Grace Keller. We truly appreciate the lessons with patterns and technique as well as the show.

Topics of discussion at the November 11^th Board Meeting were dancing in high schools, response to our web site, need for DJs, election of three officers, Holiday Ball, and ways to promote our chapter. The next Board Meeting will be December 9^th at The Barn, 6:30 PM, just before the dance. All members in good standing are invited to attend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Jackie Alexander, Ginny Bickley, Joe Clark, Norma Davis, Wolfgang Elfe, Ray Hill, Blaine King, and Kathleen Simmons.

It’s time to pull out the ballgowns and tuxedos for our annual Holiday Ball, December 9^th. It will be a night for beautiful ladies, handsome men, delicious food, and of course, lots of dancing. Don’t forget the toy to be donated to Toys For Tots, a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve program. New, unwrapped toys will be stored in a central warehouse, sorted by age and gender and distributed to needy children of our community on December 23 and 24. Marines have established close working relationships with social welfare agencies, churches and other local community agencies qualified to identify needy children in our community. These agencies play an important role in the distribution of the toys.

The Fancy Feet dancers performed at The Haven November 4^th. The four couples danced for an audience of around 45 residents. The group is scheduled to dance at The Atria At Forest Lake on December 16^th. Due to space limitations, only two couples will perform. They are also scheduled to perform at Wildewood Downs on January 20^th, 2007.

By JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 27, 2:52 PM ET

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Every spin, dip and kick of the bolero sent his dance partner's slit-up-to-there skirt flowing. Nisha Kubodera had seen the moves in a movie eight years ago, and remembers thinking he was not as hopeless a dancer as the middle-aged Japanese actor in "Shall We Dance." At the Grand National Championships on Thursday, Kubodera and his coach, Susie Thompson, joined other ballroom dancers in the fox-trot, cha-cha, waltz, bolero and tango.

"Coming from Japan, especially my generation, ballroom dancing is not really part of the culture. But seeing a contemporary, particularly a man (on film), I thought maybe I could do it," said Kubodera, 62, a physics professor at the University of South Carolina.

Much like the TV series "Dancing With the Stars," the Grand National
Championships pairs amateur dancers such as Kubodera with professional dance instructors. Competition continues at the Miami Beach Resort & Spa through Saturday, when two professional dancers featured on "Dancing With the Stars" — Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko — will perform.

Eight dancers from Columbia’s Ballroom Company competed in the 36^th Grand National Dance Championship in Miami, October 26-28. Grace Keller and Paul Lagatore were shown in a local television news clip.

How about Emmitt Smith on Dancing With The Stars? While he may not have been the better dancer, it was really great to see him win. This season was improved over the last two years, and generated a lot of publicity when one of the contestants left the show early. To top it off, the Dancing With The Stars Tour begins in December with some contestants from this year and some from last year. Maybe someone from our chapter will attend and give us a report.

Definition of Swing: A generic term to describe any form of Swing, such as East Coast, West Coast, Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, etc. Definition of East Coast Swing: A subset of Swing derived from Lindy Hop and Jitterbug, making use of refined (American Style) ballroom technique.

Happy Holiday to One and All!