Blaze III – the aftermath

[mikeyr]

Originally Posted by Little Monkey

Oh, and mikeyr is a budgie......

Me It couldve been anybody under that Balanket

Thanks for the cuddles and the Strawberrys

[drathzel]

Originally Posted by blackisleboy

Drathzel, who I've waited three Blazes to ask to dance, and had two dances on the trot with on sunday and who made me come off the floor grinning like a loon!,

I have been pm-ing you telling you to just come and find me as i am not that scary!!! I am very glad you enjoyed our dances, we had a really good laugh, in fact 2 of my dancers from NI came up to me after our dances and said "You really had fun dancing with that guy" I told them they should ask you but they thought you were too good for them to dance with!!

Thank you

Ok my stuff

The Good

Teaching... i had so much fun and i have to say that i giggled so much my sides were sore, thanks guys for your support, especially the lady (whose name i didnt catch) who said that she went to my class in october enjoyed it so much that she made sure she made the effort to go to my classes this year

Sharing with Sally, it was so nice to have company especially someone as lovely as sally

The music was fab all weekend, i had lots of lovely dances to great music.

Paul F's Rumba class that i fixed with James, Fab moves and fab partner, altho i am to believe we were a bit disruptive giggling and heckling

Raph... our dances were fab, i can never get enough of them, especially our double trouble dances!!!

The Bad

not seeing as many friends as usual

being soo tired on the sunday night that i couldnt dance properly and followed really badly

The Ugly

Me on monday morning.... must remember not to look in the mirror after a weekender.

[Paul F]

Originally Posted by drathzel

Paul F's Rumba class that i fixed with James, Fab moves and fab partner, altho i am to believe we were a bit disruptive giggling and heckling

I didn't notice

[Freudian Hips]

Had a great weekend. Wish I could get my act together to do more classes but there are so many people to see and so many dances to have.

Special thanks to Claire S for being the best caravan mate and our putting the world to rights sessions, brownies by Lemoncake (don't think anyone else got a look in), dances with Robd (more west coast with you than in the last 6 months - and you only laughed a little bit at me after the half pint of red wine ), Raphael for the filthiest dances (embellished by DTS ) Blueshoes for the best steal of the night with Marc F, me and a chair , Chris, Alan, Ducasi, Spice'n'Easy, James Mc, Little Monkey, the Pretzel was on top form Not a poor dance all weekend and enjoyed watching almost as much as dancing (rare for me!) FAB FAB FAB!!!!!!

Could have been better:
Ban on food made no sense when there was no bar up the stairs and certainly on Sunday no food in the building - ended up with soggy vegetable chow mein from the van outside - yep, I was that hungry!)
No bar upstairs
Little opportunity for social dancing through the day

Thought the weather arrangements worked well - thanks Franck and Sheena. Will expect the same again!

[Cruella]

Originally Posted by drathzel

:...
Ok my stuff..

You forgot to mention your new party trick! How to steal a follower without using hands.

[ducasi]

Time for my thoughts...

I had a really good weekend – though as usual for me at weekenders, it had a slow start, and I felt a bit ill during part of it – mostly caused by too much caffeine.

For whatever reason I just wasn't feeling motivated to do any classes. I did do Mario's WCS intro on Friday night, as I thought I might be doing more of his WCS classes through the weekend. In the end, I only caught bits of a couple of his others classes – the spinning one which I got too dizzy doing and retired out of, and his musicality class, which had a good intro, but I couldn't motivate myself to stay for the rest of.

I also did a bit of Kriss's funky line dancing, which was good fun, though I figure I'll have to go on a search for my hips, as I just couldn't get any of that hip action working. Maybe with just a few more years' dance experience...

The rest of the daytime was spent either chilling, sunning, or socialising. I really missed not having more day-time dancing, though Dee's set late-on on Sunday afternoon at least satisfied my immediate craving at the time.

On the socialising front, I regret I didn't spend as much time with friends as I had wanted to. I hardly got any cake, not enough cuddles, and from what I've heard I missed some fun times. I need to do better at Southport!

The freestyle sessions at night were fantastic. I can't begin to list all the wonderful dancers I so enjoyed dancing with. Made a few rather good discoveries, and some very happy re-acquaintances. There were some very special dances though... I'd like to be able to dance with you forever.

It's just a shame I'm turning into such a lightweight in my old age, and didn't make it to 4am any night. Another thing I must try harder at in Southport!

Mega thanks go to...
Franck and Sheena, and all their team.
All the excellent teachers – I've bought the DVD, so I'll hopefully still get something from your teaching.
All the fab dancers. The women I did dance with, or wanted to; and the guys that I can only watch and hope that I might be as good as some day.
The visitors from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Thanks for coming!
My caravan mate, Elaine, who helped keep me sane, fed, and sorted.
Claire S for waking me up with a text message on Sunday evening.
The gorgeous weather!

Raspberries go to...
The sticky floors – hardly able to slide on any floor without lots of talc around.
The heat in the rooms – but what can you do?
Haven, for only ever having one key per caravan.
The lack of Mario's musicality class on the DVD.
The lack of proper day-time dancing.
Me, for all the reasons I felt bad early on in the weekend.


See you all soon!

[Battlecat]

Still on a high from a great weekend. Loved all the workshops I did, the standard of teaching was very high. Thought ending the weekend with the steal dances was a great idea and was a great way to meet new people.

Thanks to all who gave me lovely dances, had a ball, danced with Mario who felt that attending his one hour introduction to WCS was enough for me to WCS with him , wow what a dance. Thanks to Paul F for a lovely dance, didn't know I could be that elegant. Still recovering from the slides and glides class, not sure there will be enough room on the dance floor at jumpin' jacs to practice

Thanks to Franck, Sheena and the team for all the hard work in making it a wonderful weekend. Can't wait til the next one.

[Marioswingdaddy]

Ok I'm finally waking up...

WHAT A WEEKEND!

My thanks to everyone for making both Sam and me feel welcome so far away from home. Franck and Sheena did a wonderful job putting together an extremely friendly and well run weekend. I wish more weekends were like this...

My thanks to all of the ladies for all of my dances...I wish my feet and knees would have allowed me to dance with all of you. Next time for sure!

My apologies for not putting the Musicality class on DVD. Here in the US there can be trouble with copyrights if you include music on DVD notebooks, so I tend to avoid filming for that class in particular.

Quick recap - Agogic accents occur at the beginning of each measure (bar) of music. Music tends to follow the "Question/Answer" method in which the first measure is the question with the second being the answer. As a result, the first measure normally has more accent due to the resolution of tension that exists in the second measure. To make a long story short...1 has more "juice" than 5.

These accents should be noted in your dancing. The methods we used were 1. pointing or snapping of the fingers (be careful which finger you use) 2. changing your height 3. tapping out with whichever foot is available at the time, and 4. posing for a picture

I hope this helps, and I look VERY forward to coming back...hint hint hint!

I'd also like to give a special thanks to Yliander for being our tour guide during our whirlwind trip through Edinburgh, and to Mel for taking over later in the day to join us for dinner and a pint.

Thanks again for a wonderful time, it was "Fab"

Biggest of hugs to the ladies!
Mario

p.s. y'all sure talk funny!

[Isis]

Well, it was my first weekender and I had a fantastic time I tried not to get too excited beforehand as I was sure it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype but I was completely wrong. The dancing was brilliant and the warm, friendly atmosphere was amazing. It was such a shock to the system to get back to the muggle world, where everyone isn’t quite so happy and friendly all the time!


Firstly I have to say a big thank you to Little Monkey and pmjd for letting me share with them. You two are great fun and it was good to be with people who know the ropes. (Getting to eat my own body weight in cakes and truffles was pretty good too )


I was glad to get to spend a bit more time with and get a few more dances with the usual suspects from Scotland. There are too many of them to name but they’re a great bunch of people!


It was also good to meet so many new people too especially Cat and her friend Nic, Lynn, Rubyred, Blueshoes, DTS, Trouble, Magic Hans, Funky Angel and her partner.


I didn’t have a bad dance all weekend but one of my fave dancers was a guy called Maurice from the Midlands. I don’t know if he’s on the forum but if anyone knows him, please persuade him to move to Glasgow so I can dance with him all the time.


Thanks also to DTS for so many fun dances and for encouraging me to play a bit.


I got a lot out of the workshops and wish I had the energy to do more of them. Mario is just out of this world and I could kick myself for missing his WCS beginner’s class on Friday. I also did a few of Paul F’s workshops, Lorna and Dazzler’s style workshop and the latin line dancing. All great fun.


The Showcases were brilliant and I was highly impressed with the Team Cabaret. Well done to everyone brave enough to take part.


My only gripe would be that the heat in the main room would murder you for most of the weekend.


Also, the need for eating and sleeping is highly inconvenient and really interferes with dancing time.


Big ‘Thank You’ to Franck, Sheena and all the crew for organising such a stunning event. You all make it look as if it’s easy and effortless (which it is, right? ). Blaze IV can’t come round quick enough.

[Lost Leader]

(Starts trying put together cunning plan to get to the May Blaze next year......)

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by Marioswingdaddy

Ok I'm finally waking up...

WHAT A WEEKEND!

Welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by Marioswingdaddy

Quick recap ...

Thanks - good reminders!

[purpleheather]

OK, here is the fuller and more reasoned post I promised.

The difficult bit will be trying not to gush!

The good

All of Amir's classes. The combination of the Connection Fundamentals class and the AT class helped certain points (finally) slot into place for me (see previous post - no 3 in this thread). Plus, I really appreciated the way he kept breaking things further and further down in the second Jango class, eventually focussing on HOW to practice and learn, as well as on the move (something I haven't seen done before in a class - but VERY worthwhile).

The dances I managed to beg with Amir.

Getting a chance to try ballroom again. Managed to restrain myself from bouncing up and down with excitement at the prospect. A big thanks to Franck for widening out the programme to include more than just ceroc and WCS. Great classes. Someday I will manage to lead waltz natural turn with change into reverse turn... if it kills me ..... Thanks to Paul F for not being annoyed with my perpetual questions

Marc and Rachel's classes - fab as always. The "steal dancing" one was delightfully daft.

Mario's adjusting style to music class - lots to think about there. Very impressed by the way he managed to accommodate WCS and cerocers in the one class.

The supply of water in both rooms (thanks to those who kept changing the barrels)

Being able to dance my feet off (although that had its downside, as by the end of Sun afternoon I could barely walk)

The contraband cakes (thankyou Lemoncake and Gadget)

Dancing to one of my favourite Glenn Miller tracks with Gadget in the blues room.

The not-so-good

Not getting to dance with everyone I had hoped to.

The miserable headache I had on the Fri which had me sitting on the sidelines without much will to dance.

The vicious taps in the ladies' toilet.

It was a shame that the Boudoir wasn't open more, but to be honest, given the number of workshops I went to, I probably couldn't physically have gone to the Boudoir.

Me in the Double trouble workshop - for which I would like to tender my apologies, as I was resembling a pained, cross-eyed zombie. Apologies to well, basically everyone I was partnered with in that one, but I was genuinely suffering from the pain in my feet and legs at the time and didn't want to drop out as it would have mucked up the rotation.


There, not too much gushing I think. I have also put a more detailed post on Blaze on my somewhat sporadic and rarely-updated blog, which includes the gushing I've restrained myself from doing here, as well as more of my thoughts on the classes, and my self-indulgent musings on what I took out of the classes, which will probably bore anyone who reads it to tears. If you are desperate enough to want to read it, the link is on my profile.

[DavidY]

Originally Posted by purpleheather

The vicious taps in the ladies' toilet.

That reminds me - the gents' toilets were pretty appalling. As well as also having vicious taps, there was a wet floor (which I hoped was water ) from the urinals to the washbasins. They didn't even have lights on Friday night.

[clarabella]

Hate not knowing who people are..... Where are the piccies?? Inverness lot had a fab time i agree. Feet still killin' me tho. Can't wait for Thursday night, wish we had more classes in Inverness. I was chattin to a guy from Manchester, he dances five days a week!!! No wonder dancing with him felt like i was on a cloud Lol x

[Lorna]

Hi all,

won't make it too long.

Had a great time at the weekend. Best one I've been to so far.

Thank you to everyone I danced with, special thanks to Emma for being great company all weekend, (I've had no voice this week- thanks to the 1980s!!) Not great when you are trying to prepare 3 choirs for a music festival.

I was aware of the outtakes on the DVD, Trampy told me before I left on Sunday. Cheers Mas!

Only regrets were not asking Paul F and Amir for a dance. (Amazing how a refusal really knocks your confidence - even after 10 years of teaching the dance).

Oh and what happened to Russell? Missed a dance with him too.

Hope to see you all soon,

Lotsa love Lorna x-x

[Lost Leader]

Originally Posted by DavidY

That reminds me - the gents' toilets were pretty appalling. As well as also having vicious taps, there was a wet floor (which I hoped was water ) from the urinals to the washbasins. They didn't even have lights on Friday night.

Fancy going to all that trouble to recreate the toilets at Rugby - just so you didn't feel homesick.

[DavidY]

Originally Posted by Lost Leader

Fancy going to all that trouble to recreate the toilets at Rugby - just so you didn't feel homesick.

The toilets at Rugby are *much* nicer.

[Isis]

Originally Posted by mikeyr

Thanks for the cuddles and the Strawberrys

Are you sure you were only eating strawberries? The Truffle Police are watching you

[Tiggerbabe]

Originally Posted by Twirlie Bird

2-How do I get the DVD?

The DVD is available here

[mikeyr]

Originally Posted by Isis

Are you sure you were only eating strawberries? The Truffle Police are watching you

Da*m, sussed and I thought I was being extremely clever with the Strawberry disguise! The truffles were Very very nice though

I notice the American guy with the Beard who wanted to talk to a Goose (Hey he is American) is getting all the press! So he's one of best Dance talents around with the teaching skills to match, well I wasnt impressed(that much). He was just a little bit too good with our Ladies for my Liking These Foreigners with their fancy ways........

Now for me.... The Lovely Sam Buckwalter was the star, she is one of the top 15 Ranked US WCS Pro's this year so far and in my opinion a star of the future. Check her out on Youtube she's phenomenal. I for one took the oppurtunity of lots of WCS dances with her, she even got me to my first MJ dance in 7 months(which got me in trouble). To all the guys that felt a little too intimidated to ask her, you most probably missed out on one of your best dances of the weekend.