Month: May 2022

For the select group travelling to Daventry on this sunny Saturday (yes, Saturday!) morning there was one aim – to qualify for NATD Grand Finals in July. Due to illness, unavailability and the competion schedule not quite being back to normal after the disruption of lockdown, this was the last chance for those who had not already secured their Blackpool place to do so. The event, which is traditionally Latin only, even had some Ballroom events added to allow for those final spots to be claimed in both branches.

Daventry is usually a Sunday competion with dancers arriving early to a somewhat sleepy town still waking up, however today we were greeted by the start of a Park Run commencing at the Daventry Leisure Centre! Still, it got us energised and in the right frame of mind for the task ahead.
As we stood in the queue waiting to go into the sports hall, we habitually looked around for the other Duesbury Aldred jackets which means that the team is out in force until we remembered it was just the 2 team members today – Hazel and Jack with support from Jayne and Steve.

Jack was up first to perform his Samba. Although the music was slower he gave a lively solo performance for the audience. Hazel followed not too long after with her Rumba – also a solo performance, which earned extra applause from the crowd!
After the Latin prize presentation we moved onto the Ballroom section of the day. This time, both Hazel and Jack were performing Tango. Again these were solo performances, with both receiving praise regarding their technique. This was wonderful to hear and is reflective of the high standard which our school adheres to.

After the Ballroom prize presentation there was a quick lunch and then having acheived our objective, we moved onto the ‘fun’ events for the day! Those who have been to Daventry before will be familiar with the Jean Johnson Memorial Ragtime Swing event. This is held every year at Daventry in honour of the late Jean Johnson whose favourite dance was Ragtime Swing. There are juvenile, junior and adult events for this. Hazel and Jack decided to make the most of the journey and paired up to take part. They were placed a respectable 5th out of 8 considering neither had done this dance for a considerable time and their only practise together had been 5 minutes before the start of the event!
To finish off the day, there was the “Rose Bowl” event. In this one, a dancer pairs with a non-dancer to do waltz. The dance floor was the most crowded it had been all day and it was great to see everyone beaming as their parents/family/friends took to the floor and had a go. A great way to end a successful day.

Hazel and Jack were both scheduled to be dancing again the next day in Lutterworth, so Boris’ friend Zoe congratulated them on ‘Mission Accomplished’ today and told them to have a relaxing evening to prepare for their second qualifying event in 2 days!! Zoe will need a good rest after 2 solid days of cheering!

Thank you to Ruth for going to Daventry to partner and also sending in this report.

It was the first ISTD qualifier for over two years and also a new venue. Usually this event takes place in Kettering in January but this time it was May and the destination was Lutterworth. It was not as busy as normal but the weather was better than it often is in January and it was nice to be home whilst it was still light! For Jack and Hazel this would be their second event of the weekend having already attended an NATD qualifying event the day before (dedication indeed).

There were some people joining the ISTD Team for the first time, we had Tabatha, Brooke, Kathryn, Lisa and Irina. Along with everyone else they were hoping to secure a place in the Grand Finals event in Blackpool in November.

The Juveniles were the first to take the floor and we only had two dancing today, Tabatha and Kaitlyn. Both won their ballroom events and came fourth in their Latin events. In the couples they came second in ballroom and 4th again on Latin. In the sequence unfortunately they were the only competitors but they danced well, unfazed by having the floor to themselves. In the end Kaitlyn, having more experience in these, events came out the winner.

In the Juniors events we had Chloe and Brooke dancing. Brooke doing these events for the first time won both her ballroom and Latin events. Chloe was third in ballroom and then fifth in Latin. In their couples event they finished with a second in ballroom and third in Latin. In the sequence events there are no grades, so they were in the same event and this time Chloe took first place and Brooke was runner up.

Many of the adult events were straight finals today but nevertheless there were still some good dancers to be beaten to achieve a win. Two of our new adults, Lisa and Kathryn made the finals of both their ballroom and Latin events, with Lisa winning the Latin section. Both had to dance a round in order to make a final. The only other individual event with a recall to the final was the over 50 years in which Carol and Peter both made the final finishing second and fourth respectively in both events.

Winners today in the individual ballroom and Latin events were Paige, Lisa, Rosalind, Emma, Chris, Hazel, Grace P, Josh, Carla, Dennis, Jack, Serena, Allison and Karen. In the couples events there were also wins for Craig & Emma, Peter & Carol, Josh & Grace and Paul & Karen.

We had the monopoly on the sequence events today filling both the Under 35 years, Over 35 years and Over 50 years finals. Josh, Paul and Carla winning their events. We also had the inaugural Over 65 years sequence event and Dennis had the honour of being the very first winner of this event.

Of course we had a full turnout of bears for this important outing including a new addition to the team who said she was made to feel most welcome by the others. They rather liked the chairs since they didn’t fall through the back of these.

We had a number of people taking on the responsibility for partnering others today alongside competing themselves; Grace P, Josh, Craig, Emma, Emily and Jack. Thank you all for your help on the day and coming along to lessons to practice. Thank you also, of course to Liam for his partnering on the day and being available for lessons with those he was partnering.

The next ISTD qualifier is in June so make sure you have the date in your diaries.