The Return To Kettering

The Kettering ISTD qualifier has traditionally been the first one of the year but hasn’t been run since before Covid. Quite a number of the team today had, in fact, never been before and so it was a new experience for them. The competition was also synonymous with snow as on quite a few occasions in the past we have had some heavy snowfalls and even had to dig ourselves out at the end of the day. All was fair today however and so there were no issues in that department.

We were missing a few regulars today for various reasons and also had some new recruits. Boris was of course excited at his first outing of the new year after quite a long break and looked forward to catching up with his chums and seeing the new sequence dances being performed.

The juveniles commenced proceedings, as always, with Alisha, Rosie, Olivia and Scarlett in action. Our little ones are still fairly new to this experience but are gaining in confidence with each outing. Alisha and Rosie finished 3rd and 4th in their ballroom and 6th and 3rd in the latin respectively and in the sequence Rosie performed her Veleta solo, a difficult task at any age, and as well as receiving her trophy she also had the accolade of being the first dancer (and winner) in the under 8 years sequence category which is new to the programme this year. Olivia came 2nd in her sequence event and Scarlett was placed 5th in her ballroom event, 7th in the latin and 3rd in the sequence.

In the junior section we had the ‘Fab Four’ of Brooke, Chloe, Kaitlyn and Tabatha who often have one of the hardest sections of the day. Nevertheless they were all up to the task with both Brooke and Tabatha making their ballroom final finishing 3rd and 5th in a strong field. In the Latin, Brooke also made her final ending with a 5th place. Chloe was recalld to both her ballroom and latin finals being placed 7th and 4th respectively. In the sequence it was a straight final but Tabatha secured the win with Brooke placed 3rd, Kaitlyn 4th and Chloe 5th. In the ballroom couples section Chloe and Brooke came 3rd and Tabatha and Kaitlyn finished 4th. Both couples made the latin final, being place 4th and 5th respectively. A good showing by all then especially since Kettering is one of the harder competitions we support.

The adult section saw Grace, Emily, Charlotte, Craig, Karly, Fearn, Paige, Karen, Paul, Chris, Allison, Alison, Kathryn, Lisa, and joining us for the first time, Rebecca. Rebecca won both her events and was also placed 7th in the sequence which was a new discipline for her. A great first outing for her. There were also wins today for Lisa, in all three of her individual events and both her couples events along with Chris. Karly, Paige, Grace and Paul also had wins individually and Craig & Grace and Paul & Karen also had wins in their couples events. Of course it is not always about winning and there were some excellent final placings for others team members as well as the all important qualifications for Grand Finals in November. There is more work to be done of course but it was a good start to the year.

As always, we thank and appreciate our partners, Liam, Ruth, Grace and Craig for their hard work both on the day and in the lessons beforehand. We have a busy few weeks ahead with the Medal Presentation dance on 18th February and then the next full team outing will be our own competition on 3rd March so make sure you are there.