The sun was once again streaming through the windows as the alarm announced it was time to get up. Another Sunday, another competition but this time the alarm call was not so early and the journey was just a short hop to the Festival Hall, a venue which we know well and today would essentially be a “home match”.
The NATD area event was not a qualifier, just a social event with a revised programme today combining, couples, individual and solo events. We had a fairly full team in action and with no grades, just age divisions, it would be interesting to see how the new format would play out. It did mean that some of our bronze and below medalists were pitched against higher grade dancers and the adults were just split between under and over 35 years.
Boris of course had a prime seat for all proceedings and was especially pleased to see Mr Benn make a welcome appearance along with all his other chums and they were also joined today by Bobo who had come dressed to dance.
We began with the ballroom events, starting with the couples then the individuals and solos (where dancers are unpartnered). Everyone had to fight for their places today as there were few straight finals and in some cases there were three heats and several rounds to negotiate in order to make a final. The couples events saw wins for Tabatha & Kaitlyn and Chloe & Brooke. Paul & Karen also won their event with Andrew & Dawn, Chris & Lisa and Stephen & Angela following in second, third and fifth.
Both Rosie and Alisha were recalled to their ballroom final being placed first and fifth. Olivia and Scarlett had the largest entries in their age sections and both danced well reaching the semi-finals with Scarlett making the final to finish third. In the junior events, Kaitlyn won with Tabatha runner up and then Brooke won with Chloe and Sophie closely behind in second and third places. Craig won the under 35 years event with Emily third. Then Paul won the over 35 years section with Karen, Andrew and Chris also making the final being placed second, third and fifth respectively.
We next had the solo events where the dancers have to dance on their own, not an easy task but nevertheless our juniors decided to take up the challenge and whilst nervous to start with they all accomplished it with great maturity. Kaitlyn won her event with Tabatha second and Brooke won her event followed by Chloe in second.
With the benchmark set and confidence riding high we set about the sequence events. Rosie won again with Alisha in second place this time, Olivia had three recalls to her final and came third overall whilst Scarlett was a little hard done by to be placed second in her event. Success continued with Tabatha winning followed by Kaitlyn in their event, a result matched by Brooke and Chloe in their event with Sophie following in third place. Charlotte won her event with Emily second and Fearn sixth and then in the over 35 years section Paul came first followed by Chris in second, Karen third, Andrew fourth, Lisa fifth and, locking out the final, Angela was sixth. It was great to see so many other schools taking part in the sequence events with most events having one or more rounds before the finals.
The sequence couples events followed a similar pattern with Tabatha & Kaitlyn, Chloe & Brooke, Charlotte & Emily and Paul & Karen all winning their events with Chris & Lisa and Andrew & Dawn filing the places behind Paul & Karen. Once again some of our younger dancers took to the floor for the solo events and Rosie and Alisha were again placed first and second, Chloe won her event with Brooke second, likewise Kaitlyn and Tabatha.
The Latin section began with the fun competition which was the Bossa Nova 23 in which couples of any age could compete against each other. With almost 40 couples taking to the floor there were five rounds to make the final. Rosalind and Alison T had formed an impromptu partnership for this event and had a couple of recalls and Chloe & Brooke reached the semi finals. However it was Chris & Lisa’s crowd pleasing variations which swayed the judges to win the event with Paul & Karen finishing 4th.
We were then swiftly into the Latin section which followed a similar pattern to the ballroom and sequence sections. Rosie completed a clean sweep by being place first in her individual event with Alisha again placed second. Olivia won her event and Scarlett was sixth. In the junior section Chloe won both her individual and solo event as did Kaitlyn, Brooke came second in both and Tabatha came second in her solo and third in her individual events. Once again both junior pairing won their couples events. Sophie made her Latin final finishing fourth.
In the adult section Charlotte had another win with Emily and Craig placed third and fourth and Charlotte & Emily danced a really strong Paso to take second place in their couples event but could have been placed higher. Karen won the over 35 years section with Lisa, Paul and Chris claiming third fourth and fifth respectively and in the couples, Paul & Karen won once more with Chris & Lisa, Andrew & Dawn and Stephen & Angela taking third, fourth and sixth. Lisa also decided to take part in the adult solo Latin event and surprised herself with another win.
This competition features large returnable trophies for many of the events and with 20 of them collected by our dancers we had a fantastic day out as a team. Boris and the bears were overwhelmed by the successes over the last two weekends and is pleased to see the developments and improvement everyone is making.
As ever the support for each other and also our spectators was unmatched and thanks go again to our expanded team of partners today of Luke, Ruth, Craig, Grace, Charlotte, Emily, Brooke, and for the first time Chloe, your assistance is always valued and appreciated. Also a big thank you to Ruth for her sterling work on the clipboard and for helping to fill out and collate the trophy forms, no easy task!!
We have two more events next week, an open sequence competition and a NATD qualifier for those yet to qualify for Blackpool before we have a slight breather after a hectic few weeks.
Truely a social competition- the atmosphere was lively and fun, and everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves. Most of all Chris and Lisa with their fantastic Bossa Nova 23 – what a joy! I hope we will see such fantastic choreographic additions in future fun events too! Wonderful 😄
This was a great competition. It made it very exciting to have everyone over 35 in all of our competitions, with lots of recalls. Thanks to everyone for their support, especially during the very exciting Bossa Nova competition. It’s Raining Men as a Cha Cha Cha was also just sublime. Thanks to Louise, Grace and Lisa for dancing with me.