Hyperreal

“Just did it!”

I’ve been away in Blackpool at the 2006 UK Open Jive Competition – known commonly by MJ folks simply as “Blackpool”.

I did the “Weekender” package, which included 2 nights’ accommodation at the same hotel as the crew, and loads others, entry to the Friday night, entry to the event itself and entry to the tea dance on Sunday, though as far as I can tell, the tea dance was cancelled and an ice-skating trip put in its place. I didn’t stay for the skating, preferring to get myself home before I collapsed of exhaustion.

Over-all I had a really good time, though there were naturally some low points, and some high points.

I’ve put all the bad stuff in a separate post (you’ll find a link at the foot of this page) so you don’t need to read it. Instead if you only read this bit, you should only get a nice warm fuzzy feeling from the weekend.

I loved the hotel. The Big Blue is actually part of the Pleasure Beach, so right outside my window I had two roller-coasters… I don’t know what other folks would expect from a hotel run by folks better known for big dippers, but the Big Blue was entirely what I wouldn’t have expected. It was a bit upmarket, posh, sophisticated, and rather pricey. (Got a bit of a shock at the prices on the menu when I went for an evening meal in their restaurant on Friday!)

My room was lovely though, cool, modern, and roomy. It was a bunk bed for kids at one end (with two tellys!) and a huge (king-size, I guess) bed at the other, big enough to sleep 3 comfortably or 4, if you’re good friends.

The bus-service laid on was great, as it meant I didn’t have to worry about where I was or where I was going, and how I was going to get there!

The Friday night freestyle was really good. Although it was quiet to start and I hardly knew anyone, within hardly any time at all, the place was packed, there was a big bunch of Scots, and a familiar DJ playing some good tunes. There were also lots of good dancers from all over the country there too.

There was a “fun” class with Victor fairly late-on… He taught us three rather tricky, flashy moves. I won’t go into detail, but the first one was a rather nice blocky-spinny thing, the second a weird shoulder-drop-like entry into a sway, and the third, which I’d met before – taught by James and called “Victor’s move” – is a double-handed yo-yo/archie type thing, ending with the girl behind you for a wee body roll and then a simple catapult-style finish.

Midnight munchies on Friday were good – why can’t we have them on Saturday too? The night finished, I guess, around 1… I think I might have left a little early. To be honest, I can’t remember…

Saturday… (oops, just a small gripe!) there was a bit of a queue to get in when I arrived at the venue, and when we were finally let in there was initially only one door processing people, despite people set-up for both.

When we got in, the first task was to find a place to sit. I soon found Mr & Mrs Dance Demon establishing a group of tables as Scottish, making sure we would have a strong, clear presence. I noticed another group did the same, even going as far as having coloured cloths and balloons for their tables – we just had a flag and intimidating looks.

Once that was done, it was time to get dancing! It was good that there was plenty of time to get warmed up before the lucky dip started. It usually takes me about an hour to really get into my stride, and I think I must have had that.

So then came the “Take A Chance”/lucky dip/DWAS… The way it worked was all the guys were put in one room, all the girls in another, and you were counted out onto the dance floor in three sections. As you came out you met your partner coming from the other room, and you’d go off and dance. What this meant was that the folks in the later sections had to stand around in the back room waiting for their turn while the folks ahead of them were being judged.

Not sure if this was ideal, but at least it meant that everyone had the same length of time with their “stranger” before they were judged. (At the Scottish competition, everyone gets their partner at the same time, but this means folks in the later sections get more time to practice.)

So when it finally came to be my turn, in the third section, we all trooped out, music playing, got my partner, had a wee dance while everyone else emerged. Then we had a warm-up track, then the actual competition track. If we were tapped on the shoulder we’d be through to the next round.

I was fairly happy with my fortune in the lucky dip – my partner seemed to be quite a good dancer, but not too good to intimidate me. I thought we were doing all right during the walking out dance, and the warm up… Then when the judged dance came along, something seemed to change. I don’t want to blame my partner, I didn’t think I was dancing any different from normal (I really wasn’t feeling nervous at all) but I don’t think we were connecting as well.

Whatever the problem was – me, the music, her – makes little difference. I don’t think we’d have got through even judged on our best dance. Whatever, it was fun, I felt I danced fairly well and didn’t make a big mess of it. That said, to be honest, I was still a little disappointed not to get through to the second round.

It was good to see some Scots get through though, except I didn’t actually see any of it as I was stuck in the back room… Oh well…

Watching the rest of the heats was good, though you can’t help feeling a bit humbled by all the great dancers. There were plenty of chances to dance between some of the heats, though I must confess that in comparison I wasn’t dancing well at all, and my confidence took at bit of a knock.

In the afternoon, I had a bite to eat from the on-site catering. Nothing to write home about, but at least it kept me going… Later I went with a friend to eat at the “West Coast Rock Cafe”, across the road. How appropriate would that have been had it been a West Coast Swing competition?

I made sure not to miss the Spotlights and Teams, but missed the TaC, Intermediate & Double Trouble finals. Caught the Senior and Advanced finals though.

I was disappointed to miss the DT final – especially when it was run in two sections – I wanted to see how this was going to work… I think it would have been better to have heats than a single final, though as I didn’t see it, I don’t know how many folks were competing.

There were 9 different spotlight couples. I thought they were all at least good dances, though some were nothing more than that – little that made them stand out from the crowd. The rest all brought something more – extra interpretation, a bit of drama, inventive use of props. I think the chair and the discarded hat is too much of a cliché now – was it three or four of the couple that used this or some variation of it?

In my mind, the best one for its originality was the “singing in the rain” couple who danced pretty much their whole routine while holding two umbrellas – either holding them simply as umbrellas sheltering from the “rain”, or as decoration, or actually using them in the dance, connecting with each other through the umbrella. Very clever.

I was surprised that they didn’t at least get placed, but then the judges are doubtless looking for different things than me.

I was very impressed by all the teams. The amount of effort that goes in to creating these performances is enormous, and each of the five teams gave a splendid performance. The team that won it (disclaimer – which has a few of my friends in it) were clearly head and shoulders above the rest. The were original, musical, dramatic and funny.

After that it was just dancing, interrupted for the presentation of prizes to the winners. I still wasn’t feeling so great, so didn’t dance much before the presentation, but began to get more into it later. As I say in my page of gripes, I wanted to go home at 7, I was thinking of going back to my hotel around 10, but by midnight I just wanted to dance all night.

I was surprised at how small the prizes are… I don’t think the biggest prize in any of the categories would have met the typical expenses that most couples or teams would have incurred in the build-up to and over the weekend. That said, they’re better than nothing, and perhaps all that the competition can afford without a major increase in ticket price.

I liked the flashy trophies though.

Let’s talk a bit about the crowd…

I was really proud to Scottish. Perhaps we make a larger cohesive unit than anyone else (and perhaps we’ve got Franck to thank for that) but we cheered and clapped the loudest out of anyone. The other large group across the hall (with their own table cloths and balloons) had a air horn, but they couldn’t use that during the dances, and although it makes lots of noise, it’s just a bit vulgar…

But all the crowd cheered and clapped all the dancers during the competition and at the presentations at the end. The whole place just had a really great atmosphere.

Although I had danced with lots of non-Scots on Friday and through the day on Saturday, after the presentation a lot of the Scots made it their policy to go dance with the English (and Welsh! and others!) elsewhere, so I had little choice but to join them (if I wanted a dance.) And I’m glad I did. OK, there is the usual variation in standard of dancing that you get anywhere, but I had some really great dances with some of these folks with funny accents.

I’m not sure if the etiquette is different outside Scotland, but I got asked for second dances by a few girls when I wouldn’t have normally expected to. Not that I was complaining. It was just a shame that each perfect 3-minute romance, though turned into a perfect 6-minute romance, had to end there.

Although I wanted the night to go on, by about 1 o’clock my legs were having second thoughts, and so I left slightly before the end to find my bus and return to my hotel for a good night’s sleep.

On Sunday there was the option of going ice-skating in the morning, but I decided just to head home…

The journey home was a real pain with buses substituted for trains and ridiculously long and slow diversions due to engineering works, but once I finally did get home I had a bit of good luck, so I felt a bit better.

I now want to say some thanks and congratulations…

Thanks to the organisers for making everything run (mostly) smoothly and giving us all a really great weekend which I’ll remember for a long time to come.

Thanks to the competitors for putting on a great show. The standard of dancing was truly awesome. Congratulations to all of you for having the guts to put yourself forward to be judged.

Thanks to all the ladies I danced with. I enjoyed every dance, and would have loved to been able to dance with you all more. Sorry that I couldn’t dance with everybody. (It was good meeting some old and new forumites too.)

Big thanks to all the DJs for all the great music you played. We can’t dance without you guys…

And thanks to the everybody else, especially the Scottish crowd, just for making it a great weekend.

Congratulations to all the dancers who got through to the semi-finals and finals, you guys rocked.

Big congratulations to all the winners, and those who were “placed”. Especially the Scots (and honorary Scots – those who live here, or have a Scottish connection, even if it’s just being a regular on the Ceroc Scotland forum…)

I can only imagine the amount of effort that goes in to taking part in these events for real, though I’ve heard from others how hard it has been from them, so I have nothing but respect for you all.

And I think that’s me done.

Oh, in case you’re wondering… “Just did it” is what’s written on the freebie t-shirt all the “weekenders” got. I think the Chance2Dance folks had previously been wearing a “Just do it” t-shirt to publicise their event.

Thanks for reading all this… you may now wish to read my gripes, or leave a comment…