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Torquay Jan 2010 weekend Review
We are arrived with the road crew on Thursday lunchtime to be greeted to nearly a third of the entire group who were attending for the weekend. A lot of people wanted to make it a long weekend and as the complex and Torquay has a lot to see, people thought they would extend their stay. After we unloaded the car and settled into our room Tracey and myself joined a few of the group i.e. Thelma, Pat, Janet and Maggie, Claire & Emily for a few glasses of wine. We all went into dinner at 6.00 pm and had a superb first evening meal. 19 of us met up after dinner and went into The Derwent Hotel – which is all part of the complex – we had a brilliant night joining in with barn dancing, jiving, ball room and line dancing and disco and a quiz – which no-one ever wins – the entertainer and DJ – JB – was absolutely brilliant and never stopped working for 2.5 hours. We did a few dances i.e. playing with fire – which obviously showed a lot of people there that line dancing is not all ye ha and slap slap. The next morning after breakfast, together with the road crew, Pam, Pauline, Claire, Emily, Pam decorated the hall for the weekend with a copious amounts of lights and posters to enhance the theme of The Oscars. Claire made a lot of brilliant decorations for the hall – with lights, posters and clipboards – she worked really hard and we truly could not have done it without her. 3 hours later we all went to the bistro and had lunch, the road crew then went for a swim and shopping and Tracey and myself went to change and get ready to meet and greet the rest of the revellers for the weekend. Guests started to arrive from 3.00 onwards and there was tea, coffee and biscuits from 4.00 in the ballroom for the weary travellers. Dinner was served in two settings, 6.00 and 6.30 – superb menu and service and the dancing commenced in the ballroom at 8.00 with a welcoming brief speech from myself. In my speech I commented that there were people in the room who had never met before and suggested that they all went around the room introducing themselves, Kate was amazed that they actually did as I requested, as 10 minutes later I had to call a halt to the frivolities. Before introducing our main guest for the weekend I told the dancers that their main task for the weekend was to enjoy themselves and then without further ado I introduced our guest of honour for the weekend - Miss Kate Sala.
Tracey made her usual dress transitions during the evening when she changed into one of her Winnie The Pooh pyjamas – there were a few wide eyes from those who had never seen her DJ in her pyjamas. During the evening we handed out the quiz for the weekend which was specially written based on Hollywood and the movies. The first part of the quiz was sound tracks played by Tracey which people had to guess which well known films they were from. The evening finished at 1.00 am when we headed to bed looking forward to the Saturday morning workshop.
After a superb breakfast the morning workshop started with free dancing at 10.00 – at 10.30 Kate started her workshop with Stomp and Kick which she told the packed ball room she had choreographed for the Line Dance Awards – the following weekend – but which she was launching with us at our first line dance weekend – we felt this was a great honour for all of us. The dance proved very popular and was danced several times throughout the weekend. Kate also taught Six feet under and Impossible – all brilliant dances. We broke for lunch at 13.00 and resumed the afternoon workshop at 14.30 when Kate taught Upside Down and a She’d give anything. She also reviewed the morning dances. Dancing finished at 16.30 and Tracey myself and the road crew then set the hall up for the evening. We had black and gold balloons delivered which were specially made for the evening with Hollywood printed on them to keep the Oscar theme. We laid the red carpet and set up the red and gold rope and stands for the ballroom entrance and yes more lights and a glitter ball specially made by Emily.
The Oscars night started with a delicious dinner in the dining room after which all the guests gathered in their splendid dresses and garb in the foyer ready to enter the ballroom through The Oscars door. As the guests entered either in groups, couples or individually, they were met by the paparazzi (Brenda – Dedworth Stage Line Dance Club ) who took all the official photographs for the weekend. There were many splendid posers more than willing to have their photograph taken – line dancers are not shy!!!!. After their photographs were taken guests proceeded into the ballroom where they were handed a bucks fizz by Tracey and myself.
Throughout the evening all dances taught by Kate at the workshops were played amongst many popular dances from the top 20 and some great classic dances e.g. have fun go mad, feet don’t fail me now. As usual Kate socialised and danced with everyone in the room – she made a lot of new friends and fans from people who had never met or previously seen her dance or teach.
At about 11.00 pm we had a late buffet served in the ballroom. Tracey kept us entertained and we danced until 1.00 am – we all went to bed feeling tired but very happy.
Sunday morning – again after a great buffet breakfast – at 10.30 we started our morning workshop with Kate reviewing all the 5 dances she taught over the weekend – we kept dancing until 13.00. Kate said goodbye to us and thanked us for giving her a good time – in her speech she paid us all a wonderful compliment by saying that we had “given her renewed faith in line dance as we showed how we enjoyed ourselves and that the fact that we danced every type of dance throughout the weekend” we did not limit ourselves to just one type of dance. Everyone dispersed for lunch after I confirmed that I would be holding an afternoon workshop for anyone that wished to learn a couple more dances and do a bit more free dancing. 14.30 pm we resumed again in the ballroom when I taught Kinda Busy and Rain against my window. At 17.00 pm we stopped to get ready for dinner and the evening disco for those who stayed for Sunday evening – over 50 people stayed to make an extra long weekend and also ensured a great atmosphere. Throughout the weekend we also had some people come to the workshops and the evening discos from local clubs in the area – they really joined in all the fun and really contributed to the atmosphere of the weekend. Sunday evening we decided to have a few games to break up the evening as everyone had been dancing since Friday evening and we felt that they needed a few diversions. 20 people were asked to volunteer to join in the fun and they were all given a name on their back – they then had to find their partner from the other volunteers by asking questions - without cheating – a few achieved this (they were all part of a film duo e.g. Fred & Wilma, Johnny and Baby. Once they had all matched up Tracey played the couples dance Feel Free – not many actually remembered the dance and some never knew it to begin with – this made an hilarious spectacle especially from June who was partnered by one of the gentleman from the local clubs – by the end of the sequence most of the hall had developed incontinence and sore ribs from laughing. June was awarded a cup for giving us one of the best laughs of the weekend. At the end of the Sunday night disco all the decorations had to be removed and we would like to thank the road crew and Ruth and Marie for their help. We then all sat and had a drink to celebrate our first ever line dance weekend. I am sure there are many things that I have forgotten or missed out but I think this report would have taken up the whole website if I were to go into any more details. We would like to thank everyone for their support in joining us for our first ever line dance weekend. We have already booked The Carlton for 2011 with guest choreographer Dee Musk – theme Charleston at The Carlton and sincerely hope it is just as successful. Due to the success of our first weekend we have also booked another weekend for October 2010 in Bournemouth – if you need details please contact us - but numbers for this weekend are restricted so if you are interested please book early. .
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