WTF, Q & V

Was that, "It's Not Unusual" put to a samba beat?  Maybe it was just too early and my brain was playing tricks on me.  But then later, I swear I heard a Christina Aguilera song as a quickstep and then Alicia Keys' "Fallin'" done as a Viennese Waltz. 


Anyway, along with some very interesting costumes and great dancing, this was another fairly successful year for the Northern Lights Classic. 

It was fun to see the new group of competitive dancers and catch up with some of the old (TA) group.  Eventhough I have been dancing, the competitive scene is so separate that much of it was a surprise.

Alice (no longer competing) now does competition makeup.  Ryan (Pib) volunteers as a marshaller during the day (and humours me with a social dance).  Linda and Clarice continue to dance, but with new partners I've never met before.

The little diva, Mishel, is the crowd darling. 

Dominic (judging again this year) played with his son backstage.

I volunteered for the evening show and was given an extra treat at the Latin Championship awards: Mayor Stephen Mandel and Mrs. Mandel were guest presenters!  How did they manage that?! 

Mayor Mandel did a small twirl on the floor and said a few words before handing over the trophy.  It was definitely an unexpected, but nice cap to the night. 

More photos here.

Clip of Diana Lemeshko and Mario Acosta-Cervallo's Rumba in the second day's winners showcase (unfortunately cut short when memory card ran out).

Northern Lights Classic 2009

Almost everyone from the old guard was now a night competitor.  Though I couldn't volunteer at night this year and see them in action, I still signed up to be a day time runner.  

Pro-Am events dominated most of the morning.  It was another case of the same people in the same categories dancing the same dances.  There was one pro (Alex) that I thought was mezmerising, but the couple she's in wasn't terribly inspiring.  I'd awake from the blur to run the score sheets or to eye a particularly fabulous (or awful) costume. 

I'd encouraged my students for weeks to come and see Don compete.  When Adult Standard Bronze came, I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of my TAs were in the same category.  They all made it to the finals, but it easy to see who would win. 

At lunch we were treated to a performance showcase done by a group that encouraged dance for all abilities. 

During lunch I got to catch up with some old time volunteers and Tayo (fellow runner and UADC instructor), before getting ready for the afternoon Latin events.  Perhaps this is when caffiene kicked in: It all seemed so much more lively. The Pro-Ams sizzled.  The floor was filled during the breaks for social dancing (Tayo even lead me through a couple). 

The much anticipated Adult Latin Bronze was tight as it could be.  The judges somehow managed to decide between (what I thought) were extremely evenly matched couples for the finals, while there seemed to be too much happening all at once on the floor (below).

Then, another surprise: Seeing Darren and Amanda compete in Adult Latin Silver B - which had been strangely scheduled for the afternoon.  As I was not supposed to show any partiality, I cheered for them in my head. 

Not volunteering for the night shift made the day seem strangely short (eventhough I returned next day for a morning shift).  I miss seeing these friends more often and being with them in their and at their finest, competing. 

For more photos visit the NLC site or for some behind the scenes stuff here.

Candy and NLC

The kids were really cute. Kevin was a bandit with a dark bandana covering his face and a plastic gun. Celina was a zombie princess (?), her elaborate dress covered by warm fall coat.

We didn't start out that late, but the newer houses with bright lighting already had signs saying "Out of Candy". In the darker, older area of the same neighbourhood there was plenty still. I wondered if this was a supply side issue, or also a demand one.

No spectacular wipe outs this year, only the "burden of cuteness" that the kids had to bear (overflowing bags of candy that they eventually had to drag [my bag wasn't nearly as troublesome]). And though Theresa said they could stay out later because it was Friday, we went home after a couple of hours to start sorting and trading. Out were the foil-wrapped chocolates that we were warned might be from China and contain melamine, allergic items, and broken wrappers. Then the trading began (the best part). I'm always so impressed that neither of them seemed to hoard, and the trades were relatively fair. I kept a bag of "no one wants" for my friends ;)

Next day this bag was used to help fuel the volunteers at NLC!

The competition has grown again! This time to fill two days. I arrive the first day early for my shifts to see set up. Ken (above) operates the camera on a moving arm (I kept watching for the weights), which is new this year. There was also alot more seating. When the judges came out, I found Delphine was one of them!

I was running again this year, and was on for all day and all night. At one slower point judge Pierre Allaire asks "Why "runner"?" I had to admit it wasn't the most poetic name, but it did convey the basics of it: Run/deliver the score sheets from judges on the floor to the scorekeeper to key on the stage after each dance/category - and running while doing it so as not to interfere or distract from the dancing. He said from now on, he'll call me "stewardess". I kind of like that.

The morning events were mostly dominated by Pro-Am competitions where Dominic and Celeste were the sweethearts. Christiana, Ryan, and Darren (and most of the people I danced with) had graduated to become "evening competitors". So I was happily surprised to see Leslie (my girl crush / favourite TA from years ago!), dancing and winning her category.

In the afternoon a girl named Agnes joined me in running. She was new to ballroom, but was clearly hooked and serious. She was taking private lessons from David at Elite Dance Studio (D&D's new studio) while waiting for an appropriate competitive partner, going to school, and working part-time to afford dancing (sound like someone else we know?).

For dinner the Andrew, Kevin, Agnes, Mark and Mark's girlfriend broke to the Mundare House of Sasuage. Wow, what a heavy (and very tasty) meal. It was extremely low on vegetables, so I was stealing the uneaten cucumber garnishes off of everyone's plates to balance things out. I apparently was also very amusing because I had to "take care of" the box of noodles I had originally planned for dinner and managed to throw out my fork too. Yes, that, and me trying to retrieve the fork, counts as entertainment (the lesson: I should never throw out food). So does Mark's girlfriend's jokes that she's a Zimbabwe millionaire (though with inflation, this might be true).

We return with time to spare for the evening events. During warm up was my chance to take photos. Amanda and Christiana are so hot! It's the first time I've seen them in these latin costumes.

The championship levels again took my breath away, but it definitely lacked something now that the Rizers are gone (rumour has it one of them went away for school).

Other realisations:
- I do not love the Pirate as I once did.
- Though it is fun to watch Denis Tremblay (judge) sway and bop to the music, he's wanderer. Keep an eye out for him.
- There is another song for paso doble

Instead of massive cleaning up and tear down (since there's another day), volunteers were invited to the competitors' reception. This was very nice (though few sparkles were collected). I got to sit down and actually chat with Christiana, Ryan, Darren and Amanda. Turns out the gold in Standard Block B is Darren and Amanda's first (with no rule tie-breakers involved) - I know, I shouldn't feel proud necessarily, but I was very happy. Christiana told me to slap my bug bite to show it who's boss. We laughed over "upside down nanimo bars". Also caught up with other competitors: Grace (from Calgary) is pregnant (and still competing)! It's Olya's birthday!

Went home and could hardly sleep. It was a pretty spectucular day.

Angst: collective noun relating to teenagers and drama students.

Rem broke records with 27 eggs used in Jenn's Birthday Feast. It was the Feast of Continued Existence that was, as per Jenn's request, breakfast based: eggs benedict, waffles, fruit, milk, tea, breakfast cake... olives. Yum. I met Jenn's friends Jenna and Nick, and relaxed in the warm. Jenn got a box of socks. And Steph presented me with a handmade scarf. So very, very, very soft. Liam showed up a bit later and showed us his latest portfolio. Now that's photography.

Eventually had to leave, for next morning it was NLC. The schedule started even earlier this year since there were more categories and more youth competiting. The Polish Hall was more magnificient too: more seats (including the balcony), and two additional spotlights that made everything sparkle.

Was again very glad I wasn't competing (even my regular shoe hardly fit), but I definitely felt something was missing. For one, instead of being there with the dancers thinking about callbacks, I worried about whether volunteers were where they were supposed to be; I hovered behind the velvet ropes, while the dancers were out there on the floor. On the other hand (yes, I've probably run out of hands again), I did finally get to see Darren, Linda, Christiana and Ryan dance, and I could take pictures of them. I guess officially being outside makes the voyeuristic side of photos even more sweet (Hm... was that creepy?)

Then came the night event and I was back in the full thick of things: Running like crazy with Olga, eyes and mouth wide-open, mesmerised by the high-calibre dancing. Between Linda and couple 41, yellow is my new favourite colour. I did notice that the Pirate was not there, but the Rizers made up for it. Mmm... eye candy...

The original professional show couldn't make it for medical reasons, so the night ended with a winners showcase. Once the people cleared out (o.k. even before that), I was collecting sparkles. (An additional boon: Unopened bar of Lindt dark chocolate! Though I'm still trying to decide if I should open it or not... a very cryptic "You should buy dark chocolate" in my horoscope adds to my apprehension.) I did help with a little bit of carrying and cleanup too. Snow had started falling. I got home feeling pretty good.

For the event I took a total of 206 photos, most of which are blurry. Strangely enough, Allan decided I looked pretty smashing, and decided I should be in some of his photos (this was backstage, during general dancing). Hey, why not? I'm vain. And it's good to have some nice photos of oneself to counter all those bad ones out there (e.g. passport) Only... I think after many tries and coaxing, the one photo I didn't have a deer-in-headlights look was one where I was making a face. It's something else for me to work on (when was the last time I made faces into the mirror?)... or maybe it's a sign that I should stay behind the camera.

Mom and Dad return late tomorrow. Angela is to rush off back to Alaska to prepare for their move back to Calgary. Her "must clean" side is showing. I'm not sure if anything's changed.

Photos from NLC 2005

For that awesome Saturday at the Nisku Inn, we also had some great friends on site taking pictures and cheering us on. Big thanks to Clarence, Amber, Dianna, Maria, and Brad. Here are some of the photos from Darren's camera (Thankyou Darren for uploading them so soon).

Left: Rong and Mel. Delphine met up with us newcomers very early in the morning (my appointment was at 6:45 a.m.) and she did us up all proper in makeup and hair. She said we're her "mini-Delphines".




Right: Christiana and Dexter in their first competition together. They're looking good and they made the Standard Newcomer finals - with only 6 hours of practicing together!


Left: Slyvester, Vienna, Lynn and Albert take a break during the social dance portion.



Right: Dominic and Nigel

D&D did marathon dancing that day. Their students (Jeff and Marie) competed against each other in the ProAm categories. They each did over 62 dances - and didn't even break a sweat!

Left (photo that I can't seem to post): MelMel and David, Lana and Darren, Amanda and Brian - Adult Newcomer Latin - TA Lockout

Brian had predicted that the TA's would take the Newcomer Latin category... so the deck was a bit stacked (there were only 2 non-TA couples with us), but we were still happy with the results.

It's over?

Darren probably described it best - now that the last Jive has been danced and the whole floor pulled apart... it's over. The Northern Lights Classic that was our first big competition - is part of the past. I think I'm suffering from what people feel after the Christmas and New Year's rush. The January blues, but in November... doesn't help that it started snowing yesterday too. But there is some good news from this. Darren and I did well :) We placed 3rd in Newcomer Standard (Waltz), 2nd in Newcomer Latin (Cha-Cha), and made it into the finals for Bronze Standard. There must have been some cosmic forces supporting us - we were couple 42! I hope to have pictures soon (and you can play "Find the mini-Delphines"). Thank you so much all of you who wished us luck and cheered us on. And as Jim Jenkins said - we've caught the bug. We want to do another one, and soon.

But before that my body definitely needs some time to recover from all of last week. I fell asleep at today's meeting / training... Ryan did too :P Lorena was nice enough to say "Must have been the projector fan bothering your eyes." And D says the most exciting part of the whole thing was watching the two of us doze off :P I hope I wasn't twitching *blush* Really, what I need is more sleep and less thinking.

The office feels so empty now. C went on maternity leave, and there was as tearful goodbye on Friday. Lorena the sweetheart got us all gifts as "the beginning of the end" kind of idea... I'm now the puzzled owner of a beanie baby (I still don't understand the craze, but he is sort of cute). C promised she'd tell us the truth about labour when she comes back to visit. I'm not sure if I'd be able to handle it...

For Steph, Chris, and Char - Thank you guys so much for your resounding support of me not growing up :P I am feeling better this week. So, what's next? (Aside from guilt-free eating of Hallowe'en chocolate?)

I'm looking forward to dancing tonight. And then going bed. Bug was trying to tempt me with clean sheets. And my sister was tempting me with a trip to Beijing. I know they're both teasing... but they both sound very delicious... probably means it's time to change my sheets.