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CHICAGOLAND 2002
CHICAGOLAND 2002
If you've been a regular reader of my event rambles, ya know I'm RARELY unhappy with any event. To date, there's only
been one where I felt I didn't get what I paid for. Which turns out to be ironic in this case. My travelin' buds & I
make the most of any chance to dance and ALWAYS have fun! This year's Chicagoland is no exception - we enjoyed ourselves &
danced up a storm.
Having said that...
This'll be my 1st ramble to include an official - as totally unofficial as that actually is - disclaimer ;) Additionally,
I always ask the opinions of people I know & respect in the dance community, as well as from dancers I've never met before
- especially for fresh perspectives from workshop "virgins" ;) I hope to paint a well-rounded picture.
The information you are about to read is the opinion of the web mistress - me ;) Hence da name at the top o' the page,
compiled w/ opinions from other LINE DANCERS spoken to over the course of the weekend. It MOST LIKELY WILL NOT reflect the
views of the event organizers - LBOT, Dennis & Carol Waite, all of their agents, the Radisson O'Hare, any or all instructors,
vendors, staff, volunteers, non line dancer registrants, pool guys, cooks, marble floor refinishers, restaurant staff, esp.
"Sergio the 1 check Wonder", The Chicago Transit Authority, Mayor John Daley and just about anybody else ya'll care
to think of ;)
The weekend started off great w/ a Pre-Party Bash hosted by Mark Cosenza etal. Just like last year there was tons of food,
great dancing, socializing & plenty of laughs. Plus we had the benefit of a few quick demos tossed in thru out the night.
(Not lumped into an hour block where yer bum falls asleep waitin' on your turn to dance. That was a great way to mix in demos.)
We arrived late but packed in as much fun as we could till it was time to call it a night. Mark taught "I Said I Love
You" a verra popular dance that was also done at our SLIP workshop. Hey! 'Bout time I learned it :) Thanks to Mark,
Eve, Glen, n everyone else involved in putting on such a great party! Ever consider a weekend workshop????? Hint hint hint
;)
This was my 4th consecutive Chicagoland - I wouldn't go if it wasn't usually a quality workshop. It was held at the Radisson
Hotel, right next door to last year's host the Ramada. I like the location & the convenience of Pine Grove, a 24 hr restaurant
along w/ other stores within walking distance - always a plus :)
I heard various reasons for the switch, none of which matter now. I appreciate LBOT's hard work in giving us another
chance to dance & their efforts to keep the event going. REMEMBER - It will be held elsewhere next year, and will be
hosted by the new owners/sponsors/head honchos of LBOT. (I'm not ezactly crystal clear what their title is ;) I believe
it's to be Emcee Jennifer Jeffries - who has done a great job in the past. I assume, armed with her enthusiasm, wit, &
pride, she will be able to dig this year's event out of its current hole & will be a huge boon to any future Chicagoland
events.
Registration went fast, and seemed smooth. The cost - hmmm - the weekend pass wasn't bad. But in the long run it wasn't
ezactly cheap either. Many folks I talked to didn't realize the scope of the pay classes prior to getting there.
Dare I delve into the $5 per "Pay" class thing???????
Not too deeply I'm thinkin', everyone has their own motivation for doing things. I assume this made sense to someone somewhere....I
DO KNOW THIS WAS NOT POPULAR WITH LINE DANCERS!!!! Especially on Friday. There were only 2 "included in the weekend
pass" classes as an option in the evening. Tsk tsk tsk...What were they thinking?????
My thoughts on that are: Dancers will pay what's charged for an event if they want to attend. If they feel they haven't
gotten their money's worth - they won't be back. Period. No 2nd chances!
No one begrudges anyone making a profit for a job well done - be careful to stay competitive or we'll easily go elsewhere.
K - where was I????
While a lovery establishment, the Radisson wasn't a prime locale for blending a Line & Couples workshop - unless the
main objective was to segregate line dancers farrrrrrr away from the main action & make them feel rillllllllllllllly slighted
by the inequitable split of dance floor space.
On the plus side there were several rooms dedicated to different types of dancing, vendors were located on both floors.
(Chicagoland usually offers a wider vendor selection than most events :) The Hotel had a nice restaurant, bar, pools, etc...
even tho the layout was sprawling, and our room was mighty small.
The main floor held the "Grand Ballroom" it was exactly that. Very nicely done, large good quality wood floor,
beautiful in fact - designated as the competition - showcase -performance - COUPLE'S lesson & open dance floor. From what
I saw on my journey's up from the cellar ;) DJ Steve Lyons kept the place hoppin', n I'm sure he did a great job. Although
at 10 pm which is PRIME DANCE TIME on Saturday night I actually counted ONLY 13 couples out on the dance floor. Maybe those
were the decoy dancers to keep the liners in the dark about the pizza party???????
The Swing dancers had 2 small floors in the hotel's bar - "Maxie's". Dancers looked to be enjoying themselves
amid the wait staff, hotel diners, drinkers, smokers n sports TV enthusiasts. Two other rooms were upstairs for couples instruction
& practice.
The 3 Salon rooms downstairs, while decent in size - haven't grown up into "Ballrooms" just yet. They were
set up with wood flooring. 2 dividing walls separated them during the day to be used for line dance instruction - the other
for couple's instruction - at night the latter was used as an additional practice room. Us line dancers wedged ourselves
into our own personal "Ballroom" made by opening up the wall between two of the Salons and turned the basement into
a music filled sauna.
Sounds a lil harsh????? Not my intention, read on ;)
I am wondering why line dancers paid the same rate to attend the event yet didn't share the benefit of premium dance space?
The consensus is, we were short changed big time.
LINERS - if you were pleased w/ our designated dance floors, LET ME KNOW I'll post your hmos.
We all know it's pointless to gripe if ya don't have possible solutions in mind. Here they come...
A reasonable accommodation would have been taking turns in the "Grand Ballroom", 1 night for liners, 1 night
for couples. Tada - sounds fair enough to me.
Another option would have been to open up the 3rd partitioned off room to allow more space & AIR CIRCULATION.
After all, that happened 25 minutes into a workshop teach that was moved upstairs into the bar - with NO prep set up for
a class. This was "The ONLY solution to over crowding" at that time.
That's a whoooooole 'nother can o'worms right there, which would have been unbelievable if I didn't witness it myself!
It was hotter than the usual hot found at most workshops - not something that ever keeps me off the floor, I still danced
my arse off :) But I heard wayyyyyy more complaints than usual about it. Lemme just say Andy would never have been prepared
for that many shirt changes ;)
Fans were brought in at some point & many dancers just hung out in the hall. We didn't have a rotten time - we just
could have had a better time if a few adjustments had been made.
Ya know how things don't always work out as well as they appear on paper - it's unfortunate we were locked into the rigid
original schedule.
Equipment wasn't great for instructional purposes either - instructors apologized for the set up in the aux room where
a larger player w/mic was definitely needed!
Heck, there were prolly better boom boxes in most of our hotel rooms available!
Essentially, I felt something could have been done to improve the situation, and for whatever reason - just wasn't. There
may be some fine print technicalities involved I'm not aware of, but in summing up, line dancer's floor space, treatment and
general consideration for the weekend was inferior.
Whew - got that outta my system - ya'll can thank, or hang me as appropriate ;)
Onto the dancing! There were 39 line dance sessions, and 52 partner & technique sessions on the schedule featuring
tons of Big Guns.
We enthusiastically learned new dances from plenty of great instructors including:
Max Perry, Kathy Hunyadi, Scott & Debra Blevins, John Robinson, Brian B, Judy McDonald, A.T. Kinson, Toby Monroe,
Mary Lou Ecken, Jenna Barber, Mark Cosenza, Heather Frye, Derek Steele, Glen P, Eve Yeaton, Rhonda Nadon, Martin Moser, Karen
Hedges & Earleen Florka
The dances I heard most about were popular teaches from Can-Am. Do check that pages listings, they include S.X.E., Nieve,
Reach, Can't Stop Loving You, Evergreen, Beat of Love, Sha Na Na, Sombrero Waltz, Anybody Wanna, & Feel The Rush plus
ALL of Scott's - like ALWAYS!
New dances to watch for include, but hardly limited to:
*Scott's latest dance Contagious - looked like a great dance out on the floor...(insert major heavy sighs here)
*Kathy's I'll Be Around - seen at JG2, taught locally
*Judy's new Do It For Love
*John's teach of Jo Thompson's Splish Splash
*Max's demo thinga-ma-dance - sorry, I didn't get the name
*Heather's Evil Baby! We've already taught this locally
*Rhonda's teach of Bill Bader's All My Heart - uh I'm guessin' cuz I left at 10 am Sunday - figgered I'd mention it since
it's still one of my faves from Dance & Smile ;)
I shamefully got in only 5 classes :(
Luckily, I already knew over a dozen of the others taught or I'd have sat kickin' myself during open dance time. S.X.E,
Evergreen and Beat of Love were on my must take list - 1 outta 3 ain't bad????
Now I'll hafta read the blasted sheets - ewwww ;)
My thrill of the weekend was Derek's invitation to teach A Little More Spark during his "pay" session. We were
a small group but had fun w/ it & another dance done together called Gotta Get - cool song by Daniel Bedingfield, or Will
Smith's How da Beat Goes. We danced both during open dance late Saturday evening :)
WHICH I AM PLEASED TO SAY ROCKED!
Then ROCKED some more!!!!!!!!
The open dance music was purty darn good on Friday night. I was skeptical after hearing BJ Brown was on to DJ the liner's
room. He was the DJ for the cruise I had taken earlier this year, which was a total "couples" event.
Ohhh yeaaaaa....ya'll remember that one I'm sure. Here's where the irony comes in ;) My concern for the weekend turned
out to be - THE HIGH POINT!!!!!
I was/am majorly impressed. Glad I decided to keep an open mind after hearing he'd done his play list homework in advance.
Friday's dance was good; very few repeats, tho sound quality was iffy.
Saturday's dance was awesome! The room was still the same - inadequately small & sweatin' buckets hot - but BJ did
a great job w/ the music. I dunno if he tweaked the equip, or just havin' less dancers around later helped improve sound
quality.
It's a HUGE shame most of ya'll cut out wayyyyyy toooo early! We did a majority of the workshop teaches n got to alllll
of the requests. He even nix'd the ones no one got on the floor for. A very small group of us had the floor alllll to our
lonesomes way into the weee early morning hours. My group of diehards got to hear ANYTHING we wanted and we hooked up w/
some great adventurous gals from NJ who played with us big time out on the floor.
BJ even came out from the wall o' hi-tech equip & shook em up a lil himself. We were treated to some dance mixes
we haven't heard before, did some renegading - our version anyway ;) Until Ivy finally convinced us it was time to call it
a night n begged him to stop playing - well after 2 am. I won't rank him in my fave DJ category list just YET, having only
been to 2 of his gigs, but he's certainly a contender!
Good for him - good for us - Good for Chicagoland!
Because his dj'n was the sole redeeming factor of the weekend - if ya missed it, and most of you did, you missed the VERY
best part of the event!
Which brings me to another topic of the weekend that needs MAJOR improvement.
Friday's competition was such a fiasco I'm not even gonna go into my usual yokage tirade ;) Ohh btw there were some loverly
yokes AVAILABLE for purchase at this event -
can anyone spot me about $150 so I can quit wearin' my tractor supply clearance stuff? :)
I competed in Original Choreography again this year. Last year the competition ran efficiently, the awards were on Saturday
night, I think most folks were pleased.
This year, Not!
At post time I didn't have results for any competitons - the awards didn't take place until 4:30 pm Sunday evening.
What happened was not organized to say the least.
Entries listed in the registration book were:
NOVICE COUNTRY
115 Charlotte Dullins Lozano
142 Deb Sass
132 Deb Sass
INT/ADV NON COUNTRY
168 Heather Frye
169 Heather Frye
139 Robert Izral
217 Jo Kinser
133 Lucy Strack & Betty Maddox
ABC/PHRASED
232 Carole Daugherty
216 Jo Kinser
132 Lucy Strack & Betty Maddox
I have no idea how many dances were actually competed nor what division they finally ended up in. The whole thing turned
into a big "Draw an arrow n switch everyone's division line up around" festival. People said they tried to
get their dances properly placed before the competition with no luck, a competitor was made to re-dance their's
due to misplacement. There also seemed to be more dances than those appearing in the reg book.
Ya ya ya yer thinkin'....happens all the time - maybe.
BUT what doesn't happen all the time is the scheduling of the competitors & judges meeting to take place AFTER the
competition!!!!!
Can sumbunny splain that one to us???
It makes NO LOGICAL SENSE!
I'm thinkin' you rilly don't need to be a genious to figger that out.
Fortunately, just in case competition and scheduling coordinators don't grasp that simple concept, there is a 2002 UCWDC
Rule, cited as 6.02 C.1. addressing just that.
"Contest logistics, contest schedules, performance orders, and any other "special" contest circumstances
that might be implemented, are always revealed and discussed at the "official" UCWDC Competitors Meeting held PRIOR
to competition at every UCWDC event."
We danced at 7:00 pm. The "Official" meeting for Judges began at 9:00 pm. w/ the "Official" Competitors
meeting to follow at 9:30. A few judges refused to go considering
they had ALREADY judged competition.
I don't blame them...
What ended up happening DURING the competition was a haggle & bicker session between competitors along w/ Bob Bahrs
& company. Finally the UCWDC rule book was brought out to determine how much music was allowed, etc.
Last year AT Chicagoland, ABC entries danced their entire song. At ALL competitions, UCWDC and otherwise I've ever participated
in, you're allowed to show all patterns of
a phrased dance.
We started out having a "2 minute limit", then ensued a whole lot of dickering..DICKER-DICKER-DICKER.
Then "Ok, dance the whole song".
Then more dickering...DICKERDICKERDICKER.
Then "3 minutes is the cut-off, as taken from the 2002 UCWDC RULES."
Whatever!!!! That would be fine! Weren't we entitled to know that info prior to competing by having our meeting BEFORE
the competion to work this chit out.
This being the case I cannot say how the other dances showed, what looked rilly great, what caught the audience &
judges eyes....or who's stuff we want to watch for in the
future. I've got NO CLUE.
We were too mucked up in the confusion trying to find out what was actually going to take place. (Pay close attention
to the far right in the competition pics)
ALSO - and this is a very BIG DEAL to me - I could NOT watch & enjoy, nor support & cheer on my fellow competitors
amongst all this ruckus.
That just plain goes against EVERYTHING I believe about the spirit of good sportsmanship. I'm offended for everyone there
- the audience and competitors alike.
Inexcuseable if ya ask me. Frankly, I think we all deserve a trophy with an apology (Don't hold your breath) for putting
up with such an unorganized staging. Not to mention adding a huge stress factor to an already anxious situation for most
dancers/competitors.
No wonder more folks don't compete!
We PAID for the priviledge to compete at this UCWDC SANCTIONED event. I expected it to be taken seriously AND follow it's
governing rules in the very least.
I dunno if the couples had similiar difficulties, I can't say for sure. Hopefully, we'll hear postive comments regarding
the Classic Line Competition.
CONGRATULATIONS to ALL competitors for rising above the mess! Also, thanks to the floor co-ordinator, who did her best
to keep the peace.
Edit - 9/2/02
Results from the UCWDC site (which were posted timely)
The dance titles I believe to be correct are included. As far as I'm aware no official score sheets have been recieved
by contestants.
Line Dance Choreography New/Nov - Country
115 Charlotte Dollins-Lozano and Joe Lozano
3rd Overall (?)
142 Deb Sass
2nd Overall (?)
143 Deb Sass
1st Overall (?)
Line Dance Choreography Inter/Adv - Non-Count
168 Heather Frye
2nd Overall (Evil Baby!)
217 Jo Kinser
1st Overall (Chicago Brown)
Line Dance Choreography "ABC" Dance
133 Lucy Strack and Betty Maddox
7.0 (Sum R Jammin')
232 Carole Daugherty
6.0 (A Little More Spark)
132 Lucy Strack and Betty Maddox
5th (Fever)
216 Jo Kinser
4th (In Your Eyes)
169 Heather Frye
3rd (Wink & A Smile)
259 Robert Izral
2nd (Orange Colored Sky ?)
139 Robert Izral
1st (When I'm 64 ?)
Congrats again to everyone!
Also, the folks we get to dance with all the time - Jennie, Heather, Ann and Donna competed in Classic Line
165 Ann Buschmann
2nd Overall
2.0 Novice A - Rise
2.0 Novice B - Lilt
3.0 Novice C - Smooth
2.0 Novice D - Cuban
2.0 Novice E - Funky
141 Jennie Johns
1st Overall
1.0 Novice A - Rise
1.0 Novice B - Lilt
2.0 Novice C - Smooth
1.0 Novice D - Cuban
1.0 Novice E - Funky
Line Dance Female Intermediate
195 Heather Frye
1st Overall
1.0 Intermediate A - Rise
1.0 Intermediate B - Lilt
1.0 Intermediate C - Smooth
1.0 Intermediate D - Cuban
Line Dance Female Intermediate Silver
118 Donna White
1st Overall
1.0 Intermediate A - Rise
1.0 Intermediate B - Lilt
1.0 Intermediate C - Smooth
1.0 Intermediate D - Cuban
1.0 Intermediate E - Funky
GO GIRLS! Good on yas :)
Hmmmm where to go from there...
The Saturday night show... I heard there was a 20 minute dance routine that was essentially a long advertisement for a
dance studio...
Beyond that the show was exciting to watch and entertainin' - and packed. Congrats to all of the dancers & perfomers
involved. Everyone danced great and did their custom outfits justice ;)
From what I saw over the tops of everyone's heads that is...
Don't write off the Chicagoland event just yet. Everyone deserves a second chance - and under new management - probably
even more than one chance.
I, along with all the line dancers I've talked to, will need assurances that this will be an event for ALL dancers before
we buy tickets for next year.
When considering this year, some of us likened it to boarding a sinking ship before it even leaves the dock.
Attendance must have been hurt by adding the "pay" class thing, which seemed like an after thought.
That combined with the change in hotels, change in weekends, low numbers at the other LBOT events this year, on top of
that, the second rate provisions at the actual event for line dancers as it turned out surely didn't do much to keep it afloat
for next year.
I hope it's advertised & promoted realistically in the future. If sponsoring a couples event - state that in the
info, if you are hosting a couples AND line event - then carry that out at the event.
Just in case yer all thinkin' I tied my lacers too tight,
check out
Mark's Chicagoland Review
I do hope to return again next year for a successful weekend.
Intended for everyone: Couples, Competitors & LINERS alike.
In the meantime I'll try n forget about the negative and remember my top 10 of the weekend.
10. The moonlit tour of the greater Chicago area - compliments & thanks to "Milwaukee Steve")
9. Scott's private booty smackin' lessons for "young" dancers
8. Andrew & Derek's tongue show & tell - complete w/ visual aides
7. Making our "Misadventure to Midway" flight with 3 whole minutes to spare :)
6. My very own Chicagoland collector sippee bottle ;)
5. BJ Brown's mighty fine DJ'n
4. The good stuff I heard again for A Little More Spark, & the chance to teach it. Thanks to Derek n evyone for makin
my day :)
3. Bum Clenching 101 - lesson and demos ;)
2. Saturday's private late night open dancing!!!! What tremendous fun!
1. KNOWING the positive moments & memories of dancin' w/ great friends can & will overcome any event adversity
Like always after an event, the same dilemma -- Deciding what to teach 1st??? And how to get to them all before more new
stuff hits the floor.
!!!!!!!!!!DANCE!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to all the great instructors, choreographers and dance event providers that keep us excited to be dancin!
Enjoy the Dance!
c
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