This year AMAZINGLY topped last year's event IMHO - I'd never have dreamt that was possible! I loved everything about last year!!!!

Essentially Judy took the few "It would be nice" suggestions from before n turned those into a wonderful reality for us dancers this year. Those comments mostly having to do with the size of the dance floor & the "type of music played" during open dance time. Last year's event was fantastic - from start to finish! Everyone loved the hotel as much as the event itself, but we maxed out the dance floor space... so in order to grow - we needed to be moved.

Boy oh boy did we ever! Judy's wise choice in hotels - The Regal Constellation in Toronto will be able to accomodate the event for many years to come! With group rates ranging from $85 to $105, close to the airport, shoppin' & restaurants plus <insert drumroll here> LARGE REAL DANCE FLOORS, the place worked great! Good eye Judy - it was perfect!!!!!

Visit the Regal to book your room for The Big Party, June 20-23, 2003, or for D&S :) 2004

http://www.regalconstellation.com/english/intro.html

The best feature of the hotel was its floors - no slidin' apart temp flooring this weekend! I found them to be FANTASTIC - not too slick - not too sticky n I heard virtually NO complaints about them throughout the weekend. (Which is purt near unheard of when it comes to large workshops - that's usually the biggest source of most p'n & m'n ;) We also found the hotel's service good, rooms were nice & the few "hotel" issues I heard about, were taken care of quickly by courteous and efficient staff.

The Regal, while very large didn't seem sprawled all over Kingdom Come so you could make quick trips to wherever then be right back on the floor in time for the next song :) Heck with the 2nd dance room right next door - you could split songs half n half if ya wanted ;)

D&S offered 2 evening ballrooms for open dance - Country n Classics in one room hosted by Lyn Warden plus an Anything Goes dance in the main ballroom - DJ'd by Alain Maras with the help of Mike Bishop. I never made it onto Lyn's floor but heard only great things about it. That was not for lack of trying mind ya! Everytime we'd get the notion to go check out the other room - boom - on went another set of songs we just had to dance to :)

Which brings me to the SuperDeeeeeDuper Hilight of the weekend!! The open dancin' just plain rocked! In my case that having lots to do with...

1. A floor fulla my hometown dancers - some of the funnest folks you would ever wanna dance with :)

2. REAL Floors - Great Equipment (tho next time sumbunny might wanna turn off the windows default sound beeps ;)

3. LATE LATE NIGHTS - till 2 am both Fri & Sat and open dance til 5:00 on Sunday!!!!!

On both nights, as far as I'm aware all the requests got played in the AG room. Yup, I checked the scratch lists ;) If you missed your request, chances are you left too soon. Many of the new teaches were danced during open dance time, be it Fri, Sat or Sun afternoon. Very few songs were doubled up on - cept the ones yanno people want more than once (Who could deny the twins another go at Sex Machine? ;) AND songs played that didn't get dancers on the floor were cut to move onto the next request. (That's still uncommon...) Sounds great right - Yeah Baybeee!

Now add to that one of the most fun and pleasant DJ's we've ever seen n heard...hope this next bit reads as complimentary as intended ;)

Ok - 1st ya take my personal mostest fave Bugs Bunny character - Pepe LePue and morph him with whichever DJ you personally luv the most ~~~~ Who do ya get?

<Insert Warner Bros Theme Song here>

ALAIN MARAS!!!!!!

EZACTLY  :)

Ya think?!?!?  Well mayyyyyyybe it's the Quebec-ian accent I'm not too familiar with???

Rilly - juss hear me out fer a few secs...So there we are - all set to dance n lo n behold... is this toooooooo cute, dark haired, stranger up there mannin' the equipment all smilin' n happy dancin' about.  Then he starts playin' n gettin evyone up n dancin...

Thennnnnnnn ya go talk to him ~~~ what else can ya think but~~~~~~~

Ohhhh My Gawwwwwwwwd IT'S PEPE!!!!!

Right?  No other comparision can be made :) Alain was truly one of the most polite, courteous, freindly, spontanious, persistant, energetic and delightful DJ's I've ever had the pleasure of dancin' under ;)   Juss like Pepe is :)  AND service with a smile - what a concept!

"Ohh whhy yezz I would love to play zees one for you...Yezzz we can play zees one too!" "Ziss is ze mozt fun song yez?" "Ohh zank you for azking me for zat, we dunn dance zat one back home." Yez, I will play anyting' you wish - you juzz keep azking - I am zooo happy to keep playing ziz good muzic." "Oh yez, juzz one more...ok we do juzt one more... ok one more"

Seeeeeeeeeeee not such a stretch of the imagination after all! Adds up to Pepe to me :)

I don't know how Judy & Adele lucked into him - but what a tremendous find he turned out to be!  If ya liked havin' him there, along with Lyn & Mike  - be sure to let Judy know AND that you'd like to see them back!  I sure would - the open dancin' made the weekend extraordinary!

It was great having Larry n Liz brought up here for our enjoyment. I rilllly luv gettin to meet, greet n dance with the folks we don't usually see at our local events! Maybe I can be the the Linedance version of a "Walmart greeter" when I grow up ;)   And I think Judy is onto sumpin by rotating her instructors too.  Scott, Gerard, n Mark etal can be the cake, and the special guests can be the frosting on top!  Last year we were treated to Bill Bader n Andrew, This year Larry n Liz...we  can look forward to Bryan McWherter (a total sweetie) and Joanne Brady (major laffs) this summer!  I hope the well rounded list continues to grow.

Hmm what else - Ohhhh, the Saturday Dinner & Show o' course!  Both were great, the food was served sit down style, mighty delish :)~  and the show was perfect in length and added just the right amount of laffs.

Our own ANDY WILLIAMS & TED CIMAFRANCA helped Judy n enlarged tummy with a lil dance skit that was too cute! So whose the man again? 

The "senior routine" to YMCA - was hilarious - Kathy K was a total riot in costume!  Picture one o the ZZ top guys in umm just a few years prolly ;) 

Plus - GENE, HEATHER, GUY and ZANDRA showed off their athletic abilities- or lack there of ;) with the basket ball challenge game! Ya'll are the best sports, if not the best basketball players! (Take the beaver already Zandra! You earned it) I'll check back with Heather n Gene to see if they've been practicing n will keep yas posted ;)