Held
on Sunday 14th October at the Guildford Spectrum
The
Disco Line Dance and Rock 'n' Roll Grand Finals day
is a date that is awaited with excitement and enthusiasm
all year by so many competitors, teachers and supporters.
As always it was apparent that the members of the DFR
Faculty Committee had spent much time and hard work
preparing the hall. It looked fantastic! Blue, red and
white bunches of balloons had been tied around the seating
sections and the beautiful, shiny trophies were lined
up categorically just awaiting the winners who would
deservingly take them home.
At
10am sharp, our main compère for the day, Nicky
Miles, who is always fabulous and entertaining introduced
the members of the DFR Faculty Committee who were also
the adjudicators for the Line Dance and Rock 'n' Roll
events. As the Line Dance section got underway I was
amazed at the standard that the Under 8’s set.
On
both the red and blue floor the standard of dancing
kept rising amazingly and the crowd were clapping and
cheering the dancers on. Looking around the hall, smiles
were everywhere! After the first heats of the day were
over both children and adults waited extremely patiently
on the side-lines with hope in their eyes. All competitors
had danced their best and now awaited the next round.
Above:
Solos & Pairs Adjudicators, L-R: Jill Bush, Vernon
Kemp, Margaret Connon, Derek Green, Janet Clark and Jimmy
Welch
From
a teacher's point of view I thought that the Line dance
section was just amazing. In every category the dancers
were all beautifully and correctly dressed with footwear
for the particular style of Line dance. The slow routines,
especially the Under 14 Gold Star and Above made the
hairs on the back of my neck stand on end! The dancers
performed ballistic movements with such perfect poise,
grace and elegance. The arm lines were well controlled
and flowed harmoniously to the well selected music.
The Freestyle routines were fast, electric and completely
addictive to watch. All dancers portrayed such power
and strength and the kicks I am sure are getting higher
every year!
Personally
I thought that the Over 14 Silver/Gold category performed
with such perfect timing to the music and had outstanding
flexibility and all round technique. The Street style
routines were performed with strong arm and leg movements
and a brilliant and strong feel for the music. The Over
25’s section were all outstanding and once again
raised the bar to the next level. It was lovely to see
such a fantastic turn out. The well-deserved winners
all received a goodie bag from the ISTD along with a
beautiful trophy.
The
second Grand Final Event was Rock 'n' Roll and this
has to be my favourite category. The floor was filled
with a bright rainbow of colours and many of the outfits
really were quite splendid, whilst keeping within the
style of dance.
The
adjudication panel changed again, back to members of
the DFR Faculty Committee and the floor was cleared
ready to begin. In all the age categories it was an
absolute pleasure to watch such controlled and lively,
and not to mention enthusiastic dancers! All Basic Actions
and Syllabus Figures were used correctly with ‘Man
and Lady’ dancing on opposite feet. The standard
was set extremely high in each section with a good sound
use of knees, feet and ankles, which is so important.
In
the higher grades quick, intricate footwork was used
whilst couples remained in the correct holds and positioning
as ‘Leader and Follower’. It was very obvious
that a lot of hard work had taken place by both teachers
and competitors. The final heats had soon come upon
us and the well-deserved finalists were presented with
their ISTD goodie bag and beautiful trophy.
I
am sure everyone would like to say a huge thank you
to the fantastic DJ, Ian Jordan, who kept the dancers
and crowd entertained all day long with his superb music
selection.
Sincere
congratulations are due to all the teachers who had
clearly put in a lot of time and dedication in preparing
the dancers and to the pupils for such beautiful dancing
all day long. They must be reminded that they have all
achieved so much and are all winners in our eyes! Also
a big, 'thank you', to all the wonderful parents and
supporters who continued to clap and cheer tirelessly.
We must thank all the staff and management team at the
Spectrum.
Lastly,
and above all, our thanks and much appreciation go to
all the members of the DFR Faculty Committee who have
worked so hard. We all hope to see you again next year
on Sunday 12th October 2008 at the Guildford Spectrum
for what will surely be another splendid day.
Laura
Rampton
Above:
Line Dance & Rock 'n' Roll Adjudicators, L-R: Paul
Streatfield (Vice Chairman), Pat Woor, Betty Bouston,
Maria Howse, Amanda Hughes, Yvonne Taylor-Hill (Chairman),
Suzanne Hammond and Nigel Kirk
Solos
and Pairs – an Adjudicator's Perspective
Being
invited to adjudicate at the Grand Disco & Rock
'n' Roll Medallist Festival 2007 is not only a tremendous
honour it is also an extremely responsible and, at times,
quite challenging task to be faced with the prospect
of having to eliminate some competent dancers in the
quest to reach the highest possible standard in the
finals.
My
adjudicating day commenced with the Pairs section. The
Under 10 Bronze & Below and the Under 12 Bronze
& Below demonstrated some beautifully choreographed
Pairs work with good knowledge of arm and leg extensions,
great facial expressions and, to my delight, togetherness
– after all I am trying to judge a Pairs routine.
As the older age groups danced I was very impressed
at how most of the dancers adapted to a very busy small
floor and performed a variety of locomotive moves other
than their basic runs to avoid collisions. Most of the
higher grades showed good music interpretation, more
control of their body and awareness of dancing from
their centre, strength and well placed lines and shapes
whilst working in pairs. Most continued to demonstrate
good floor-craft including awareness of allowing personal
space for us judges to adjudicate – this is a
personal frustration of mine having encountered numerous
knocks and kicks in the past – even on Grand Finals'
Day, there had to be one. Now being knocked into once
I can understand, but not twice by the same dancer,
so please dancers give us space to adjudicate!
Above:
Under-8's Line Dance
Later
in the day the Solos commenced with the adorable and
talented Under 6’s. Beautifully pointed toes,
good wiggles, great kicks and changes in direction with
switch turns etc showed these little ones to be fully
aware of good basic technique which only comes from
being properly trained from the beginning – well
done teachers! As the Solos progressed and the music
pumped out of the speakers, the dancers showed some
very lively and energetic routines with most showing
good timing and well rehearsed choreography. The standard
and quality of the Boys' events were outstanding. In
the grade, 'Up to and Including Bronze', I think between
all of us Adjudicators, we only managed to knock out
two boys to make it a '7 final' Boys' event –
it is wonderful to see so many boys enjoying this genre
of dance and I believe the boys are raising the standard,
even for the girls, with their speed, power, elevations
and flexibility – superb!
During
the Solos it was also quite interesting, from a judge's
prospective, to witness the difference between the younger
and older dancers’ confidence. The younger ones
mostly beamed with confidence and continuously held
eye contact, maintained fixed smiles and/or eye-catching
expressions whilst a number of the older dancers, particularly
in the lower grades, looked anxious and shy and at times
showed their insecurities – a lesson the older
ones could learn from the little ones – keep up
the confidence and always look like you’re having
fun!
Finally
it was the Over 25’s turn to show us just how
much fun disco can be. I was glad to see the final had
a mixture of varying age groups with all of them showing
positive determination, great musical awareness and
some even amazed me at their outstanding flexibility
– yet they all had the confidence to demonstrate
exactly just how enjoyable it is to be a competitor
at any age – well done to you all!
Jimmy
Welch and Val O'Neill
Left:
Rock 'n' Roll
Results
Winners
– Line Dance
Under 8 Bronze & Below - Sophie Beale
Under 10 Bronze & Below - Carmen Sutter
Under 12 Bronze & Below - Caren Takundwa
Under 14 Bronze & Below - Jade McGeoch
Over 14 Bronze & Below - Charley Dade
Under 10 Silver/Gold - Chloe Barrett
Under 12 Silver/Gold - Rebecca Drury
Under 14 Silver/Gold - Hannah Barnetson
Over 14 Silver/Gold - Callum Clack
Under 12 Gold Star/Awards - Hayley Young
Under 14 Gold Star/Awards - Amy Hall
Under 16 Gold Star/Awards - Rosie Honour
Over 16 Gold Star/Awards - Emma Tamsett
Over 25 All Grades - Shellie Berry
Left:
Grand Finals Solos
Winners
– Rock 'n' Roll
Under 6 / Under 8 Rosettes - Jessica Green, Bethany Young
Under 10 Bronze & Below - Carmen Sutter, Emmalie Barnes
Under 12 Bronze & Below - Jessica Christie, Nicola
Sellers
Under 14 Bronze & Below - Sarah Butchart, Jade McGeoch
Over 14 Bronze & Below - Katie Sylvester, Jade Diebelius
Under 12 Silver/Gold - Nicole Wood, Emma Budenberg
Under 14 Silver/Gold - Bethan Hastelow, Bronte Willegers
Over 14 Silver/Gold - Chester Hayes, Sienna Hayes
Under 12 Gold Star/Awards - Betsy Morton, Chloe Barrett-Blake
Under 14 Gold Star/Awards - Poppy Stevens, Patrick Wilden
Under 16 Gold Star/Awards - Gregory McDonough, Charlotte
Carruthers
Over 16 Gold Star/Awards - Helena Edwards, Stacey Edwards
