Hello Everyone:
if you want information about this year's competiton, held Saturday 10/11/03 at the Illini Union, please visit our website at www.uiuc.edu/ro/dancing and click on the competition button. Information and online registration is provided there. If you'd like a little introduction to the competition and why you should compete. Keep reading!!!!
Thanks for your time, Tanja Hodges ---Dancing Illini Competition Chair
The Comp is coming!!!
---paraphrased, from an original work by Henry Neeman.
Okay, the Annual Dancing Illini DanceSport Invitational competition is coming up soon. VERY SOON! On Saturday, October 11, 2003 the Dancing Illini will be hosting one of the best collegiate competitions around and YOU ARE INVITED!!!! So, if you haven’t found a partner or two yet, now is a good time to start searching.
If you’re new to our comp, you should know that it isn’t vicious and cutthroat like some of the comps that you’ve seen on television. It’s more relaxed, and geared towards having a good time while doing a little showing off, rather than winning at all costs.
You may be wondering, “Am I a good enough dancer to compete?” Ask yourself this: “Can I stand up straight, and keep time with the music?” If you can, you should be out on the competition floor dancing with the rest of us.
The best reason to compete is that it will make you a better dancer. When you spend some time preparing for the competition, you will just naturally concentrate on your dancing which provides a great opportunity for improvement. That’s not to say you can’t just pick up a partner and go in cold---some winners in past years have danced without practicing together, and a lot of people have a great time dancing with new dance friends that they just met.
Another reason to compete is, well, let’s face it, showing off is fun. If you’re going to compete, tell all your friends to come, and then they’ll coo over you and act like you’re hot stuff. Which, if you’re out there on the dance floor, YOU ARE!
Try to get several different partners. It’s true that it makes it a little more difficult to coordinate practicing, but it’s better for everyone if we all learn from many other people’s experiences. And it’s just more fun to dance with a lot of people. This is a nice, friendly, social kind of comp, and the social, friendly, thing to do is dance with lots of different people. Don’t be afraid to ask someone who is more experienced to dance with you. (And you intermediate folks out there, feel free to ask the beginners out to the floor.) When mixed experience couples dance together, the beginner gets a chance to improve much mor! e quickly, and the advanced dancer gets the chance to return the favor that someone probably did for them at some point in their dance career and help out a fellow dancer. This improves the general level of dance ability in our “pool,” and that benefits us all.
If you can’t find partners for all the dances you want to compete in, sign up anyway. The teachers will be keeping lists of folks who are looking for partners and they’ll help out with hooking people up at appropriate levels when they can. Even if you can’t find anyone from our school to dance with, other schools have people who come hoping to pick up a partner. This generally happens on the day of the comp. Here is a true-life adventure from a comp a few years ago:
Henry: Hey, anyone got a cha cha free?
DI Ladies: Nope! We’ve all got partners. You should have asked earlier.
Henry: (looks chagrinned)
Some Kind Soul: Henry, maybe you should ask someone from another school?
Henry: (face lights up; walks over to the OSU table) Hi! Anyone here have a cha cha free?
Helpful OSU Person: (consults a partner sheet) Looks like Elaine is open. She’s in the blue, over there.
Henry: Thanks! (goes over to Elaine) Hi, I’m told you’ve got a cha cha free; is that right?
Elaine: Yes…
Henry: Would you like to do it with me?
Elaine: Sure! (smiles)
Henry: (smiles)
And when they danced, they even made the Advanced cha cha final round---pretty cool for folks who’d never danced together before. But more importantly, they’ve been friends ever since.
So, in summary:
1) Decide to compete, and register for what you’d like to dance.
2) Get partners, lots of partners. NOW!!!
3) Practice when you can.
4) Get out there and have a great time. This is a fun and inexpensive way to improve your dancing.
This year registration is ONLINE.
Everything you’ll need to know about our competition is found on our webpage. Click on the competition button at:
Please visit the webpage today and sign up ASAP. REGISTRATION ENDS OCTOBER 1st.
After that date, you’ll pay a $10 late fee.
Cost: $25 per student competitor (unlimited registrations)---payment mailed on or before 10/1/03
$35 per non-student competitor (unlimited registrations) ---payment mailed on or before 10/1/03
$10 per Night Club competitor (evening comp. only) ---- payment mailed on or before 10/1/03
Date: 10/11/2003
Time: 8:00 am to 11:00 pm
Place: Illini Union, ballrooms A, B, and C
SPECIAL---We will also host two workshops in Lindy Hop on Sunday, October 12, 2003 from 11:00am to 1:05 pm. in the same rooms. Workshops cost $10 for one or $15 for both. Competitors may buy a registration “Package” and get the competition, a post competition debriefing, and both workshops for just $30 for students and $40 for non-student adults. (A REAL deal for just $5 more.)
The full competition fees allow you to register for any of 14 dance events. Beginners may additionally register in the "Beginner's only" events in Waltz, Foxtrot, Swing, Cha Cha, and Salsa/Mambo.
Get started now, sign up some partners TODAY!!!!!
The dances we have at the competition are:
Beginner Dances: Waltz, Foxtrot, Swing/Jive, Salsa/Mambo and Cha Cha
Advanced Dances: Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango, Swing/Jive, Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Salsa/Mambo, Night Club 2-step, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Hustle, and Merengue
Anyone may compete in the advanced category. Mixed experience couples (one beginner and one advanced person) must compete in the Advanced category.
Only beginners may compete in the beginner category---you’re a beginner if you started dancing in or after July 2002. (Questions or concerns? E-mail Tanja at incognita1@hotmail.com, or call 352-7837)
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