In the heart of the place where Dirty Dancing was made famous, after a
one-hour ride from Stewart Airport through the backroads of rural NY, we
got into the Kutshers' sports complex just near the Catskills mountains
and started our magical dance journey that lasted from March 8 to March
10 as we stopped at the Kutshers hotel at twilight, in the town of
Monticello. Michele, a friend of mine, couldn't wait to dance with
me in NY.
Kutshers hotel resembled ISR at the U. of I. because it seems like a
'home within a home' in such a way that you don't need to go out of the
complex. There was the Dining Hall, where people either eat or dance in
two makeshift dance floors that were, unfortunately, 1/6 the size of the
Regent ballroom, to DJed music. You can buy snacks at the snack shop, and
it even had a arcade room featuring vintage and recent pinball and video
games.
Michele and I had to change fast in the hotel room for the busy
2.5 days of social dancing, dance shows, and ballroom concession stands
selling stuff like instructional tapes and dance music CDs, and even dance
dresses mainly for the ladies like sequins and Latin dresses. There were
dance classes and workshops as well but we only went to two of them.
Kutshers hotel was the main attraction. In the main lobby, you can see the
small lake from the windows. There was also a grand piano where you can
play without needing consent. The hotel also had an indoor swimming pool
just adjacent to a bar which had DJed salsa, merengue and hustle.
But the biggest sight was the main dance hall with a light-blue accent...
The Stardust room....For us, it was almost like heaven....
The Stardust room resembled almost like a Copacabana-style nightclub, with
four tiers of dining tables and chairs plus extra chairs Round-Robin
style. It had a wooden dance floor almost as big as the Regent ballroom,
and a raised platform where dance extravaganzas were done, and in the back
of the platform, room for a dance orchestra to play.
The most exciting part of being in the Stardust room was the
ballroom dancing to DJed music. The DJ would say things like...
"Tango...Get a partner for tango....paso doble--will be next!"
In fact, we danced two paso dobles. Taking our cares away, we, despite
the social environment (although only several couples danced paso),
pretended like we danced paso in a ballroom competition. We did cape
shapes, promenade runs, Spanish lines, and all that. I even threw in the
flamenco taps so she can try to do them, but she can't, but it doesn't
matter. But it was about 3 minutes of us on Cloud 9.
The DJ in the room would play all styles
of ballroom music, and I can remember that right near 3am at March 9, when
the DJ never stops the music until the last dance couple leaves the room,
a polka dance was played and we galoped and 'chassed' down the floor.
There were other dance venues around the hotel: one for Latin dancing,
another for Argentine tango, and still another for hustle and WCS. We
went to all of those, but we liked the ballroom dance venue the most.
Our low point was when Michele refused to dance to West Coast swing
because she was so afraid to do so to taped WCS music. This was rather
frustrating because two months ago we went to a WCS workshop just near New
Year's Eve with famed Chicago dance teacher Nino Digiulio--who turned out
to be one of the dance promoters of the dance weekend. Everytime WCS was
played, we danced the triple ECS instead.
And to top it off, I got what I really wanted; at the ballroom vending
concessions, I purchased Kathy Blake's instructional video on paso doble,
which I adore very much.
Charles Smith
Dance Lover
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