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under the african sky
LINE DANCE FESTIVAL 2001
Well the weekend finally came and what a time
we all had.
We flew the +/- 1200 Kms from Johannesburg to
Cape Town, some of us in the early hours of Friday, 25th May and some later in the day, but we were
all met with pouring rain and windy weather. This, however, did not dampen our spirits as we were
all excited and looking forward to this, the first line dancing festival in South Africa which had
been arranged by Carol-Anne from the Crazy Horse Saloon Line Dancing
School.
None of us knew what to expect or, in fact,
what would be expected of us, but we soon met lots of other people from the other schools in South
Africa and discovered what a friendly bunch most of them were, only too pleased to finally meet the
other people from South Africa who loved line dancing.
One of the first people we met on arrival at
the hall was, believe it or not, Rob Fowler who this year was a triple Crystal Boot Award Winner at
the Linedancer Magazine Awards in England. It was very easy to understand how he won the
linedancing personality of year award, as I am sure everyone who met him will agree. Rob was more
than willing to chat to anyone who wanted discuss anything from line dancing to rugby (but then
again he is from Wigan and enjoys a beer or two but I'm not so sure about those pies he talked
about). He posed for innumerable photographs (always smiling) and signed his autograph on various
papers, books or copies of his latest CD "The Devil in Disguise".
On the Friday evening, following registration,
there was some social dancing and then Rob taught some of the dances from his latest CD and I must
admit my particular favourite was "Deeply Completely". He made learning the dances fun and was very
patient, every now and again adding his little comments asking if so far we were 'ISH' or as one
bright spark put it 'Rob-ish' and letting us know when we were 'COOL'.
The competition began on Saturday morning at
about 10.30 a.m. and went on throughout the day until 7.00 p.m. The competition was judged by
Stella and Rick Wilden who are qualified international line dance judges.
Quite a few dancers had the comment "use Cuban
hips" and Nancy and I asked Stella and Rick Wilden what they actually meant by this. They were a
very friendly couple and were only too pleased to not only explain but show what they meant (Stella
is also a well known teacher and choreographer in England). It seems that you must move your hips
more than your feet; your feet movement being more of a transfer of weight than an actual step,
when doing such dances choreographed to Latin American music. They also stated that it is now
considered very old fashioned to dance with your hands hooked into your belt all the time and you
are expected to use more arm and head movements.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We would like to publish a
confirmed list of all the
dancers who won and Nancy has e-mailed Carol-Anne to this effect and hope to be able to add
this to the web site soon.
I am sure you will all agree that it would be
nice to know which school the various dancers and schools who won were actually from, as the
shouting out of a number and a person's name did not really mean anything to most people.
I KNOW THAT MAVERICKS SA WON 1ST PLACE
IN:
TEAMS CLASSIC LINE -
MIXED
CHOREOGRAPHY - CHOREOGRAPHED BY NANCY AND I
TO "IPI TOMBI"
and June Kerwin was placed 2nd in the
Traditional Section for MAD FOR IT.
The day was finished off with the Under the
African Sky Ball and for a mere R40.00 there was a two piece band playing, a demonstration by two
young ballroom dancers and a demonstration by the one and only Rob Fowler as well of course as the
general dancing.
If you have any
comments you would like to make with regards to the above event please e-mail me
at :
.
IT WAS A REAL BALL to meet so many nice people
who we hope to see again soon in the near future.
Happy
Dancing
Val and
Nancy
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