The Blackpool Dance Festival competition began on Thursday, with the Amateur Rising Stars Latin and Ballroom competitions. Today is Friday and we competed in the Senior Ballroom competition. Because the Senior Ballroom competition began at 12:15 p.m., we had time in the morning for some last minute practice. Between 9:15 and 9:50, the competition floor was opened for ballroom practice and warm-up. The floor was packed with competitors getting a last-minute feel of the floor.
But, well before breakfast and practice, Debra went with Yuko to have her hair done by Boyko, a famous hair dresser who does hair for many top competitors. In fact, he's in such high demand, it's almost impossible to get an appointment with him unless you're already a regular client. Debra was lucky because Yuko has her hair done by Boyko (as does Anne Ho) and Yuko asked Boyko to do Debra's hair too. At 6:30 a.m., Yuko & Debra were off to the Imperial Hotel to get their hair done. When they returned, we had breakfast and went to practice.
At 10:05, the competitions for the day began with the continuation of the Amateur Rising Stars. After practice, we went back to our hotel room (conveniently directly across the street from the ballroom), got a little rest, and changed into our costumes. Having a hotel room so close is such a relief - we don't have to change at the ballroom. Unlike most U.S. competitions, many European competitions, and Blackpool, provide only a large open room for everyone. No lady's dressing room - just one large bay where everyone got changed. You walk through there and you'll see gents in their shorts and ladies changing into their dresses, with little or no privacy.
We returned to the ballroom around 11:30 to get our numbers. The Latin competition was still underway. We had number 179 and Tom & Yuko had number 15. There were 199 couples, divided into 9 heats. Tom & Yuko were in Heat 1 (1-23). We were in Heat 9 (178 - 199). Also dancing were our friends from U.S.A. Dance National competition, Winston & Lily Chow. They were in Heat 5 (91-112). So, you can see that there were over 20 couples on the floor for each Heat. We've been to many U.S. competitions where they don't even have 20 couples competing, so being on the floor with 20 other competitors all at once is challenging.
So, it took 9 Heats, or rounds to complete 1 dance (the first dance is the Waltz). When all couples have danced the Waltz, it starts over again with Heat 1 dancing the Foxtrot. This process is repeated until all couples have danced all 4 dances (no Viennese Waltz). This is followed by a short 15-minute break and general dancing is allowed. At this point, we went back to our hotel room to get out of our costumes and relax a bit. It will be another 2 hours before the second round is called for the Senior Ballroom competitors. We returned to the ballroom, dressed in our costumes ready to dance the 2nd round (if we get called back).
The chances of us getting called back for the second round in this World Championship level competition is minuscule to none, but we obediently stood there dressed and ready to go. Debra thought we danced pretty good in the first round, and I think she had a little glimmer of hope (wishful thinking perhaps) that we might be called for the second round. The 2nd round began and we heard Tom & Yuko's number called for the 1st Heat. They had made it to the second round - fantastic! Then, we waited until the last heat for the 2nd round of Waltz was called, and we didn't hear our number.
Not only did Tom & Yuko get recalled for Round 2, they were called back for Round 3, and Round 4. They made the top 50, which is awesome considering they dance in Senior II (over 45) in the U.S. comps. We were very proud of them. Yuko was ecstatic. She was so happy, she was smiling from ear to ear. And, you could tell that Tom was equally pleased in his conservative manner. It was Yuko's dream to dance to the Blackpool Orchestra (the live orchestra only plays for the evening rounds - the daytime rounds are danced to recorded music). Yuko got to dance 2 rounds to the Orchestra.
If you did the math, you might have figured out that by the time Tom & Yuko danced the 3rd and 4th rounds, it was evening. The 4th round started at 8:05 p.m. This was followed by the Quarter Finals at 9:30, Semi-Finals at 10:35, and Finals at 11:24. Between each Senior Ballroom rounds were the Professional Rising Stars Latin rounds. The last Latin round started at 11:36 p.m. By the time they were done with the Presentation of Awards, it was past midnight. It takes a lot of stamina to start dancing in Round 1 and make it to the Finals. Three U.S. couples made it to the Finals. 1st Place went to Italy, 2nd to Germany, 3rd to Netherlands, and 4th went to U.S. couple Xingmin & Katerinal Lu, who we are familiar with from the U.S.A. Dance Nationals.
It was a long day. Tomorrow, we practice for our Latin. ;-)
With Aloha,
Calvin & Debra
Later in the day, we hooked up the Tom and Yuko again and had dinner at Mama's. It was a highly recommended restauant. Tom said that he had asked his coach Giampiero where he could find the best Italian food in Blackpool and the response was unquestionably Mama's. Giampiero should know. He is Italian and he still holds the tradition of keeping Sundays as a day for cooking and enjoying a good family meal. He starts in the morning and cooks all day with fresh ingredients. The food at Mama's was great! When you walked in, there was a narrow hallway, full of photographs of Italy, Italian celebrities, Italian families, etc. It looked Italian, if felt Italian, it sounded Italian. It was Italian - Great Food!
When we got to the ballroom, we were just in time to see the last half of the last formation team's performance. Although I don't have any good pictures of the formation performances, I did get some shots of the teams, as they took the floor again for their placements. The Chinese teams dominated the event. Although we didn't see their performances, their costumes were impressive.
