Camber Sands Dance Festival
Weekend 16th-19th February 2007 : Camber Sands
A bit slow off the mark, but thanks very much to our mystery correspondant, Lou Tenant (who, strangely, has the same email address as Kyle!?), for this excellent report on the world famous Camber Sands Dance Festival. Note that photos are stock images, if anyone has and pics of the event (good or bad) please pass them on to Pete (memory stick or blank cd can be provided). - Thanks, Ed.
Match Report
16th February 2007. A date in everyones calendar that marks the annual interuption to the Blackpool run-up.
How are we to think of this competition run by the now household name, Len Goodman? Should we quickly throw together the open routines to stand a chance of challenging the well established couples on the open circuit, or do we use the weekend as a testing ground for the Nationwide comp in April? This was the dilemma facing our Wright Rhythm couples. Yet this was no new situation. No. We need to make these choices every year, but it never gets easier. This year it seems like we struck a good balance. I believe most of those who attended this year were veterans, but there were a few new faces, particularly Rhiannon, who had only been at the school two weeks and was already planning to do battle with the Stardance couples.
Friday night..
...and as usual everyone collects numbers, brushes shoes, (has a drink) and generally settles in for the next three days. However, this weekend was not like previous years. All of us felt it the moment we walked in... Something had changed... Now it was no secret that we would be up against open couples. In fact we welcomed the challenge after cleaning up at all our previous competitions. However, this year none of us was prepared for the sheer number and quality Len Goodman had found to throw into our arena. Friday night was, for all of us, a matter of finding our feet, and letting the other couples know we mean business. Not easy and the school took a few knocks here and there but overall put up a good performance.
Saturday
Typical of our school though, we weren't happy. We don't want good, because we know we can be excellent. Saturday arrived and everyone came out fighting. Right from the juveniles through to the over 35 section, Wright Rhythm was fighting to pull control of the floor back from the open couples to the medallists. Now it must be noticed at this point that Wright Rhythm was not alone. It seemed that all the medallist schools were united in their struggle to prove 'open' does not mean 'better'. Maybe it was the change in judges, maybe it was the wrong attitude, but our results began to slip. Sure enough we made finals in a few categories, but we all knew our potential and our performance were not matching up. How were we to fix this? The harder we tried the worse we did. If we tap back the open couples will walk all over us. Camber Sands is definitely a competition of choice. This was a time for the experienced heads of the school to step in and show their expertise... which they did with effortless skill.
Sunday
It was true. Our attitudes were all wrong. It wasn't a matter of "go harder or softer". The difference was more subtle. We dance in competitions sure enough, but the reason we do it is to perform to the audience. The harder we tried, and the more we attacked our dancing the more the dance looked like a race. People don't go to a dance competition to see racing. They go to the Olympics to see racing. For Sunday we had the job of changing our perspective from competing with the open couples to performing for the judges. Let them see just how good Wright Rhythm's couples can be.
The transformation was as clear as night and day, and so was the leap in the school's results. I think over the course of the day our school was fortunate (or skilled) enough to find itself with a finalist in every event it entered. By the evening events we found ourselves with several four dance finalist who would now demonstrate their ability against just five other carefully selected dancers. The medallists were pulling back territory and by the end of the weekend we had successfully reminded all the other schools that the Camber dance floor is our domain. Particular praise I believe should go to Rob and Debbie who wiped the floor with the other couples, proving their superiority, and Jonathan and Hannah who, having only just gone up to juniors, made the finals of their event beating off determined competition from their older rivals.
Any way, the weekend now over, and at least a month ago, our school is back on the Blackpool training track. But have they taken the lessons they learned that weekend with them to show that, not only can they beat the open dancers, but also they are national champions.