Rehoboth Beach Square Dance Weekend Report
May. 3rd, 2010 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisI was late getting out of bed Friday morning: I slept very poorly so I was in no hurry to pull myself together to face the day. Despite my sluggishness, we collectively packed our bags and sound systems into the minivan and were on the road to Rehoboth Beach, DE, by noon, right on schedule.
Traffic was relatively light, all things considered. The weather was warm and clear so a lot of people went to the beach this weekend but we were in front of that particular human wave. We arrived by 3:30pm, dropped our bags in our room at The Breakers Hotel and installed the audio equipment in two of the three dance halls.
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kent4str and I were scheduled to host the open house in one of the smaller dance halls 7-8pm Friday night. We were at our post but not a single dancer showed up. We weren't surprised in the slightest: at 7pm on a Friday night, most normal people are still commuting from work or having dinner. Only the die-hard square dancers were in any of the dance halls: by definition, those not yet initiated into the wonders of square dancing aren't typically among that die-hard crowd. We were confident there would be vastly more at the Saturday evening open house.
kent4str, cuyahogarvr and I danced a number of tips, shifting between the A2, C1 and C2 spaces easily as the schedule (and desperate calls of "we need one more dancer to fill a square!") dictated. We didn't stay up too late: as soon as the raffle drawings were done, we returned to our room to get some rest.
Saturday morning's fun began with a C2 workshop where we worked on the disconnected and once-removed concepts. Good stuff!kent4str hosted the Mainstream GCA guest caller hour while I hosted the Plus GCA guest caller hour in the early afternoon. We had a full roster of callers (Zip Warmerdam, Dan Faust, Abe Feldman, Alan Hirsch, Kent and myself) and at least one square dancing each hour.
We had a nice dinner at Los Locos across the street from the convention center.kent4str ordered a marguerita:
Twenty-eight ounces of booze! Oy!
kent4str and I flogged 50/50 tickets through the evening at the IAGSDC banner dance. In all, I think there was about $650 raised in total; Dave from Times Squares won half as the jackpot.
Sunday began even earlier than Saturday: 9am. I danced some C2 early on, then took a break to pack our stuff in our hotel room before hosting the second GCA guest caller Mainstream hall. I didn't call any during this block as we had a full slate but I added myself to the caller list forkent4str's GCA A2 hour after lunch.
My Advanced set was very successful, I think, with two personal firsts: this was my first time on the big stage at the convention hall. I've called in lots of little rooms but the atmosphere is very different in the main hall: one is elevated enough to see all of the squares instead of just the one or two immediately in front. The sense of acoustics is far different too. My other personal victory was that I sight-called nearly my entire set smoothly and a good variety of calls and formations; by plan, I read scripted figures for only my intro and my closer. I've been working on that a great deal lately, trying to sight-resolve my Advanced sets as comfortably as I do my Mainstream and Plus. Yay!
Checking out was a smooth process. We have reservations already for next year's fly-in weekend. The drive home was uneventful although I still have some unpacking to do.
Our next major square dance event: the IAGSDC convention in Chicago!
Traffic was relatively light, all things considered. The weather was warm and clear so a lot of people went to the beach this weekend but we were in front of that particular human wave. We arrived by 3:30pm, dropped our bags in our room at The Breakers Hotel and installed the audio equipment in two of the three dance halls.
kent4str and I were scheduled to host the open house in one of the smaller dance halls 7-8pm Friday night. We were at our post but not a single dancer showed up. We weren't surprised in the slightest: at 7pm on a Friday night, most normal people are still commuting from work or having dinner. Only the die-hard square dancers were in any of the dance halls: by definition, those not yet initiated into the wonders of square dancing aren't typically among that die-hard crowd. We were confident there would be vastly more at the Saturday evening open house.kent4str, cuyahogarvr and I danced a number of tips, shifting between the A2, C1 and C2 spaces easily as the schedule (and desperate calls of "we need one more dancer to fill a square!") dictated. We didn't stay up too late: as soon as the raffle drawings were done, we returned to our room to get some rest.Saturday morning's fun began with a C2 workshop where we worked on the disconnected and once-removed concepts. Good stuff!
kent4str hosted the Mainstream GCA guest caller hour while I hosted the Plus GCA guest caller hour in the early afternoon. We had a full roster of callers (Zip Warmerdam, Dan Faust, Abe Feldman, Alan Hirsch, Kent and myself) and at least one square dancing each hour.We had a nice dinner at Los Locos across the street from the convention center.
kent4str ordered a marguerita:Twenty-eight ounces of booze! Oy!
kent4str and I flogged 50/50 tickets through the evening at the IAGSDC banner dance. In all, I think there was about $650 raised in total; Dave from Times Squares won half as the jackpot.Sunday began even earlier than Saturday: 9am. I danced some C2 early on, then took a break to pack our stuff in our hotel room before hosting the second GCA guest caller Mainstream hall. I didn't call any during this block as we had a full slate but I added myself to the caller list for
kent4str's GCA A2 hour after lunch.My Advanced set was very successful, I think, with two personal firsts: this was my first time on the big stage at the convention hall. I've called in lots of little rooms but the atmosphere is very different in the main hall: one is elevated enough to see all of the squares instead of just the one or two immediately in front. The sense of acoustics is far different too. My other personal victory was that I sight-called nearly my entire set smoothly and a good variety of calls and formations; by plan, I read scripted figures for only my intro and my closer. I've been working on that a great deal lately, trying to sight-resolve my Advanced sets as comfortably as I do my Mainstream and Plus. Yay!
Checking out was a smooth process. We have reservations already for next year's fly-in weekend. The drive home was uneventful although I still have some unpacking to do.
Our next major square dance event: the IAGSDC convention in Chicago!
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Date: 2010-05-03 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 04:36 pm (UTC)