My review...
On Fri night, after a busy week and with a headache, I was tired and didn't want to dance. But I enjoyed sitting in the WCS room and watching - the room was really busy and there was lots of fab dancing going on.
Classes
On Sat I only did a couple of classes as I didn't want to overload my brain! One with each of the two teaching pairs. I really enjoyed the connection technique class with Robert and Nicola. I get excited when dance teachers start talking technique instead of moves - I know the leaders need the moves and patterns too, but I want to get to grips with how to actually do the dance, and why certain things are done. Robert explained it all really well with exercises that illustrated the right and wrong way. Plenty of material for me to work on - and best of all, things I can work on even while not getting to do much practice with partners (which I can't do with patterns). Also sat in on the musiciality workshop - interesting to learn some new terms for what's going on in the music.
Non dancing bits
Thanks to SuzyQ for organising the apartments - enjoyed getting to know a few other forumites a bit better.
Nice to be able to eat lunch in the venue while sitting listening in on another class. I also couldn't resist the beautiful sunny afternoon by the seaside and a walk along the pier was definitely in order.
Sadly had to miss the novice strictly swing heats as I needed time to eat, shower and change for the evening. (And watch Doctor Who 'cos I'd forgotten to set the video). Maybe could there be a break next time early evening for eating etc?
Competition
Really enjoyed watching the competitions as they showed the different styles there can be in WCS. Well done to all who competed for giving it a go. The standard in all the finals was fab - glad we had really experienced judges making the decisions!
Perfomances
What I can say about the performances? Excellent and inspiring. And that after a long day of teaching and judging.
Freestyle
From a personal point of view I haven't been enjoying dancing so much recently and so initially wasn't actually dancing much and wasn't asking anyone to dance. Often at weekend events there is a dance when I start to pick up the pace and my 'weekender mood' kicks in, and this time it was a really fun WCS with a forumite (thanks ) where I almost felt I could WCS - and although I still danced a lot less than I usually do, I enjoyed all my dances from then on.
There were more people in the MJ room on Sat night - and it was lovely and cool so I spent some time in there, but kept getting drawn back to the main room to watch and absorb WCS while I could.
As well as all the bits that made up a good event, overall there was a feeling, for me at least, that this was a special event - the first big WCS event and comp in the UK. I think WCS will be growing and its nice to have been at that first event. Well done John & Wes!
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