FUN IN THE SUN 2009
Well, what a great weekend we had in Orlando, the Fun In The Sun in the Fun Capitol of the World. It was hot outside but even hotter on the dance floor, and I'm not talking about the temperature. Jason and Jen did their usual great job of throwing a giant party for all their dance friends. They always make sure there's lot of open dancing and we just had a super duper time. Hope you will put it on your calendar for next year!! Everyone ALMOST got to see the space shuttle take off but it rained so they postponed it. I was hoping it would be something even more memorable to share. I like this hotel and the rooms are spacious and there's good places in the hotel to eat and many places close by to go to and the shuttle will take you where you want to go to eat or to the mall. It's also very close to the airport so the transition getting there is super easy. Very nice and friendly staff and everything seemed to run smoothly with the hotel. The dinner was good on Saturday night and of course the registration and all that stuff ran like clockwork. I don't think there has ever been more relaxed event directors than Jason and Jen. They have everything organized ahead of time and they just enjoy the party. It always amazes me. Everyone on the staff is so into helping and they even make laying the floors look like fun and IT'S NOT!! All of the demos ran smoothly with Rob Glover as the emcee with the great personality.
The Saturday night Show was entertaining and started off with a performance by a group from The Villages called Sweet and Sexy, taught by Christine Bass. Their outfits were black with these neat rhinestone ties. They looked very professional. "The Boys," Roberto and Adam, performed a hip hop routine. We had a performance by the Chili Chicks accompanied by a vocal by Celia Loren (I hope I got the correct name!). They were so enthusiastic and stayed and took lessons and danced all weekend and said they just had a blast. What an adorable bunch of young women. I hope this will be one of many events they participate in. Rob Glover did another dance number with Roberto and Adam and then Adam and Carrie did a couples routine. Rob Glover kept everything running smoothly with his funny English humor. There were really excellent raffle prizes with weekend passes and a 50/50 drawing. Roberto and Adam made shirts honoring Big Jim that they sold for $15. I asked them to let me know if people could order them after the event. I thought that was so thoughtful of them to do that. JIM WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY MISSED!!! We all hope he gets better soon because we NEED him back!! I think Erin McClellan made a video of the show to share with him and he will be so thrilled. I also missed seeing George and Marge Winnegar. They have always come to the event and we are hoping that George will be felling better soon, too. We miss you guys!!
The party started on Thursday night with lots and lots of open dancing until the wee hours of the morning. Louie played a great mix all weekend and there was old and new and in between, easy and difficult, and just what anyone wanted played. I think we danced every dance on the top of the survey more than once and I would say some of the really popular ones were requested more than once and filled the floor:
Poker Face/CraigBennett/intermediate
Miami by Guyton Mundy and Will Craig
Mojo Rhythm/Rob Fowler/Intermediate
Coochie Bang Bang-Blevins-Intermediate (taught this weekend. I love this dance)
Tango Cha/Thompson-Szymanski & Szekely/Int
My Veronica-Peter Metelnick & Allison Biggs/ Begin/Inter
Roomba/GuytonMundy/intermediate (taught this weekend)
Life Without You/Maggie Gallagher/Intermediate (taught this weekend)
Jai Ho, Amy Christian-Sohn. This was done a lot and you haven't seen it done until you see Junior and Guyton doing it. LOL. Very popular one this weekend and it looks great on the floor.
Guantanamera-Kim Ray-Int
Make My Day-Francien Sittrop-Beg/Int.
Jessie James/Rachael McEnaney/int (taught this weekend)
U Turn-Robbie McGowan-Hickie-Beg-Int (taught this weekend)
Zjozzy's Funk/Petra Velden/Beginner
Amame-Robbie/McGowan-Hickie/Int
Broken Glass/Scott Blevins/Intermediate-Advanced (taught this weekend)
Hush Hush-Musk/Advanced (taught this weekend)
Toes/Rachel McEnaney/Beg-Int (I really like this easy, little dance)
Cuban Kiss-Niels B Poulsen/Int-adv (I wanted to do this more)
Higher and Higher/Perry/Inter (It was fun to do this with Max leading the way)
Feel/ScottBlevins/Int (I never get tired of this one)
Food Chain/Scott Blevins/Int (taught this weekend)
Insomnia-Walton/Intermediate (still filling the floor)
Not Like That/RobbieMcGowan Hickey/I (this one is always popular)
Purple Rain-McEnaney/Intermediate (another one I never get tired of doing)
Faith In Love/Junior Willis & Craig Bennett/Intermediate (Love this one with Junior leading the way)
There were lots more played but those were really popular. Louie made a point of playing all the dances that were taught during the weekend. You'll be hearing about everyone's favorites but if I had to pick a few that I noticed or heard about that got a lot of attention on the weekend it would be
COOCHIE BANG BANG, Scott Blevins. LET ME LOVE YOU, Rachael M., taught by Marilyn McNeal. Beautiful dance and music. I liked Guyton's HEY! HEY! GOODBYE. This one isn't difficult and it's fun music. Anyone could learn it. MAD WORLD by Maurice Rowe. What a great dance. Be sure and look at the video. Lots of turns but I think this is going to be a big dance for Maurice. I love the little fan kicks. MIAMI is Guyton's and Will Craig's new one and it really isn't difficult. The class and floor were packed. This is another one that people wanted to do over and over and Jason Cameron was out there leading the pack. He was so cute in his Big Jim shirt. TOES, Rachael M., taught by Maurice. This is just a fun little dance that would be popular in all your classes and every level will enjoy it. NEED YOUR LOVIN', Max Perry. A Motown kind of tune with a smooth dance by Max. BROKEN GLASS by Scott. I need to take this lesson again but I had taken four classes by then and said NO WAY!! JESSE JAMES, Rachael M., taught by Marilyn. This is one that is growing in popularity. COMIC STRIP by Zac Detweiler. This is a cute dance that's a parody of all the Guyton moves incorporated into an easy little fun dance. HOW DO YOU SLEEP by Junior Willis. I really liked this dance but same thing, I was tired and didn't take the class but I will the next chance I get. HUSH HUSH was taught by Sandy Albano. I REALLY wanted to learn this dance but they changed it from Saturday to Sunday and I left before it was taught. Another on my "to learn" list. PLATANOS, Amy Spencer. I really liked this one. SAN FRANCISCO CHA, Kathy Hunyadi. To that music about going to San Francisco and wearing flowers in your hair. This music is too sentimental to me in my life and it makes me cry so I haven't learned it but it's a very nice dance. FOOD CHAIN, Scott Blevins. This one filled the floor. Max taught a blast from the past, DEJA VU, one of my all-time favorites and Kathy taught another oldie favorite EVERGREEN. It was fun doing those two. Amy Christian-Sohn's dance, NEVER GONNA GET IT, is really cute!! Arline taught LIFE WITHOUT YOU, by Maggie G. This is another one that is moving up the charts and filled the floor this weekend. Zac taught his and Patrick Fleming's SWING-N-CHA that people keep noticing and teaching more and more when they see it danced. You should take a look at this one. Amy Spencer did a funky contra dance called U A FREAK that everyone was having fun with. Tom Clemons taught MOJO RHYTHM and you know how popular this one is. JAI HO by Amy Christian-Sohn was taught by Junior. He just loves to do this dance and it's priceless watching him. Jennifer Cameron taught a soul line dance called SHE'S THE ONE to a packed class. I left early on Sunday to get home to Lucy and Lola but Marilyn taught SHOPPING. I liked the demo for this one. I took one of Rob Glover's classes for Sambalera. What a great class that was!! I learned so much from him in such an entertaining fashion. No wonder they asked him to teach the dance team at Harvard. If you get a chance to take any of his classes I would highly recommend it. It was amazing to see what he taught in the hip hop class. Amazing. Tom Clemons also taught SHATTERED and lots of people told me they liked this one. We've been doing it at the Roundup and it's a fun dance. I know I didn't mention every dance BUT Stacy gathered all the videos that she could find at the bottom of the report so you can check them out for yourselves. Just click on the link below.
LINK OF ALL THE DANCES TAUGHT AT FUN IN THE SUN (with videos with many of them). Thanks, Stacy for gathering them all in one place.
http://worldlinedancenewsletter.com/EventVideos_Fits2009.html
You missed a great party if you weren't able to come. THANK YOU SO MUCH, Jason and Jennifer, for a wonderful weekend dancing and seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Can't wait to do it all over again next year.
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