Laurab was it you who ran and fell down a child's grave in a cemetry? You climbed out of it thus averting a double-decker burial?

Omg! Are you stalking me?!

PM me

Karen, Matthew and co do the day shift which ends in the afternoon, certainly by 6pm. They really earn their money, staying on their feet all the time. Say 400 couples flash past the judges in the first round, this ginormous total cut down to say 250 in the second round, then say 120 in the third round. In each round there will be 4 dances, so for the first round 1600 marks will need to be given by 8 judges between them. Some candidates invest say £3,000 and countless hours of practice to get to Blackpool and live their dream. I am sure Matthew and Karen will be conscientious to the utmost in marking on merit. Each dance lasts 100 seconds, and some gentlemen forget the importance of showing the number pinned on their back to the judges. If a gentleman faces all judges all the time, the couple would simply be unmarkarkable, and the couple will be out.

Karen wears 3-inch heels. She was spotted across the dance floor taking her left foot out of high heels for relief. By contrast I took both feet out of my leather shoes, so there.

Are the ballgowns and lights and music in the ballroom a contrived illusion and escape from reality? Wonderful question. I would also question if the 90% UK house price rises 2001-2006 were founded on reality, whether UK's plastic debts highest in the world have a real basis, whether Bernard Madoff's respectability in the highest financial circles was ever real.

If the human heart needs beauty and warmth and music and colour and above all the harmony of partnership, I believe that is a reality expressible by body language by 16yos to 70yos, as I saw for myself. The most creative dancers are incredibly anxious about artistic integrity, that they portray the spirit and the heart, not falling back on tricks of superlative technique. Reality and value is always an interesting question, thanks for raising same.

So would the judges do a 6-7hr "shift" ??,i had no idea really of the scale of this event....would that be 400 couples on the dance floor at one time ..........or have i got that completely wrong


I get what you're saying soulmate,we all have different "realities" in life and for the next few days this is yours ...........and for most competing/judging it IS their life and not surreal at all

There's not 400 on the floor at one time, they'd be broken down into smaller heats.

The judges do get some kind of break, especially if there's another competition that they're not required to judge, for example, Thursday night's exhibition competition (from what I remember) has a different judging panel to that, say of the latin or ballroom rounds.

16 couples on the floor at any one time (first go for numbers 1-16, next 17-32 etc), so it takes 25 heats for 400 dancers to each have a go at the cha cha. But they then have the samba, rumba, paso to do, so 100 heats in all, 1600 separate marks.

It is dancing on an industrial scale. In a 7-round contest all finalists will have danced 28 times, often in 1 day, from 10am thru to midnight. There is no fluking a win, and no slacking. Dancers know what they are in for, but can of course withdraw at any time by giving notice. Professional dancers apparently take it in their stride.

I understand the scale now soulmate........it is hard to comprehend if you know nothing about the dance world.

Have a good evening

Tonight the over-35 latin winner was decided. Whereas over-35 ballroom involved over-50 contestants, the over-35 latin Final seemed to involve only 35-and-a-half-year-olds. This was won by Gwenael Lavigne of France partnering platinum blonde Stephanie Godet. She always stood out for me but I was at the other end of the floor without binoculars.

Regrettably no front row for me tonight. The top brass commandeered my customary chair famously shaken by quickstep. I tried second row at the far end (in soccer pitch terms behind the goalmouth). But only nohopers chose to dance there where no judges stood. I then went upstairs and found a seat at the front of the gallery. It was too far away. I need to be close enough to see contestants' eyes and women's faces (I only have eyes for women), also their feet, and how they hold themsleves and react to the unexpected.

From upstairs all I could see was swirling ballgowns. The music selected was better tonight, and the best taste in ballgowns surfaced, and I had a feeling some of the ladies were wearing real diamonds. In fact the heavy artillery was rolled out in the Professional Rising Stars ballroom Final. Compere Marcus Hilton pointed out that the winner of this event frequently went on in following years to win the Ballroom Championship and become best in the world. There was crisp and fearless attack tonight, the birthright of winners. After 8 hours and 24 dances six finalists emerged fresh as a daisy, the flower of Europe. Four out of their six ballgowns were white, three of them with silver trimmings. The fourth one worn by the beautiful Lithuanian Edita Daniute was plain white with no adornments whatsoever, and with no ruffles(?) or layers to give a bell shape, so that hers could have been worn as a long Royal Ascot dress. If minimalist Armani designed a ballgown this would have been it. She appeared to wear no necklace either. It occurred to me any woman who dared to go into battle so lightly armed against heavy artilery has the inner assurance of beauty and talent.

The fifth ballgown, worn by the sole Englishwoman, was mainly dark and stood out very well for rarity and sharp definition, with its wearer eventually finishing an extremely meritorious fourth out of 256.

The sixth ballgown was -- I knew it had to come -- in gold, with a dark top. It seemed arrogant or tempting fate to wear gold before winning gold. It occurred to me that whereas minimalist White Gown did not feel the need to announce a foregone conclusion maximalist Gold Gown did not mind announcing same before winning. In the event White Gown beat Gold Gown into second place but it was a close-run thing. Gold Gown beat White Gown on one dance at least, I think the waltz.

So there you are, your poor correspondent up in the gods was reduced to picking winners from ballgowns. I need an idea to get back to the front row even if off-centre. Not much chance though without a DJ and black tie for the coming big occasions. Without privileged observation there will be no penetrating reports on the latin Final on Wednesday and ballroom Final on Friday.

I had much more fun sitting in the front row looking at 18yo girls three feet away who had nothing to lose. Grownups are such spoilsports. If I can't sit in the front row Mrs Wilson I won't play.

You gonna have some competition there, biatch! I've come prepared . . . wait until you see what I've got for Wednesday night . . . !

See you later hun, looking forward to it!

Oh god, you've got a loudspeaker..or one of those airhorn things!

See you sooooon

Thank you for that update soulmate!! Hopefully you'll be able to get a front row seat..

Great reporting Soulmate, it sounds fantastic!

How much does it cost to go and watch?

I am hoping we will go next year, our teacher and his partner are both only 17 but planning to compete next year and our class are thinking of going along to support...

I take it couple no 82 is an English couple ??

They're Polish.

Even better than that!

And by the looks of it very good!!

Day tickets are £27, season ticket covers entry for 7 days. The two days excluded are the first Thursday (Opening Day) at £9 and the Sunday at £14.50. Because of the industrial size of the entry-level contests (Amateur Rising Stars ballroom 258, latin 482), latin carries on for those who survive elimination through Friday, Saturday, Sunday, concluding at 7pm on Sunday, with ballroom concluding at 1:30pm on Sunday.

But there is also the mega-enthusiastic under-21 latin and under-21 ballroom compos, each concluded within one day, so that one-day supporters could arrive in Blackpool in the morning and stay in town for one night only. End of May is still low season in Blackpool, and for £29 a night very good hotel rooms (e.g. Presidents Hotel near the Imperial) can be had along the seafront within 20 minutes walk of the ballroom in Winter Gardens. The UK-highest rides are a tram-ride away and Lytham-St Annes a bus ride away.

The Festival programme at 272 pages is the bible of the week, available for £6 from www.blackpooldancefestival.com. Frontrow seat are easy to secure during daytime rounds by the determined but only for the super determined and resourceful for nighttime deciders. It is an enriching experience hard to reproduce in words. I would call it a 5D experience -- 3 dimensions of space, the dimension of time (7 rounds to reach the pinnacle, phew).

The fifth dimension. Joanna Leunis last Sunday demonstrated how different parts of her body moved. Last Saturday the South Aftrican Exhibition Dance World Champions explained how their death-defying moves were founded on understanding and strength of mind. For good measure the 9-stone girl lifted the 15-stone man using skilful leverage. Evidently dancers learn things about their body. I believe many young dancers go through a very rich emotional experience at Blackpool from what I saw in the front row. A shower of accessories fall on the floor during every dance, but even the few dancers who fell on the floor did not mind too much.

The same venue also houses the Sequence Dance Festival 18-20 Oct 2009 for adults (17th for children).

Brits-only Dance Championships 19-21 Nov 2009 (sadly the only compo Brits can win now?)

The Dance Festival for Juniors 5-11 April 2010

Blackpool Festival 27MAY2010 - 04JUN2010

Tango-with-Tim, good luck to your teacher and partner !

Ah but to be fair there are some of us who can't wear minimalist white and look better in maximalist gold and so lack of modesty might not have been a factor! She wasn't a redhead by any chance?

It all sounds quite tactical getting through the early rounds at least e.g. dancing in the right area of the dance floor, ensuring the judges can see your number.

http://cs.dancesportinfo.net/Articles/6421.aspx -

pics above of the top 3 ballroom girls, White vs Gold -- would you say the white gown is silk or satin? My mistake, Edita did wear a necklace. It appears Edita won the same competition in 2007. Anyone who has not previously reached the Final of the Ballroom Open is eligible to re-enter in the Rising Stars Ballroom.

Tonight the under-21 ballroom was decided. I arrived at 9pm to find the front row full of ex world champions. I managed to find a pretty good seat in the 5th row which was elevated so I could easily see over the heads in front, but not the feet of dancers. Frontrow rapport with dancers is missed as dance is personal to me, and dancers know I respond. Will have to arrive even earlier for latin on Wednesday night, it will be like the World Cup Final. Friday night will be like Wimbledon Men's Final.

Latin Final standard can be gauged by Kristina's record in it. In 2007 she made the Semi-final of 12 but not the Final of 6, so our incomparable Kristina's 2007 Blackpool ranking was at best 7th and at worst 12th. With every supernova in the world coming to Blackpool, it would take a superstar to make even Semi-final.

Tonight was the Under-21 Amateur Ballroom. I am not sure the teenage girls were completely comfortable with the dangling fabric accessoriess, with some of these flying up on occasion covering their hair-do. There were 3 major collisions. In the tango one boy reversed without looking in the rear mirror and smashed (CRUNCH) into the couple behind. In another dance a man's elbow or arm smashed into the back of another girl's head (ouch). Worst of all, one onrushing couple in the quickstep smashed into a stationary couple in front knocking the girl flat to the floor. A danger sport this dancing lark, a boxing referee might have called a mandatory count of 8 . Like teenagers everywhere everyone leapt up and carried on as if nothing happened. Compere Marcus Hilton pleaded with them 3 times to take care, quoting Fred Astaire no less: "Ginger does everything I do, but she does it going backwards wearing high heels."

I previously compared the Over-35 quicksteps to GNER Intercity. The Under-21 quicksteps tonight had to be like France's record-breaking SNCF train. I could not see their feet, but saw one couple apparently floating or flying. Were their names Peter Pan and Wendy? Teenagers, such fun, ha ha ha!

In the end a Russian couple beat a Polish couple, with England an outstanding 3rd considering they supplied only 12 candidates out of 175.

In the Amateur Latin Russia beat Croatia. England's Neil Jones and Ekaterina Sokolova made 6th place. The Croatian girl was a flaming redhead. What colour should a redhead wear to best effect? In the quarter-final she wore flaming red, looking like 2 fires had broken out independently. In the Semi-final she changed to gold. I thought red and gold were arguing who was boss ending in stalemate. In the Final she did much better, wearing black with silver trimmings to concede primacy to flame hair. To me her redness was the pivotal feature which other colours had to support. Might it work to take a leaf out of nature's book? For a green dress to complement her hair like luscious foliage complementing a red rose?

Good luck to Becca's Melia.
Good luck to Laura's Joanna.
I am neutral. I value my life.

Still loving your reports and your eye for detail

You are an absolute treasure sm

My friend came 10th in amateur Latin . . . that's 10th in the whole world . . . I'm so happy for her.

Many congratulations to

Dorin and Roselina

I agree with Jammy, wish I was in Blackpool with you soulmate, especially as Matthew is judging

Blimey, all those crashes make it sound like our dance class, and we normally get a max of 5 couples!

I personally am a fan of red hair, my husband is a redhead.
The problem for dancers is that dresses are normally very brightly coloured to stand out, so whatever colour they are they will clash with bright hair. Redheads can normally get away with most colours, but they have to be softer shades, IMHO.

Green is normally the fail-safe choice to go with red hair (or black as you mentionned, to allow the hair supremacy!) However as a dancer you can't stick to only green or black for every dress!

Btw, she didn't have the orange tan as well did she??

Thank you soulmate for another update!! What a crashes indeed, you wouldn't really expect that. Red heads and dresses, green, black... how about purple??

Becca congrats on your friend!! 10th in the whole world, how amazing!