Any feedback from Binghamton or Stony Brook?

[NielsenE]

So I spent an interesting weekend at both Binghamton's competition on Saturday and Stony Brook's on Sunday (results for both should be up later tonight).

Just wanted to start a thread for any competitors to chime in with feedback. Both were on the smaller side, but that kept things easy to manage.

[Kitty]

Oh, great that you started a thread!

I was at Stony Brook and though it was a very nicely organized and ran competition. I actually very much liked the size of it - I thought it had a cozy feel, but then I went to Stony Brook and felt at home too:-). What an amazing feeling, dancing a competition at home, in a ballroom where so many events took place for me: socials, conventions, presentations, formal dinners, performances, and more socials:-) And now a competition!

The venue is absolutely beautiful. I loved the projection screens - they were huge, couldn't miss them if I tried! A smaller (but huge) ballroom served as a warm up space, with another screen to watch callbacks!
I will be bragging here, but I have to say I thought the set up was one of the best I've ever seen, with everything you might need at hand, including a top-quality cafeteria in the same building very close to the ballrooms:-).

I especially liked the MC! Would like to see him at comps more often:-) And thank you Eric for scrutineering! Two comps in one weekend, how do you do that?

I didn't understand what was the rush with running the open smooth and standard earlier than the time in the schedule. That didn't give us any time to warm up whatsoever! We also got VERY stressed because of no warmup and because we were constantly rushed when we were changing into our costumes. We could have danced a lot better if we weren't so nervous. Also there was no break between open smooth and standard and the cross-registered couple had to dance two open multidance events in a row. They were exhausted.
Also one or two songs for couples to try the floor before an open event would be nice.
On a positive side I really liked that they didn't play the music too short in the open standard event. Sometimes DJs/organizers tend to do that when the event is not heavily contested, but this time we got to finish our routines... Very nice.

Looking forward to dancing at the second annual Stony Brook Competition.

[NielsenE]

I didn't understand what was the rush with running the open smooth and standard earlier than the time in the schedule. That didn't give us any time to warm up whatsoever! We also got VERY stressed because of no warmup and because we were constantly rushed when we were changing into our costumes. We could have danced a lot better if we weren't so nervous. Also there was no break between open smooth and standard and the cross-registered couple had to dance two open multidance events in a row. They were exhausted.


I guess there must have been different schedules. since according to one at the head table, we were about 10 minutes behind at that point.... Plus people should be ready to dance up-to 30 minutes early...

[Kitty]

I guess there must have been different schedules. since according to one at the head table, we were about 10 minutes behind at that point.... Plus people should be ready to dance up-to 30 minutes early...

Don't know about multiple schedules, I was using the one from the website or email.. according to that schedule we were supposed to have another 15-20 minutes at least for warmup.


But what you are saying is true, we'll definitely going to allow ourselves more time for travel and will try to get to the venue earlier in the future... lesson learned.

[NielsenE]

Interesting, I'm not sure what happened then... the website shows 11am for open standard/smooth, my data shows that it was run at about 11:20. I'm not sure what the email said though

[Kitty]

Results for Stony Brook are are up! :-)