So how was Reno?
- Thread starter danceguy
- Start date
SDsalsaguy
Administrator
I'm off to campus for the day... first day of classes for the Spring quartre and all, but will post my "review" tonight.
Vince A
Active Member
Although the event, for a first event, overall it was a success. Scheduling of events, competitions, and workshops, still need to be worked out. I would have hired or had someone who had previously put on an event, on hand to give suggestions, and maybe they did. I love the location, the short drive up, and the mix of dancers. I commend the event directors and staff who seemed totally worn out!
We shared a room, and had the best roommate that anyone could hope for. Had a short 3 minute drive back and forth to the event each day. We left early in the AM, and came back the next AM. Yes . . it was dance, dance, dance for some. I sustained an injury (I thik a broken big toe) that swelled so much by Saturday, that I was having a difficult walking, but not dancing. I danced less than I normally go. The toe is very swollen today and quite "blue."
It was my first time to watch Lindy dancers live and in person. Needless to say, I was in awe. WOW, talk about energy. I was actually worn out just watching. It was also the first time I was able to observe Damon (d nice) in action in other than private lessons with him. What can I say . . . he is an amazing Lindy dancer - hip hop too . . . he is what he says he is . . . have no doubts!
I already know a few Lindy moves that I want to incorporate into my WCS, so I need to get with Damon to learn those particular moves. There were probably 30 to 50 strictly Lindy dancers on the Lindy floor at any time. Some were also on the WCS floor!
The Salsa floor was dead until Jonathan (SDsalsaguy), Robert Campos (my wife's Pro), and I went in. Robert and I were drooling over the Salseras' outfits, or lack of, and I was in heat!
Jonathan immediately went to dance. He "melted" the floor with his abilities, and he wore out woman after woman! He is another who is what he says he is! The Salsa floor eventually got busy soon after that, as all the Salseros came out of the woodwork! It seemed like a contest between them and SD, although it wasn't. SD just enjoyed his dancing.
Another terrific dancer from the DF was there - dancergal - or Pam. She is a very good WCS dancer and lots of fun to dance with. Her boyfriend, Wayne, is also a good WCS dancer.
ScottieK, was there, as Damon said, but I never met him.
To those of you who have read the "Is Swing Dead" posts here in the DF . . . . . . don't you believe it. If you walked out on the Swing floor at any given time, there was probably more than a 1000 Swing dancers on it! Lindy and WCS is very much alive people!
If you are not a Lindy or WCS dancer . . . you should be!
I will attend the event next year . . . but maybe not the 3-hour show on Saturday night. It was packed with talented dancers, who did other than dance, although some did. I compare it to a 3-hour talent, as my roommate called it! I agreed! Maybe it will get better as the event grows.
Food was great, and other than the first day of 60 mph winds in Reno, the weather was terrific. The Hilton and it's staff was excellent.
I met some great people, and even though my big toe hurt, got to dance with a few Pros who I've always wanted to dance with. I took one private lesson while there . . . we all have room to learn!
All in all, I can't wait until the next event comes up, which is in May! I had an absolutely perfect weekend - toe included!
We shared a room, and had the best roommate that anyone could hope for. Had a short 3 minute drive back and forth to the event each day. We left early in the AM, and came back the next AM. Yes . . it was dance, dance, dance for some. I sustained an injury (I thik a broken big toe) that swelled so much by Saturday, that I was having a difficult walking, but not dancing. I danced less than I normally go. The toe is very swollen today and quite "blue."
It was my first time to watch Lindy dancers live and in person. Needless to say, I was in awe. WOW, talk about energy. I was actually worn out just watching. It was also the first time I was able to observe Damon (d nice) in action in other than private lessons with him. What can I say . . . he is an amazing Lindy dancer - hip hop too . . . he is what he says he is . . . have no doubts!
I already know a few Lindy moves that I want to incorporate into my WCS, so I need to get with Damon to learn those particular moves. There were probably 30 to 50 strictly Lindy dancers on the Lindy floor at any time. Some were also on the WCS floor!
The Salsa floor was dead until Jonathan (SDsalsaguy), Robert Campos (my wife's Pro), and I went in. Robert and I were drooling over the Salseras' outfits, or lack of, and I was in heat!
Jonathan immediately went to dance. He "melted" the floor with his abilities, and he wore out woman after woman! He is another who is what he says he is! The Salsa floor eventually got busy soon after that, as all the Salseros came out of the woodwork! It seemed like a contest between them and SD, although it wasn't. SD just enjoyed his dancing.
Another terrific dancer from the DF was there - dancergal - or Pam. She is a very good WCS dancer and lots of fun to dance with. Her boyfriend, Wayne, is also a good WCS dancer.
ScottieK, was there, as Damon said, but I never met him.
To those of you who have read the "Is Swing Dead" posts here in the DF . . . . . . don't you believe it. If you walked out on the Swing floor at any given time, there was probably more than a 1000 Swing dancers on it! Lindy and WCS is very much alive people!
If you are not a Lindy or WCS dancer . . . you should be!
I will attend the event next year . . . but maybe not the 3-hour show on Saturday night. It was packed with talented dancers, who did other than dance, although some did. I compare it to a 3-hour talent, as my roommate called it! I agreed! Maybe it will get better as the event grows.
Food was great, and other than the first day of 60 mph winds in Reno, the weather was terrific. The Hilton and it's staff was excellent.
I met some great people, and even though my big toe hurt, got to dance with a few Pros who I've always wanted to dance with. I took one private lesson while there . . . we all have room to learn!
All in all, I can't wait until the next event comes up, which is in May! I had an absolutely perfect weekend - toe included!
dancergal
New Member
Vince, I do agree that the scheduling wasn't the best. Wayne got stuck all day Sat. in the main room waiting for the semi-finals and finals of the WCS Jack & Jill. They wouldn't give a time when it was going to happen, so he couldn't leave to eat or take a workshop class. He was so tired by the time they got around to announcing the finalists that he had to leave and take a break before coming back to dance later. By then it was 5:00 and he'd been there since 10:30 am. I really enjoyed the Hilton hotel. It's a beautiful hotel and had everything we needed there. I did like all the extra dance rooms for Salsa and Lindy. We really didn't spend too much time in either room, but did take a few minutes to watch SD dance in the Salsa room. We totally agree that he's a great dancer! I took a few workshops that were very informative and fun. Unlike you and your roommates, we thoughly enjoyed the Show and really like the break from just straight dancing. It was great to see the other talents from some of the dancers. I hope they keep that next year. As far as the band playing later, although it was really nice, they played mostly Lindy tunes and we couldn't dance for a few hours. I agree that I think we might try and go again next year if they have it again.
If this was the first event of this type, it's amazing there weren't more glitches. When you're planning a big event, it's hard to catch all the little details the first time around. And even if you know what the details are (a big if), it's virtually impossible to get enough volunteers to follow through on all of them. And it's way too expensive to hire someone.
Vince A
Active Member
Yes . . . recording artist Barbara Morrison (swing/blues). . . who was absolutely the greatest . . . I purchased her album that was for sale there . . . the band was also the greatest, but as dancergal said - it was mostly Lindy music, which was OK, but we didn't do much WCS dancing until the very end of their last set. I enjoyed watching d nice and other Lindy Hoppers go at it . . . such raw, unbridled energy!Spitfire said:
SDsalsaguy
Administrator
Ok, I know I’m a bit late with this response, but I got back late Sunday night and yesterday was the first day of classes for the spring quarter…*and* I had to read everything I’d missed over the previous 4 days!
I’d agree that, on the whole, the event was a success…but there certainly were many scheduling issues as well. I understand that this was a first time event but, as far as I understand it, the organizers were not new to the game. To me this means that hotel related glitches would have been more than understandable but scheduling ones less so. Just as an aside, the high winds delayed several flights in on Thursday night and some other instructors had car trouble, so my comments about scheduling issues aren’t about these instances. I’ll return to some particulars shortly…
I didn’t feel that Reno, as a place, had much to recommend it as a location in general, but the facility did seem well suited for the event. I should also say that the actual dance floors were all top notch – much better than what I’m used to seeing at most salsa and ballroom events.
Like Vince I’d have to say that my roommates weren’t too bad.
Wow Vince, I hadn’t reallized that your toe was actually broken…no wonder you kept saying it hurt!
It was interesting to see that many Lindy dancers all in one place, as I do not frequent Lindy clubs/events. Man do they have some energy! Aside from Lindy I saw Damon bust out a particularly sweet WCS on Thursday night. One couple was doing Lindy to a merengue on the salsa floor though, and I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out how that music made them feel like dancing the style they were. To each their own though, right? LOL
Vince is definitely right about the numbers. There were tons of swing dancers on the floor at some points.
It was great to see Vince and Carolyn again, and nice to finally meet Damon, Pam and Wayne.
For those who may not be familiar with it, the WCS community is incredibly friendly. I am still very new to WCS and the women there were all great about everything, in workshops and social dancing. Pam and Carolyn are definitely among this group who were incredibly welcoming and tolerant!
I found all of the workshops I went to—fairly evenly split between WCS and salsa—to be very good. As I posted in another thread I think that there is something to the criticism that the WCS workshops focused much more on the lead/follow of what they were teaching compared to the salsa workshops. While I didn’t have any problems with the salsa classes I do see how those newer to it could have had a harder time.
As for the show, I’m in Vince’s camp. The Dance numbers were all great, but I certainly could have done without the singing. If the event was a talent show for the dancers that would be different, but I honestly found myself almost dozing off a couple of times (keep in mind I was going on very little sleep) during the singing.
OK, now as far as the scheduling… ugh! The first workshops were scheduled for 2:00pm on Thursday and at 1:55pm one of the workshops was still TBA! At least a couple of classes a day seemed to get rescheduled and/or cancelled. Some instructors ran over, which screwed up both those coming into the room and those students trying to head elsewhere. Some classes were cancelled/postponed because the instructors’ competitions had been postponed. Seriously, how hard is it not to schedule an instructor (especially as they had *many* of them) after they were to compete? I did not like that the salsa floor was down the hall for both Thursday and Friday night. I also found the Saturday night schedule problematic. As I’ve already said I thought the non-dance numbers dragged out the show… beyond that, however, there were—for me—problems with the music line-ups thereafter. The concert ran from 11-12:30 and was predominantly Lindy as has already been mentioned. Only the smallest general floor out in the “lobby” was available for WCS during this time (and the *vast* majority of those in attendance were WCS dancers). The salsa DJ during this same period was the worst sort of LA DJ – every song was even faster than the one before it! This was a multiple genre event and this time span would have been the best one to get newer salsa dancers up on the floor into salsa…but no, the music being played was way turbo for any but the most experienced salseros/as to keep up. Grrrr…
In another salsa-problem vein, I hate to say it but one of the salsa instructors was also the only one who was particularly bad about using workshop time to advertise dance videos and salsa clothing. I mean seriously, a comment or two at the end that videos/DVDs are available if people are interested, but multiple times throughout the class?
I did, as this review will highlight, find many of the structural elements problematic. The people, however, were all top notch. I found the instructors to all be very friendly and approachable, as were all of the other dancers. My appreciation of and interest in WCS definitely went up a notch, and the people involved are no small part of that.
I’d agree that, on the whole, the event was a success…but there certainly were many scheduling issues as well. I understand that this was a first time event but, as far as I understand it, the organizers were not new to the game. To me this means that hotel related glitches would have been more than understandable but scheduling ones less so. Just as an aside, the high winds delayed several flights in on Thursday night and some other instructors had car trouble, so my comments about scheduling issues aren’t about these instances. I’ll return to some particulars shortly…
I didn’t feel that Reno, as a place, had much to recommend it as a location in general, but the facility did seem well suited for the event. I should also say that the actual dance floors were all top notch – much better than what I’m used to seeing at most salsa and ballroom events.
Like Vince I’d have to say that my roommates weren’t too bad.
Wow Vince, I hadn’t reallized that your toe was actually broken…no wonder you kept saying it hurt!
It was interesting to see that many Lindy dancers all in one place, as I do not frequent Lindy clubs/events. Man do they have some energy! Aside from Lindy I saw Damon bust out a particularly sweet WCS on Thursday night. One couple was doing Lindy to a merengue on the salsa floor though, and I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out how that music made them feel like dancing the style they were. To each their own though, right? LOL
Vince is definitely right about the numbers. There were tons of swing dancers on the floor at some points.
It was great to see Vince and Carolyn again, and nice to finally meet Damon, Pam and Wayne.
For those who may not be familiar with it, the WCS community is incredibly friendly. I am still very new to WCS and the women there were all great about everything, in workshops and social dancing. Pam and Carolyn are definitely among this group who were incredibly welcoming and tolerant!
I found all of the workshops I went to—fairly evenly split between WCS and salsa—to be very good. As I posted in another thread I think that there is something to the criticism that the WCS workshops focused much more on the lead/follow of what they were teaching compared to the salsa workshops. While I didn’t have any problems with the salsa classes I do see how those newer to it could have had a harder time.
As for the show, I’m in Vince’s camp. The Dance numbers were all great, but I certainly could have done without the singing. If the event was a talent show for the dancers that would be different, but I honestly found myself almost dozing off a couple of times (keep in mind I was going on very little sleep) during the singing.
OK, now as far as the scheduling… ugh! The first workshops were scheduled for 2:00pm on Thursday and at 1:55pm one of the workshops was still TBA! At least a couple of classes a day seemed to get rescheduled and/or cancelled. Some instructors ran over, which screwed up both those coming into the room and those students trying to head elsewhere. Some classes were cancelled/postponed because the instructors’ competitions had been postponed. Seriously, how hard is it not to schedule an instructor (especially as they had *many* of them) after they were to compete? I did not like that the salsa floor was down the hall for both Thursday and Friday night. I also found the Saturday night schedule problematic. As I’ve already said I thought the non-dance numbers dragged out the show… beyond that, however, there were—for me—problems with the music line-ups thereafter. The concert ran from 11-12:30 and was predominantly Lindy as has already been mentioned. Only the smallest general floor out in the “lobby” was available for WCS during this time (and the *vast* majority of those in attendance were WCS dancers). The salsa DJ during this same period was the worst sort of LA DJ – every song was even faster than the one before it! This was a multiple genre event and this time span would have been the best one to get newer salsa dancers up on the floor into salsa…but no, the music being played was way turbo for any but the most experienced salseros/as to keep up. Grrrr…
In another salsa-problem vein, I hate to say it but one of the salsa instructors was also the only one who was particularly bad about using workshop time to advertise dance videos and salsa clothing. I mean seriously, a comment or two at the end that videos/DVDs are available if people are interested, but multiple times throughout the class?
I did, as this review will highlight, find many of the structural elements problematic. The people, however, were all top notch. I found the instructors to all be very friendly and approachable, as were all of the other dancers. My appreciation of and interest in WCS definitely went up a notch, and the people involved are no small part of that.
dancergal
New Member
Now that you mentioned is SD and Vince, the singing part of the show was not the best and I thought was off-key too. I could see someone falling asleep to it. :? But I really enjoyed the rest of the dancing and especially Cristo man. How cool was that? I didn't know someone could move every muscle in his body in such a cool way. Also when they had the live band playing in the main room, and it was mostly Lindy, we took a break and went out into the Casino. We dropped a few quarters in a machine for awhile but then we heard a great band in the lounge area. The dance floor was really small, but we managed to dance to a few numbers. I wanted to take that band back to our event!!! :lol: Anyway, we'll be going to the Fresno event for sure. If your looking for fun, that one is great, of course I'm partial because its part Country and party WCS.
SDsalsaguy
Administrator
I agree Pam. I really enjoyed most of the dance numbers in the show... my gripes were really with all the non-dance elements. Even the good singing didn't do it for me since I was there (as in in Reno) for a *dance* event! I also wasn't entirely taken by the MCing, either during the show or throughout the event. Some of this, of course, is beacuse many of these people are regulars within the same circuit, so a lot of their little gimicks and stuff just fell dead with those of us from outside that circuit...
Cristo was, as you say, waaaaaaaaaay impressive!
My other gripe regarding the show actually had nothing to do with the planned event but, rather, with some pros sitting at the table right behind me who didn't shut up the entire time. I'm not talking even whispering here, but full on talking, ussually of a critical nature regarding act after act... very UNprofessional behavior if you ask me.
Aside from Saturday night, however, I thought it was a really, really good event.
Cristo was, as you say, waaaaaaaaaay impressive!
My other gripe regarding the show actually had nothing to do with the planned event but, rather, with some pros sitting at the table right behind me who didn't shut up the entire time. I'm not talking even whispering here, but full on talking, ussually of a critical nature regarding act after act... very UNprofessional behavior if you ask me.
Aside from Saturday night, however, I thought it was a really, really good event.
