The Happy Training Dance Congress
In June, we were invited to the "Happy Training" dance congress in Italy. After
we saw a list of what teachers and dance coaches had been invited, we decided
to go and find out what it would look like.
The pool at night
Getting there, though partially through our fault, was not easy. On the 14th of
June, instead of taking a flight to the fairly local airport in Lamezia and
taking the bus, we flew to Naples, hired a car, and drove over 300 km to Paola.
When we arrived, it was already fairly late. All the teachers and couples
arrived at around the same time, and so our first day was spent as a charming
evening under a clear Italian sky, being welcomed by those who were there, and
welcoming those who had only just arrived.
It reminded everyone that many couples often forget
what dancing is, or at least should be all about.
The whole event occurred in a four-star hotel, some 20-30m away from the beach.
Hence, the teachers and couples could spend their free time during the day
enjoying the sun on the beach or by the pool, and their evenings sitting at the
veranda, sipping on a cool drink and chatting, or dancing in organised discos.
Whether relaxing by the table or going wild on the dance floor, everybody
stayed up till at least 1am, even though training began the next morning at 8am
sharp every day.
The camp started properly the next day, on the 15th. Each day was full of
activities. Every day, everybody had dance practice for an hour, and there were
four hours of lectures, workshops and panels of discussion. On top of that,
couples could book private lessons, of which there were up to four hours every
day.
A few simple steps?
The first day was special, as all the lectures and workshops occurred outside,
by the hotel swimming pool. Unfortunately, it was so hot that the teachers and
couples had to retire into the studio for these activities for the rest of the
camp. The studio itself was quite spacious, but the large numbers within and
the hot Italian summer without meant that the air conditioning struggled and
failed to keep the temperature reasonably low.
It was hard to keep a straight face when in a
conversation with Mr. Michael Stylianos
Every morning's practice, usually headed by Isabel Hannas, was more a sort of
fitness training then what we classically understand as a dance practice. This
was followed by the lectures. These lectures, given by some of the world's best
dance teachers and ex-competitors, were fascinating to listen to. Every single
speaker concentrated mostly on the basics of Ballroom and Latin-American
dancing, and it was surprising how many experienced couples had problems with
basic principles. One day, Mrs. Lorna Lee asked several very good couples to
perform some simple Cha Cha steps, and all of them made very basic mistakes.
Another day, Mr. Hubert de Maesschalck did something similar with the
Quickstep, and again with similar results. It really reminded everyone there
that dancing had gone too much into routines and choreography, and that many
couples often forget what dancing is, or at least should be all about. In fact,
to us it seems a bit sad that these top class teachers had to concentrate on
such simple things such as rhythm, musical interpretation or togetherness,
which should be obvious to even the least experienced dancers. What is even
more interesting is that these same couples looked natural, felt the music and
really danced together when at the discos that were organised every night by
the pool.
One of the dancing panel discussions
The lecturers also gave advice on what to wear and how to be noticed by judges -
and given that these people are judges at many very important competitions,
their words were well worth noting. A good example was that all the Latin
coaches agreed on the fact that a lot of couples dance facing one direction for
far too long, and often judges cannot, in the time they have, mark their number
down for the next round, even if they wanted to. Also, they agreed that many
routines concentrated too much on cheap and easy effects rather than proper
dancing.
The lectures were full of demonstrations. One of the most interesting was
observing the masters in action when Mr. Michael Barr and Mrs. Caterina
Arzenton performed a foxtrot to show how it should be done.
It was an impressive sight to see all these famous
teachers teaching at the same time, on the same floor.
Each lecture was followed by a workshop, though it was for a different dance
than the lecture before it, and oftentimes even in a different style. While it
is impossible to choose which amongst these was the best, each had its own
values, one that impressed us was a workshop done by Mrs. Vicky Barr on the
Tango. This fairly small, slim lady showed us how powerful a dancer can be when
using his or her body in the right way. She presented some steps with students,
who later told us that they were shocked at how powerful her movement was. Once
again, we are shown that it is not one's age or build, but one's perfection in
technique that makes dancing strong and beautiful.
It was also pleasant to meet the many famous teachers that were there, while in
relaxed conditions, and to see them privately. Mr. Michael Stylianos impressed
us with his sense of humour - it was hard to keep a straight face when in a
conversation with him. We also had many interesting discussions with the
teachers, and often not about dancing itself but about dance politics, current
tensions between dance organisations, and about possible future solutions to
the existing problems.
The Gala Dinner on the last night
We also spent a lot of time talking to couples and individual dancers. Though
most of these were couples who train with Jerry and Caterina, they represented
many different countries from all around the world. Most were, of course,
Italian, but many couples consisted of at least one Russian dancer. This
resulted in English (the official language of all the lectures, lessons and
meetings), Italian and Russian being the three most popular languages.
The private lessons were not as exciting to us, but they were to the students.
It was an impressive sight to see all these famous teachers teaching at the
same time, on the same floor.
For three days, teachers and students alike met during panel discussions, which
on every occasion took much longer than originally planned. Though starting
slowly, every panel got more heated towards the end, and subjects varied from
"What to wear at a competition to be noticed", to "What do you think about
judging during some events".
The panels were made even more interesting in that most
of the teacher participants were former Blackpool or World winners.
These were so varied that a separate article would be needed just for these
panels. We would very much recommend attending such a discussion during a
training camp in the future; they are different from normal meetings, quite
possibly due to the relaxed atmosphere and beautiful surroundings.
The panels were made even more interesting in that most of the teacher
participants were former Blackpool or World winners, and are currently judges
at some of the world's most important event. This meant that their opinion and
expertise was extremely valuable to the students. Many statements were
surprisingly frank, and it was nice to hear confirmation of some of the
problems currently appearing in the dancing world. One question asked, for
example, was "If you could � what would you change in dancing?". I leave it to
your imagination to guess how different the answers were.
Jerry Abrate, Catarina Arzenton and Junior
Some evenings, we had unofficial discussions on subjects that varied even more.
We talked with the whole panel about the internet and its importance in the
modern dancing world. It was interesting to note that teachers and couples as a
whole look at the internet with more and more interest, though in some cases
they associate the internet as being solely forum discussions, which caused a
few misunderstandings.
The whole dance congress finished with a Gala Dinner, with delicious Italian
food, followed by a final disco where we had the pleasure of watching teachers
dancing with each other, and with their students. We also witnessed fantastic
dancing that was neither Ballroom nor Latin, but relaxed disco dancing, danced
to music from every decade since the 70s.
We have to stress that Jerry Abrate and Caterina Arzenton were not just the
organisers of the camp, but also its caring hosts and custodians. We were
impressed with how often we saw them walking around, checking with couples if
everything was OK. Many couples told us that they saw Jerry and Caterina as a
second set of parents. One of the dancers, who had split from his partner, told
us that he was not worried: "Caterina will find me a very good girl", he said.
This was personal on a level which is unfortunately rare in many other clubs.
All the teachers
It is impossible in such a small space to describe every interesting moment that
occurred, because there were simply too many, and we cannot mention everyone
who should be mentioned. Nevertheless, we hope that we have portrayed the
unique atmosphere that was present at least to some small degree. Though we
hope that this article will only be the first of many reviews of different
events in the dancing world, it has set the level very high right from the
start. We would like to give it 9 out of 10, and the only reason we do not give
it a perfect score is to give others a chance to perform the admittedly
difficult task of doing something better.
We have also been invited to the next camp in April, on Ischia, where we will
meet an even bigger panel of teachers and even more couples. We are sure that
the standard of this event will be at least as high as the one from which we
have just returned.