Shake, Rattle And Roll

On Saturday we took our first "proper" ballroom dancing medal. The medals that we've taken so far have all been in the "social" category - for bronze, you do two dances, for silver, three, and for gold, four. However, the standard of dancing does not need to be very high to gain a pass - in fact it's rumoured that you get a score of 90 just for showing up for the first one! The Ballroom class includes waltz, foxtrot, quickstep and tango. For the bronze level, we do waltz and foxtrot, as we've been doing these dances almost from the beginning, and we're now trying to improve our technique rather than learn the steps to these dances. The tests were running late when we got there (as always seems to be the case - an instance of Hofstader's law in action?) and we were just able to get in before they decided to take lunch.

In the evening we went to the social dance, which is usually arranged for the same day as the medal tests so that badges and certificates can be presented in the evening. We'd arranged with a few of our contemporaries to meet up beforehand at a Chinese restaurant nearby, before proceeding to the dance in the Whitireia Performance Centre, our usual venue. It was while we were dining here that the earth moved - quite a significant rumble (magnitude 5.7, we found out later, and the most severe earthquake in the region since 1966). We joked about it, as you do, and then finished our dinner.

At the dance we were presented with our bronze medals and certificates, together with the examiners' comments. I guess the time has now come to start paying some proper attention to these in order to improve our dancing style. Still scoring in the Highly Commended category, but at the bottom end of the score range these days instead of the top. I definitely need to work on some aspects of my dance before I attempt another medal. We are, however, increasingly confident at the social dances and can tackle most of the dances that are available. We are planning to take our dancing out "into the wild" again in the new year.

On Thursday morning of the following week, we were once again visited by the earthquake gods - this time with a relatively minor 4.2, which I missed because I was at street level. When I got back to the office I found out about it - but then, you always feel them more when you're on the 7th floor.

Gold

Always believe in your soul

You have the power to know

You’re indestructible

Always believe in

On Saturday morning we drove into town to take our Gold medal test. Unfortunately we’d made a bit of a mix-up with the times, and were an hour later than we thought we should be. This in  itself wasn’t a major stumbling-block as they’re fairly flexible about timing, but it meant that almost as soon as we arrived we were thrust into the test with very little practice or warm-up beforehand. That said, we know the routines pretty well by now, but I was somewhat disappointed with my performance and didn’t think that I’d given it my best shot.

Afterwards we went for a coffee with another couple, then after a spot of shopping, parked up and went to lunch at Le Métropolitain, a French (never! ;-)) café on Cuba Street. This was a final foray into Wellington On A Plate, and the first time that we’d gone for the burger option – one of the competitions run during the WOAP fortnight is the Burger Wellington, whereby each participating venue creates a burger especially for the competition, and is voted on by members of the public. In terms of originality, the “Allo Allo! Burger” was nothing special – melted cheese, bacon and mushroom topping – but it was very well executed, served with hand-cut string fries, and generally pretty good. It was the first time we’d been to Le Métropolitain (we’d tried once before, but it was fully booked…we avoided that trap this time) and we liked it a lot, so I think we’ll head back there sometime and sample the rest of their menu.

As is usually the case when we do our medal tests, there was a social dance in the evening. We packed our dancing shoes, caught a cab into town, and turned up at around 8pm. Some of our usual gang weren’t able to make it that night, but there were enough people there that we knew, and we are now confident enough to take to the floor for nearly all the dances, apart from the advanced ones that we’ve not started yet, like the tango. However, we have been promised a start on the quick-step next term, so that should add to our repertoire.

We had our medal ceremony, but unfortunately our medals hadn’t arrived - just the certificates and the examiner's marks and comments - so no pic of the shiny gold one that we have both attained.

100 Not Out

Yes, amazing as it may seem, this is my 100^th blog!

On Saturday we drove out to a school hall in Lower Hutt for Nicola to take her silver medal social dance, as she’d been unable to take it earlier when the rest of the class did, due to a Wellington City Chorus singing commitment. There were only a handful of us there, taking various different levels of medals (we only recognised one other person from our class) – most of them at a more advanced standard than we’re at!

Nicola was ably led by our dance instructor, Michael, and rock’n’rolled, cha-cha-cha’d and waltzed around the floor. She’ll get the results and commentary when we go to our usual Thursday class later this week.

Afterwards we had a quick lunch at a restaurant in Lower Hutt, then headed back to Wellington to view some properties to rent in the afternoon. On Sunday we also went out, driving to Hataitai, Island Bay and Northland to look at three more houses. We were somewhat disappointed by the standard of the houses offered for rent, and have decided to look a bit more upmarket than we have been so far. The ones we’ve seen don’t appear to have been particularly well looked after – one in particular, where the owner proudly boasted that he’d lived there for 40 years. “And hasn’t seen fit to redecorate it in all that time” I said to myself, as we were put off by the mauve bath and avocado sink combination, both in a poor state of repair. It was unfortunate, as with a bit of modernisation these houses could be very desirable…but we’re not in the market for a “fixer-upper” at this stage. Anyway, we’ve identified some more to view that are better quality (we hope), and we’ll drive around to see those next weekend. All this is helping us get our bearings around Wellington and the suburbs, in particular the road systems where you have to plan which lane to be in two sets of lights from where you want to turn off!

We stopped off after viewing the Hataitai house and drove up to the summit of Mount Victoria – last time we went there we were on foot, and it was shortly after we’d arrived. It was a lovely sunny day so we took some more photos, and knew a bit more about what we were looking at this time.

Hataitai and Evans Bay

Song & Dance

Today is song and dance day. To start with, Nicola headed down to the Wellington West Plaza hotel for a breakfast, before crossing the road for rehearsals for this afternoon’s Sweet Adelines International Region 35 (that’s New Zealand to the rest of us) Annual Convention and Competition, which is taking place this weekend. The chorus competition is this afternoon – the quartets were held yesterday. The main focus of the competition, for the Wellington City Chorus, isn’t the position achieved (although winning would be nice, of course) but what marks they achieve, as this will affect whether they get an invite to the World Championships in Denver next year.

Meanwhile, I had a leisurely breakfast before wandering down to the dance studio in Vivian Street, to take my silver medal test. I met up with some of our gang from the intermediates class, and we all made our way through our routines with varying levels of self-perceived ability or otherwise. We’ll get the results tonight when we go to the social dance.

In the afternoon, I went along to see Nicola perform in the actual competition, and saw a couple of the other choirs that they were up against. In the end, the Wellington City Chorus came second with a score of 620, a result with which they were not best pleased. There will be a post-mortem on the result when she goes to practice tomorrow, so expect an update then.

We weren’t allowed to take any photos during the performance, so here’s one of Nicola in full war-paint:

In the evening we took a taxi down to the dance studio on Vivian Street for the Social Dance. There we met up with others from various other classes, some of whom we’d met before. The social dance was slightly less well-attended than previous ones we’ve been to, which helped in reducing the opportunities for bumping into fellow dancers…navigating around the dance-floor is one of the tricks that we haven’t really mastered yet! I received my silver medal, together with my scores and comment. As expected, the silver medal standard is higher than the bronze, so whilst I still got a “Highly commended”, my marks were down on the previous medal. As usual, there were helpful comments on my dancing, and a certificate.

Social Dance

At a quarter to ten this morning we headed down to the Wellington Performing Arts Centre to take our first step on to the ladder of ballroom dancing certification: the Bronze medal 2 dance award, in the social branch. Due to a concatenation of circumstances that Nicola will explain herself, she was unable to do her medal dances, so it was left to me alone to carry the flag. My dancing partner, Shona, led me through the steps beforehand, gave me tips on my “rocking”, and generally put me at ease. I was nervous, but hoped that I acquitted myself well.

Foxtrotting - intense look of concentration!

In the evening, we went to the Masked Ball social dance. We’d been shopping in the afternoon for masks, and had come to the conclusion that masks just don’t work with glasses, so I went unmasked, whilst Nicola chose a peacock feather creation.

Ready to rumba

The format for the social dance is to include dancers of all levels, so there were some basic rock’n’roll numbers that we could do, as well as waltzes and foxtrots. We both felt far more able to participate in these than the last time that we went, when we’d only had four lessons. In the “snowball waltz” I felt confident to pick a partner and lead her around the dance floor, without crashing into other people too many times! Michael, our teacher and organiser of the dance, also led us in some new dances – some of which were beyond us – and also some party games, one of which we almost won! Coming second was as good as coming first, because there wasn’t actually a prize for winning other than the esteem of our fellow dancers.

In amongst the general dances were demonstrations by some of the more advanced dancers, who had been taking medals in levels that we can only dream about! This is what happens when you get into the higher echelons of dancing:

To quick for my camera!

We’ve been dancing now for two terms; within our class group there were only five of us who turned up for the social dance, which was a pity. Still, we will point out the benefits to the rest  of our class when we see them on Thursday, the last lesson in the current term, and we shall be having a “social” of our own afterwards, down the pub. Which pub? Why, the Backbencher, which is where we do our quiz nights! Clearly a popular choice amongst our class – which is not particularly surprising, as the venue where we dance is close to a lot of Government offices; there is a high representation of civil service types amongst our group.

At around 11 o’clock, the lights went up for the awards ceremony: those who had taken tests earlier in the day were awarded their medals, certificates, and also a commentary on their dancing. This is an important part of the process, as you are judged by a senior professional who provides advice and encouragement, pointing out what you’re doing well and what you need to improve on. A while ago, Michael had told us in fairly straightforward terms that he wouldn’t put a person forward to take a medal if there was any possibility of failure – so I was pretty well guaranteed a pass. The only question was what kind of pass would I get?

I can has certickifat!

The lowest medals were awarded first, so those of us from our dance group went up to get our medals and certificates. In our group, we all scored “Highly Commended” (the levels being “Pass”, “Commended”, “Highly Commended”, and “Highly Commended With Honours” – not often awarded to absolute beginners!) so were pretty chuffed with that. We then watched and applauded as everyone else was awarded their medals, and danced a final waltz before heading up the hill to home.

All in all, a great night out. We met some new people from further ahead in the programme, so we have an idea of what we should expect a year down the line as we continue learning. And we had fun! The more we do, the easier it gets, and we have exercises and practice to do before term starts again in January, with new dances to learn.