Wednesday Report

Some of you already know that I thought I would come to Ohio on Wednesday. I thought the judging wou begin on WEd at 1pm for me. Well, on my way out the door to Monday night lessons, Andy told me that I was on a 11am flight on Tuesday. Yickes!

I managed to get myself together, and make it to the airport on time- $75 for my bag!!!So today I bought a smaller bag and a carry-on bag to match it-Zebra print-perfect!Turns out I could have left at least two outfits behind-only 1 hour 40 minutes (that calls for a repeat suit) on Friday daytime, and nothing for more than a dozen judges on Friday night (that means I can save my second favorite gown for New Year's Eve at Yuletide).

Helena Kostik happened to be right next to me on the plane. It was a little plane. When I saw my seat assignment, 4C, I thought Andy had upgraded me to first class. Having someone you already know to talk with about family, friends, dancing, dance partners, dance outfits, learning dance, dance anything, is an even bigger treat.

I was lucky with the panel assignments for today: 8-10am and 7:30-9:30pm. That leaves plenty of time for socializing, eating, window shopping at the vendors' stations, working out, messing around with my website, catching up with emails. By the way, if you don't enjoy fancy schmancy, skip the vendors. If you don't go gaga over rhinestones, you don't need to check out all the styles. How do they come up with the crazy, new creative shapes, colors, combinations, etc., every year? The dresses are for dreaming about and the practice wear is enough to motivate even the laziest of us.

What you can get is dance carry-alls, shoes, jewelry, costumes, practice wear, semi-costumes, formal wear, videos, books, belts, jackets, coverups, food, booze, more food, more booze. There must be a lot of heavey eaters and drinkers here, along with the heavy shoppers.

There are 11 pages of judges panels. Eleven! Maybe there is a separate one for the collegiate judges. Three judges are assigned 9:30am to infinity for the collegiate events. I will probably go down to their ballroom and volunteer to help spell some of them. The program looks like a telephone book. Then there is another book with the actual schedule. This is an amazingly big event.

Friday-Last night was the team match. hundreds of dancers stormed the ballroom with thunder makers, foam hands touting their individual regions' excellence as #1, colored wigs, banners, the works. It went on for a least two hours. It was exciting and electric enough that it was actually a relief once it was over. It was followed by The Best of the Best, a showcase competition with couples representing the best showcases of some different Championship competitions. Most were absolutely outstanding. One, unfortunately, had no ending. I gave them 7th, though the dancing was spectacular. They ended up 6th.

I had nice, productive conversations with several judges, competitors and journalists about wheelchair dancing. Today I have just two hours of judging, then two more hours of judging and the rest is free time. That's not what I am used to, but I do like it!

Here are the fashion trends. NOT FEMININE, NOT PRETTY! Fringe dominates Latin; make-up is almost "goth" on some ladies; BOLD and BOLDER are the trends in ballroom and smooth wear; underwear on the outside (looking like old fashioned corsets and garters).

I went to the hotel restaurant last night about 6pm. It was practically empty. I was told that there is a 15 minute wait to be seated. The reason being that there were only two servers for the main restaurant at dinner time in the main hotel for the convention center. Seems strange. And while the main restaurant had only two servers, only two of the food vendors were still open in the food court. Also strange. At least it is easy to avoid over eating.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I am going to a yoga class. I am on the panel for the Pro Latin, so I have to start memorizing the competitor numbers. You need binoculars to see across the room if you happen to be on the short LOD. We have instructions on where to stand, so we won't all be in the best spot. I know that the top two American couples are at the worlds, so the champions and runners-up will not be the American front runners. It should be very exciting.

Batelle Hall, where the big events usually take place, is under renovation. They are saying it will be magnificent.

Also about the venue, I notice that everywhere you turn there is a food vendor, but we are talking sandwiches and snacks, ice cream, fast food. This seems somewhat incompatible with the needs of people doing such athletic dancing.