Southend 2012

Anne Roberts

Text by Anne Roberts

Oh the joy of a large glass of wine and the removal of those false eyelashes… probably the highlight of my exhausting but exhilarating day of dancing with all the crew of DanceRite at Southend on Sea!

It was early doors for us at the Garon Park Leisure centre in Southend. The car park alone was a sea of sequins, bling and every colour frock that you can imagine. Soon enough we were in the hall, sitting in our ‘DanceRite’ allocated seats and tucking into a homemade breakfast made very much earlier that morning before our trip around the M25. Now we could look forward to what the day had to bring.

This is only our second competition and we are still in awe of the skill and ability of everyone that we see .The DanceRite crew looked absolutely fabulous darlings and took to the floor in each of their heats keen to stand out and win… encouraged as ever by Vicki and Fredric.

When it was our turn to dance we took to the floor with anticipation and all we could remember was Fredric saying, – Think Core. We then attempted to make our arms, legs heads and bodies do all the things they needed to do at the same time… it seems that this still eludes us!! Ronald however got a 5th in Waltz along with Carl which was great and well deserved (I am a little biased of course).

As the callbacks were announced our emotions rose and fell and as our numbers were not heard. The standard of dancing was very high and the competition was tough. The callback is the sign that you got it right, but no callback means you really do question what you did and where you went wrong. Try harder next time I think is the message. Sadly, it was not my day but as a group we had many successes and they were well earned. The DanceRite girls looked and danced beautifully and the boys looked great too and matched the girls step for step

Suddenly we are back on the M25 heading home and leaving the world of Ballroom dancing behind us, corporate life beckons tomorrow and we have to wait another week before we slip on our practice shoes, breathe deeply, smile and think ‘Core’ and try again to be get all the body parts working at the same time under the ever watchful and masterful eye of Vicki and Fredric, bless em!!

Pictures