This year's Unique Dance-o-Rama took place at Hotel Irvine on July 19-22, 2018. It was a wonderful weekend full of dancing, friends, and special moments. :)
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2 The hotel knows us so well!
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5 This year's Thursday night dinner show was themed "Golden Oldies". My first character of the night was from our solo.
6 This year's Thursday night dinner show was themed "Golden Oldies". My first character of the night was from our solo.
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30 My second character of the night was from our studio formation.
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32 Tango!
On Friday night, Peter and I made the finals in the Smooth Scholarship event, and we placed 4th overall. We were only 1 mark away from 3rd place overall, and we beat the 3rd place overall couple in Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz. As a matter of fact, we placed 2nd in Viennese Waltz. We even received a couple of 1sts in a couple dances from a couple of judges. Needless to say, we were very happy with the results! :)
33 More Tango!
34 Foxtrot!
35 Int'l Cha Cha!
On Friday night, Peter and I made the finals in the Int'l Latin Scholarship event, and we placed 3rd overall. We were only 1 judge away from placing 1st in Int'l Cha Cha and Jive (i.e., 2 of the 5 dances). Most importantly, even though there is still a lot of room for improvement, we are thrilled with the year-over-year progress we've made in Latin.
36 Samba!
37 More Samba!
38 Int'l Rumba!
39 Tango
40 Tango
41 Tango
42 Tango
43 Foxtrot
44 Viennese Waltz
45 Int'l Cha Cha
46 Int'l Cha Cha
47 Int'l Cha Cha
48 Int'l Cha Cha
49 Int'l Cha Cha
50 Int'l Rumba
51 Int'l Rumba
52 Int'l Rumba
53 Int'l Rumba
54 Int'l Rumba
55 Int'l Rumba
56 Paso Doble
57 Paso Doble
58 Jive
59 Jive
60 Jive
61 Jive
62 Taking a bow
63 Mambo
64 Mambo
65 Mambo
66 Mambo
67 Salsa
68 Salsa
69 Salsa
70 Taking a moment to just enjoy!
71 Tango
On Saturday afternoon, Peter and I participated in the 4-dance All-around event. We had to dance Waltz, Tango, Rumba, and Swing, and we placed 2nd.
72 Taking a bow
73 Focusing on the process and the moment is the most important thing, but good results feel pretty great, too! :)
74 It was so wonderful to have my biggest cheerleader in the ballroom on Friday during the day!
75 As if the dancing isn't enough, the weekend is also full of fun evenings and special memories to be made with friends. :)
Thursday night's dinner theme was "Golden Oldies" to align with the theme for the Theater Show.
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79 The desserts are always artistic and delicious.
80 Thursday night dinner is always a bit more casual for those of us that have to eat and run in order to get ready for the Theater Show. (Carolyn, me, Peter, and Muriel)
81 And some of us have hair and/or makeup done for our Theater Show characters before we even go to dinner. (Carolyn and me)
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83 (me, Helen, Yaxin, Carolyn, and Diana)
84 (Diana, Steve, Caroly, me, Helen, and Yaxin in front)
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86 Friday night during dinner, the pros put on a show that aligns with the the dinner theme.
87 Inspired by Star Wars
88 Inspired by Avatar
89 Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey Since this one was choreographed by Peter and Jude, it's no surprise that they centered it around a waltz to "The Blue Danube".
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91 Getting ready for the Saturday night gala!
92 There's always time for a selfie before dinner. :) (me, Carolyn, and Jesse)
93 (Helen, Carolyn, me, Peter, and Yaxin)
94 Time to catch our breath between heats!
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96 Foxtrot
97 Our Int'l Cha Cha in the Int'l Latin Scholarship finals.
98 Our Int'l Rumba in the Int'l Latin Scholarship finals.
99 Our Samba in the Int'l Latin Scholarship finals.
100 As usual, Peter was out-numbered. :) (Helen, Carolyn, Peter, Jude photbombing us, Yaxin, and me)
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103 Friday night's themed dinner was "Out of This World". They really go all out to decorate the ballroom and to have fun party favors that go with theme.
104 We had a great day! (Sue, me, Peter, Yaxin, Carolyn, and Helen)
105 Our Jive in the Int'l Latin Scholarship finals.
106 So many afros!
107 Our Paso Doble in the Int'l Latin Scholarship finals.
108 Bachata!
109 Tango
110 (Carolyn, Peter, and me)
111 Merengue!
112 It was so wonderful to have my biggest cheerleader in the ballroom on Friday during the day!
113 Tango
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115 Viennese Waltz
116 Tango
117 Tangp
118 Saturday night's dinner is always a formal gala, and they deck out the ballroom to the 9's. Since the amateurs are done dancing for the weekend before Saturday's dinner, we can all finally relax and enjoy. Then after dinner, we get to cheer on our favorite pros as they compete.
119 A girl couldn't ask for a better group of fellow disco divas!
120 More Foxtrot!
121 Our Foxtrot in the Smooth Scholarship finals.
122 The first event of the weekend was the Club Latin 3-Dance event (salsa, bachata, merengue) on Thursday afternoon. From our first event together, salsa has been our “fun” dance. Peter picked it as a dance that we could just do as lead-follow, living in the moment on the dance floor and dancing for the sheer joy of dancing. This was only our second comp of doing all three of these dances together.
123 "Big hair don't care. Disco ball follow the call.... Need we say more?"
While our solo was about the story and the characters, the formation was more about the fun and camaraderie.
124 (me and Julie)
125 Our Tango in the Smooth Scholarship finals.
126 (me, Sydney, and Julie)
127 Our Waltz in the Smooth Scholarship finals.
128 Salsa!
129 Viennese Waltz
130 Peter and I decided to take a trip back to 1940s film noir.
131 Viennese Waltz
132 Our Viennese Waltz in the Smooth Scholarship finals. Too bad there were a couple of traffic jams!
133 (You just need to ignore the backdrop, which was up for the whole show. :) )
"They say the female of the species is deadlier than the male... and sure, she's done it... more guilty than a kid stealing candy from a candy jar. But don't you find respectable people terribly dull?"
134 We even had a crooner entertaining us during dinner.
135 Tango
136 There is always time to grab a few pics throughout the day. (Carolyn and me)
137 Samba
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139 Viennese Waltz
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141 Inspired by The Jetsons
142 Even the napkins had a space theme!
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146 Waltz On Friday during the day, Peter and I danced our open (i.e., choreographed) single-dance heats, and on Saturday during the day, we danced our closed (i.e., syallabus figures) single-dance heats.
