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“Good Morning
Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to….oops! I
just realized I’m writing and not speaking!!
Sorry about that!!”
Dan asked me recently, at the Dancer’s
Cup Circuit Grand Ball, to guest spin for Dance Trends.
Flattering as it is, (or was I the only person who
accepted his invitation??!! …ONLY KIDDING!) it
seems to be a challenging task when you actually sit
down to write. Well, what do I spin about??!! After
some direction from Dan, I’ve decided to spin
from the viewpoint of the podium.
I’ve had the good fortune of
being emcee at various competitions throughout the
U.S. since 1986. During this time period, I’ve
seen titles won, lost, defended, new champions crowned,
retirements, new stars, new students, new students
becoming new Pro/Am champions, old judges, new judges,
old trends, new trends, and old trends becoming new
trends again. Most people would think it becomes “old
hat” after a number of years. But truthfully,
I find competitions more challenging and exciting
then ever!!
I’ve also enjoyed being the “family celebrity”
from doing the Championship Ballroom Dancing show
on PBS. However, since our family had the chance to
see my wife, Marianne Nicole perform as a “Legend”,
Auntie Mimi has been now been crowned the “Top
TV Celebrity” by our nieces and nephews! ( Gee,
don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your
way out!)
Being on the podium, one has the
remarkable opportunity to be involved in so many aspects
of making the competition function. There are so many
areas that make a competition a successful event for
the Pro/Am teachers, students and competing professionals,
and it’s exciting to work as a cohesive team
with the Chairman, Scrutineers and Music people to
make it all work. The ultimate compliment is when
you are thanked by all who attended for making everything
run smoothly. That says we were all able to solve
whatever problems arose (and there are many!) without
it affecting the rhythm of the event. Thank you to
all who take the time to grace us with your compliments!!
We “podites” really appreciate it!
Now, I’d like to pose a question
to the Dance Trends readers. Technology is now coming
to the aid of organizing competitions in various ways.
You can visit a website, download entry forms, register
and pay on-line, check the schedule of events, look
up your heat lists, and follow-up after the competition
to check the results. Since all of this is available,
my question is, how important is the paper program
we publish for the competition? For the most part,
the program is obsolete by the time the competition
begins because of changes and late entries received
after we go to print. Most printers want a 5-7 day
turn around to do a quality program. If you wait till
the very last minute and pull an all nighter at Kinko’s,
you only produce a so-so quality book that costs a
bundle because of the time constraint, and then endure
the complaints of the competitors who are paying a
premium price for a sub-standard publication! Of course
the immediate answer to this dilemma is for everyone
to get their entries in on time. HAHAHAHA!!!
Knowing this will most likely not
happen within my lifetime, how would you feel about
a smaller book that lists your name and heats you
are dancing in only? Teachers and students always
come to the podium with their print outs, never with
the program. We print out the heats for that session
and use it to expedite the event on a daily basis.
We never use the program on the podium. I polled some
competitors recently and they thought this was a good
idea, but felt their students like to keep track of
results and like to see who they are competing against.
If this could be done in a smaller, condensed format,
would it be appropriate? It would certainly save thousands
of dollars in printing costs for the organizer and
would definitely lower the cost to the competitor.
I realize this is a break with tradition, but with
the advent of electronic information, is the competition
program really a necessity any longer or an just an
expensive dinosaur long overdue for extinction?
I’m looking forward
to your feedback, and seeing you all at the next competition……thanks
for taking me for a spin Dan!
John DePalma
02-26-2001
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