IAGSDC Convention: Partly Cloudy
May. 30th, 2007 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apparentparadoxI know that people are only supposed to post blue sky & sunshine comments about how great the square dance convention was. For me, the convention wasn't bad, but it wasn't all good, either.
It was great to see some friends that I only see once a year (or, in the case of a few people, only every several years). The hotel & location were excellent (I didn't spend any time in the bar, so the issues there didn't bother me; having the 16th St. mall nearby was wonderful). The Fun Badge Tour was very well organized from the moment you approached the lobby (having someone there directing you to your group was very helpful). The Honky Tonk Queen contest was actually entertaining.
Overall, I think that the Denver committee did a great job, but as others have commented, the grand march stuff is just stupid, and I didn't see anything with the memorial panel/tip. It did bother the copy-editor in me to see that several of the callers were calling above the level listed as their highest level in the convention booklet (and here). Examples:
* Todd Fellegy: Caller Bio says C3A, scheduled for C3B
* Kris Jensen: Caller Bio says C2, scheduled for C3A
* John Marshall: Caller Bio says C2, scheduled for C3B
* Anne Uebelacker: Caller Bio says C3B, scheduled for C4
I saw a lot of what I consider to be just plain selfish behavior. I saw several people who I never see out at challenge dances around the area squaring up in the challenge halls, and bringing down squares because they couldn't do the calls or couldn't pull the definition out quickly enough. I'll give lots of help to people who live in an area where there isn't much challenge dancing available, but if it's available, and you just haven't taken the time to do it and stay in practice, why should you think that it's OK to mess up the square so that other people aren't able to dance? I consider that extremely selfish.
I understand that some dancers don't get a lot of practice at their highest level, but I consider it selfish of them to stay only in that one hall and never dance at lower levels. Don't they remember higher level dancers who helped them out? Don't they feel any obligation to improve the floor level for the lower level dancers? Those same people who don't appear to spend any thought to going down a level to help out other dancers seem to be overjoyed when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormecho or Patrick drop a level (or two or four) and dance with them.
I also consider those dancers who continually make mistakes but who continually try to go up in level as selfish as well. They don't bother to take the time to learn a level before moving up. To them, it apparently only matters what they want to do, not the fact that they aren't willing to spend the time to stay at a level and actually learn it. They don't seem to care that by rushing ahead to a higher level, they are making 7 other people suffer. Please don't think that I'm against people moving as quickly through the levels as they are able; I'm not. If you're solid at dancing C1 after 1 week, then it's up to you whether you want to learn C2. But if you can't dance C1 calls solidly 95% of the time, why should I be happy to see you in the C2 or C3A hall?
All that said, I did have some fun squares as well. I do owe Patrick a special thank you: he made my day in one square by trading backwards with me [it's kind of an inside joke]. That one act helped me forget several of the other bad experiences I had over the weekend by reminding me of the joy that square dancing can be when done with friends.
It was great to see some friends that I only see once a year (or, in the case of a few people, only every several years). The hotel & location were excellent (I didn't spend any time in the bar, so the issues there didn't bother me; having the 16th St. mall nearby was wonderful). The Fun Badge Tour was very well organized from the moment you approached the lobby (having someone there directing you to your group was very helpful). The Honky Tonk Queen contest was actually entertaining.
Overall, I think that the Denver committee did a great job, but as others have commented, the grand march stuff is just stupid, and I didn't see anything with the memorial panel/tip. It did bother the copy-editor in me to see that several of the callers were calling above the level listed as their highest level in the convention booklet (and here). Examples:
* Todd Fellegy: Caller Bio says C3A, scheduled for C3B
* Kris Jensen: Caller Bio says C2, scheduled for C3A
* John Marshall: Caller Bio says C2, scheduled for C3B
* Anne Uebelacker: Caller Bio says C3B, scheduled for C4
I saw a lot of what I consider to be just plain selfish behavior. I saw several people who I never see out at challenge dances around the area squaring up in the challenge halls, and bringing down squares because they couldn't do the calls or couldn't pull the definition out quickly enough. I'll give lots of help to people who live in an area where there isn't much challenge dancing available, but if it's available, and you just haven't taken the time to do it and stay in practice, why should you think that it's OK to mess up the square so that other people aren't able to dance? I consider that extremely selfish.
I understand that some dancers don't get a lot of practice at their highest level, but I consider it selfish of them to stay only in that one hall and never dance at lower levels. Don't they remember higher level dancers who helped them out? Don't they feel any obligation to improve the floor level for the lower level dancers? Those same people who don't appear to spend any thought to going down a level to help out other dancers seem to be overjoyed when
stormecho or Patrick drop a level (or two or four) and dance with them.I also consider those dancers who continually make mistakes but who continually try to go up in level as selfish as well. They don't bother to take the time to learn a level before moving up. To them, it apparently only matters what they want to do, not the fact that they aren't willing to spend the time to stay at a level and actually learn it. They don't seem to care that by rushing ahead to a higher level, they are making 7 other people suffer. Please don't think that I'm against people moving as quickly through the levels as they are able; I'm not. If you're solid at dancing C1 after 1 week, then it's up to you whether you want to learn C2. But if you can't dance C1 calls solidly 95% of the time, why should I be happy to see you in the C2 or C3A hall?
All that said, I did have some fun squares as well. I do owe Patrick a special thank you: he made my day in one square by trading backwards with me [it's kind of an inside joke]. That one act helped me forget several of the other bad experiences I had over the weekend by reminding me of the joy that square dancing can be when done with friends.