From Vivienne Scott
Another successful DANCIN’ FOR MIRACLES has come to an end. I am sure many of you are feeling as tired as I am … but in a very good way!!! It is such an amazing event and each year I wonder how they can possibly pull it off but they do. Under the capable leadership of Valarie Keller and side kick Cathy Montgomery and their many volunteers planning starts as soon as the event finishes, it takes a whole year.
From the moment we walked into the hall for the Friday dance we enjoyed colourful Christmas decorations everywhere! As usual we saw table after table of gifts for the Penny Sale plus a really impressive selection of raffle prices. Over the years DFM has raised many thousands of dollars for cancer research and now for hospice. It is an amazing feat.
DFM is a reunion for Ontario Line Dancers from all over the Province. Based in the Fairgrounds in Wasaga Beach, just minutes from Georgian Bay, many partcipants come a little early to give them time to walk the beach and enjoy all that Wasaga and Collingwood have to offer. It is a beautiful part of our Province.
This year it was great to see a lot of new faces and we hope you had a good time and will join the DFM community. We are a friendly crowd and welcome all to join us on the dance floor.
Saturday morning after a visit from Santa, Mrs. Santa, a Christmas Tree, an Angel and an elf (no telling who you might encounter at DFM!) we hit the dance floor for our classes. Our capable instructors as always did a terrific job with an excellent mix of dances, see below. At the end of the teaching schedule an hour was set aside for the top 15 dance requests. What a good idea this was. When you have spent the day concentrating on steps it was perfect just to hit the dance floor.
After the dinner break we came back dressed in our Christmas finery ready to dance! Cathy did a terrific job planning dance lists for both Friday and Saturday night dances. This gave us time to do a quick review of any dances we particularly wanted to race to the floor for! It worked well.
Valarie listened to comments about wanting as much dance time as possible. As much as we have enjoyed performances in the past dancers said they preferred to just get on that dance floor and that is what we did. Hence rather tired looking dancers Sunday morning for the reviews and lunch before we all said goodbye. I should add my thanks to the volunteers who prepared lunch for us both Saturday and Sunday.
Grateful thanks to Valarie, Cathy, Dan and their helpers who again created an event that has become a “must” for Ontario line dancers. What can be better than to feel that you are helping a very important cause at the same time as having fun with old friends and making new on top of which we were doing something we all love to do ….. DANCE!!
In order of teach:
Dan Morrison, Fly For You
Cacolyn Ouellette, Back To The Floor
Tammy Wyatt, Going Out For the Weekend / Teddy’s Gone
Kelly Bee, Say La V
Jill Baker, Your Love Amazes Me
Ruurd Van De Ven, Burrows Time
Donna Laurin, My Yesterday / It’s A Beautiful Sunday
Cathy M, Kiss My Glass (Karl Harry)
Kath K, Stomp & Twist / Here With Me
