New Years 2007 (Dec 31, 2006)

Summary   Price # guests Meal   Entertainment   Show Dances   Doors open Dancing Dinner Fun Stuff Decorations Elegance!   Prizes Photography $70.00 per person 184 Three entree meal from Cosmic Catering featuring Chicken Marsala, Baked Wild Salmon and Roast Baron of Beef "Toute Suite" - Michelle Papineau-Stoen & Joy Swanson (Jazz-Pop group) who serenaded us after supper Robyn Picard & Ray Johnson - Night Club 2-step Bertha Mortimer & Ray Johnson - Salsa 6:00 7:00-8:00pm 8:00pm - 1:00am Limbo Contest - Men's and Ladies Very elegant with chair covers Dancing under our very own chandelier Freshly refinished dance floor A dozen or so dance movies Stage Pictures courtesy Trevor Lum & downloaded later to this website

We'd planned on seating for 160, but eventually needed to add another three tables for a total of 184 dancers.  Dancers traveled from North Van, Surrey, Abbotsford, Saskatchewan, and Alberta came out for a night of fun. 

 

We promised an elegant event and my girlfriend Bertha & her friend Lynn Nelles (who do wedding decorating with their company "Occasionally Yours", did a fabulous job planning the "look" of the evening.  It literally took us from 9:00am - 5:00pm to set everything up Dec 30 - the four of us plus Kathy Bishop along with Bob and his daughter.  My son Mike looking dapper in his new suit ran the music for the night.  

 

In November I'd gotten a fabulous deal on a $3,000.00 chandelier.   Using donations from dance friends and my own money, we purchased the chandelier and Zale Hammren did the installation.  The chandelier is quite beautiful and is available now for all my dances.  It solved for me a consistent problem lighting this room. 

I don't know what lights up a room more.  Robyn or the chandelier!

 

For those of you who couldn't attend here's a summary.  As with last year, dancers got more than they bargained for!

 

Doors opened at 6:00pm and the arriver's found their tables, grabbed some appetizers (cheeses & fruits very popular), did their picture taking, socialized, grabbed a drink from the cash bar, and listened to some of the most beautiful music I could find - Celine Dion, Kenny G, Barbara Streisand, Josh Grobin, Andrea Bocelli..

 

 

Chairs had covers, tables had lots of decorations

 

Trevor Lum from Excite Photography www.excitephotography.com  did an excellent job with the photography & video.   For $5.00 or 3 for $10.00 you could get a picture taken & printed almost on the spot.

 

The meal was top notch, from Cosmic Catering, and the only downside was I hadn't counted on how long it would take to get 183 people through dinner, which put us about a half hour behind!  Next year the meal will start at 6:30.  The meal had four entree's.

 

Surprise guests "Toute Suite" www.swansongproductions.com played during the last half of supper and for another 15 minutes just before midnight.   "Toute Suite" is Darrell Swanson on keyboards (with bass & drums), his wife Joy on vocals, and Michelle Papineau-Stoen on lead vocals.   You may know Darrell as he's the keyboard player with the Bruce James Orchestra.  Never having danced ballroom, I got Michelle up for a Country 2-step which she followed admirably and then later on for a Jive.  And Joy was impressed enough with the dancers that she'd like her and Darrel to take more lessons!

Toute Suite (Joy (Darrell's wife), Michelle, & Darrell

The music - From the feedback I got was a big hit.  I had asked for people's favorite requests, and got a bundle of great ideas.   Probably half the music was requests.  My favorite requests were an idea to play the "Blue Danube Waltz" at midnight, and as it happens I have a fabulous version of that song, and the song right after that was a very beautiful slower waltz from Rawlins Cross called "The Wedding Gift", a Celtic instrumental song that starts with guitar and flute, then builds with accordion, that could easily of used bagpipes!

She could of danced with anyone, but chose Bob.  No wonder he's smiling!

Here's the deal Lance.   When you dance with beautiful women, you must look happy!

Salsa show dance

 

About 9:30 Bertha & I did a salsa show dance to amuse the crowd that went over very well.  It was a very fast number and hot hot HOT 3:20!     We used a song from "Touch and Go" called "Would you", that at the original speed was too fast for anyone to dance and at 6:58 was too long.   But I managed to cut it in half and drop the speed 10%!   Bertha wore a special dress and a wig with long hair and I was an "aging Latin dancer!"   The theme of the song was "a guy practicing his salsa dancing is approached by an admiring lady, who makes herself known, he invites her to dance, and about 3/4's the way through the song she's impressed enough to ask an important racey question, and at the end of the dance he asks her another important question!"  See the video here.

3:20 of hot & fast salsa required 3 glasses of punch right afterwards!

Night Club 2-step show dance

 

Night Club 2-step is one of my favorite dances.  I love the beauty of the music, and the gracefulness of the dance itself, so when I came across an astoundingly beautiful version of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat which has numerous tempo changes, I knew something special had to be done with it.  As a show dance it clocks in at a long 4:20, but I didn't see any way to make it shorter without losing too much interesting music.  I originally envisioned it as "a guy out for a stroll encounters a group of five beautiful women, but of those, there is only one he must dance with.   He approaches her, bows, puts a rose in her hair, and brings her onto the dance floor for a romantic dance"

About 10:30 Robyn PIcard & I did our show dance.  Mostly Night club 2-step, bit Viennese and bit ballet, it proved a crowd pleaser.  After approaching Robyn, bowing, I pulled a red rose from my lapel pocket and placed it in her hair which drew gasps from the crowd!  During the dance while doing sways under the chandelier Robyn gave me an impromptu peck which I hadn't planned on, and later just after the "Viennese section" and we were swaying I dropped my head to her shoulders which she hadn't counted on!  Dancing with Robyn is always a lot of fun and you feel pushed to perform at 150% and look as good as her (technique wise)!   See the video here.

Just starting the Night Club 2-step show dance, that was so much fun

These dances were my first attempt at choreography, but Robyn made numerous changes to her's & my routine that really made the dance better than I could of imagined it could be.  Robyn & I got our routine together with only four practice sessions, plus a final rehearsal Sunday in a "real" room!   In the meantime there was a lot of practice by myself to set the moves in place, and then later using Bertha as a stand in partner in a tiny living room!

I got the idea for doing this after attending a three day swing workshop in Vancouver in March 2006.  The workshop was fabulous, and I got to see a Country waltz that was easily equal to anything I've ever seen at the ballrooms, and then later on, a show dance that had the on-lookers in tears.  The organizers of the event did a dance where the guy came out looking sad, stopped right in front of Bertha & I, dropped to one knee and put a red rose on a grave.   He hears a sound behind him, turns around and a beautiful lady in a flowing white gown is dancing behind him.   He rises, dances with her a truly beautiful dance, then fades away, leaving him alone again.   He returns to the grave picks up his rose and sadly walks off.  There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

At 11:30 as door prizes I gave away at least a dozen dance videos.   Video's presented were my choice of some great dance video's from the 70's and onwards.

Shall we dance - Simply a great movie.  Richard Gere in a tux is a must see, and Jennifer Lopez is really a fabulous dancer and she makes him look great!

Take the lead - Who can't love Antonio Banderas?   Great accent, great looks, and even though he readily admits he can't dance, the story line is great and has some truly great insight into just why dancing is important. 

I thought you and your posse did an amazing job!  You should be very proud of yourselves.  G and I had a great time, even though I was sick with a virus!  We would definitely attend in 2007!!!!!!  Sincerely, K&GS

Hello Ray:  There were 19 of us from the Arthur Murray studio (all at different levels of dance) and I have heard nothing but positive comments from everyone.  A number of years ago I too had my own Wedding business, decorating etc.  and event planning.  So I appreciate all the hard work that it takes to put on an event of that magnitude.  Right down to the last detail - you all did an awesome job!!  Cosmic catering - the meal I thought was great, lots of food, and as I am not really a dessert person I cannot comment on the dessert!  However, many from our tables enjoyed dessert.  At our studio many of the students that did not attend  commented that it appeared that they had missed a great event.   J&CF

J and I had a wonderful time and wish to thank you so much.  Our New Years was wonderful and we were able to share it with friends that we love. The decorations, food and entertainment was great.  I thought the evening was so much fun, thanks to all of you.  As for New Year's Resolutions, I'm still working on that.  Thanks again,  J&G

Hi! Ray.  You do not personally know us, but Robyn know us.N&O.  All 8 of us for New Year's party we really enjoyed everything you done, we were really impressed. The room was well decorated, the food excellent, good choice of music and we like to see you performing dances, it was a good show.  We hope you'll doing that again next year and count on us for the next year.  Sincerely, N&O, JL, GR,  B&J  HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ray.  The vast majority of us appreciate the hard work you put into this event. I am also sure that the vast majority enjoyed the event. It was affordable (as you mentioned), the food was more than good (do dancers really care for food ? ), the wine and spirits were also reasonably priced, and best of all - we could actually MOVE around the floor. Yes, everybody has their own idea of what a varied music selection is - personally I would have had more ballroom. But that does not mean that I was unhappy or that I did not have a good time or that I will complain. Not at all. You have a nice core of non-snobbish people that are there to enjoy themselves first and foremost. Having been to a few other places all I can say is that you try to keep it that way. It is people like you that keep these events going and make dancing attractive to beginners.  Just my 2 cents. Thanks for all the hard work. We will continue to drop by occasionally.  Happy New Year from G&B

Ray,  C and I had a great time (we sat with Donn and Robyn's table).  I was worried about a seven hour function as usually we have had enough in about 4 hours, however, the time just flew and we really enjoyed ourselves.   The decorations were beautiful and the dance floor full, but not too crowded.  Lots of variety in the music.  I am confident that the vast majority enjoyed themselves  C&J

Hi Ray,  I just want to thank you for a great New Year's evening.  Bill and I enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Everything was lovely.  It made our evening away from our friends so much more enjoyable because everyone was so friendly.   Thanks again.  Please add us to your email list so we can get the info about dance while we are in BC.  We look forward to more dancing soon.  Thanks again   B&B from Saskatchewan.

Hi Ray, thanks for all the hard work for organizing the New Year's Eve party, it was fabulous with incredible decors

and the food was excellent.  The singing group was also wonderful. Last but not least the Dance Demos were expertly

done !! congratulations.  S&EC