Okay, so it's a little late and the memories may be fading but due to overwhelming demand for a review (okay, from two of you) here goes...
Parties
-----------
Friday night: Band Night! Cheo Feliciano and New Swing Sextet. Great music, plenty of space to dance but for some reason security were clamping down on photography. So despite having a compact camera and taking pictures from the back of the hall (hardly going to be top quality, easy to sell pictures are they) I was told "no filming!". When I said I wasn't filming, just taking photos the response was "no filming!" - possible language barrier here? I spent the rest of the night dancing with and filming my friends from London dancing so no chance to see the local talent. I did notice that a large number of the professionals spent the entire night behind the DJ and did not mix with the general public. Not a good start for them. I think the promoters were aware of this as the pros became more available on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday night: Made a conscious decision to avoid the Londoners on Saturday (no point in travelling all that way to dance with the people you dance with at home!) and went around asking women at random to dance. The general feeling from the boys from London was that the girls at the congress were quite picky and as a group we suffered a lot of rejections (we didn't go round asking as a group but we did discuss 'success rates' with each other during the day. It was agreed that this one one of the less friendly congresses in that respect. Saturday night was very busy and it got very hot for a while (air conditioning not being popular in eco-friendly Switzerland)
Sunday night. Having turned up early in order to get a good seat for the shows I had a bit of time to dance before they started and had an enjoyable time early on when it was cooler and there was plenty of space. Sunday was less crowded than Saturday, as is usual at these events but there were still a lot of people around. I stayed until the end and decided to go to the afterparty, which was located in a club 20 mins walk from the main venue (or a 5min taxi ride if you wanted to queue for a taxi).
Well, it wasn't a good decision to hold the parties at this other club. It was too small for the number of people going and as it was in a residential area they were not allowed to open the windows to cool down a room that rapidly got too hot. The solution was to turn off the music for a few minutes and open all the windows, which I suppose is a reasonable compromise. I think they should have just stayed in the main venue.
The music was good all weekend as far as I can remember, although I thought New Swing Sextet were better in Athens ('better' meaning they played slightly slower, more danceable songs in Athens). They and Cheo Feliciano went down a storm though with a large group of people crowding at the front singing along with the songs.
Shows
-----------
The shows were excellent. With the Zurich congress being so big they can attract the biggest names. Swing Guys had a great new (new to me anyway) show which was probably their funniest yet. Pablo & Diana, Adrian & Anita, Yamulee, Tito & Tamara, Maykel Fonts & Kirenia, Juan Matos & Amneris, Neeraj & Gosia, Flamboyan Dancers all did great shows. On the Sunday night there was also a short and entertaining show (about 1 min 30) by a group of dancers who had taken a 2-hour performance workshop during the day on Sunday. It was an impressive effort for a group of amateurs.
Workshops
------------
The workshops were very well organised, generally started on time (Adolfo's class being an exception where he turned up 20 mins late after lunch) and mostly kept to the level advertised (bar "Beginner" level boogaloo, which was only beginner level if you were already experienced at cha cha - the class suffered a high attrition rate as a result. Well that and the fact that it was pretty badly taught). I still don't know who taught the class as the guy didn't introduce himself at the start - he just turned on the music and started showing the steps. Aside from those two exceptions I took the following classes:
Ramon & Vanessa - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
----------------------------------------
Ramon took an unusual approach to the class in that he taught the moves and did the counting but one of his other dancers demonstrated with Vanessa so that Ramon was able to watch everyone in the class. I think the method worked very well. Vanessa was given time to explain the styling for the ladies so they got more out of this class than in a lot of other congress partnerwork classes.
Neeraj & Gosia - Body movement on2 (int)
----------------------------------------
I have done Neeraj's body movement class twice before and it never gets any easier for me! This one was very similar to the previous two and he breaks down moves into each small component. If you've seen him dance you'll know he is one of the most fluid male dancers around and in this class he shows you how he achieves this (the main component is hours and hours of practice, of course!). He taught the movements to a variety of music styles (none of them salsa) and finished with the whole class doing the body movements and shines to bhangra (or some other Indian music style).
Adrian & Anita - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
--------------------------------------
Quite simply the best class I have done at a congress for at least two years. They arrive at the class full of energy and enthusiasm and keep it up for the entire duration of the class. No time is wasted with making jokes or doing some comedy double act (which I have seen from other big names) they just press on with teaching the class. They kept the level very high (my preference for a congress advanced class) and did not dumb-down the routine if people were struggling, which meant there were a few drop-outs (even after the first ten minutes, which were just shines!). To avoid dropping out people had the option to reduce the triple spins to doubles (or singles), if they thought of that idea for themselves. Sink or swim, basically.
As with Ramon's class, there was time made available for a few ladies styling tips both in the shines and the partner work and by the end I was amazed at how much we covered in an hour (at a rough guess about 50% more than in my local advanced class). But then you go to congress classes to be challenged, right?
Tito & Tamara - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
-----------------------------------------
Unusually for them, they were asked to teach a class on 1. This was a difficult as Adrian & Anita's class - again the amount covered was huge but this time there were no multiple spins to cut down on if you wanted to make it easier. It was mostly single or 1.5 turns/spins for the lady and multiple hand changes and changes of direction for the men. A very difficult class but very enjoyable. Again, these two are very professional so there's no clowning around on stage. They just get on with teaching an excellent class.
Tito also very kindly spent 15 minutes during the lunch break going over the routine with me (T&T no longer allow their classes to be filmed the end so you have to keep it in your head).
Yamulee - Partnerwork on2 (adv)
-----------------------------------------
I was pretty critical of their organisation of their class in Manchester in November 2008 so it was good to see that this was a complete contrast. It was a big class again but this time they stayed on the stage. Everyone could see, nobody felt the need to crowd the stage to get a better view and the class ran smoothly. It consisted of a very difficult shine (tired, Sunday morning feet and fast floors do not go well together for me!) and some smooth partnerwork with a very tricky bit saved for the end. A big improvement on the previous class I took with them. I think they benefitted from the Swiss preference for no partner rotation so they didn't have to worry about that (of course that's no consolation for people with no partners but the other members of Yamulee were available to make up a couple of extra partners).
I'm undecided on the issue of partner rotation as there are advantages and disadvantages to each system so if I were a congress organiser I think I would leave it up to teachers of individual classes to decide which they are more comfortable with and then advertise classes on the schedule as rotation/non-rotation (perhaps with a symbol similar to the recycling symbols) so people are prepared for what to expect.
Weather: freezing! (It's February, it's Switzerland, it's not going to be 20 degrees and sunny!). City: Zurich is a beautiful city and would be nice for a visit, if your wallet can stand the pain of staying in one of Europe's most expensive cities (especially with our UK currency being very weak at the moment).
Overall it was a good congress but I personally preferred Manchester and Athens (nothing to do with the weather as Manchester in November gives Zurich a run for its money in the Coldness stakes!). So I may skip this one next year in favour of a skiing holliday.
Parties
-----------
Friday night: Band Night! Cheo Feliciano and New Swing Sextet. Great music, plenty of space to dance but for some reason security were clamping down on photography. So despite having a compact camera and taking pictures from the back of the hall (hardly going to be top quality, easy to sell pictures are they) I was told "no filming!". When I said I wasn't filming, just taking photos the response was "no filming!" - possible language barrier here? I spent the rest of the night dancing with and filming my friends from London dancing so no chance to see the local talent. I did notice that a large number of the professionals spent the entire night behind the DJ and did not mix with the general public. Not a good start for them. I think the promoters were aware of this as the pros became more available on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday night: Made a conscious decision to avoid the Londoners on Saturday (no point in travelling all that way to dance with the people you dance with at home!) and went around asking women at random to dance. The general feeling from the boys from London was that the girls at the congress were quite picky and as a group we suffered a lot of rejections (we didn't go round asking as a group but we did discuss 'success rates' with each other during the day. It was agreed that this one one of the less friendly congresses in that respect. Saturday night was very busy and it got very hot for a while (air conditioning not being popular in eco-friendly Switzerland)
Sunday night. Having turned up early in order to get a good seat for the shows I had a bit of time to dance before they started and had an enjoyable time early on when it was cooler and there was plenty of space. Sunday was less crowded than Saturday, as is usual at these events but there were still a lot of people around. I stayed until the end and decided to go to the afterparty, which was located in a club 20 mins walk from the main venue (or a 5min taxi ride if you wanted to queue for a taxi).
Well, it wasn't a good decision to hold the parties at this other club. It was too small for the number of people going and as it was in a residential area they were not allowed to open the windows to cool down a room that rapidly got too hot. The solution was to turn off the music for a few minutes and open all the windows, which I suppose is a reasonable compromise. I think they should have just stayed in the main venue.
The music was good all weekend as far as I can remember, although I thought New Swing Sextet were better in Athens ('better' meaning they played slightly slower, more danceable songs in Athens). They and Cheo Feliciano went down a storm though with a large group of people crowding at the front singing along with the songs.
Shows
-----------
The shows were excellent. With the Zurich congress being so big they can attract the biggest names. Swing Guys had a great new (new to me anyway) show which was probably their funniest yet. Pablo & Diana, Adrian & Anita, Yamulee, Tito & Tamara, Maykel Fonts & Kirenia, Juan Matos & Amneris, Neeraj & Gosia, Flamboyan Dancers all did great shows. On the Sunday night there was also a short and entertaining show (about 1 min 30) by a group of dancers who had taken a 2-hour performance workshop during the day on Sunday. It was an impressive effort for a group of amateurs.
Workshops
------------
The workshops were very well organised, generally started on time (Adolfo's class being an exception where he turned up 20 mins late after lunch) and mostly kept to the level advertised (bar "Beginner" level boogaloo, which was only beginner level if you were already experienced at cha cha - the class suffered a high attrition rate as a result. Well that and the fact that it was pretty badly taught). I still don't know who taught the class as the guy didn't introduce himself at the start - he just turned on the music and started showing the steps. Aside from those two exceptions I took the following classes:
Ramon & Vanessa - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
----------------------------------------
Ramon took an unusual approach to the class in that he taught the moves and did the counting but one of his other dancers demonstrated with Vanessa so that Ramon was able to watch everyone in the class. I think the method worked very well. Vanessa was given time to explain the styling for the ladies so they got more out of this class than in a lot of other congress partnerwork classes.
Neeraj & Gosia - Body movement on2 (int)
----------------------------------------
I have done Neeraj's body movement class twice before and it never gets any easier for me! This one was very similar to the previous two and he breaks down moves into each small component. If you've seen him dance you'll know he is one of the most fluid male dancers around and in this class he shows you how he achieves this (the main component is hours and hours of practice, of course!). He taught the movements to a variety of music styles (none of them salsa) and finished with the whole class doing the body movements and shines to bhangra (or some other Indian music style).
Adrian & Anita - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
--------------------------------------
Quite simply the best class I have done at a congress for at least two years. They arrive at the class full of energy and enthusiasm and keep it up for the entire duration of the class. No time is wasted with making jokes or doing some comedy double act (which I have seen from other big names) they just press on with teaching the class. They kept the level very high (my preference for a congress advanced class) and did not dumb-down the routine if people were struggling, which meant there were a few drop-outs (even after the first ten minutes, which were just shines!). To avoid dropping out people had the option to reduce the triple spins to doubles (or singles), if they thought of that idea for themselves. Sink or swim, basically.
As with Ramon's class, there was time made available for a few ladies styling tips both in the shines and the partner work and by the end I was amazed at how much we covered in an hour (at a rough guess about 50% more than in my local advanced class). But then you go to congress classes to be challenged, right?
Tito & Tamara - Partnerwork on1 (adv)
-----------------------------------------
Unusually for them, they were asked to teach a class on 1. This was a difficult as Adrian & Anita's class - again the amount covered was huge but this time there were no multiple spins to cut down on if you wanted to make it easier. It was mostly single or 1.5 turns/spins for the lady and multiple hand changes and changes of direction for the men. A very difficult class but very enjoyable. Again, these two are very professional so there's no clowning around on stage. They just get on with teaching an excellent class.
Tito also very kindly spent 15 minutes during the lunch break going over the routine with me (T&T no longer allow their classes to be filmed the end so you have to keep it in your head).
Yamulee - Partnerwork on2 (adv)
-----------------------------------------
I was pretty critical of their organisation of their class in Manchester in November 2008 so it was good to see that this was a complete contrast. It was a big class again but this time they stayed on the stage. Everyone could see, nobody felt the need to crowd the stage to get a better view and the class ran smoothly. It consisted of a very difficult shine (tired, Sunday morning feet and fast floors do not go well together for me!) and some smooth partnerwork with a very tricky bit saved for the end. A big improvement on the previous class I took with them. I think they benefitted from the Swiss preference for no partner rotation so they didn't have to worry about that (of course that's no consolation for people with no partners but the other members of Yamulee were available to make up a couple of extra partners).
I'm undecided on the issue of partner rotation as there are advantages and disadvantages to each system so if I were a congress organiser I think I would leave it up to teachers of individual classes to decide which they are more comfortable with and then advertise classes on the schedule as rotation/non-rotation (perhaps with a symbol similar to the recycling symbols) so people are prepared for what to expect.
Weather: freezing! (It's February, it's Switzerland, it's not going to be 20 degrees and sunny!). City: Zurich is a beautiful city and would be nice for a visit, if your wallet can stand the pain of staying in one of Europe's most expensive cities (especially with our UK currency being very weak at the moment).
Overall it was a good congress but I personally preferred Manchester and Athens (nothing to do with the weather as Manchester in November gives Zurich a run for its money in the Coldness stakes!). So I may skip this one next year in favour of a skiing holliday.
