Bella & Colin Blog 3: 2011 Chesapeake Dance Camp

The weekend of June 25-26, we participated in the first ever Chesapeake Dance Camp/Seminar at the Ice House in Laurel, MD along with 40 other teams.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove two hours south to the middle-of-nowhere Maryland. Once we reached the Holiday Inn, we quickly unpacked, and then noticed that we were in severe need of caffeine if we were to stay awake through the two-hour classroom session that was planned for later that evening. Being stuck in the middle-of-nowhere Maryland, we had to Yelp the closest Starbucks, which to our relief was only 5 miles away.

Finally, with caffeine working its way through our systems, we went back to the hotel to change into our “business casual” attire, and we were ready to tackle the two-hour seminar on music and our new short dance requirements. The class went by smoothly until we started an impromptu music structure and theory class. At that point we were happy we opted for that extra shot of espresso, which came in handy once we started dancing the Cha-Cha with Bob Horen! While that was the highlight of the class, we learned quite a bit about attaining levels in the Short Dance, and difference between a Samba and a Salsa. We turned in early, considering that we had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning.

Usually Sunday mornings are for sleeping, but we can sleep when we are dead, right? With an understandably sluggish start, we found ourselves with coffee in one hand and our jam-packed schedule in the other. The camp started at 7:00 a.m. and would go until 3:00 p.m. that afternoon with one hour for lunch and 10 minutes to get from class to class. There was a total seven classes available to us: One-on-One Monitoring Session with judges, Interpretation & Timing with Saga Krantz, Injury Prevention with Kat Arbor, Sports Psychology with Dr. Caroline Silby, Power & Flow with Charlie White & Tanith Belbin, Element Levels with Judy Blumburg/Julia Rey, and GOEs with John Millier. Each class lasted 50 minutes, and we worked though them on a rotating schedule. We found each class extremely helpful, but we all had our favorites, which included Interpretation & Timing and watching the hottest pairing since PB&J glide across the ice in our Power & Flow class.

Overall, the camp was a major success, and each class touched upon every aspect of our skating from learning how to feel our music to squeezing every last point out of our elements. It was a great jumpstart to the new season, and we really look forward to attending next year!

Until next time!
B&C