THREE DAYS of competitive dancing for a wide range of ages electrified the Queen’s Hall in Dunoon earlier this month.
The charged atmosphere of competition and fun came about from Grace Rodger with John and Agnes Knox of Top Hat Promotions, who have been running Dance festivals in Dunoon for 26 years.
Their distinguished events include the All Scotland Open Freestyle Championships in March and The Dunoon and Argyll Open Freestyle Championships in November.
The latest event, the Dunoon and Argyll Open Championships, ran over three days, from November 7-9 and was so well supported with dancers from all over Scotland and also Ireland.
The organisers had more than 300 dancers competing in many categories like Freestyle Solo, Slow Dance, Hip Hop, Slow Pairs, Freestyle Pairs, Rock’n’Roll and Boogie Woogie, and Team Events, all in the Queens Hall.
Dancers dance from age three up to their 20’s and all of them are trained to a very high standard by their teachers. Dancing helps to keep them fit through good stamina and team building. All of the winners receive a large trophy, sash and tiara plus all of the finalists receive a trophy too.
The organisers had 17 Dance schools take part, and over that weekend there were 15 adjudicators, who had a very difficult job of marking all the sections.
As each dancer wins their section, they gain a grade point and after they win three grade points they then move up to the next level. Costumes start off plain, then they can have numerous colours together, and move on to costumes decorated with diamantés and motives as they move up the grades.
A spokesperson for the event said: “The Championships have been hosted in the Queens Hall for the last three years. The staff were amazing and the hospitality was first class. We are so honoured to host our event there, and everybody loves it and there is such a great atmosphere.
“This event was previously held at Hunters Quay Holiday Village, until the renovation of the facility’s large function hall, which reduced its size and became too small to accommodate the competition. There were more than 23 years of events at Hunters Quay.”
The top highlight of this year’s Championships was the Grand Finals on the Sunday, when Heat 1 Winners and Heat 2 Winners for Freestyle solo’s danced together to determine who the finalists are and the overall winner for each age group and grade. The atmosphere was electrifying with first class support and loads of excited dancers.
Organisers are already planning next year’s event and a return to Dunoon.
Contributed by Agnes Knox
