Past Editorials 1997 [January to June]

The annual Blackpool Dance Festival is over and we have some news of what the scene was like over there. Our sources tell us that as far as modern ballroom is concerned, there were no major changes in styles and fashion. At a lecture by John Wood last year in Singapore (which was also mentioned in John Wood's video tape on Quickstep), John Wood felt that there was a changing trend in quickstep towards more swing action and less step hops and scatter chasses. Well, everyone including the Professional Modern Champions Marcus and Karen Hilton were happily doing steps hops and scatter chasses at the Blackpool Dance Festival. So I guess that's not going to change for this year at least. The yellow card practice was also not carried out at Blackpool this year.

Went round to a number of dance schools to watch the National Association of Teachers of Dancing (NATD, London) Exams in Singapore. Generally, we find the markings this year to be stricter than the past. This is good as the difference between the good and the average dancers was more adequately shown. We asked Mr Freddie Clark (the examiner) whether the routines that we do in Singapore were too complicated for our respective levels. He replied that any routine is all right as long as the students can handle it. We guess this means it's not what we do, but how we do it. This year's syllabus excluded Viennese Waltz (modern medal tests) and Paso Doble (Latin medal tests).