Other people celebrate Easter by eating too much, or maybe going to the batch or even staying home and doing nothing. New Zealand danceport competitors dance all weekend instead – thanks to the long-running double competition put on at Easter in Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre.
Nelson Easter Dancesport Competition
Unique in New Zealand (and Australia as far as I know) – Nelson is a double competition – not a 2-day competition – ie there are two complete competitions one on Saturday (Easter Championships) and one on Sunday (Easter Festival) – twice as much dancing for the same price!
Nelson suffers from the high airfares common in small town NZ – so its appreciated as the competition details are usually out by the end of the previous year so those that want to fly have the chance for the cheaper airfares.
The drawcard over the years for Nelson is always that they bring in fantastic guest couples who generally do a workshop and offer private lessons on the Friday and/or Monday after the competition. I’ve seen many couples over the years but I would rank Anna Longmore and Matthew Rooke as one of the most inspirational. Not only did they have an awesome floor show they actually came across as very nice people who wanted to relate to the local dancers- they were a delight. When was the last time you were allowed to video a professional show? for free?
Competition Venue
It would be nice if Wellington had a comparable venue for dance sport to Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre – always large, the extension out the back now means there is a huge private practice/warm up area within sight of the marshaling area – such a simple idea – so seldom available.
Then of course there are the luxuries of having changing rooms which aren’t toilets, a reasonable cafe on site, decent free parking.
The thing that always stands out to me though is the friendliness of Nelson – go a few times as a dancer and you will find organisers greeting you as long lost friends, even members of the public will come up and talk to you. If you want to feel like people appreciate your efforts as a dancer no matter what grade you are – Nelson will be an eye-opener after some big city competitions!
With a lot of space to play with – the layout of the floor for dancers and for spectators is very well done – enough space to dance – and for the judges to stand without blocking the view of others.
Sadly this year though the floor was incredibly sticky – I’m sure many of us had very saw feet after two days of having to pick our feet to move! Rumour had it that the carpet around the seating area caused the problem – I don’t know – but I did notice that the acoustics for the music was markedly improved but the speaker arrangements looked the same – so I suspect the carpet stopped the annoying echo we used to get.
Competition Organisation
I must admit as an ex-IT professional my heart sank when they announced they were using new software for the judging of this competition! But it actually went very smoothly – every man was “zapped” via barcode on the numbers onto the floor -the judges used data pads to choose the numbers that were in the event (not just the heat) -and the speed of the recalls was spectacular.
As usual there were a decent number of judges for all event – five seemed to be the common number – I won’t go into the stats – but having 5 or more judges makes for much more consistent marking than having only three.
Unfortunately competitor numbers were down from previous years – the competition is traditionally strongly supported by Christchurch dancers – so this was hardly a surprise. The plus side was that there were nice long tracks played for all heats and particularly the finals. The bad news was that some of us aren’t quite fit enough – thanks for showing that up 
Sadly more and more New Zealand dancers are choosing to go to the Gold Coast Queensland Open also at Easter weekend. There are some quite strong pull factors – not least of which are the weather and the price of airfares and accommodation, but I would be very sad to see this excellent local NZ competition fold because of lack of support.
A highlight of Sunday’s competition is some of the fun competitions – the Pro/Am is always amusing and the parent/child and husband/wife always throw up some surprise couples. Maybe they will start including same-sex competitions as well in future events.
Nelson has always been a highlight of the dancing year for us – I’m not quite sure why more Wellington and other North Island dancers haven’t picked up on just how competitor friendly this competition is.
Nelson Easter Competition Rankings
Venue 4/5 – looses marks for the sticky floor, otherwise lots of space for everyone spectator and competitor
Judging/Adjudicating 4/5 – looses a point for no overseas judges this year, but a good range of societies and cities represented within NZ on the panels.
Atmosphere / Attitude of the Organisers 5/5. Nelson has to have the most pleasant marshalling in New Zealand. Lost your tickets because you are an idiot – no problems replacement arranged with a smile.
Competitor Numbers: 3/5 – but we can understand why some of the higher graded seniors and adults from Christchurch have other priorities at the moment.
Range of Events 4/5 – no same sex events which are starting to be a feature in Wellington. No senior open events which may have been a nice alternate to the open adult events ie on different days. Nice range of pro-ams and other novelty events without bogging the program down in beginner events.
For videos of Wellington dancers at this competition – check out the Youtube channel
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