Island Fantasy Ball

The BC Closed Championship is held every May in Nanaimo, BC. We enjoy competing at this competition because the audience is very friendly and encouraging. Every dancer loves and enthusiastic audience and we always get a lot of applause and cheering when we dance there.  Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to save the wooden floor at Beban Park and made this event possible.

We danced for 2 days in 4 different categories for 5 rounds.  We successfully defended our titles as BC Closed Senior I Champions and BC Open Senior I Champions. We also placed 3rd in the BC Adult Closed Championship and were happy we could still compete against dancers 10-20 years younger than us! It was an eventful competition weekend. In our first round, Gloria was having costume malfunction as a piece of her ballgown kept unbuckling so she changed into her second dress. During the 2nd round, her hair came loose and one of Tony's button on his tail suit was ripped off! We did not let those glitches distract us and kept our focus on our dancing performance.

There were 2 highlights in our weekend.  The first was when a mother approached us with her young daughter. She told us that she really enjoyed our dancing and that her daughter wanted to meet us but was too shy.  We love nothing more than to inspire others and we felt great that people could see how much we enjoy to dance.  The other highlight was when a shy old man approached me and told me that I was his hero.  It really touched me.  He was a competitor himself, and no bigger than me! It just goes to show that anyone can dance... at any size, and at any age.

At the end of the competition, we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts, Toni and Gary Bowen.  They have seen us improve over the years and have given us a home away from home..  It was a full weekend of dancing and we were exhausted by the time we got home.  We really enjoyed the weekend and a big thank you to the organizers and all the volunteers who made this event so wonderful and memorable for us every year!!

Canadian Closed Championship 2012

The Canadian Closed Championships is the annual event where all the top dancers in Canada compete for the Championship titles.  The top 2 couples in each category get the honour to represent Canada in the world championships.  5 different cities take turns hosting this prestigious event and it has finally returned to Vancouver this year! It was an exciting time for all the BC dancers who trained hard all year to compete against the best in Canada. 

For us, we were aiming to finish top 2 in Senior I so we could officially represent Canada at the World Championship.  We finished 3rd last year and had a great shot of moving up, especially after beating the 2nd place couple in Belgium just 2 months ago.  There was tremendous pressure on us dancing in front of the home crowd, but our experience helped deal with the stress.  Everyone who passed by us at the waiting area either patted our shoulders or shake our hands.  The only thing they held back was to verbally saying "Keep the trophy in Vancouver for us!!"  We had been sick for 3 weeks prior to this competition, but danced the best we possibly could.  When it was announced that we finished 3rd again,  the audience sighed in unison, and we were devastated.  I could not hide my disappointment whereas Gloria put on the best smile she could.  We felt we let everyone down, and it was very emotional for us. 


"The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way."


We were disheartened for only a day...our journey continues...


Next year, the Canadian Closed Championships will be held in Halifax, N.S. Between now and then, we will be continuing our training in Italy and representing Canada proudly in Europe.  We have never been to Halifax and are counting down the days...