CBC 2019 programme

Welcome to our Crystal Blues Challenge – 2019

This is the 10th National Crystal Blues Challenge, and each year we are blown away
by the atmosphere at this event, created by the attitudes of all those who attend.
We believe that this is the most supportive and inclusive of any event that has an

element of competition attached to it.

From Day One our aim was to create an occasion where we, as dancers, could
collectively enjoy and appreciate the talent and efforts of our fellow dancers – at
whatever stage of their dance journey they are currently at. And you guys have

risen to that challenge in all the best ways!

Modern Blues is a dance of connection, between two partners and the music.
It is a dance that demands both partners give their all to each other, and to the

music, as it drives their dance and their creativity.
It can be intimate and introspective or flamboyant and expressive, it can be as

dramatic as it is heart-rending and it all depends upon the music played.
So as an audience we are gifted with a unique opportunity to feast upon the most

beautiful moments of connection as a voyeur invited to enjoy and appreciate.

Yes, we do get to choose the couples that we feel reflect the dance the best in
each category on the day - from a position of uplifting appreciation. All the while
acknowledging the courage it takes for our fellow dancers to come forward and

to dance for their peers to enjoy.

What a joy and a privilege that is!

It’s all about the music – and the people who play it!

So let me introduce you to our team of amazing DJs, who will not only be playing
fabulous music for you to freestyle to all weekend – they are responsible for finding

the perfect tracks for all of the Challenges too!
That’s a lot of pressure!

But these guys are the best of the best, so they are really looking forward to the
challenge of being your Crystal Blues Challenge DJs.

Crystal Blues is a two-room event so you’ll get to enjoy music from all of our DJs
over the course of the weekend.

Our main room will be Modern Blues focussed with all the music you already know
you love to dance to – as well as treats that our DJs have spent hours and hours
over months and months sourcing for you.
In our second room you’ll be offered sets specific to different influences, such as
Latin/Tango, Expressive Funky, Lyrical, Oozy Blues, Slow and Sultry and more.
It’s all about the music!

Freestyle Programme

Friday Evening – 8pm til 1am

Everything starts on Friday. No competitions, no pressure, just a chance to meet
up with and enjoy all your favourite dancers and make a whole bunch of new
friends.

Traditionally lots of people choose to enter competitions on Saturday and Sunday
with people that they meet on Friday evening!

Saturday Evening – 8pm til 1am (with presentations at 9pm)

On Saturday night we’ll be dancing through until 1am. Two rooms, lots of choice
and variety and everyone in the zone after a fabulous day at CBC.

At 9pm we take a short break to celebrate all those who have taken part in
competitions during the day. We even get a chance to see our winners in action
very briefly!

Sunday evening – 7:00pm til 11pm (with presentations at 8:30pm)

This is the last Hurrah of the weekend! Where we celebrate everything we love
about this dance we do.

New friendships, dances shared, crystals won, our best given and memories made.
Before we go our merry ways and look forward to the next time…

Daytime Dancing – from 10am on Saturday and Sunday

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you only get to dance in the evenings!
Oh no! This is an event run by Blues dancers FOR Blues dancers! So we know that
it is all about the dancing…

From 10am the doors will be open, breakfast will be available and the DJs will
already be doing their thing! There is nothing quite like sharing daytime dances
with like-minded souls – and we make sure we allow as much opportunity to keep
everyone on the floor as possible.

This is one BIG freestyle event – interspersed with the opportunities to enjoy our
fellow dancers as they allow us to share in their moment in the centre.

Freestyle DJ schedule

Friday Evening

Main Room Second room
20:00 - 21:00 Alan 20:00 - 21:00 David - Funky Blues
21:00 - 22:00 Morris 21:00 - 22:00 Mel - Lyrical Blues
22:00 - 23:00 Sara 22:00 - 23:00 Morris - Expressive Blues
23:00 - 00:00 Myra 23:00 - 00:00 Alan - Latin/Tango Blues
00:00 - 01:00 Graham 00:00 - 01:00 Myra - Oozy Blues

Saturday Evening

Main Room Second Room
20:00 - 21:00 Graham 20:00 - 21:00 Alan - Latin/Tango Blues
21:00 - 21:30 Presentations 21:00 - 21:30 Presentations
21:30 - 23:00 Myra 21:30 - 23:00 David - Funky Blues
23:00 - 00:00 Morris 23:00 - 00:00 Mel - Lyrical Blues
00:00 - 01:00 Sara 00:00 - 01:00 Graham - Expressive Blues

Sunday Evening

Main Room
19:00 - 20:30 Alan
20:30 - 21:00 Centre Stage Final and Presentations
21:00 - 22:00 Morris
22:00 - 23:00 Myra

Challenge Schedule

This year we return with our favourite challenges and added in some incredible
new challenges designed to celebrate our shared love of this dance we do!

Saturday Challenge Schedule

10:30 Beat Up Blues Challenge

12:00 BeSwitched Challenge – NEW!

13:30 Funkified Blues Challenge

15:00 Top Cats and Underdogs Challenge – NEW!

16:00 Dance Like Sara White is Watching – NEW!

17:00 Best-of-Luck Challenge

Please note – A heat of Centre Stage will be held at the start of some challenge
sessions. Timings subject to change if challenges overrun.

Sunday Challenge Schedule

10:30 Debut Blues Challenge – NEW!

12:00 Blues is Blues is Blues Challenge – NEW!

13:30 Bluest Blues Challenge

15:00 Ultimate Challenge

16:30 Best-of-Luck Challenge

20:30 Centre Stage Final

Please note – A heat of Centre Stage will be held at the start of some daytime
challenge sessions. Timings subject to change if challenges overrun.

Things you need to know..!

Catering
Food will be available to purchase on both Saturday and Sunday.
Breakfast will start at 10am and is delicious! Our fabulous catering team will be
serving bacon sandwiches, mini eggy omelettes, toast etc as well as tea/coffee.
Lunch will be available from 12 – 2:30 with home-made soup, sandwiches and
more to choose from.
Tea/coffee and cakes will be available right up until 5pm each day.
It is a fact that people reserve slices of Lemon Tart a whole year in advance!
Personally, I’m all about the home-made soup. And the cake! Definitely the
cake!
*For those with food intolerances please be aware that food is made and
prepared in a kitchen where cross contamination is actively avoided but cannot
be guaranteed. There will be VLG (very low gluten) options available but if you
are allergic you would be best to bring your own food.

Our catering team!
Bring-your-own Drinks
As usual there will be NO BAR at Crystal Blues.
But you are very welcome to bring your own drinks.
We will have water available for you in the evenings, and you can purchase tea
and coffee during the day – but do please bring your own alcoholic drinks with
you if you want them.
There is a local shop near by that will happily sell you a wide range of alcoholic
beverages at good prices if you forget to stock up before you arrive.
We only have one favour to ask… We’ll happily provide plastic cups etc but we
do ask that you take your empties away with you for recycling.

Meet the Team

As well as our DJs, and our judges, we are blessed with an efficient, effective and
all-round amazing team of people who ensure that Crystal Blues runs smoothly.

These are the smiley people who meet you at the door…
Who organise your competition paperwork and do the maths…
Who collect in the Crystals when you vote and ensure they are counted…

Who help you to find a partner to compete with…
Who look out for you…

Who wash up, tidy up and keep the kettle boiling…
Who capture the moments in photos…

Who resolve every issue way before it can become a problem…
Who are always on hand with healing hugs to calm your nerves…

Here is your Crystal Blues Team

The Crystals of Crystal Blues!

It’s all about the Crystals at Crystal Blues.

From the voting to the prize giving.

And none of that would happen without our wonderful Crystal Ladies!

Throughout the entire weekend, these lovely ladies quietly and unobtrusively make
the magic happen. They make sure that everyone in the voting audience has

their voting crystal at the start of each round and then gather them in and do the
all-important counting.

As well as that, they also make ensure there is a general sense of smoothness, well-
being and glamour about the whole event.

Welcome to your Crystal Ladies!

Meet your Judges

Crystal Blues is run BY Blues dancers, FOR Blues dancers.

And our judging team reflects this ethos. Carefully chosen from the social dance-
floor, these are all people who believe in Modern Blues as a social dance.

These are people with a hugely wide range of dance experience and collectively
have been dancing pretty much since the dawn of time itself.

These are dancers who all have a passion for good, strong dance technique and
a clear comprehension of all the individual elements that make up Modern Blues.

These are the individuals entrusted to see beyond the obvious, and into the
minutiae of the dance. To understand the complexities of musicality and to

appreciate the subtleties of connection.
Our judging team understand that Modern Blues is not necessarily a performance

dance and so don’t expect our couples to become performers, preferring to
engage in the opportunity to look beneath the surface and appreciate the finer

arts of musicality, connection, lead and follow, music-led styling and more…

And let us not forget that YOU are part of our judging team.
Every person who attends Crystal Blues becomes a part of our Voting Audience –

collectively becoming one judge.
You are the dancers – your opinion matters.

Prizes

We totally get that it is the experience of taking part that encourages dancers to
put their all into Crystal Blues Challenges.

We understand that it is by pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone
sometimes that is how we grow. As dancers. As people.

We fully appreciate that winning is a bonus and not necessarily the expectation, or
even the main aim.

But prizes are always nice to have!
And Crystal Blues wouldn’t be the same without Crystals!

But that’s not all we offer in prizes…
Three of our challenges will give our winners guaranteed, free places at one of our

various Blues Retreats and Holidays in 2020.
Some of our other challenges have non-residential weekenders, Bootcamps and

workshop passes as prizes.
All in all our ‘Prize Pot’ for Crystal Blues amounts to prizes worth in excess of £3000!

Not too shabby for a competition that has only 12 challenges to enter.

Parking

Buckden Village Hall (PE19 5UY) has a large on-site carpark – but with the large
numbers attending the event, this can get very full. We ask that you park as
closely and as considerately as possible to get maximum use from the space
available.

Buckden itself is a small village, and there is plenty of free on-street parking – but
we do ask that you DO NOT park on the street in Burberry Rd itself. (The street
leading to the hall) There will be cones in place – please don’t move them.

Our future at the hall depends on maintaining good and positive relationships with
the people living nearby.

The local school has offered us an additional 18 spaces and is less than a 3 minute
walk away too.

The full address for the venue is:
Buckden Village Hall
Burberry Road
Buckden
St Neots
Cambs
PE19 5UY

Village and parking map available HERE

Walk to Car

We have recently started a new initiative to help our solo dancers feel that little bit
more secure as they leave our venues. We are lucky that nearly all of the venues
we use have well lit car parks, but it doesn't hurt to cover all the bases.

We've got volunteers available to accompany you to your car if you're going to
be on your own - helping you get home safely. They'll be wearing purple 'Walk to
Car' badges and of course you can always approach any of our team. Just ask
and they’ll be glad to walk you to your car. This is a wonderful safe dance world
we live in, and we just want to share some of that and help make the world a
better place for all of us.

Giving back

We're keen to share the love with others around us, so we've got a couple of
special ways to share some of that love with the help of you generous CBCers. So
over the weekend we're going to be giving you some opportunities to spread
some of that dance love a little wider.

Sadly our friend and Crystal Blues massage therapist Pauline Dickson died suddenly
this year. In her honour we're going to hold a raffle on Saturday with the chance to
win a very fabulous bottle of champagne donated by Di Warren. All proceeds
from this raffle will go to support a personal charity of Pauline’s family.

And on Sunday, we'll hold another raffle with prizes donated by our Blues Nites
friends and family. For a while now we've been supporting a local kindness charity
with donations for a local foodbank and help for the homeless, the disadvantaged
and the infirm with food supplies and household items, blankets and clothing, as
well as toiletries and personal products. With winter coming up we'd like to be able
to contribute financially too. And if you have any foodbank items we'll be glad to
take them from you over the weekend.

Crystal Blues – Judging Criteria

Please remember, Blues is not a ‘performance’ dance, so join us in sharing the
privilege of watching as dancers invite us to share in their moment…

For us, Modern Blues dancing is a music-led, lead/follow partner dance that
incorporates and includes movement in both close-hold and at extension.
We celebrate the joy that is to be found in spontaneously choreographing the
dance to the music as it plays, focussing on the interplay between lead and follow

and music.

We feel that Modern Blues dancing isn't constrained by the style of music or by the
style of dance but becomes a glorious amalgamation of all aspects of partner
dance.

When judging a dance we would expect to see appropriate time spent in close-
hold and potentially at extension - depending on musical style and category.

(Close-hold can vary between ‘open’ and ‘intimate’ styles of close-hold and may
or may not include travel as well as more rooted, on-the-spot movement).

And remember that while Modern Blues can incorporate elements of Tango, WCS,
Modern Jive and more, in this competition we would expect the emphasis to be
on what makes for Modern Blues dance – an emphasis on musicality and close
hold at the core of the dance.

Some specifics . . .

Musicality – Are the dancers listening for, and responding to, the changes within
the music (e.g. breaks, pauses, tempo change, accents)? Do they make effective
use of dynamics, time/half time/double time, pause, call & response and so on?
Does the style of the dance match the style of the music?

Interpretation – Are the moves/movements appropriate to the music in terms of
genre, feel and so on..? Are the dancers taking account of the vocals, lyrics,
instrumentation etc?

Style – Do the styles gel and complement each other and the music? Is there an
excess of unsolicited styling? Are both partners combining to create a partnership
that does justice to the music, or working in opposition?

Connection – Are the dancers in touch with the music and with each other,
creating a synergy where, when musically appropriate, two become as one? Is
the lead forecast in an obvious way, or so subtle that it is seems that the follow is
reading the mind of the lead?

Aesthetics – Are the lines of both dancers visually pleasing? Are flourishes and
styling additions appropriate or distracting?

Technique - Are the dancers competent in both close-hold and extension? Do
they use lead/follow techniques effectively and fluidly? Do they utilise the basics
as well employing skills displaying a good degree of technical difficulty?

All of the above thoughts are designed to assist you in making your decisions.

You hold the voting crystal – your vote counts.

Crystal Blues and You

It isn’t easy for me to find the words to explain why I feel Crystal Blues is such a
special event.

It is complicated, and yet so simple.

As a dancer, a teacher, a passionate advocate of all that Modern Blues has
evolved to become, and as an organiser – I had a hope…

A hope that all of us who love our Blues could come together and celebrate.

Celebrate the dance.
Celebrate the dancers.
Celebrate the music and the music players.
Celebrate the art that is created in the movement and the silences, the art that
disappears when the music stops yet stays in our hearts and memories forever.

Celebrate and appreciate.

I have been moved to tears on more than one occasion at Crystal Blues. And not
always by those that shine the brightest on the day and win sparkly crystals.

I have been inspired by the courage, and the heart of all those who take part.

And I know why Crystal Blues is so special.

Crystal Blues could not exist without you.

You - the dancer - out there on the floor.
You - the audience - supporting and encouraging your peers.

You - the competitor - giving your all in the Challenges.
You - the DJ, the team, the judges, the friends, the family - doing your thing to

make everything better.
You - the believer - in this dance that we love.

You.

You are the magic.

You are the magic of Crystal Blues.