SwingDiego 2013 Update #2

What a night!

Robert Royston on the mic all weekend – YAY! He’s so funny! So kind! Some people are just born to stand in front of a crowd with a microphone. Robert has emcee genes.

Biggest Open Strictly we’ve ever seen – EVERYONE was out there – everyone. Young juniors couples, old geezers, Novice, Allstar – it was a huge marvelous international division – 115 couples!

Midway through the evening they changed the schedule to accomodate the numbers and give contestants a shot at making the next cut by adding – in addition to prelims and semis – a “quarters” round. Finals will be danced Spotlight (like all Finals here) tomorrow night after Classic.

Here’s who made Quarters:

Diego and Katrina O
Arnaud and Tori Ellington
Nechadi Djessim and Marina Motronenko
Julien Vallier and Sharon Her
PJ and Janelle
Hugo and Stacy Chiang
Josh Williamson and Nicole Clonch
Grigory and Katia
Daniel Guido and Emeline
Tze Yi Wee and Linda Cuccio
JB and Jessica Pancheco
Sebastien and Rebecca
Miguel Ortega and Kate Lovegrove
Thomas Carter and Miki Finley
Andrew Slac and Laura Deshano
Evan and Shannon
Clint and Maddie Finley
Edson and Cintia
Jason Taylor and Terra
Carson Brand and Kristen Humphrey
Steve Hall and Beverly Brunerie
Brad Whelan and Lindsey Nastos
Steven Guido and Hannah Clonch
Cody Anzelone and Olga
Kofi and Sylvia Burgnard
Josh Sturgeon and Kara
Kevin Kane and Lena Rummel
Tony Schubert and Ellyn Brady
Kevin Bretney and Larisa Tingle
John Piper and Laura Clipp

We are waiting for Open Strictly finals to be posted …

Here are the songs played for the Open Strictly rounds:

“Another Man’s Shoes” (Brother Yusef)
“Next 40 Years”
“Raise Your Glass” (Pink)
“Emotion” (Destiny’s Child)
“Natural Man” (Lou Rawls)
“5:19″ (Matt Wertz)
“Available” (Flo Rida)
“Lost In You” (Chris Gaines)
“Gangster of Love” (Johnny Guitar Watson)
“The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” (The Script)
“Troublemaker” (Akon)
“Back To The Middle” (India Arie)
“Cause I Love You” (Mike Morgan and The Crawl)
“Come On Get Higher” (Matt Nathanson)
“Beauty and The Beat” (Bieber)
“Whatever Happens” (Michael Jackson)
“Let’s Walk” (Austin De Leon)
“Breaking Me” (Johnny Lange)
“Please Don’t Go” (Mike Posner)
“Give Me The Night” (Randy Crawford)
“Rack ‘Em Up” (Jonny Lang)
“S&M” (Rihanna, acoustic version)
“Moves Like Jagger” (Maroon 5)
“Gonna Move Across The River”
“Seven Nation Army” (cool acoustic girl)
“Don’t Wanna Go Home” (Jason DeRulo)
“Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” (MJ)
“No Diggity” (Oli Brown)
“Troulemaker” (Olly Murs)

Champions Prelims:

“Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” (an acoustic remix)

“That’s The Way Love Goes” (Janet Jackson)

“Show Me” (Usher)

Kris Swearingen and Laureen
Paul Warden and Alyssa
Olivier and Virginie Perga
Nick King and Courtney
Greg Scott and Cat Wiles
Miguel De Sousa and Christina Ponce
Ben Morris and Rutz
Jordan and Jessica
Sean McKeever and Cameo
Ben McHenry and Mackenzie
Luis and Blandine
Benji and Tatiana
Chuck and Malia
Jesse Vos and Brandi
Michael Kielbasa and Jen Deluca
Barry Jones and Tessa
Stephen White and Samantha Ramirez
Michael Norris and Deborah Szekely
Kye and Torri
Maxim and Virginie Grondin
Maxence and Sarah
Edwin and Katie

I sat next to the Brasilians! THE BRASILIANS!!!! SO MUCH FUN! SO LOUD! SO EMOTIONAL! SUCH ENTHUSIASM! Wow is it great to have Brasilians here!

Champions Strictly Finalists

(also dancing Spotlight, tomorrow night after Classic)

Olivier and Virginie
Ben and Melissa
Jordan and Jessica
Benji and Tatiana
Jesse and Brandi
Kielbasa and Deluca
Barry and Tessa
Michael and Deborah
Kyle and Torri
Maxim and Virginie
Maxence and Sarah
(alts: Ben McHenry and Mackenzie; Chuck and Malia)

SHOWCASE!!

Rome and Chevy to “Dog Days” – love LOVE this routine, the song, the choreography. So great to see them dancing it again!

Diego and Jessica to “Sweet Child of Mine” (by Guns and Roses) – Brasilians dancing to pure classic rock! What fun!

Sebastien and teeny weeny tiny wee adorable little Vanessa to “Locked Out of Heaven” (by Kidz Bob Kids)

The Roystons, Ronnie and Laureen, Luis and Jenn, Myles and Tessa, Stephen and Sabrina, Greg and Lemery, and Benji and Torri all dancing routines we’ve been watching since the Open. So good. So very good.

Classic prelims are tomorrow morning at 11:00 am. That’s hard for the competitors and hard for us to be awake at the hour to watch and cheer. But we’ll be there!

Here’s who’s dancing Classic prelim

(they’re calling it “The Qualifier”):

Kevin Kane and Shanti Davis
Rob Jackson and Heather Powers-Rutledge
Sebastien and Blandine
Katie Schneider and Michael Kielbasa
Peter Fradley and Michelle Fletcher
Miguel De Sousa and Yenni
Arnaud and Beverly
Ben Morris and Jen Deluca
Brunno Cesar Theodoro and Paula Cavaicanti
Ben McHenry and Cameo
Gerald and Robin
Lana Santos and Daniels Saralva
Muriel and Stephane Houis
Lee and Fabienne
Kris and Rebecca
Shaheed and Rachele
Paul and Cat
Maxim and Virginie
Clint and Mackenzie
Joshua Sturgeon and Lindsey Nastos
Hugo and Stacy
Sean and Courtney
Gary and Susan

Couple technical problems tonight:

Some sound-system glitches throughout the night which I’m sure Earl and Parker are struggling to get fixed (as Royston said “There’s nothing that stresses out an Event Director more than problems with the sound system) – buzzing, snapping, the speakers went out a couple of times in the middle of social dancing, bass/treble balance seems to be having problems, lost Robert’s mic at the end of strictlys … none of which bothered us dancers much but it will be nice when the sound is as good as it can be in this terrific ballroom.

Also problems with both the link to the thumbsup live stream, as well as the feed itself. Bruce Gleason, the videographer, tells me all problems should be fixed by tomorrow and tonight’s divisions can be purchased as soon as he gets them fully uploaded (they should be available already.)