NEWSLETTER ORGANIZERS

PRESIDENT

EDITORS

USA DANCE

TIDEWATER CHAPTER

P.O. Box 62321Virginia Beach, VA 23466Email: info08@twcusadance.org

USA Dance - Tidewater Chapter

NewsletterPresident's Letter

April 2012

Ronald A. DinosoRegina Raimona

We started out the new year with a new Chapter Board and set of officers.

Then we implemented some changes to our annual New Year’s Weekend event:

» Adding a fourth food selection for the Din-ner Dance

» A different meal venue for the New Year’s evening event

» A new headliner couple and some changes in workshop instructors

» New seating arrangements for the main ballroom

» More dance flooring for the workshops and the satellite dance rooms

» An accomplished, reliable professional photographer

The changes continue with the move from our long time monthly dance location at the Knights of Colum-bus in Norfolk to two different local dance studios, both with great wooden, well-maintained dance floors. We have engaged a couple of new DJs to play our monthly dances and added new dance instructors.

Our January dance, the first at one of our new venues, was a very special night, for those of you who attended. It was a gratifying night, not just because the numbers attending exceeded our expectations, but because we had more people join our Chapter at a single dance in recent memory. It was also gratify-ing than the attendees – that was you - were gracious in accepting the new venue where we no longer have tables available. Of course, the night was not without some challenges.

A number of constructive recommenda-

tions and suggestions were made following the dance and we will be working with the facility to implement most, if not all, of them for the February dance. The owners are willing to work with us to make the dance experience a good one for each event.

New for our monthly dances, we will be attempting a variety of mixers to get more dancers involved.

We will also be trying out new snack and drink combinations, so let us know what works for you and what doesn’t. We are open to suggestions.

This is the first issue of our new and im-proved newsletter, which previously has been published irregularly. We have a new volun-teer team, Regina Raimona and Ron Dinoso, who are committed to providing our members and supporters with a consistent, qualitative, and more informative newsletter. Included, as you will note as you read this issue, will be

new sections about dance happen-ings around the area, tidbits and more.

The Board is working on new projects that are geared to enhance and promote dancing in our com-munity. Stay tuned for those projects as they unfold.

In conclusion, the Chapter Board and I have made a commitment to make this the year of revival for the Chapter. We are looking to you, our members, to become a part of that revival by becoming more involved, support-ing the Chapter and its activities.

Again, Happy New Year Ray

Happy New Year to each of you from the Chapter Board and me.I lookforward to this being the year of change for

our Chapter – all positive changes.

Raymond Smith

Article Submission Deadline: June 15th

Visit our new website:http : / /T WCUSADance.org/

Virginia Chapter and Area 11 Coordinator, provided a New Year’s message and did the count-down to the New Year.

As in past years, Toe to Toe Shoes and Dancewear had more than 2,000 pairs of shoes available for purchase; a physical therapist, David Herring, was available to work on sore body parts; and a professional videographer/photographer, Sky’s the Limit, provided both individual and candid photo

opportunities and taped all exhibitions and shows for purchase.

For those that attended all or part of the event, there is a 10 question survey available at Sur-vey Monkey [https : / /www.sur veymonkey.com/s/9BT9DX6] to provide feedback to the Chapter on what you liked

and what you would like to see changed. Your feedback will enable us to know what went well and what might be improved. Of course, the more that respond, the better the Chapter will be able to assess what we can do to make next year’s event even better - so please take the opportunity to let your voice be known by completing the survey ,which will be available through the end of January.

The Tidewater Chapter #6008 held its 21st Annual New Year’s Weekend Extravaganza at the Sheraton Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia from December 29th , 2011 through January 1st, 2012.

The event featured 58 workshops over the 4 day period, a Black Tie Optional Dinner Dance on Thursday night, a Coun-try Western Theme Dance on Fri-day Night, the main event, the New Year’s Eve Dance, which was also black tie optional, on Saturday night and concluded with a Latin Theme Dance on Sunday night.

All evening events included dancing and activities in the main ballroom plus two additional ball-rooms featuring Argentine Tango (hosted by Gary Wooten & Teresa Callahan, Richmond, Virginia) and, depending upon the night, Country Western, West Coast Swing, Hustle and general ballroom mixes (hosted by Walter and Judy Schultz, Virgin-ia Beach). These two additional venues also included a ½ hour lesson and were open until 2:00am each night.

Over the 4 nights, there were more than 50 dance exhibitions performed by both amateur and pro-fessional dancers. The event’s featured performers/workshop instructors were Rising Star Champions Nazar Norov and Irina Kudryashova from Naples, Florida. Also included in the instructor cadre were Alan Hedgpeth, Wesley Acker, and Sam & Denise Miller, Virginia Beach; Phyllis Harris, Rich-mond Virginia; and Ken Roesel, Maryland. Five Dance Hosts were available for the Din-ner and NYE Dances and were also in atten-

dance at the Theme Dances. We had 270 attending the Dinner Dance,

310 at the New Year’s Eve dance, and both Theme dances drew in more than 200 at-tendees. The main dance floor was a 6,500SF competition dance floor and all workshops and the additional ballroom added another

3,000 SF of competition flooring. The workshops attracted more than 500 students even with two of the days being regular work days. We had 5 individuals attending who have been at every one of the events; unfortunately, one of those who has attended all of the events up until this year was stranded in South America and thus was un-able to attend.

This year we were honored to have Jean Krupa, USA Dance National Vice-President for So-cial Dance, in attendance for the New Year’s Eve Dance and also to preside over the Region 11 Chapter

President’s meeting hosted by the Tidewater Chapter on Sunday afternoon in conjunction with the event.

In re-sponse to rec-ommen-dations from the past surveys, the long standing tradi-tion of a break-

fast buffet following the bringing in of the New Year was replaced by semi-buffet style “action stations” featuring pasta selections, beef, chicken and seafood selections and a Tapas Bar, where attendees could select what they wanted and dine at their leisure over a 2-hour period. The long standing tradition of a champagne toast at midnight, however, con-tinued. Phil Sisk, President of the Richmond,

New Year's Gala 2011-2012BY RAYMOND SMITH

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Irina Kudryashova & Nazar Norov are ready to party with us!

Some of Nazar & Irina's wonderful spotlight routines! From Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Paso Doble, Rumba #1, Rumba #2, Jive, and Cha-Cha

GALA STATS

◊ 270 attended Dinner Dance

◊ 310 attended the NYE Dance

◊ 9,500 SF of total dance space

◊ 500 attended workshops

◊ 5 individuals attended every workshops

◊ Vendors had 2,000 pairs of shoes available for sale

From Left to Right: Alex Carpenter, Barbara & Allan Kalbacher, and Regina & Ron.

More Photos from the Gala

“Here’s another fine mess I’ve gotten myself into…”

I channel Oliver Hardy as I maneuver my body around the dance studio.

I am a non-dancer. You ‘dance-people’ sim-ply cannot understand. What comes naturally to you, knowing where your body and all its limbs are in space is unnatural to me. My dancing is akin to stuffing a cat into a burlap sack—one part goes in, and another part pops out of alignment. Apologies to all cats for the anal-ogy, including my own.

Last year’s music parody video to support colon cancer awareness was a breeze (http://youtu.be/wmKnf7QhuSo) . An animated me not only danced, but turned cartwheels and surfed. All I had to do was stand still for an extensive photo-shoot, and amazing animator John Schnall did the heavy lifting.

This year, the glorious idea was a video spoof to educate about early screening colo-noscopy in African Americans. Beyoncé’s Single Ladies/Put a Ring On It, with its infec-

Patricia Raymond, MD., is a local Gastroenterologist who uses entertainment to educate the public.

tious beat and refrain was the musical vehicle. But the visual needed to be dance. The iconic B&W video of Beyoncé and her two dancers needed to be parodied to enhance the impact and fun. Live action dancing (by me) was es-sential.

Enter choreographer and dancer Regina Raimona. Regina recruited her progressively-pregnant colleague Michelle Eppich Hood, and they carefully dissected the Beyoncé dance to fit my (non-existent) skill set. They were able to enlist two graceful, exuberant and (damn them) slender African American

dancers in Kenne-sha M. Walker and Lynelle N. Hauga-brook. You may have seen us in rehearsal at ATTD as you swanned by in proper form (if in fact, swans could move to a salsa beat).The team pulled

it off; we produced a frolicsome video that illustrates the

point: African American colon cancer screen-ing MUST start at 45 (not 50). View it (http://youtu.be/LSpyaGgA4rs), and please share it with your Facebook, email, and twitter friends. Enjoy the use of dance to educate.

I believe that Carrie Ann Inaba, the kindest of judges, might be moved to give me a “6”.

DancesportVA5721A Arrowhead Dr.Virginia Beach, VA 23462

CONTACT 680 Kingsborough Square Suite DChesapeake, VA 23320Phone: (757) 547-2673

A Time to Dance

5444 Virginia Beach Blvd. Suite 118Virginia Beach, VA 23462

Owners: Rebekah & Zhenya Klyukin

Start at 45BY PATRICIA RAYMOND, M.D.

"Enjoy the use of dance to educate"

Local CompetitorsYULETIDE BALL 2011

Many of our dance students regularly compete in regional competitions in various divisions and categories. We'd like to ac-knowledge their hardwork and dedication to their passion for dance. For studios and instructors we'd like to hear from you about your students' accomplishments.

To that end we'd like to congratulate Val-erie Arias and her instructor Yuriy Kravets, representing DancesportVA of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Valerie won first place in

all of her single dances, Bronze Championship and Bronze Silver Scholarship at the Yuletide Ball 2011.

Left: Yuriy & Valerie in Tango hold.Right: Fellow competitors with Valerie to the far left.

TRI-STATE CHALLENGE COMPETITION MARCH 23-25TH RESULTS:

Patt McKinnon (dancing with Zhenya Klyukin) received 5 first places in Bronze I In-ternational Standard (Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, and Quickstep). She placed 2nd in the Bronze multi-dance Scholarship event out of 9. Additionally, she received 1st place in Bronze I Paso Doble, 2nd place in ChaCha, Rumba, and Samba; and 3rd place in Jive and was a finalist in the Latin multi-dance scholarship event as well.

Greg Lathrop (dancing with Rebekah Klyukin) received 10 first places in Bronze I and Bronze II International Standard (Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, and Quick-step).

Congratulationscompetitors!

Left: Pat McKinnon with ZhenyaRight: Greg Lathrop with Rebekah

Saturday, February 25th, 2012 was the 2nd annual “Dancing Under the Stars” fundraiser at the K.E. White Center at the Elizabeth City State University’s campus. The event helped raise money for the Albemarle Area United Way while providing a reception filled with tasty treats and great entertainment. Several instructors and dancers from Hampton Roads assisted with the success of this year’s event and many returned from last year after enjoy-ing the “Kick Off.

Set up starts early in the day, with a bustle of work putting down the floor, setting up the room, rehearsals and sound check. However, an event like this takes several months of planning and many team players. There are multiple lessons for each dancer participating filled with hours of repetition and hard work. It requires team meetings for fundraising, finding sponsors, recruiting celebrities, judges, marketing and much more.

The local celebrities that spent hours in practice learning several fun and flirty rou-tines were Ann Hoffman, Publisher with Daily Advance; Debbie Morrisette with Long &

Foster partnered with Mr. Dough Gard-ner; Diana Etheridge, Instructor at the YMCA and Patricia Albert with Wells Fargo partnered with Mr. Mark Wice.

Our local dancers and instructors who traveled to assist and dance with the event were;

Damir Abdullaev, Rebekah & Zhenya Klyukin, Ron Dinoso & Regina Raimona, Walter & Judy Schultz, Wesley Acker, Jerilyn Gonzales, Tim & Bon-nie Hackett, John Galle, Stan Gurganus & Cindy Perkins, Christina Wooddell, Michelle Green, and Tom & Gretchen Allen.

A special thank you for the photos by Brett Clark, The Daily Advance. Photos are available for purchase at http://www.dailyadvance.com/content/dancing-under-stars-2012-964691

We look forward to next year’s event!

Dancing Under the Stars 2012BY REGINA RAIMONA

Author Bio:Sarah Elizabeth Stone is a film student at Regent University. She produced and directed the music video as the final requirement before graduation.

Members' Birthdays

Renewal Months

Month Members

Jan. ◊ Mr. Antonio D. Octavo◊ Ms. Priscilla A. Sellars◊ Mr. Tom Somma◊ Ms. Marina Hilliard

Feb. ◊ Mrs. Wanda L. Smith◊ Mr. Will L. Harper◊ Mrs. Joanne S. Gabber◊ Mrs. Kathleen A. Weinberg◊ Mr. John Upton◊ Mr. Keith Sutton◊ Ms. Pam Glass◊ Mrs. Dorothy Hudson

What happens when you take a family of Julliard-trained musicians, mix in a group of enthusiastic ballroom dancers, flood every-one with high-intensity lighting, crank up the music, then capture the event on multiple cameras? You have the making of an exciting music video scene!

On March 13th, 2012, local ballroom danc-ers across Hampton Roads participated in a scene for an upcoming music video in the atrium at the Founders Inn and Spa. As Annie Wolaver-Dupree, the lead singer for the Annie Moses Band, stated at one point, “This was an epic scene!” And epic it was as ballroom danc-ers dressed in their finest gowns twirled and glided around the floor of the atrium creating

the magic of the scene.The Annie Moses Band (www.anniemoses-

band.com) is a family ensemble known for blending country, jazz, pop, and classical mu-sic. To date, the group—comprised of parents Bill and Robin Wolaver and their children Annie, Alex, Benjamin, Camille, Gretchen, and Jeremiah—has more than 1,000 hours of airings on PBS stations across the country (the highest debut for any artist on public televi-sion to date), a top-ten classical crossover album (Billboard Magazine) and a tour sched-ule of more than 80 concerts a year.

What the band didn't have, however, was a music video. "I could see their music put really well to a video," said the producer and director of the music video, Sarah Beth Stone, a Regent University student. The song for the video, "Blush," is an original by the

group. The music video captured the song’s lyrics in the desire to go back to a time of relational virtues and value—a return to the time “when grooms were gallant, and brides would blush.”In the modern ballroom dancing scene,

the band performed as the ballroom danc-ers Viennese waltzed around the floor. "The dancers looked absolutely beautiful and added a vibrant dynamic to the shots as they whirled around the marble floor," explained Stone after the evening’s production activities. "The elegance of the ballroom couples captured the essence of the lyrics in the manner of how they bow and curtsy, and the upmost respect that is reflected during the dance. Their color-

ful gowns were perfect for the look we wanted for the video.”

A production set is very exciting, but then "it can become tedious as each shot is repeated for take after take until all the aspects, like the camera movement, dancers' performance, and band's performance, are perfect," according to Stone. “Each of our ballroom couples perse-vered, however, through the dizzying array of left turns required by the scene’s multiple takes and the Viennese waltz itself. Their in-volvement was genuinely appreciated and they helped us successfully capture the epic nature of the scene!"

The song, "Blush," is on the Annie Moses Band’s soon to be publically released album, Pilgrims and Prodigals, and the music video is scheduled to be released in May of 2012.

"Blush" Music VideoBY SARAH ELIZABETH STONE

Return to the time "when grooms were gallant, and brides would blush"

Month Members

Mar. ◊ Mr.AllenW.Rohlfing◊ Mr. Timothy J. Lobello◊ Mrs. Janice A. Lobello◊ Ms. Lynn M. Gallagher◊ Mr. Frank D. Tehel◊ Ms. Nancy Weaver◊ Mrs. Jean Tsai◊ Ms. Janice S. Klasek◊ Ms. Kim Tran◊ Ms. Jennifer Arriaga◊ Mr. Sean A. Pearson

Apr. ◊ Mr. Joseph Brogan◊ Ms. Susan Donn◊ Ms. Shirlee Lerner◊ Mr. John T. Riley◊ Ms. Teracia Nunnally

M e m b e r s h i p C e n t e r

Membership is the life-blood of any organi-zation. We'd like to take this time to cel-ebrate and acknowledge the birthdays of our members. Keep those happy feet moving and dance everyday of your life!

Month Members

Jan. ◊ Ms. Sharon M. Clark

Feb. ◊ Ms. Donna L. Campbell◊ Ms. Dalynn K Fond◊ Mrs. Aida L. Limcaoco◊ Mr. Ben C. Limcaoco◊ Mrs. Janice A. Lobello◊ Mr. Timothy J. Lobello◊ Ms. Kay L. Niman-Meyers◊ Ms. Teracia Nunnally◊ Mrs. Jean Tsai◊ Mr. Morris Tsai

Month Members

Mar. ◊ Mr. Will L. Harper◊ Mrs. Karen E. Inn◊ Mr. Steven G. Inn◊ Ms. Shirlee Lerner◊ Mrs. Dorothy Pearson◊ Mr. Sean A. Pearson◊ Ms. Ge Youn Thompson

Apr. ◊ Mrs. Gretchen A. Allen◊ Ms. Lynn M. Gallagher◊ Ms. Mary Kay Glassman◊ Mr. Ben J. Hudson◊ Ms. Katherine Nagorniuk◊ Mr. Walter Schultz◊ Ms. Cynthia Strode

M e m b e r s h i p C e n t e r (cont.)

New Members!

Volunteer of the Quarter: Gretchen AllenBY REGINA RAIMONA

Through the years, one of our dedicated volunteers and fellow board member of USA Dance, Gretchen Allen has played a crucial part of the United Way dancing events. She helped organize the Dancing with Our Stars in Hampton Roads that was a huge success, enjoyed by thousands and raised a lot of money. She continues to volunteer and help Albermarle Area United Way organize their events. This last NYE Gala she was an asset to our team as she spent endless hours on

reservations and ticket sales, work-ing with the team, attending meetings, recruiting

new volunteers and many other tasks that kept the weekend running to make it a Grand Event!

For these reasons and more, we would like to thank her for hours of hard work and dedication to USA Dance and our dance com-munity!

T h a n k y o u , W a n d a !A Memorial Donation account has been

set up in memory of Wanda Smith. She will always be dancing with us at Tidewater USA Dance.

The funeral was a beautiful service, in memory of a passionate and dedicated wom-an, Wanda Smith. The priest spoke about her love for dance as well as God's love of dance. It was a beautiful connection for a woman who lived life sharing the joys of dance with others through charities, USA Dance and as many saw in a display of pictures, her personal love and dance with her husband, Jerry.

If you would like to make a donation in her memory, we ask that you use one of the 3 plac-es that Wanda would have wanted to support.

1. American Cancer Society – 4416 Ex-pressway Drive VA Beach, VA

23452 c/o Ilse. (Enclose a note that gives the following information: In Memory of Wanda L. Smith 705 Denham Arch Chesapeake VA 23322)

2. ASPCA -Honor & Memorial Donations There are three ways to make a tribute

Stay Tuned for Exciting Changes & Upcoming Details Email: INFO08@TWCUSADANCE.ORG

Website: WWW.USADANCETIDEWATER.ORG

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012 – MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

BREATHTAKING Exhibitions

PROFESSIONAL Lessons with

NAZAR NOROV & IRINA KUDRYASHOVA

Plus MUCH MORE!

THE TIDEWATER CHAPTER USA DANCE, INC. #6008 Presents

23rd ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S WEEKEND EVENT

Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, Norfolk, Virginia

DAILY WORKSHOPS - All Levels & Styles

ENTERTAINMENT EVERY NIGHT Dinners, Performances & Dancing

BALLROOM VENDORS

Photography, Videographer & Dancewear

donation: Website: If you’d like to make a donation online &

inform an individual via email, you may send them an eMemorial notification. This is a simple & fast process.

https : / /donate .aspca.org/Donate/Donations/Website/Website_Memo-r ial .aspx?PlacementID=2475670

Mail: You may send a check, indicating name of deceased, the name/address of the person you wish us to contact concerning the donation, and who it is from. They send a tribute card to the person you’ve indicated. Please send your check to: ASPCA Tributes, 520 8th Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Or you can make a donation by Phone: (800)628-0028.

3. Tidewater Chapter, USA Dance – The Chapter is working on a continuing memo-rial. Information will be forthcoming shortly. Donations are already being accepted and the board is taking into consideration any sugges-tions.

Are you ready for more?!

Wanda was the founder and guiding light for the USA Dance Tidewater Chapter.

Upcoming USA Dance Monthly Dance

The Chapter hosts a monthly social every 4th Saturday of each month. Here are the 2012 monthly social dance schedules:@ A Time to Dance - 5444 Virginia Beach Blvd. Suite #118, Virginia Beach, VA 23462

» January 28th » February 25th » March 24th » April 28th » May 23rd

@ Dancesport VA - 5721-A Arrowhead Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23462

» June 23rd » July 28th » August 25th » September 22nd » October 27th » November 24th