Swing Dynamite Blog

Thoughts and news about swing dancing in Ottawa

CSC 2010 Results

[ No Comments ] Posted by byron on Jun 10, 2010 in Competitions, Ottawa, Swing Dancing

Swing Dynamite – and therefore Ottawa – had another great year at the Canadian Swing Championships in 2010.

This year everyone from Ottawa who placed was connected with Swing Dynamite in some way–as a teacher, coach, team member (current or past) or student, which makes us especially proud both for representing Ottawa so well once again, and for the success we’ve had in training dancers. Many of the dancers below were competing for their very first time, and ended up making finals or even placing at Canada’s biggest swing competition!

Just some of the awards Swing Dynamite won at CSC 2010

Here’s a comprehensive list of our accomplishments this year. Competitors are listed even if they are no longer team members, and even if they’ve since moved out of Ottawa – we’re still proud of you! I’ve listed placements below 3rd place as “finalist” unless the placement was particularly noteworthy for the number of competitors or level of competition:

Swing Dynamite/Ottawa Placements at the 2010 Canadian Swing Championships
First, two of our teams that did really well:
  • Dynamite Girls (Coached by Natalia Rueda) – 2nd, Cabaret
    • Clare Hopkins (Assistant Coach)
    • Pauline West
    • Gabrielle Desmarais
    • Sari “Power Girl”  Zelenietz
    • Helena Forbes
    • Laura Smith
    • Kalyn Jobb
    • Emilie Razbin
    • Lisa Reid
    • Jessica Cole
    • Shannon “Shanny Mac” MacGillivray
    • Genevieve Robillard
  • D-Boyz (Coached by Byron Alley) – 3rd, Cabaret
    • Bill “Smiles” Ewanick (Assistant Coach)
    • JF “Jitter Jones” Harbour
    • Alec “The Spook” Mills
    • Scott “Spiffy” Piffard
    • Oz “I’ma let you finish, but…” Osmar
    • Adam “Baby Girl” Feiner
Shouts out also to our TNTeam and Rhythm Blasters who didn’t place this year but who put on a great show and made us very proud! And now the full list of Swing Dynamite people’s accomplishments at CSC this year:
  • Travis Matte & Natalia Rueda – 1st, Strictly Balboa
  • Travis Matte & Natalia Rueda – 1st, Balboa Jack ‘n Jill
  • Byron Alley & Natalia Rueda – 1st, Strictly Blues
  • Byron Alley & Natalia Rueda – 1st, Advanced WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • Natalia Rueda – 1st, Strictly WCS
  • Natalia Rueda – 1st, Solo Blues
  • Gabrielle Desmarais – 1st, Novice WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • David Ward & Maria Ford – 2nd, Strictly WCS
  • David Ward & Maria Ford – 2nd, Advanced WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • Maria Ford – 2nd, Novice WCS (as leader)
  • Donnie Neron & Daria Mikloukhina – 3rd, Strictly WCS
  • David Ward & Maria Ford – 3rd, Strictly Blues
  • Andre Danis – 3rd, Advanced WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • Adam Feiner -3rd, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • David Ward & Daria Mikloukhina – 4th, Classic Swing Couples
  • Bill Ewanick & Sari Zelenietz – 4th, Fast Dance
  • Catherine Quinn – 4th, Strictly WCS
  • Catherine Quinn – 3rd, Novice WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • David Ward & Gabrielle Desmarais – 5th, Strictly Balboa
  • Donnie Neron & Julie O’Brien – 5th, Novice WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • Mercedes Deziel-Hupe – 5th, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Alec Mills – 5th, Newcomer WCS Jack ‘n Jill
  • Oz Omar & Emilie Razbin – 6th, Open Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Bill Ewanick – 6th, Solo Charleston
  • Dave Anderson & Genevieve Robillard – 6th, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Byron Alley – Finalist, Advanced Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Natalia Rueda – Finalist, Advanced Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Travis Matte – Finalist, Advanced Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Dave Ward – Finalist, Advanced Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • David Ward – Finalist, Balboa Jack ‘n Jill
  • Emilie Razbin – Finalist, Balboa Jack ‘n Jill
  • Alec Mills – Finalist, Balboa Jack ‘n Jill
  • Gabrielle Desmarais – Finalist, Balboa Jack ‘n Jill
  • Laura Smith – Finalist, Open Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Paul Campbell – Finalist, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Alex McCaffrey – Finalist, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill
  • Julie Robidas-Noiseux – Finalist, Newcomer Lindy Jack ‘n Jill

Congratulations everyone! Kaboom!

Swinging to Change the World

[ No Comments ] Posted by byron on Mar 10, 2010 in General, Ottawa, Ottawa Dance Events, Swing Dancing

Swing dancing doesn’t have to be all about the dancing. It’s about the people, the music, the connections we make. And I’ve always hoped it could be about even more.

Running a dance school is enough of a challenge, but running a dance school dedicated to the little-known dances of Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Balboa, Blues, Shag and so on, is the kind motivation for entrepreneurship that they warn you about in business school. You’re supposed to start businesses that will make money, not just make people happy.

But for us at Swing Dynamite, it’s always been about spreading the happiness and excitement that we find in Swing dancing. Natalia, our artistic director, was speaking not long ago with her father, who said he was proud of her because her work makes people happy. It’s exactly right: we all began swing dancing because it was fun, because going out dancing and interacting with people made us happier. And we started teaching and performing in order to spread that joy of swing dancing to more people.

What’s really amazing, though, is when we can go beyond just spreading happiness through the dance, to changing people’s lives in other important ways. Since not long after we founded Swing Dynamite, we’ve been involved in doing charity work, organizing benefits, teaching classes at reduced rates for underprivileged children, and doing performances for fundraisers. Recently we managed to raise money for Haiti and medical aid to Cuba, as well as performed and offered services for a few different charity organizations such as the Canadian Paraplegic Association. For all of us, this is an important contribution.

There’s a hidden benefit to companies working with charities to offer services: recent research shows that non-profits are often seen as less competent, offering less valuable or professional services than businesses. Think of it this way: you might want to support a charity, but would you rather buy a TV set made by Sony, or by the Cancer society? It’s an extreme example, but when businesses get behind charities they can increase the perceived value and professionalism of the organization. If you can buy a Sony TV and have some proceeds go to the Cancer society, it’s a win-win, right? Similarly, we hope that as one of Canada’s top swing dance groups, our participation makes people even more excited about attending charity events, helping to increase the attendance and funds raised. It’s one thing to attend a 40′s themed charity ball, but (we think) something much more exciting to attend when Swing Dynamite is teaching dance lessons and doing performances to set the mood and create excitement.

It’s great when swing dancing can be about something greater than the dancing, or even our little dance community–when swing can help to change the world just a little bit.