Introduction
This was the inaugural year
of the NV Ball, formally called the Nevada Star Ball, purchased with new owners
from Brian and Susan Puttock. Sadly,
Brian passed away unexpectedly this year, but I believe that the sale of the
competition took place before his untimely departure. I had attended the Nevada Star Ball once in
the past, the hotel as I remember was unimpressive but adequate. Like so many hotels in Las Vegas, it was filled with career
gamblers whose diet consisted of cigarettes and whisky, whose skin was
prematurely aging, wrinkled, and cracked by the bone dry Nevada desert air,
whose focus on gambling was all consuming.
The Puttocks
Still, as I remember it, the
competition had always a healthy reputation as a strong medium sized comp –
although I experienced it in an earlier period of my dance life with little
perspective. As best I recall, it was
positive and fun although my expectations then were much less than at the
present. Indeed, I was just happy to get
through my assigned heats without a melt down. I was content to just disguise
myself as an alleged competitor dissolved inconspicuously into the crowd with
other students, and to not be noticed or considered an outcast in this new
world that I had ventured into.
I have a particular fondness
for Brian and Susan Puttuck who I have known (not personally until recently) for many years
even before I began competing. I remember them as teachers at one of Wayne
Eng’s Las Vegas Dance Camps. I remember
how kind and dignified they both were – recognizing them as British. I remember how well they interacted together,
exuding a lifelong enduring partnership and synergy in dance and marriage that is rare to
non-existent in this day of disposable marriages. I remember to this day how Brian and Susan
expertly taught the basics of both International and American foxtrot in a few
hours of group instruction, and that I subsequently reviewed their instruction
repeatedly on the CD provided for many months after the camp had ended.
The NVBall - 2014
Back to the present: the new
owners of the competition are well known ballroom celebrities including Sam
Sodona, the genius ballroom entrepreneur whose portfolio of national dance competitions
rivals the number of Wal-Mart’s…ha ha…
Calling themselves the new “Rat Pack”, they include such notables as
Sinkinson, Galke, Carmen, Watson and of course Sodano.
A Gala Event jump-started the
competition, which included some lovely dance performances, a live band and
social dancing, unlimited wine, and a coronary artery targeted dinner – proving
once again that my solid commitment to a red meat restricted diet is phony
baloney – the steak was perfectly prepared, every bite more delicious than the
next! I even encountered a lovely Asian
woman sitting at our table that I caught a few dances with who seemed to show
an interest. Sadly, my attention span,
commanded tightly by the anticipation of the upcoming competition, was all too
consuming to allow any outpouring of charm to exploit this unexpected
serendipitous attention and opportunity.
The Encore Hotel
The venue for the competition
was the Encore Hotel, a less costly and less upscale look alike of the Wynn,
both connected at the hip by winding corridors, walkways and shops. I’m told; this
is the premier hotel and casino on the strip! Certainly the price for the
slightest purchase of anything, even a banana or cup of coffee would leave most
mortals shuddering in shock. But the green bloodletting gets easier by the day thorough
conditioning and submission, and with the resignation that you are a captive
audience to this Las Vegas Empire with few options.
Both hotels are very lovely,
and filled with interesting gismos and visual oddities, including gardens of
beautiful flowers, and a lush green setting framing a man made waterfall
entertaining those having dinner at the steakhouse or lakeside restaurants
located in a large open enclosure. Funny, remember
this is the desert; we could have created this setting in Hawaii with almost no
money, but not so in Las Vegas.
There are many things to see
at both hotels that I even felt were worthwhile, except the tulip sculpture, nearly
a man size colorful bouquet of what is supposed to be tulips protected by a
partial glass perimeter and 24-hour security.
This sculpture is strategically located in a corridor between both
hotels. To me, there is nothing of
interest or beauty or design or redeeming quality to the sculpture, no detail
that would identify the amorphous bulbous blobs of metal or plastic or whatever
as flowers of any kind, no less my favorite flower, the tulip. Truly, even the stems didn’t give their
identify away; to me they looked more like inflatable helium filled party balloons suspended in air by colorful string. But its all about money in
Vegas; this monstrosity somehow and for some reason commands a price of 28-30 million dollars....at least that was the word on the street. And to me, that is the only interesting thing
about this excuse for a sculpture. Indeed, I would not pay more than $28 for it,
so the security guard had no trouble in declining my offer as I passed him
early in the morning on my way to coffee.
But Las Vegas has its glitz
and culture – an anything goes mentality and environment that promotes
decadence and self-destruction. Anything
can be bought with the right price – money has no real value except if you have
none. Being an upscale hotel, the
clientele was generally not the depressing losers huffing and puffing on their
cigs and pulling and pushing on the slot machine levers (old style..now just
push button). In their place, there were a horde of vulgar, abrasive, rude, and
loud drunk out of their mind young people, a competition for how short you will
dare to wear your skirt, tight short shorts that could have just been paint on
flesh, the outpouring of frontal flesh and bobbing soft tissue escaping from
the minimalist fabric dress, all with drink and cigarette in hand. It was EVEN too much for and old blogger like
me to hold my interest after the first 50 look-alike manikins passed by. Truly, I was more embarrassed for them – only
if they knew how ridiculous they looked and how obvious a target they were
projecting for even a semi-hormonal male expecting to score big in the casino
and after. And it seemed that this is
Las Vegas at its worst – if a majority of young people consider this excessiveness and overindulgence fun, or something to aspire to, we are indeed in great trouble for the future
of our youth and country.
Competition Tidbits
During the competition
itself, the organizers were always around, giving support and answering
questions – this was a plus. And this
abbreviated competition stuffed Latin and Standard into one day, while Rhythm
and Smooth were given one full day’s attention.
Since I signed up for all four events in addition to a solo
presentation, my days were filled and busy, especially the last – which began
with Standard starting at 7AM and ended at around 5PM waiting to hear that I
was last place in the Latin multi-dance event that was contested in the C
category. This was an event filled with capable and experienced women over 50 and
one other obviously younger gentleman competitor who was pretty good in his own
right who came in next to last.
The competition was devoid of
the depth to offer many of the usual multi-dance events that I sign up
for. As I approach 68 years of life, I
usually go for the over 60 age category, and the senior or D category
designation of over 65 or 66, but in the NV Ball, there were few opportunities
to compete in multi-dance events that I am accustomed to. Still I beat a few of the ladies in the Smooth
multi-dance events giving me hope that I should not entirely give up on the
idea of competing in younger age categories.
I was overall happy with my performance and in the gentleman only events;
I only faltered in one heat over the four-day period (note: there were a bunch
of uncontested heats so this accomplishment is not as grand as it might suggest).
Divino Ritmo Dance Studio
In addition to myself, Yanna
competed with a teenage student rounding out the contribution from Divino Ritmo
to the NVBall. On the last evening, I
was recognized as a top 20 student – actually I was fifth on the list, and my
teacher Yanna was then awarded a top teacher award in the third
position. This of course was associated
with a decent purse, so we were very happy to have Yanna win this top teacher
award.
Overall Experience and
Suggestions for the Organizers
There was a tremendous
investment in this competition, being its first year under new ownership and
highlighting a gala black tie opening event and a significant purse of prize
money. I believe the new owners
impressed the students and professionals alike with this level of investment
and commitment.
Overall, the quality of the
competition was enhanced by the quality of the hotel, expensive as it was, but
a necessary and enjoyable expense. The
rooms were outstanding, large, clean, and comfortable, with lovely views of the
panorama. The bed was really comfortable
and you had in your possession a command center module that controlled every
aspect of the room including the movement of the curtains from the recumbent
position. The air, anywhere other than
the casino was clean and relatively easy to breathe.
In Vegas, you have two
problems; the smokers and the dryness of the air. Either one can make you sick and or
miserable. Lesser hotels hosting unnamed
other competitions in Vegas have produced a significant amount of morbidity in
the dancers because of their aged air conditioning systems are uneven,
faltering, and unpredictable. Indeed, I
have personally had some very rough moments attributable to the quality of the
air controlling filtering and humidifying capacity of inexpensive antiquated
hotels. Not so in the Encore, the air
was as clean and fresh as it could be in the places that counted: this was overall
a great experience as a result.
I truly didn’t mind the
three-day schedule and in some ways it was a welcome retreat from the usual
week’s worth of competition. I even
didn’t mind stuffing Standard and Latin in the same day. What I did mind is that it started at 7AM
that day and ended late. I would have
been totally on board if the day began at 9AM or even 8:30AM expecting quite a
number of us were competing in both of the last day’s events.
The
ballroom was far from the main casino, registration area, and restaurants and
cafes. That allowed the air quality to
be better controlled so far away from the casino mayhem, but it was problematic
when it came to the nutritional needs of the students. To rub it in further, there was a cordoned
off area of drinks and snacks for the judges in plain site of the participants and
competitors.
Perhaps some bananas or some
soft candies would have been nice, (there was water of course), but even if the
organizers were not interested in investing in these amenities, having a
satellite café selling coffee, tea, sandwiches, muffins, etc directly outside of the
ballroom would have really saved the day for many of us. I ended up stocking up on drinks and food
from the sundry shop, relegating myself to eating a progressively soggy tuna
sandwich festering most of the day in my bag to provide energy and prevent
hypoglycemia. Not everyone was as prepared as I was, but I’m not sure that I did my
stomach any favors.
Finally, to the question that some might be asking, - Yes, I would definitely return again to Las Vegas to compete in the NV Ball, as I believe others attending would also agree.
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