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Ballroom
I started Ballroom dancing when we moved to Apeldoorn in 1988. I had to meet new people anyway, and I wanted to dance. So I joined Ballet, Ballroom Dancing and Folk Dancing.
The first year I went to Multidance in Apeldoorn. I learned the basic figures of various dances that I already knew from Round Dancing, and I learned so little in one year that I didn't like it much. They had a partner for me. But on Sundays it was free dancing, and I went with Menno (when there was no Square Dance) and I cued the figures I learned for him, and some figures we knew from Round Dancing, so we had quite a show. We always had to hurry to catch the last train for Menno to get home. On Saturday there was a Disco Night, and I went there as well when there was no Square Dancing. So that was Beginners Class...
Then I started Round Dance at Susie's in Soesterberg Phase III/IV and V/VI all at the same time and that went much faster! So I quit Ballroom.
But after the summer of 1997 I had discovered that if you want to be able to write nice choreographies, you had to know a little more about Ballroom in order to not to copy other peoples ideas. So I called all dance schools and two of them said they would have a partner for me. For the others I needed to bring a partner, but I didn't have one. One of them was Vreugd in Deventer, and the other was Wiering in Apeldoorn. So I went to Deventer. Fortunately I could convince them that I didn't need to do the Beginners Class again, even though it had been 10 years since I attended Ballroom Classes. But after the summer's break there's always a short review of the figures learned, and at Vreugd that was much more than I had had at Multidance! Also the teacher could give me the cues of the combinations. I didn't understand how he could possibly know, but I liked him for that. It helped a lot. I went there twice, but I didn't like the hall and I thought it was too far to drive. Wiering also had a partner for me. And they also allowed me to "try" the second year (Silver) The dance school was very nice, and here there was also a weekly Dance Night on Sundays and the lessons were great. After a couple of times the teacher asked why I didn't dance competition. I didn't understand because I thought you had to dance top level to be able to. But she said it isn't about what you dance, but how you dance, and that is why even beginners can join. I didn't want to join with the partner I had, but apart from that I would have liked to. That was the first time Silver....
One year later (September 1998) I had a new colleage who wanted to pick up Ballroom Dancing again, and he had always danced at Wiering. So I suggested to do The next year (Gold) together and so we did. But that was just one year, he didn't want to continue. So that was Gold....
But Marcel, my dancing and teaching partner at the time, liked to join me in Ballroom. So the next season (September 1999) we went to the classes at Wiering and we started all over with Silver.... But, on 21 November 1999 we danced our first competition and on Sundays we did extra training for that. The competitions were also in different levels Bronze, Silver, Gold and Debutants and we had to start at the bottom. It didn't matter which level you took classes. The winner went to the next level. Marcel and I were in Eringerfeld three times and in Cham twice, so our styling was much better than that of beginners. (I was dancing 20 years in total by then). Winning the Standard and Latin contests was no problem. So the next month (12 December 1999) we joined Silver. That was also no problem to win. People asked us why we were at that level, we belonged to the Debutants. But that was the way it went. On 16 January 2000 we did the contest Gold. Standard first price, Latin: second! There was more competition now! But the jury said it was very close. The first two couples could go to Debutants level, so now we needed a starters-booklet. We each bought one. Now you could continue to the next level of contest if you collected enough points. We did some more contests, but then I lost interest. After that season we stopped dancing at Wiering. So that was second time Silver.
Below the contest and the results. Each contest had about 20 couples.
| Datem | Level | Latin |
| 21 November 1999 | Bronze | 1e |
| 12 December 1999 | Silver | 1e |
| 16 January 2000 | Gold | 2e |
| 13 February 2000 | Deb. IV | 5e |
| 19 March 2000 | Deb. IV | no... |
| 21 May 2000 | Deb. IV | no... |
June 2000 National Competition Deb. IV Half final Standard. About 50 couples this time!
December 2001 I met Stefan. He learned Round Dance in the livingroom, and Squaredance at the Summer Camp. He graduated in December 2002. We liked to dance together, but that rarely happened because I was always teaching. So in order to be able to dance together, we joined Ballroom in September 2003. Wiering did not exist any more unfortunately, so the choice was Biezeman or Wensink. We went to Wensink and had to convince them again that we did not have to start with the beginners.... That was third time Silver.
The course continued on a Sunday, but we wouldn't be able to join all the time so we asked if we could go to another day. That was possible if we skipped two (!) courses... We hadn't had Slow-Fox and Paso Doble then. (At the dance school!) Of the other rhythms we had to watch a figure or two. That was no problem. But then we got bored again because of the standard dances we hardly learned new figures, and in latin dances we learned lots of new combinations in no-time, but I didn't like them. We still enjoyed the free dance nights of Friday, but his choice of music wasn't always my choice... So I wanted to go to another dance school, but we quit in September 2006 because we were splitting up. That was second time Gold...
Maybe someday again... silver?.... *sigh*