2017 Dance Comp Winners ~ full report
TSDAV Dance Composers' Competition 2017
The TSDAV Dance Composers' Competition was held at the National Folk Festival (NFF) in Canberra over Easter. It is rewarding and perfectly fitting with the Festival’s policy of supporting new Folk creation, that the artistic organisation of the Folk Festival has continued to support this competition. The event again occupied 1 ½ hours on the Piazza from 9:30 on the Monday morning.
Our judges this year were Maureen Morris, Sheree Greenhill and Bruce McClure, and the presenters were once again Paul Wayper and Don Richmond. Our MC for the event was George Ansell.
The entries this year were varied and challenging, and we had a keen and capable set of participants ready to tackle these new Australian dances.
The dances were presented, danced and judged anonymously. Comments from the participants were noted, whilst the names of the devisors remained unknown, and only announced after the judges had made and announced their decisions.
Paul presented three of his four dances: The Mademoiselle from Armentieres by Steve Bullock, Mary’s Lament by Peter Gamble, and Seandaoine nós by Mary Sullivan. A fourth dance was not presented due to time constraints.
After Paul’s four dances, Don presented four other dances: Queen Mandy's Dance by Margaret Crichton, Belgarth Waltz by Adriano Giacobetti, EnchaNTmeNT by Keith Wood, and The Yarralinka by Kathy Potter. These last two were written with this year’s National Folk Festival ‘featured States’ theme in mind.
The judges pronounced their verdict that the Beatrice Klippel Memorial Trophy for General Social Dance should go to Peter Gamble for his fine contra dance Mary’s Lament, and the VFMC Perpetual Trophy for dances for more Experienced Dancers go to Kathy Potter for her beautiful dance The Yarralinka. Keith Wood’s dance EnchaNTmeNT was pronounced a close runner-up
George Ansell announced the winners of the competition during the NFF’s Farewell Concert in the Budawang on the Monday evening, presenting the trophies to Peter Gamble and Kathy Potter.
Norm Ellis re-presented Kathy and Peter with their freshly engraved Trophies, and winner’s medallions, during the Sunday night Ball at the Bundanoon DanceFest.
