USOpen MMIII

When Jumpin' Jack Smith said the San José Civic Auditorium has "High
ceilings and great views from all of the seats", he wasn't jivin'.
Nary an obstruction at all and the tiering of the seats is almost
adequate even for Miki and Mary Ann.

I don't know how many seats the venue has but a great many of them,
perhaps half, were unoccupied for even the most loved of competitions.

A consequence contributed to by the unoccupied seats was bad sound.
Other contributors were the high, unbaffl'd, ceiling and the absence
of soft materials anywhere but on the bodies of the attendies.

The dance floor, measuring about six thousand square feet, was
excellent but, at the busiest of dance times, crowded. No, not so
crowded that we spent more time protecting our partners than dancing
with them but, were the attendance greater, it might have been.
Although there is space to biggify the floor I don't know whether it's
possible.

There seemed to me to be less social dancing than usual for The Open;
others disagree. But there was a problem with the social dancing
caused by the barriers between the seats and the floor. It was neither
a major nor insurmountable problem but many commented that they really
disliked it. For those who did not have main floor seats, it was quite
inconvenient to get to the floor.

One of the main topics of conversation was the absence of the Southern
California dancers. There was much speculation as to why they weren't
there but the fact is: they weren't. They will suffer consequences
caused by their absence as, by now, most, if not all, of the main
floor seats have been sold. They're a-gonna end up where they least
want to be.

The competitions were excellent. Tatiana Mollman, with a broken foot,
was unable to compete. It was painful for us to see her confined to a
wheel chair. Kyle Redd has an injured back but he danced, anyway. And
one of the Lindy Hoppers suffered an unfortunate injury during
competition causing great concern and sadness for all.

The children's competitions were outstanding. Forget cute! Even the
tiniest could d-a-n-c-e!

The superb floor that was at Michelle's Mountain Magic was in the
Lindy room. It became the primary dance venue Sunday night (I left
about a hundred dancers in the room at 03:20).

Having an excellent seat for what I think is my eighth Open, I had a
perfect view of all the competitions and convenient access to the
floor allowing me to have a very good time. I thoroughly enjoyed the
event and have my seat for next year. I believe that attendance will
increase by 25% or more and, by the time of the third year in San
José, will be close to sold out.

I also wish to congratulate each of the competitors and thank them for
their enjoyable performances.
________________________________________________________________
A San Franciscan who never says "No!" to an invitation to dance!
http://geocities.com/dancefest/     http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103      IClast at SFbay Net