BURBANK, Los Angeles, CA--If you attended the first Superstars of Ballroom day camp during the first weekend of February, hold on to your Superstars of Ballroom souvenirs because there are no current plans to hold another. Was it the economy? Was it the absence of the popular bad-boy of the ballroom Maksim Chmerkovskiy (originally slated to appear and teach), Mark Ballas (last season’s winner with Jennifer Grey) or fan favorite Derek Hough? Was it the lack of stars from “Dancing with the Stars”? Was it the schedule (Super Bowl Weekend)? Or was it a case of mismatched goals. There were some serious ballroom dancers and others were serious “Dancing with the Stars” fans but not dancers.
About 200 people came from as far as Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) and Mexico City, Mexico and New York to enjoy the sunny California weather while sweating it out at the first ever Superstars of Ballroom Dance Camp help in Burbank at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. People came in couples or alone and ranged in age from four to in their seventies. We suspect the numbers were slightly skewed, with women outnumbering the men.
For those who flew in to Burbank, the location was ideal. For locals, there was enough free street parking and walking was relatively safe. How do you approach a dance camp? We wanted to have some continuity and yet try as many teachers as possible. While we were only able to peek in on workshops by Nick Kosovich and Elena Grinenko, our experience was mostly positive.
Friday was all about registration and salsa. We took several salsa classes, but didn’t make it to the salsa dance party that evening.
The lunchtime menu was just what you needed: light and nutritious. Plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Saturday at lunchtime,we sat with Corky Ballas and Chelsie Hightower. Corky Ballas didn't think this dance camp was any different from others he had taught and told us the best approach is to take is to try a little of everything. He was right.
The Superstars of Ballroom Dance Camp had something for everyone. Chelsie Hightower taught high routines in her swing classes on Sunday. She also worked technique in her other classes such as the beginning waltz (Saturday). Also on Sunday, Kym Johnson used a routine from her DWTS season with Joey Fatone to teach the beginning jive class.
Tony Dovolani made sure to give us the background of each dance, particularly the Argentine tango on Sunday. He taught a short routine and confirmed what we had already found out: there is not standard. Do what your teacher asks and then pick and choose what you keep. For the beginning paso doble, he disappointed many by not teaching the "Toy Story" dance sequence, but he did give us a lot of technique.
Dmitry Chaplin worked on technique and pointed out common mistakes in the cha cha (beginning class on Friday) and samba (beginning class on Saturday). His Latin and rhythm arm stylings was a great morning warm up. His class combined with the Tony Dovolani's paso doble and Corky Ballas' bolero classes gave us ideas on how to express different feelings in our dance of choice: Argentine tango.
What the "Dancing with the Stars" pros have to offer is that they have developed techniques to get you into a dance quickly and they can help tweak what you have already learned. So even a beginning class was not a waste of time. We enjoyed all the classes we took despite our aching feet.
Yet after the weekend was done, we both felt that any opportunity you have to take a class or workshop with Corky Ballas should not be passed up. He was our favorite instructor of the weekend. We felt that we learned a lot from his bolero class and he knew how to pace his class for the weekend and yet his exercises worked toward instilling muscle memory. By Sunday afternoon, we definitely needed something slow and yet challenging. He has humorous manner that is like a velvet glove over a steel fist. His leading and following class at the end of Sunday's schedule also easily revealed who you might want to dance with and who you should avoid, but also giving us important points about technique.
If you were sitting back to wait and see, it's too late. This might be a one and only event. Reportedly there are no plans to have another Superstars of Ballroom dance camp in Los Angeles (Burbank). If you have souvenirs, some day you might be able to sell them for profit on eBay. DWTS may be popular, but somehow the formula didn't work for the dance camp.
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