TRAVEL REPORTS :: REISEBERICHTE

Celebration Dance Plön 2004

Many weeks later……the morning after Christmas Day, I’m picked up and so starts our 560 miles plus journey. There are a few stops for food and coffee. We stay for the night in a hotel in the south of Sweden. Going on the next morning. Passing the Oresund Bridge to Denmark. For me it’s the first time. It was probably nice to see if you had seen it, because there is a thick fog. Driving on to the Germany car ferry in Roedby and then about 100 miles in northern Germany. We have arrived in Ploen. Checking in and getting a room. It is in a boarding house at some kind of school where we stay. Further on to the dining hall and then it is time for changing clothes and the first dance of the week. The program for the night is C1 (otherwise C1 – C3B is danced). Enter the dance hall and I meet, yes I don’t really know how to describe them, two terrific merry, kind, sweet and nice ladies (girls). They are two of the three callers, Ett McAtee and Linda Kendall. A little while later I also meet the third one, Ben Rubright.

The dance begins and you have to be on your toes. Because here it goes fast. I have rarely experienced such a flow and timing in the dance as now. You are just sweeping around in the square. That’s when square dancing is the most fun. You almost lose your breath because you don’t know if you will make it. It is difficult and tricky but with good teamwork we make it and it’s just sooo fun. But help, what a pace! I wonder if it will be as fast tomorrow? Then it will be only just that I keep up with the rest. Otherwise I usually think that it is more wonderful the faster it is. After some fun and sweaty hours it’s time for the after party where among other things we are shown a movie. Steffen Mauring (who is the president of the host club Percolators from Hamburg) has been to the Advanced & Challenge Convention in Japan and we see his film from that event. After another few hours it is time for a shower and then a deep dive into the bed for a badly needed rest. GOOD NIGHT! ZZZZZZ!

I am woken up early in the morning (at least it feels like early). Breakfast is served at 8:30 and the dance starts at 9:30. I can assure you that I have butterflies in the stomach when I step out on the dance floor for the first C2. The dance starts and I can breathe freely. Puff….Everything is going better than I thought and at a much slower pace. Thank God for that. Then follows some hard, tough days but of great fun with three dance sessions a day. It’s really no vacation to be in ”boot camp”. I have anyhow the time to squeeze in a couple of promenades to the city of Ploen. I am walking along the water. It is a really nice promenade path. I can mention that we are 124 dancers from different countries. About half are from Germany. The other half are from England, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and the USA. From Sweden, we are about 20.

The days just rush away and suddenly it is NEW YEAR’s EVE. But there is no rest and peace. The program is still 3 dance sessions. During the afternoon some people go to a cute little church across the street. Then it is time to get ready for the night and wait for the new year. There is some line dancing and a really swinging wonderful jitterbug during the evening. HAPPY NEW YEAR! CHEERS! One hour later a toast together with the English for the new year in England that is one hour after ours. The English perform a few sketches and somebody sings and then there is a lot of community singing. Very nice! Back to the room late in the night and crawl into the bed and sleep like a log.

The morning of New Year’s Day. I’m awoken (again). I feel like just turning around and sleeping on. But then you miss the dance. Dragging my tired feet to the dining hall. Where are all the people? Usually it’s crowded around the breakfast tables. Maybe it depends on the night before? There are probably some who have a ”hat of concrete” today. After having partaken of a lovely breakfast consisting of chocolate pudding and Nutella chocolate to put on the bread (not so healthy, but doesn’t it sound really good? Yum-yum!) I walk on to the dance hall. After some trouble with the music equipment the dance floor is slowly filled. That will be the last effort before the trip home. Then it is just to hug all the new people you’ve got to know (and the old ones) and hope that you will soon meet again. This week has just swished away. The time goes far too fast when you have fun. Anyhow I have had the opportunity to have a thorough workout of all the calls. It feels so terrific and wonderful to see that most of the pieces fit. One piece at a time. But there still remains a lot of practice before I can say that I master this, like e.g Parallelogram. It’s not easy.

Now it only remains to put all your things into the car boot and head for Stockholm again, 560 miles plus. During the fall I have studied some C3A calls and I have had the great luck to be allowed to practice them on some occasions. So I study a few more calls in the car on our way home. We stop for filling gas and dance the new calls at the gas station. We drive on and later when stopping for food we dance some more calls in the parking lot of the restaurant. We get some weird looks from passers-by who for sure wonder if we are really sane. Are we? Yes, for sure. I think that this square dance business just gets more and more fun the higher the level you reach. Then you must grab every opportunity when you get help from such good dancers. If that happens to be at a gas station or parking lot deep into the Swedish forests, who cares?

I would like to thank those three fantastic callers, Ett, Linda and Ben and all these happy and positive dancers who have made this week such a pleasant memory. Last but not least I want to thank Arne and Birgit, with whom I’ve traveled, for such a nice trip. But most of all a big HUG for my fantastic partner Lars Erik who have danced C2 with me for a whole week, although he could have danced on a higher level (C3B).

Translated by Lars Erik Morell