Members and competitors come from across the country came to Nottingham for the national bi-annual get-together of friendly competition. Although in competition with one another on the dance floor, the camaraderie of the competitors backstage is testament to the spirit of the KFA.
Saturday’s competition opened with Fitness Freestyle where Ruth Denholm and her team of Denholm Dancers burst in to win with a Bollywood Blast of Jai Ho! The costumes sparkled and so did the team, demonstrating the agility, stamina, mobility, co-ordination and balance set out in the judging criteria. When the audience gasped for breath, they took it up another notch and finished with the most exhausting fitness step possible.
We Keep Fitters are a knowledgeable lot and so nods of approval accompanied the reading of the judging criteria for the Solo section. We have come to expect beautiful movement from our soloists, but today, we also want their performance to tell a story. East Midland competitors were Lisa Terry with a romantic item ‘Doing Cartwheels’, and Ruth Denholm dicing with death and James Bond.
After a brief 20 minutes break and we returned for the Apparatus Team category. As with all categories this year, there were fewer competitors but a noticeable increase in technical ability.
Chameleon, proved yet again that they are the ones to beat in the apparatus section. Adding humour and hutzpah to ball skills they dazzled with the speed of their bouncing, throwing and balancing skills. The thunderous applause when they finished confirmed them as winners again.
While the judges decided upon the winners, we were offered showcase demonstrations of rope work and skipping. First by Carpe Diem and then by Chameleon.
Sunday’s competition opened with the Movement & Dance Duo for the Eileen Bird Trophy. Eleven duos competed with a hair’s breadth between them. With programmes in hand, the murmur of discussion about the various merits of each filled the gap until the next pair made their entrance.
Three totally contrasting performances were placed with East Midlands members Sally Clarke and Tayla McKeown taking Third Place with ‘Love Me?’ a graphic piece based on the theme of domestic abuse.
The final category of the competition is the Movement and Dance Team for the Grace Beckett Trophy. The choreography and sensitivity of the teams when performing is inspirational and the variety of movement makes it almost impossible to separate the scores. Today we had joint Second position with City Dance (produced by Lynne Casey) and Northern Lights (produced by Christine Chapman)
The East Midlands team, Chameleon, performed an exciting item incorporating African dance rythmns and movements to Paradise.
Throughout the competition, where there were not enough entries to warrant a separate category, we were entertained with showcase demonstrations. These included a Skipping Solo, Paso Doble, by Lisa Terry and Fit Fusion by Northern Lights exercise team .
Photographs by kind permission of Chris Christodoulou.
Many more photographs of all items can be viewed and purchased from Chris Christodoulou by following this link (opens in new window) https://photochris.photoshelter.com/index select client area to view and order your photographs.
A DVD of both days can be obtained by following this link to JAGmedia Services: www.jagmediaservices.co.uk/#shop.html (opens in new window)