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2020 Adelaide Spectacular DanceSport Championship - Pre COVID-19
The Adelaide Spectacular DanceSport Championship was held on Sunday 15 March 2020, squeezed in just before the full extent of the Covid-19 crisis unfolded in Australia. This article was written by the Organiser, Rhett English, who describes how the competition was impacted.
How the world and our lives have changed in less than 4 weeks!
4 weeks ago, Monday 9th March, we were leading up to the Adelaide Spectacular Ballroom Dance Championship- I was running well behind, having been unwell the previous week. The running order still to complete, printed program yet to organise as well as many last minute preparations that a Dance Championship requires. As the week progressed and organisation was coming together, so too the Corona Virus concerns were beginning to surface – mainly relating to people returning from overseas.
At that time, there were no government restrictions in place but concern escalated rapidly from the Monday to the Friday. In Adelaide, we’d had the Fringe Festival running since early February, with artists and tourists from all over the world. It was during those few weeks that the first cases of Covid-19 were coming to light and some of the final Fringe events that were sold out, had some empty seats. Some people were starting to show concern but overall the mood nationwide was still fine.
Wanting to press on with the event we realised that there was a lot of extra work to do now to put extra safety measures in place for the weekend so that people felt calm and safe, to enjoy what we didn’t realise at that point, would be the last major dance Championship in Australia (and the world!) for many, many months! Social Distancing was not yet a known common phrase and gathering restrictions were not yet in place.
I received my first notice from an interstate competitor on the Wednesday who had decided not to travel to our event, along with 2 adjudicators and 2 further young competitors. Other than that, all seemed to be fine until the Friday & Saturday when we lost a further few couples – some due to flying restrictions that their employers had put in place on the Friday.
Our Interstate Lecturers arrived on the Friday, other interstate judges and couples began arriving on the Saturday. We had lessons starting Saturday at the Wonderland venue from 9.30am, the Lecture Series in the afternoon and the Gala Ball on the Saturday evening. Whist the lessons began, our committee had a very serious meeting at the venue before commencing set up, to determine whether we should proceed or cancel as a few of our committee were very concerned. It was decided that we would continue and those of our committee that had concerns chose not to attend the event the following day. Their decisions were fully respected as their health and safety comes first.
It’s almost difficult for us all to remember now but just 4 weeks ago, 95% of us had very little fear of Corona Virus. Never the less, all the protocol of safety measures applicable at the time, needed to be put in place to protect our committee, volunteers, competitors, officials, spectators and their families.
Although it was extremely hard to come by, we were able to source more than a dozen large bottles of hand sanitiser that were placed on all the front tables for all to access over the entire weekend.
We had a massive 5 litre pump container of sanitiser in the marshalling area for competitors to use constantly.
We had the latest information and warning posters displayed in the foyer and toilets as well as plenty of wand wash and extra signs telling everyone to keep washing their hands.
We prepared an isolation area in case anyone felt unwell at any time.
Every person who entered the front entrance was asked the mandatory questions “have you been overseas in the last 14 days” and “do you feel at all unwell today”. Had the answer to either been YES, then they were not allowed to proceed into the venue. A NO to both questions saw them head straight to the front foyer counter to write their name and phone number in our register, take an A5 size information leaflet with health & safety tips related to Covid-19 and use the hand sanitiser by the register straight away.
Fortunately, our expectations of at least 100 social dancers attended the Saturday evening Gala Ball and more than 300 attended the Sunday Championship. We did lose 3 ProAm couples and 5 competitive couples related to Covid-19. However, the evening session of the Championship was in a word ‘SPECTACULAR’ with fabulous dancers from all around Australia, an esteemed panel of adjudicators and a fabulous crowd. We did ask couples in Presentations to refrain from hugs & kisses in favour of the ‘elbow bump’. Again we gave away approx $15,000 in prize money – appreciated by all the competitors and a very successful and enjoyable weekend of dance was had by all.
Very relieved also to be able to confirm, more than 3 weeks on, not 1 case of Covid-19 reported. With the rapid pace that things changed DAILY following and the notification that future comp after comp were having to cancel, we were so lucky to be able to run our event and give our dancers and spectators an event to fondly remember, for many months to come.
Stay safe and well everyone. Looking forward to when we can all again enjoy another great Dancesport event. Until then – use this time wisely – take time, take stock, re-set and enjoy life with your loved ones at this slower pace. We’ll all come out stronger on the other side, having learnt so much.
Rhett English
Click here for the 2020 DASA Adelaide Spectacular Ballroom Dance Championship results.
Thanks to Kerrie Rolls Burke and Rhett English for the following photos.
