Jay Byam is known for throwing a good party. In this sense, New Year’s Dance Camp lived up to its reputation; however, it was not without its problems. Leading up to the event this year I was a bit ambivalent about its outcome as there was much buzz surrounding Dance Camp’s competition—a neighboring swing/salsa event. Despite the competition, attendance at Dance Camp remained strong for the majority of the weekend, but dwindled to what seemed about half this size by Sunday afternoon.

Jay got the early bird party started on Thursday night with an Open Jack and Jill and a Reverse Jack and Jill (otherwise known as a Jill and Jack). The latter proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend, as many of our favorite "leading" men were transformed into their "Jill" counterparts with the help of Melody Cochran and her fantastic costuming and make-up work. I had the fortunate experience of assisting with this transformation, making the men as beautiful as they could possibly be (despite their repeated objections).

The entire weekend was filled with a variety of workshops taught by the leading dance pros; workshops were offered for WCS, Salsa, Ballroom, Country, Hustle, and many others. Workshops were accompanied by a variety of competitions, which occurred mostly on Saturday and Sunday; these included Jack and Jill (WCS, Nightclub Two-Step, Hustle, and Salsa), Strictly Swing, and Pro-Am. The Jack and Jill and Strictly Swing divisions included Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, All-Stars, and Invitational/Champions. This meant that the schedule was tight and there was a lot of competition to watch; this is where problems started to arise. Very few competitions were scheduled for Friday; thus, the bulk of the Jack and Jill’s were due to commence at 1pm on Saturday (which was the time listed on the actual schedule of events), but due to a misprint on the flyers (which read 3pm), the judges were forced to push competition back two hours. This led to much upset, as the majority of the competitors planned to go on at 1pm and ended up having to wait around for two hours. Being that I am one of many who stay up until 5am dancing, I can vouch for how frustrating it was to find out that I could have slept longer and felt better rested for my competition if the problem had been avoided.

I also felt that Saturday’s competitions were not extremely well thought-out. The All-Star division was composed of only 9 people, and yet it was not combined with another division, but instead was kept separate and spotlighted. Because this consumed so much time, the Champions Strictly division was showcased in heats of two instead of being spotlighted as it normally is. While this isn’t a huge issue, I feel that I am not the only person who comes to events to see the Champions division spotlighted, and thus, I was frustrated by the feeling that it was rushed in order to make up for time lost earlier in the day because of scheduling difficulties.

Having the event theme-based seemed to be positive move, as dinner tickets were completely sold-out, and everyone rallied—even if it was last-minute—to find their best outfit and most exotic mask for the New Year’s Masquerade dinner. The dinner show was kept short and sweet this year, as to not consume too much social dance/party time. As dinner wound down, the evening was filled with dancing, socializing, a salsa show, and finally—at the stroke of midnight—a New Year’s celebration marked by balloons, champagne, a conga line, and a variety of dancing.

For the most part, social dancing was successful; I know that I was out until at least 5am each night, and I was accompanied by a small group of all-nighters. The flip side of this, however, is that I was privy to much grumbling about the lack of music variety on at least one of these dance nights. While the music selection appealed to my personal preference, I had to remind myself that it is the job of the DJ to cater to a diverse group of dancers with varied music interests; thus, it is here that the music fell short of exemplary. Additionally, the sound system seemed to be experiencing some technical difficulties throughout the weekend, as there were several "glitches" in the music during social dancing and competition.

What I appreciated most about the event were the numerous efforts made to raise money for the Dancer for Cancer fund, which is meant to assist Lisa Villalobos in her fight against cancer. Between donation boxes, raffles, and auction dances, many opportunities were created for everyone to open their hearts to this cause and give what they could, however small. It is in times like these that we should all pull together for causes greater than ourselves and it is truly a blessing that we have the means to do so.

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