| This year, Steve Zener is celebrating the 26th Anniversary of the Frezno Dance Classic - and it will be another grand celebration of music, dance, friendship, and good times! He takes great pleasure in producing high-quality, all inclusive events to enthusiastic social and competitive dancers who enjoy country and swing dancing. Dance Competitions are in affiliation with the United Country Western Dance Council, the 2010 AANCE Tour, the World Swing Dance Council and the Masters National Swing Dance Championships. On these pages you'll find a wealth of information about dance events past, present, and future. We welcome everyone and hope to see you one day soon at one of our Dancer Friendly events. | |||
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Mark Your Calendars Now! |
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Here's the latest for this year's Frezno event,
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Breaking News!!!
All event pricing is listed on the Event Registration pdf form.
We are so proud and excited to proclaim that we are the newest regional event to be added to the new 2010 AANCE Tour of events that focus on the Novice and Intermediate Amateur Divisions of Jack & Jill, and Strictly Swing. The "America's Amateur National Championships Events" tour will determine the winners of the qualifying divisions. Once all Regional Events have been held, the winners of all Regional events will vie for the National Championship title at the annual ACC, Americas Classic Swing Dance Championships event, held in January, in Houston, Texas.
In addition to all the usual swing contests, for the first time this year we’ve added two new swing contests that are sure to be popular with the contestants and the crowd. Both contests will be on Sunday afternoon – Sophisticated Swing Division Solos for those 35 years of age and above; and All American Jack & Jill which combines entries from all ability levels into one open division. It’s a true “luck of the draw” contest. Once again for the 3rd year as part of the National Masters Tour, we’re proud to be offering the Master’s Solo Contest.
In order to accommodate these additional activities, we’ve had to make some significant changes to our event schedule which we think will actually enhance your experience at the event this year. Please check our tentative schedule for intended contest times as well as on-site contest entry deadlines, etc…
And more great news!!! This doesn’t happen very often! The Radisson Hotel has actually reduced it’s room rates for 2010. They too, are sensitive to the fact that the country is experiencing hard times – and to show their appreciation to you the dancers, they have rolled back their room rates to the 2008 price of just $99.00 per night plus taxes. A 3 night minimum stay is still required. We also have lower priced alternative hotels located nearby with lesser or no ‘minimum stay’ requirements. BTW – the Super 8 Hotel and the Holiday Inn have also lowered their prices from the 2009 rates. See the “Hotels Information” section for full details. Just make your reservations early and invite your friends to share a room to save on expenses - you won’t be in the room much anyhow!!!
PARTY THEME FOR 2010
WELCOME TO The DMZ - The FreZno De-MilitariZed Zone! On this Memorial Holiday Weekend in 2010, we’re going to pay tribute to all the branches of service and the service men and women past and present, who have proudly served our great country. Do you remember the light-hearted entertainment featured in the USO Shows for our troops? We may try for our own much abbreviated USO Show on Saturday night – especially for you, the troops. For our purposes on Saturday evening when we focus on our event theme - we invite you to relive the good times such as the TV series MASH or McHales Navy. Pick an era, any era - and attempt to recreate it with your own choice of military attire or even the civilian attire from that time. Wear your battle fatigues or full dress uniform or your favorite Klinger dress (LOL)……….and please – we don’t want or expect anyone to feel the need to be politically correct. This is a party – a light hearted yet sincere effort to draw attention to the good people in military service. We’ve invited people to dress up in ‘costume’ for many, many years – all in good fun – and the fun continues in 2010. If you want to dress up like a five star general, a commander, a private 1st class, a wave or wac, or even as a USO Entertainer - please do……….”anything military” will do just fine. E-bay is your friend!
SWING AND COUNTRY
For many years, the Frezno Dance Classic has catered to both the country dance and swing dance communities. Because of adding more ‘swing’ contests to an already busy schedule this year, and to provide a bit more ‘social’ dancing to the schedule, and because of some new ‘late night noise level requirements’ with the hotel for this year and in 2011, the event will lean more to swing as we turn a corner in our 26th year of production. The hotel atrium, which in previous years had swing dancing each night from 11 p.m. till 1:30 a.m., will now be ‘quiet’ after 10:45 p.m. on Friday; after 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday nights as swing dancers move to the larger dance floor with better sound acoustics in the main ballroom. The music mix will be primarily swing with an occasional pair of two steps for the cross-over dancers who enjoy both swing and country. For the country dance purists - during those late evenings after 11 p.m. till at least 1 a.m. each night, “Woody’s Roundup” in the Sequoia Ballroom will provide the popular California Mix of country and swing for the dancers who prefer more country dances. Please see our ‘tentative event schedule’ for more details. Swing workshops alternating with social swing dancing will begin in the hotel atrium on Friday at noon and will continue during the daytime hours on Saturday and Sunday. There will be 20+ dance workshops in swing and country dances included with your event pass – taking place in two venues simultaneously on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
…….starts with Showtime Cabaret (includes Open Swing) Dance competition on Friday night; the Champions Strictly Swing competition on Saturday night; the combined All Stars / Invitational Jack and Jill Swing on Sunday night; three Happy Hours; the Saturday evening hospitality party that we tie to the event party theme of “Camp FreZno – a de-militariZed Zone”. Saturday evening is our magical time focusing on the party theme that includes the themed costume parade and best costume contest. And then there is the new Sophisticated Swing and All American Jack & Jill contests added this year. Other highlights include three ice cream socials, social dancing in three venues, daily workshops included with your event pass, a Pizza Party, a 24 hour pool and spa, complimentary popcorn, the now famous Gong Show, Zener Bingo, complimentary Jello shooters, and a touching tribute to our military service personnel on Memorial Day. You get the idea! But again, the “real” highlight of the Fresno event is, as always, the ‘people’ – the very special people who come to play and dance. Dancing begins on Thursday evening at 8 P.M., and the fun continues non-stop until noon on Monday when we bring the final curtain down after 4 full days and 4 long nights. We personally invite one and all who cherish the idea of a 4 day mini-vacation where friends gather to dance and stay up late - consider letting someone else do the cooking and cleaning for those four days in May (like the very considerate staff at the Radisson Hotel), so you can have more fun than is sometimes legal in other places.........
To Purchase Class Photo (The Wild Wild West) E-mail John Peterson
The following was written in June, 2008 by Frezno event alumni Joel DeMarco. (Thanks, Joel) FRESNO DANCE CONVENTION - AT ITS VERY BEST |
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