|
|
|
World Championship qualifying event View or Print
|
History of the Gateway event – From St. Louis to Oklahoma City.
The Gateway Dance Festival was first held in 1994. Dan Eshner and I (Beth Emerson) were dance partners from 1990 – 1994. We were working our way to Masters and decided we wanted to compete, judge, teach, and hold a dance competition. As there was an existing event where we were living – the Maryland side of the Washington DC area, we needed to start an event elsewhere. There were already events in both of our home areas (Dan was from New Mexico and I grew up in Phoenix), so we decided on the Midwest. We traveled quite a bit and decided we liked the friendly, relaxed atmosphere we found in St. Louis. By 1993, Dan had married Leigha and the three of us moved to St. Louis in August of that year. In fact, we moved one week and the very next weekend we competed in our first Masters Competiton at the Chicagoland Dance Festival! Whew! A few years later, Dan and Leigha had returned to the DC area and eventually ended up in the Seattle area. So I bought their share of the event and have been the director since then. I later competed with Lee Harpe in Division 1, and moved to Oklahoma City so we could work on competing. The last time the Gateway Dance Festival was held in St. Louis was 2005. I found it was difficult to run a dance competition where I no longer lived! I applied and received permission to move the event to Oklahoma City (keeping the same dates). So we will present the first Oklahoma Dance Rush on April 11-13, 2008.
|
|
* Country Couples * Line Dance * Swing * Workshops / Group Dance Lessons * Private Dance Lessons Two Step - Triple Two - Polka - Waltz - NightClub Two Step - Cha Cha - East Coast Swig - West Coast Swing Oklahoma Dance Rush 2008 - April 11-13,2008 - at the Biltmore Hotel, 102 S. Meridian Ave., Oklahoma City, 73108.
Contact the Event Director Beth Emerson at
okcbeth@aol.com with questions
or comments about this event.
|
