I hope this emails find you all healthy and well. It's been exactly six months since my group classes were cancelled at U of M so I figured I'd give a quick update!
Earlier this summer I was reelected to another term to serve as a board member on the North American Same-Sex Partner Dance Association. Although all of our competitions are cancelled this year, we hope next year will be much better with some world championships scheduled to be held in North America! On a bigger scale, we recently worked with our sister organization in Europe - the European Same-Sex Dance Association and IAGLCWDC to create a standardized set of rules for world championships. These rules will be used for the World Championships at Gay Games 11 in Hong Kong in 2022.
On July 1 I was promoted to Associate Head of the Chemistry Department and with that position comes a lot of extra responsibilities on top my usual role. Due to the very high workload, I will likely stop teaching my group classes at U of M for at least the next year (group recreation classes at U of M aren't offered anyway at the moment). I will continue with my private lessons on Saturday although spots are severely limited. Please let me know by email (wpgballroom@gmail.com) if you'd like to book a private lesson.
You probably won't hear from me for a few months so please stay healthy and all the best,
Horace
Many of us dancers have had to find ways to cope with the pandemic and a colleague of mine in Toronto started a ballroom and cooking Youtube channel called Dancing in the Kitchen. Have a watch and hope you get inspired - it's done quite well!
On June 21, short film Apostate was premiered on Youtube through the Dance for Pride 2020 festival:
In the competitive world of ballroom dance, Brigham Young University is the apex of amateur excellence. When a diverse group of dancers dare to step outside the boundaries of that community, their careers are derailed—exposing troubling accusations of intolerance.
