Friday night we already “attacked” in a concentrated manner the first moves and calls, fortified by a rich supper. On Saturday three blocks of eight and a quarter hours followed, and on Sunday another two hours before the closing dinner. All participants were unanimously enthusiastic about their rapid progress. This was possible thanks to the exercising units and series prepared by the caller Ulla in a didactically outstanding manner. Mostly there was a difficult figure in the centre of a unit, e.g. “Spin Chain thru”, that is very long with 16 beats. Ulla made us dance into this figure from various other figures and led us out into other combinations that we already knew quite well. She attached great importance on the fact that every dancer could practise the figure from every position by also starting it from an “Ocean wave” position. In the “Singing calls” she then combined the strengthened material with other figures so that quickly feelings of success and happiness appeared.

The training units were interrupted by excellent dishes that were magically produced by Jürgen Stern and Joachim Gottweiß in the kitchen. Also the chinwag or nattering time aided recovery. No wonder that everybody fell into his bed in the evening. Not only at the end did Ulla receive multiple thanks: ”It is amazing what I learnt here”, “Now I have reached the sureness I longed for”, “Those were three nice days” and other enthusiastic comments.

At the end of this wonderful dancing weekend we were unanimous that there should be a sequel, not only because of the progress reached, but also because of the community spirit that had developed due to being together.

Persons interested in Ulla Stern’s offers and activities, which also include housing and catering, should definitely visit her homepage (website), the address is her name.

Transl.: Hartmut Heiber