Collective History

COLLECTIVE HISTORY:  Back in 2015 there was a spattering of  WCS in Victoria but not enough to call it a community.  After prodding Darlene enough, it was decided that we needed to do something.  Lorne was invited, discussions started, a plan was created and we were off and running.  Velma, Bob and Jan, Delcie and for a short time Katherine and Billie were assembled, tasks were distributed, money was thrown into a pot for expenses and a search for a hall began.  Lindsay joined us in March, 2017 with Eydie and Sue joining us a little later.

Finding a hall was more difficult than we had hoped.  We actually considered 65 different halls before choosing Harriet Hall.  When we were walking to our cars, I remember Velma being concerned that we could not afford it - what if no one shows up!  I pointed out that if just the committee were at the first practice / dance, we would almost break even.  We did better than that.

Next was the music.  We only had 2 weeks till the first night but we had no music.  So I gathered all my CD's, mostly bought at garage sales and spent hours finding songs for our first playlist.  Here are most of the songs from that first VWCSC Tuesday night:   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2sPJ6Hph5frH4cIvHYMV6T?si=3abf01cc08a74fa1

Lorne quickly stepped up and shared the DJ duties and it was easier after the first 6 months when Darlene started to help out.

Events were a totally different thing.  You can see by the list of outside instructors that we were progressing as better dancers.

Spring Tease 2016 Keith and Holly Forie

Summer Vibrations 2016 John and Sheila Criton

Fall Frolic 2016  Claudia and David Tolksdorff

Spring Tease 2017 Elizabeth Hudgins

Fall Frolic 2017 Pamela Podmoroff

Spring Tease 2018 Tom Selzler

Fall Frolic 2018 Nick King

Spring Tease 2019  Gerald and Robin Cote

Fall Frolic 2019 Tara Trafzer and Stephen White

Spring Tease 2020 Robert Compos.

We had created a positive reputation and were starting to find it easy to encourage some of the top Champions into visiting us like Tashina, PJ and several others who were lined up to visit us when Covid hit.

Plus all the special guests we have had on Tuesday Nights as our guest instructors. 

The Collective has come a long way and has seen a lot of changes.  I remember one event where the instructor (I believe it was Jim Minty) had a steal dance with the follows and only one follow out of 10 who participated was from Victoria and she was a salsa dancer (Darlene was away).  The other nine were from the Courtenay Comox Collective.

Another big change that is on the immediate horizon is the new website that is launching May 1st.  This newsletter will look different from here on.  So with that in mind, I will be saying good bye to this newsletter after over 200 publications.  It has been fun but time to move on.

Murray McAllindon

July 2023