BREEZE @ BREAN SANDS
DATES ARE TBA . . .
European Blues Championships 2019
The Blues Competition for 21st Century Blues Dancers
Including EUROPEAN BLUES OPEN, BLUES DWAS, MASTERS INVITATIONAL JACK & JILL, see below for entry, rules and info.




The European Blues Championships is back for its 12th year.
Each year, new rising Blues stars dip a toe in the water and join the 150 or so competitors. If you want to give it a go and don’t have a dance partner, try the Blues DWAS competition on Sunday afternoon. Anyone can join in, so it’s time to get your competition shoes out and start Grooving the Blues in order to take a trophy home with you.
To give you some last minute tips, tricks and moves, there will be a range of Blues classes with great teachers encompassing vintage Blues style to modern 21st Century Blues style to suit the evolution of Blues music through the years to present day. The competition will reflect the growing variety of Blues music played.
Classes will include maximum capacity Blues Master Classes which will be pre-bookable at the event.
European Blues Open
This competition is for fixed couples and will start on Saturday night for the heats & semi-finals commencing at midnight.
The Finals will take place on the Sunday evening at 9pm.
Blues Dance with a Stranger
To give all those Blues lovers a chance to compete even if you don’t have a regular partner we will be holding a DAY TIME Blues Dance with a Stranger Competition commencing at 1.30pm on Sunday. Winners of this category will gain an automatic place in the Semi Finals of the Open Blues Championships that night (assuming either person is not already placed).
This category is strictly traditional partnering, with males entering as leads, and females entering as follows.
Masters Invitational Blues Jack & Jill
Introduced in 2013, this category recognises the talents of past winners and placers from the Championships that have been running at Breeze since it began. Competitors enter by invitation only based on achieving 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the Open and Winners of the DWAS. Individual dancers switch partners throughout the competition on Saturday night in the main room, and dance in spotlight to find the ultimate Masters Champions.
A HUGE congratulations to our 2018 winners were Ekow Oduro & Heidi Ayling.
How do I book?
Open & Dance with a Stranger
There is NO CHARGE for these competitions and entry will only be accepted at Breeze at the Competition Entry Desks in the Cyclone Dance Zone from 10pm – midnight on Friday evening and in the Queen Vic Pub from midday – 5pm on Saturday evening. Last entrants for both competitions can be accepted no later than 4pm on Saturday. We will require both names from the couple for the Open competition and simply your name if you are entering the Dance with a Stranger
European Open Blues
Couples will dance to music chosen by the organisers which will be a Blues genre track from any era. The number of heats will be determined according to the number of entrants at the weekend.
During the Heats couples will dance to 2 pieces of music (one 80 – 95 bpm and one 100 – 115 bpm).
Each piece of music in the Heats will last a maximum of 2 minutes and will be faded out. There will be 2 tracks of approximately 3½ minute length in the Semi Final so there may be cause to fade the track out. (one 80 – 95 bpm and one 100 – 115 bpm). There will be 2 tracks of approximately 4 minute length in the Final and these will be played out til the end (one 75 – 95 bpm and one 95 – 115 bpm). Blues dance is lead by the music and this is a freestyle competition, so couples will be marked down if there is evidence of an entirely choreographed routine. This is a Blues Dance competition, so only 1 Aerial* move will be permitted per couple per piece of music and technical difficulty will not be judged by aerials
* Aerials are judged, as when both of the ladies feet are above the guy’s waist. An aerial lift may last for a maximum of 7 beats. Any number of Baby Aerials or ‘flying moves’ can be included. The essence of Blues dancing is close, connected & musical and couples will be expected to demonstrate this throughout the competition.
It is acceptable for people to interpret the music to adopt fusion styles of Blues, but this is not a West Coast Swing, Zouk or Modern Jive competition. Teachers and professional dancers may enter this category
Blues Dance with a Stranger
NEW RULE for 2018 – where a couple are matched together who are both ‘Masters J&J’ competitors, a further rotation will continue to ensure the Masters are separate.
Only Guys will be given a dance number. Partnerships will be established on the dance-floor immediately before the heats commence. The number of heats will be determined by the number of entrants during the course of the weekend.
During the Heats couples will dance to 1 piece of music (between 90-110 bpm). This track will be approximately 3½ minutes long so there may be cause to fade tracks out.
During the Semi Finals and Finals couples will dance to 2 tracks (one 75 – 95 bpm and one 95 – 115 bpm). These tracks will be approx 2 mins in length with fade out.
Blues dance is led by the music and this is a freestyle competition, so couples will be marked down if there is evidence of an entirely choreographed routine.
No aerials are permitted in this section.
The essence of Blues dancing is close and connected and couples will be expected to demonstrate this throughout the competition.
It is acceptable for people to interpret the music to adopt fusion styles of Blues, but this is not a West Coast Swing, Zouk or Modern Jive competition.
Teachers & professional dancers may enter this category.




Judging
An experienced panel of judges made up of Blues specialists and ex-champions will be marking throughout the competitions:
Ekow Oduro, Danielle Moore, Dale St Rose, Lily Barker, Rachel Pears, Marc Forster and acting as adjudicator and scoring administrator – David Barker.
Whilst they will be attributing points for different aspects of the dance this will simply be used as a decider to ensure the overall best dancers go through and are placed. Ultimately they will be looking at the bigger picture and seeing the overall performance of couples so they will first be asked to nominate a specific number of couples they identify from each heat who should go through to the next. In the event of differing opinions the points system will come into play across all judges to make the final decision.
Points will be awarded for the following:
Musical Interpretation, Connection & Synchronicity, Variety & Complexity, Presentation & Performance (Fancy Dress Costumes not permitted and spandex and sequins not essential!)
In addition it should be remembered that as this is a partner dance as a couple you will also be judged on how well your dancing compliments your partner’s and how balanced the partnership is both in style and technical ability.
Ceroc reserves the right to change aspects of the programme & competition if necessary without consultation.
Winners
2018
1st Place OPEN – Max Rycroft & Chrissy Green
2nd Place OPEN – Dave Payne & Angela Armstrong
3rd Place OPEN – Kieran Moore & Lyndsey Bennett
2018 EUROPEAN BLUES MASTERS INVITATIONAL JACK & JILL
The Girls!
1st Place MASTERS – Heidi Ayling
2nd Place MASTERS – Ellen Dacombe
3rd Place MASTERS – Steph Oram
The Boys!
1st Place MASTERS – Ekow Oduro
2nd Place MASTERS – Steve Smith
3rd Place MASTERS – Ben Davies
2018 EUROPEAN BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Rasika Godawatte & Christine Cockerill
2nd Place DWAS – Gary Lanham & Jen Eddy (no image)
3rd Place DWAS – Ekow Oduro & Megan Beencke (no image)
2016
1st Place OPEN – Ekow Oduro & Danni Moore
2nd Place OPEN – Matt Blain & Terri McLaughlin
3rd Place OPEN – Dave Payne & Angela Armstrong
2016 EUROPEAN MASTERS INVITATIONAL JACK & JILL NEO-BLUES
The Girls!
1st Place Female Masters J&J – Danni Moore
2nd Place Female Masters J&J – Gaynor Crocombe
3rd Place Female Masters J&J – Victoria Pollard
The Boys!
1st Place Male Masters J&J – Ekow Oduro
2nd Place Male Masters J&J – Matt Blain
3rd Place Male Masters J&J – Matt Shaw
2016 EUROPEAN NEO-BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Tim Stevens & Chloe Winzar
2nd Place DWAS – Matt Blain & Stephanie Oram
3rd Place DWAS – Steve Lampert & Gaynor Crocombe
2015
1st Place OPEN – Matt Blain & Terri McLaughlin
2nd Place OPEN – Ekow Oduro & Danni Moore
3rd Place OPEN – Dale St Rose & Victoria Pollard
2015 EUROPEAN MASTERS INVITATIONAL JACK & JILL NEO-BLUES
The Girls!
1st Place Female Masters J&J – Ellen Dacomb
2nd Place Female Masters J&J – Terri McLaughlin
3rd Place Female Masters J&J – Danni Moore
The Boys!
1st Place Male Masters J&J – Ekow Oduro
2nd Place Male Masters J&J – Matt Shaw
3rd Place Male Masters J&J – Dale St Rose
2015 EUROPEAN NEO-BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Steven Smith & Stephanie Oram
2nd Place DWAS – Dale St Rose & Jeanine D’Ambrosio
3rd Place DWAS – Matt Blain & Jane Clarkin
2014
1st Place OPEN – Matt Blain & Terri McLaughlin
2nd Place OPEN – Gary Riseborough & Chloe Young
3rd Place OPEN – Ekow Oduro & Danni Moore
2014 EUROPEAN MASTERS INVITATIONAL JACK & JILL NEO-BLUES
The Girls!
1st Place Female Masters J&J – Ellen Dacomb
2nd Place Female Masters J&J – Terri McLaughlin
3rd Place Female Masters J&J – Suzi Minor
The Boys!
1st Place Male Masters J&J – Matt Shaw
2nd Place Male Masters J&J – Matt Blain
3rd Place Male Masters J&J – Dale St Rose
2014 EUROPEAN NEO-BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Matt Brown & Judith Lawrence
2nd Place DWAS – Ekow Oduro & Heather Passmore
3rd Place DWAS – Matt Blain & Bree Jones
2013
1st Place OPEN – Matt Shaw & Lyndsey Chivers
2nd Place OPEN – Dale St Rose & Suzi Minor
3rd Place OPEN – Matt Blain & Terri McLaughlin
2013 EUROPEAN MASTERS INVITATIONAL NEO-BLUES
1st Place MASTERS – Ekow Oduro & Lyndsey Chivers
2nd Place MASTERS – Matt Shaw & Anna Lewis
3rd Place MASTERS – Ben Davies & Emily Attwood
2013 EUROPEAN NEO-BLUES SHOWCASE
1st Place SHOWCASE – Dale St Rose & Suzi Minor
2nd Place SHOWCASE – Ekow Oduro & Anna Lewis
2013 EUROPEAN NEO-BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Phil Webb & Nina Rahmatallah
2nd Place DWAS – Lyndsey Chivers & Nigel Mortimer
3rd Place DWAS – Steven Smith & Orlanda Cooper
2012
1st Place OPEN – Dale St Rose & Suzi Minor
2nd Place OPEN – Matt Shaw & Lyndsey Chivers
3rd Place OPEN – Ben Davies & Amanda Housden
2012 BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Matt Shaw & Gaynor Crocombe
2nd Place DWAS – David Campbell & Amanda Housden
3rd Place DWAS – Marcus DeCoverley & Sue Davis
2011
1st Place OPEN – Ben Davies & Emily Attwood
2nd Place OPEN – Deej Moors & Zuki Savage
3rd Place OPEN – Jean Pierre Sachs & Christelle Ouvrard
2011 BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Steve Lampert & Suzi Minor
2nd Place DWAS – Jean Pierre Sachs & Kirstin Oliver
3rd Place DWAS – Keiran Moore & Leila Rahmatallah
2010
1st Place OPEN – Anna Lewis & Ekow Oduro
2nd Place OPEN – Richard & Heather Parks
3rd Place OPEN – Nick Hancock & Kirstin Oliver
2010 BLUES SHOWCASE
JOINT 1st Place SHOWCASE – Dale St Rose & Jade Sarkhel, Herbie Bastien & Suzi Minor
2nd Place SHOWCASE – Richard & Heather Parks
2010 BLUES DWAS
1st Place DWAS – Deej Moors & Kirstin Oliver
2007 - 2009
1st Place – Dale St Rose & Sarah Taylor
2nd Place – Carl Adams & Susan Minor
3rd Place – Kevin Town & Rebecca Hawkins
2008 OPEN BLUES CHAMPIONSHIPS:
1st Place – Steve May & Kathleen Lo
2nd Place – Dale St Rose & Sarah Taylor
3rd Place – Jamie Moore & Becky Rendell
Blues Dance with a Stranger 2008:
1st Place – Steve Lampert & Lana Hannah
2nd Place – Roger Fredericks & Becky Rendell
3rd Place – Jamie Moore & Elaine Hinks
2007 OPEN BLUES CHAMPIONSHIPS:
1st Place – Dale St Rose & Sarah Taylor
2nd Place – Jamie Storey & Danielle Rathzel
3rd Place – Tom Baker & Becky Rendell
Blues Dance with a Stranger 2007:
1st Place – Dale St Rose & Sarah Taylor
2nd Place – Steve Lampert & Margaret Masters
3rd Place – Kevin Hardy & Debi Lagor
Special congrats to Dale & Sarah who only paired up on the day for the Lucky Dip and entered the Open as our Wild Cards & took home the big trophy!