One of the largest and oldest WCS events in Europe, the WIL celebrated its 11th edition : let’s take a look at what happened during that crazy week-end (March 14 -17, Dardilly a small city close to Lyon).

Moulin Carron Sports Complex – Dardilly (France)

A team of 4 organizers surrounded by friends and volunteers was behind this great event . Virginie Massart, one of the team organizers, shares her experience :

“The WIL is a great adventure that started with friends. At first it began on a whim when we gathered with several different schools to have a good time and share our passion for dancing. After the success of the first year, we decided to keep going. Now 4 members are in charge of the event : Arnaud Perga, Maxime Zzaoui, David Riquelme and myself.


Fantastic Four

We are very good at working together ! Everyone has their own specific tasks and a well-defined role in the organization. Also we can count on the volunteers, who always are on top of their game !

From the start our event has been pretty big and we have continued to grow. Our loyal customers like to participate in the event because they feel at home. Even if the place is a few minutes away from hotels, they are easily accessible by shuttle and you get to make friends on the way ! “
 

Workshops

  • Two hours of intensive workshops on Thursday night, and various fun workshops on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
  • 6 different levels/ 9 hours of classes per level : “Technical, Intense Swing, Body Movements, Fast Songs and Rotations.” No matter your level, you can benefit from a complete dance training, enjoy the different themes and progress at your pace.
  • Levels 2, 3 and 4 focus on social dancing. Level 4 seems to be the most accessible and had the largest number of trainees. One of the downfalls was that there were more followers than leaders. If you’re looking for competition, join level 5 or 6… as long as you have enough WSDC points to be part of the novice, intermediate, advanced or allstars categories. Twenty couples were present in each level with a small imbalance to the advantage of leaders for once !
  • The cosy atmosphere and the pedagogical content make levels 5 and 6 people’s favorite. Workshops are complete : expression and visual, footworks and variations of basics. Level 5 and 6 share some joint workshops while others are specific to each level.
Social Level 4
  • Such a dynamic, efficient and fun weekend would not have been possible without Maxime & Torri ; Maxence & Virginie ; Jakub & Emeline ; Jordan & Tatiana ; Lionel & Amandine and Olivier & Henriette. These six wonderful dance-teaching-couples love what they do and do it with passion !
Olivier & Henriette
Maxence & Virginie
  • A special 3-hour teaching workshop has been proposed by Olivier Massart and Maxence Martin. It followed a Talking Circle format with different teachers about weekly classes, casual workshop, teacher’s posture…
Sharing circle

Virginie explains : “This year we offer more classes. There was a WCS evolution : now dancers like to learn in small groups classes.
For next year we will keep this course creates and sometimes offer a fun big workshop !”

Jordan & Tatiana’s workshop !

Next year, WIL will be different from other event by offering Special Focus workshops (for example blues or fun workshops topic).

Option to eat at the snack with pancakes, hotdogs, or salad during all day.

Snack

Competitions

Virginie: “We like competition because we enjoy it and it brought something fun to the event.”

Take a look at this young dancing-couple from Angoulême :


There was two Pro-Am routines (with a pro and an amateur). Angélique Pernotte shares her experience : “It was a great experience ! I loved preparing the routine with my partner because we were moving step by step. We shared so many things together : challenge, stress, laughs and pride in job on d-day !”

Pro-Am routine
Pro-Am routine

In Rising Star division, special mention for Maïna & Stanley’s swing and glam artistic univers (4th at the US Open 2018).

Stanley & Maïna’s classic

Jack’n’Jill competitions were great ! As Olivier reminded us, competitors have an opportunity to dance with a new partner. The most important thing dancers have to do is to progress and have fun whether for competitions, workshops or social dances !

Saturday afternoon prelims :


Saturday night Allstars final :


We enjoyed the champagne flute as a trophy.

Parties

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were dance parties.

Two ballrooms with two kinds of music : the main room with contemporary music …

… and the other room with different music sessions (“swing” or french songs…). Enjoy DJ A3P swing playlist.

Saturday and Sunday Parties were very fun, friendly and very crowded ! Fortunately we could also dance in the cooler second ballroom.

Note that regular shuttle sessions to the partner hotels went back all night.

Shows time in Saturday night ! Starting with the trainees 🙂

Trainees with Nicole & Thibault

Jordan and Tatiana represented a great show on the beautiful music of Sara Bareilles – Gravity:


They are present since the 3rd edition of WIL ! Organizers explain that they represent the WIL teachers state of mind : professional and accessible person.

The audience was able to enjoy a breathtaking show, on a cover by Slimane of a Jacques Brel song, performed by Lionel & Amandine Giannone


Emeline & Jakub’s show was inspiring and fluid (10th place at the US Open 2018 Classic).


The trainees share their experience !

Emeline : “I was in level 6, the classes were awesome ! The parties were great, on the other hand it was very hot ! I think is a warm event but it misses a small bonus for trainees (like a welcome gift)! Otherwise I loved the music, the floor and the shuttles were always available !”

Alexandre : “I taked level 5 workshops, we were a small group, it was clear and hard ! I really liked it!
The parties were amazing ! The area identified for potential improvement is Leaders / Followers balance Thursday full-intensive session (there was too much leader).”

Thibault : “There was a good and friendly atmosphere, including competition! The only negative thing I can think is the lack of fresh fruit and healthy food at snack! “
This year, a Russian group took part in the event and many international dancers too, it was very cool! We hope to meet more international dancers next year!”

See you next year atWest In Lyon March 12 to 15, 2020 !

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