The NEW Texas Challenge
April 3, 2006

by Phillip Stephens

As reported earlier, Rosendo Fumero, Peggy Heeney, Tony Mercurio, Phillip Stephens and Michael Schedler have teamed up as organizers of the Texas Challenge DanceSport Competition. Our March 2006 event was a fantastic success, with far more entries than originally anticipated due to the short lead time we had for advertising, finding a hotel, etc.  The Sheraton North Houston outdid itself with meals, ballroom setup, catering to our needs and, after we sold out of rooms, even managed to work a deal with a neighboring hotel to give our "overflow" guests the same convention rate as if they were staying in the Sheraton.  In case you are worried that you won't have a room next year, don't:  We have contracted for a lot more rooms, and anticipate that we will have no problems at all with finding special accommodations for every Texas Challenge guest.

We were truly impressed with - and gratified by - the number of people who came out to support the first NEW Texas Challenge DanceSport Competition. With competitors from California, Washington State, Florida, New York and lots of points in between, as well as folk from Canada, we felt that we had quite an "international" flavor right off the bat.  The Scholarship and Multi-dance student events were hotly contested, with a few semi-finals in the mix, and the Professional divisions were extremely impressive.  While our audience was big and enthusiastic the whole weekend, Saturday night proved to be a logistics ballet for us in our efforts to find as many seats as possible for the capacity crowd.  In the end, we sold over 100 standing room only tickets, and are looking into ways of increasing the number of seats for next year's Challenge.

As promised, everyone attending the 2006 Texas Challenge was treated as an HONORED GUEST.  Everyone we talked to had a good time and is looking forward to coming back for the 2007 Texas Challenge, which will take place on the weekend of March 29 - April 1, 2007.  With an entire year to plan and advertise our nest event, we are planning for tremendous growth. But don't worry: we will ALWAYS provide the same friendly atmosphere and we will ALWAYS put your comfort and needs first.  We look forward to seeing you in March!