We had a big day yesterday full of NY USA Dance events, starting with a regular Board meeting, followed by the Annual General Meeting, after which we launched our Corporate Initiative, from which we went right into our Annual Halloween Social. The latter two events took place at Dance Times Square, which was a beautiful venue for both our Corporate Initiative launch and our Halloween social. It was our first time hosting a social at DTS, and we thank DTS for so graciously making their space available to us.

We held an election at the Annual General Meeting, at which we elected the Board for the 2008-09 term. We welcome the following new members to the Board: Stefany Coulter, Scott Perlman and Jana Veliskova. Remaining on the Board or returning to the Board are: Hong Cheng, Karen Hsu, Daphna Locker, Steve Malanga, Michael Phillip, Robert Scibelli and myself. The current Board will stay in place until the end of the year, and the new Board will take office at the beginning of next year (which is only a couple of months away). The outgoing Board members are Bithi Chatterjee, Eric Greenberg and Meagan O'Toole. We thank them for their many years of dedicated service to NY USA Dance. We miss you already!

Thanks to all who joined us for the launch of the Corporate Initiative! We saw attendance from many different corporations, among them JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Moody's and KPMG. We introduced our prospective corporate members to the basic foxtrot and swing and were treated to a terrific performance by Professional Latin competitors, Luka and Jennifer. The launch party was the first of several events designed to bring ballroom to New York's corporate sector. Our next event will be a Tea Dance on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 11, at City Center, from 2 pm to 4 pm. If you work for a corporation and are interested in attending, or would like more information, send an e-mail to rsvp@nyusabda.org, with the subject line "Corporate" (minus the quotes). We hope to see you there.

Thanks to all who joined us for the Halloween Social. We continued the annual tradition of celebrating Halloween by donning costumes and dancing to our favorite ballroom tunes. Creative costumes were on full display, and the judging panel, made up of incoming Board members Hong Cheng, Daphna Locker and Jana Veliskova, chaired by Chapter VP Robert Scibelli, had a hard time picking which contestants to call back into the final round. After some serious deliberation, greased by bribes from the contestants, there was a tie for third place to Snow White (a/k/a Maryam) and Kung Fu Master (a/k/a Sean), second place went to Lolita (a/k/a Naomi) and first place went to Rainbow Brite (a/k/a Jennifer). Third place prize was a Dancing with the Stars poster, which Kung Fu Master graciously ceded to Snow White. Second place was one ticket to the MAC championship session and first place was two tickets to the MAC championship sessions. Congrats to all our winners, and thanks to all the contestants for entering. We had a great time at the social -- hope you did, too. Our next social will be the New Year's Eve Gala, which we are currently planning. Stay tuned for details, which will be forthcoming.

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DWTS last week: If you tuned in on Monday night, you saw that Marie Osmond passed out after dancing her samba. Thank goodness she was OK. That was pretty much the highlight of the show, as the dancing continued to remain unimpressive and the judging continued to be frustratingly inflationary. No couple stood out in my book, and no celeb deserved a 10 -- so how did Mel B. ("Scary Spice") score two 10s for her samba? Because she danced to her own Spice Girls song? I don't get it. Not surprisingly, Mark Cuban got the boot last week. I appreciated the effort he put into DWTS and in that sense am sad to see him go, but frankly . . . it was time. The ladies continue to dominate, although elegant Jane Seymour landed in the bottom two. Will she survive another week? We will find out soon enough. And if you want to tune in with the regular bunch of rabblerousers at ACME Bar & Grill, you know where to find us: at the bar in the back, shouting back at the plasma screens as we munch on our cajun eats and quaff a few choice brews.

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Among the spate of announcements about retirements and new partnerships forming, perhaps the most astounding was the announcement that Yulia Zagoruitchenko, US Professional Latin champ, will now be dancing with former World Amateur Latin champ, Riccardo Cocchi. Curious as to how they will look as a couple? There's one easy way to satisfy that burning curiosity: Yulia and Riccardo will be performing at Columbia University, at the inaugural Big Apple DanceSport Challenge, to be held at Alfred Lerner Hall, at Columbia, on Saturday, December 1. To learn more about the event, visit the website. If you would like to compete at the Big Apple DanceSport Challenge, keep in mind that regular registration closes on Nov. 16. Mark your calendars -- it's going to be a great event.

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On the social front:

• Salsa at Taj continues on Mondays, for those who want to spice up the start of their week with some latin dancing. Free until 7 pm, $10 per person after 7 pm. For more details, read this post.
• More salsa, for those out by Farmingdale, LI, where Club 56 continues the latin beat, this time with a Halloween party and costume contest on Tuesday night, Oct. 30. More details on this post.
• For those up near Sleepy Hollow, NY, up in Westchester, just north of Tarrytown, a new regular Friday night dance is starting up on Nov. 2, running from 7:30 pm to 11:00 with a mix of swing, ballroom and latin music. Find out more on this post.
• And, finally, both NJoyDancing News & Notes and Wayne's Dance Commentary have announced the re-opening of the Sunday dances at the new Ballroom OFF Fifth, starting on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 pm. Check out those two great resources for more details, along with a comprehensive listing of other social happenings in the Greater NY area.

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Any bronze leaders doing International style in the adult category looking for a follower? If so, check out this partner search post from bb8anana, and if you are interested, please respond.

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And that wraps it up for this week. See you at ACME on Monday night . . . or at DCDI on Nov. 3-4!

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Yang Chen
President
Greater NY
USA Dance
(NYUSABDA)
www.nyusabda.org
www.nyusabda.org/forums-df
yang.chen@nyusabda.org