On the 10th of June 2006 we were offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to fly out to Florida to train with some of the most accomplished twirlers in America at the Golden Triangle Twirling Camp!!
Four of us from from Blue Vision decided to put our names down to go as this opportunity wouldn't come round again any time soon!! We had to raise alot of money to go so we decided to arrange a sponsored 24 hour twirl!! Thanks to everyone that sponsored us we managed to raise £800 between us which was fantastic!! It was sssooo hard trying to stay awake for that long (some of us didn't though not mentioning any names, er Baff!!!) and our fingers and hands were aching from all the twirling but it was definately worth it !!
There were 22 of us from the U.K.F.M that went, 'Miss Eileen'- president of the U.K.F.M, Tina, Frank and Pauline who are part of the U.K.F.M. Kim, Sam, Louise and little Kim from Blue Vision Twirling Team. Karen, Megan and Kelly from Capricorn. Leanne from Dacorum. Tracy from St.Albans Majoretttes. Laura (Miss Deputy UKFM 06/07), Chanelle and Lauren fron Ipswich Gold & White Militaires. Sharna fron Saturn Supremes. Jody and Emma from Crystal Coronets. Faye from Wembley Eclipse. Sarah from Urban Allstars and Gerogia and Caroline who are both independent majorettes.
At the camp there were some really fab instructors which included:
Cheryl Wimberly, who was a former feature twirler at Florida State University and coaches state, national and world champions!!
Sean Wimberly, a feature twirler at Florida State university. Currently holds 8 national NBTA titles and 2 world NBTA titles!!
Lynann Patrick-Hudson, holds numerous world 2 and 3 baton titles, she was college Miss Majorette of Florida for 5 consecutive years. She is now an instructor at UCF!!
Karrissa Wimberly, is 2 time senior NBTA Grand National Twirling Champion, has been world open solo champ since the age of 7. She has placed 1st runner-up in Miss Majorette of America twice. She won the Congressional Cup 2005, Allen Kramer twirl-off, Twirl Mania Gold twirl-off, she is a true champion!!
June Johns-Stoeber, is the co-ordinator of the Gatorettes majorettes line at the University of Florida. She was Intermediate Miss Majorette of Florida in 1987, international world solo and 2baton champ and former feature twirler and head majorette at Ed White High School!!
There were also other twirl, dance and and flag instructors that were fantastic!!
I think I can say for everyone that we had such a good time and we will never forget it!! We all learnt so much from the american twirlers, at first we all kind of stood with our mouths open thinking WOW!!! As their style of twirling is so different to ours as they are quite gymnastic like, but it was good to see it and have a go at all their different categories like x-strutt which is like our lead girl and their intermediate level is pretty much the same as our advanced!! And they love their aerials and how many spins and tricks you can get underneath them!!! They are also all about how you perform the routine and your posture which makes their performances so exciting!! I think we all brought something back with us (apart from aching bodies!!) and we adapted what we learnt to our UKFM rules and taught it to our girls and boys in our troupes!!
While we were at the camp we were awarded a few trophies for our hard work which was an added bonus!! Sam fron Blue Vision was awarded a trophy for being the most spirited twirler (more like most gobbiest!!) Sharna from Saturn Supremes was awarded a trophy for being the best intermediate/advanced twirler and all of us England Girls were awarded a trophy for being the best group at the camp, woo hoo!!!
Above is a little collection of pictues of Kim, Sam, Louise and Little Kim. Some of our sponsored twirl, some action shots of Kim and Sam performing one of Karrissas' dance twirl routines and eating out! Oh and I couldn't forget the one of Louise with the milkshake she WOULD NOT shut up about!!!
Altogether it was pretty "PERFECT"!!
Here's a picture of us all on the last day of camp with our trophies and Karrissa and Sean Wimberly at the end of the front and back rows!!
Talking of American Twirlers, here's a video of Danielle Cobb, Bronze medalist at worlds 2006 and the current Junior Miss Majorette of America, enjoy!!