 | CONCOURS DE MAJORETTES ST.ELOY-LES-MINES |
| CONCOURS DE MAJORETTES ST.ELOY-LES-MINES |
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Now this promised to be an exciting afternoon out. The town of St Eloy-les-Mines was plastered with affiches advertising the First Annual Competition for Majorettes. Now as far as I am concerned, I don't get enough Dancing Girls coming into my life, so I wasn't going to miss this opportunity.
For those of you who don't know this area, St Eloy is a decaying coal-mining area about 12 km (7.5 miles) away from here, and so there isn't much to cheer around here. Consequently I wasn't expecting too much from the teams of cheerleaders taking part. But at least it's entertainment and there's quite a shortage of that around here.
LES SYBELLULES - ST GERARD DE VAUX
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
These two girls reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France recently. I suppose anyone can have an off-day, or maybe the sport is in its infancy in France. A good word or two of advice would be to concentrate on the simple things and do them well rather than to continually attempt a complicated routine. Height may well be might for antennae in radio broadcasting, but not in Majorette dancing if you can't keep your eye on your baton.
MARIE ET MELISSA
These two, members of the "Twirling Batons d'Aubière", would have been better-advised to wait until next year before coming out to do an individual routine. But chwarae teg, they kept on going and were still smiling at the finale a few hours later. Which just goes to show - if you are having fun and enjoying yourself, what does anything else matter? It's as much about entertainment for the participants as it is entertainment for the spectators.
LES TWIRLING BATONS D'AUBIERE
FANNY
She was, I suppose, about 9 or 10 years old, so full marks to her for having the courage to go out and do a solo routine in a discipline that was unfamiliar to her. She dropped her baton a couple of times (but then again so did girls twice her age) but she smiled and carried on regardless when many other kids of her age might have gone to pieces. Yes, full marks.
JUDITH
She was also a semi-finalist in her discipline in the recent Coupe de France.
LES DIABLESSES DE BOURGANEUF
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
CHLOE ET ADRIENNE
These two are dancers from thinks the Sybellules de St. Gérard de Vaux.
LES MAJORETTES DE SAUZY
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
CELINE
Céline was described by the announcer as a Monitor. I suppose that means that she trains one of the teams, the Sybellules de St. Gérard de Vaux, I think. It could also, I suppose, mean that all the males gather round to watch her.
There is also another "Monitor", but that was an iron-clad battleship that was sunk off the coast of Cape Hatteras during the American Civil War.
ST POURCAIN
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
LAETITIA
She was also described as a Monitor. See above.
She stuck to a simple routine and looked quite competent doing it. And if you think that her top looks familiar, you may recall it from my blog as being the same top worn by the Kylie Minogue dancers who took me completely by surprise in Arpheuilles St Priest last July.
LORRAINE AMANDINE ET MATHILDE
LES DIABLESSES DE BOURGANEUF
The Diablesses were by far and away my favourites as far as "image" and "corporate identity" went. As far as I was concerned, they were the only team that had any pride in their appearance, as you can see by comparing their outfits with those of the other teams. Whoever dressed them deserves 10 out of 10.
Mind you, I would have given them a much higher mark all round had all of the girls smiled and looked like they were enjoying it. Some of them looked like they were fairly disinterested and just going through the motions. There was one girl - probably the prettiest in the whole competition - who danced like she was on her way to a funeral. Someone ought to tell her that it's so much easier to do something really well if you are enjoying it.
LES SYBELLULES - ST GERARD DE VAUX
These put up a valiant effort but they were totally outclassed. Mind you, at least they looked like a team and they looked like they were having fun, even though this performance of "Greased Lightning" left a great deal to be desired. With a good choreographer and someone with a modicum of dress sense they should be able to do so much better next year.
LES TWIRLING BATONS D'AUBIERE
I don't want to say too much about this team. At least they were there taking part, and of course you can't have winners if you don't have anyone to beat. The youngest member was 4 years old and they also had a token male, so full marks for their stand in the struggle against ageism and sexism
We were told that their routine for the finale was "improvised". I'm not convinced that that was such a good idea. They should have had someone out front giving a lead to the team rather than sending the babies to the front to face the flak on their own and the big kids skulking in the background. The little ones must have found it so disheartening to just stand there for 3 minutes and not have a clue.
If they didn't have anything prepared, they should have done one of their previous routines and gone out with a smile. They weren't ever going to win unless a devastating earthquake or collapsed mineshaft (the Sports Centre is built over a disused coal mine) wiped out the opposition, so what did it matter? At least they would have had the confidence from competing to come back next year better-prepared.
CESERRE
LES MAJORTWIRLS - ST ELOY LES MINES
Technically, they were the only team on the field. But no matter how good you are, you aren't any better than your choreographer. And the standard of choreography from all of the teams, not just these, was lamentable.
And whoever did the costumes for the Majortwirls wants taking out and shooting. What they were wearing for the finale was ok, but the rest was awful. It's just a real shame that they didn't put into their previous routines the level of effort, interest and dress sense that they showed in the finale.
In fairness, the general level of costumes from all of the teams was "pretty poor taste", except for my Diablesses.
Now a big disappointment was that we had been promised a demonstration of the throwing of flaming (as in "burning", one supposes, rather than "thrown in exasperation" - we'd already seen plenty of that) batons. But the torrential downpour going on outside put paid to that. The rain would have put out the fires and spoilt the fun. After all, judging by what we had seen, there was every likelihood of the girls grabbing hold of the wrong end. Now that would have led to some interesting improvised dances.
The committee of the Sports Centre wouldn't allow it to take place inside. Spoilsports! Something to do with the insurance. On reflection, a wise precaution. These floors look highly polished and I suppose the wax is quite flammable. There's also a ban on smoking inside too, and that includes the participants. Those costumes don't look like they are made of fire-resistant material.
In conclusion, I would speculate that what has been going on is that for several years there has been one big team of dancing girls in the region organised by someone of note who has found herself living down here. Maybe with the passage of time some of the senior girls have left to start up their own teams. But probably the original team has such a reputation that it has the monopoly of the best instrutors and first choice of the best talent. Just because someone is quite good at a certain skill doesn't mean that they are necessarily any good at teaching it - especially if they don't have much in the way of inherent raw talent to work with.
It's only fair to say that it's the first competition of its kind round here, and that many of the teams (and the organisers too, I suspect) probably didn't know quite what to expect. Next year, they'll all have much more idea of what's going on, and we'll see vastly improved performances from all of the teams. Maybe the weather will be better too, and it'll take place outside where there will be much more of an ambience. In the meantime, I suppose I can always offer my services to a team of dancing girls. I reckon I can teach them a thing or two and have them dancing to my tune by next year. I'll have to take steps in that kind of direction.
Pour finir, je sais que j'ai râté quelques des noms, et j'ai probablement trompé les autres. Si vous pouvez m'aider á corriger les noms et me donner d'avantage d'information, veuillez . Merci d'avance!
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