Messages

RitsuHime,

Thank you for your music suggestions.  We listen to all suggestions, but we do make the final decisions.  Just keep submitting them.

Also any suggestions made after today will be held until Fanime 2013 as the playlist is being finalized.

-Kevin

The card that I booked the room with has expired.  What is the easiest way to change the card on the reservation?

I personally vote for :

Eva
Dragonball (the original)
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star

I knew Fanime had a protection measure in case of zombie attacks.

I recently purchased a dress on eBay that will be about three or four inches above my knees. Would it still be acceptable, or are moderators really strict about skirt length? If I wore leggings underneath, would it then be allowed?

To xxToki,

Do you have a picture of it?  It would help if you posted a link to what it looks like so we can make a decision right now before the Ball.

Thank you,
Kevin

After years of staying at the Marriott and not always having the best time.  I will be giving the St. Claire a try this year.

Thank you for your suggestions.  The staff of the Black and White Ball listen to them, but we do make the final decision.  We do ask that if you are listing songs try to link a youtube page so we can hear the music.  Though we do have a large library to choose from, we do not know all the groups or songs.

Thank you,
Kevin

The only concern that we would have about the black one is the skirt length and the shoes.  The skirt length needs to be no more than two inches above the knee (meaning no short skirts or mini-skirts).  That is really the only thing that I could see being as an issue with the black outfit http://i.imgur.com/JdTyH.jpg  Since it is hard to tell from the picture how long the skirt is.

-Kevin

The second one would be preferable.

Question, would you be wearing the wings as well?  I am only concerned that if the floor, and room, is crowded they might get damaged.

You shouldn't go out of your way to harass any staff.  It is not like they are not busy enough when that many people show up over a weekend and have enough stress.

We did have private lessons both Friday night and Saturday night.

-Kevin

Finally get to see a full list like that which makes finding them so much easier.

Ni

Black and White Ball: I know the smaller room was out of the hands of staff this year, and we wound up taking a look at the line and changing our minds about going (sadly, but ...).  However, one thing I really wish could be done is to NOT schedule it against the Masquerade, or if so to lengthen the hours so that people can theoretically do both.  It's hard to be torn between the two, particularly when trying to support friends who are competing.

This year we did decide to extend the Ball for an additional hour until Midnight, instead of normally ending at 11pm.  This was in response of the Masquerade going on at the same time.  Next year it might only go from 6-11 or again go from 6-midnight.  That is something that the staff will have to decide.

-Kevin

I think that would be  nice, since we had some complaints this year.  Want to see what it was like last year.

Err annnywayssss, maybe just have a staff-only after hours lessons (or if there were some, announce it in an e-mail during a meeting)? I disliked having to leave Reg Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to attend dance lessons. o:

If I am remembering correctly our department head, Jim, mentioned private lessons at staff meetings and he said he sent out an email to various other departments mentioning private lessons as well.  We did have private lessons, for everyone not just for staff, Friday and Saturday night.

-Kevin

Welcome to the forums Rebecca.  Nice to get another staffers viewpoint.

In terms of the floor, we did take that break besides for the demos (which would have been a shorter break if the floor held together) for the safety of all dancers.  We kept a close eye on the condition of the floor of the rest of the night.

It is hit and miss with the music, even for ballroom dance places they play more modern music as well.  Even the classic ball music was new at point in its life.  We did not just play requests that were made on the forum.  It is hard to say exactly what the percentage was, if any, that we incorperate from the forum.

Yes if a Guest of Honor, or a staff member wants a particular song we work to incorperate that as best we can.  Also if the Chair wants to dance to a song we will also include that if possible.  Those type of songs are genrally towards the evening.

In terms of the line and the crowd in the room.  With the Masquerade going on at the same time we did not know if we would get as many people as we did last year.  Since a lot of people who attend the Ball also go to the Masquerade.  Obviously we were wrong.  Though we did get a smaller froom from the Fairmont which did not help matters.  Though the larger room at the Fairmont might have held about 300 more people, which wouldn't have gotten rid of the entire line.

Line of dance, we did mention it throughout the night.  But it would have been impossible to really enforce it.  With that many people on the floor and even if they all went in the line of dance and all that there would not have been a lot of room to move around on the dance floor.

These comments relfect my own opinions and how I saw things.

Thank you,
Kevin

this was my first year at fanime and i was most excited about about the black and white ball. however, as soon as i got close to the door i noticed that the music was not that of an actual ball. as a musician and one of the few people who are still in love with ball room dancing, i was very disappointed that the dj's would classify "forget you" or any modern pop music as formal ball repertoire. i was very disappointed to hear that the music was picked by the very people who read and comment on this forum. i know that more people would rather dance to rap and pop but thats just not for this dance. if they don't like it, there is always the raves that go on every night during fanime. there are many fantastic compositions that can be waltzed to or tangoed to found in your everyday anime series' as well as video games but to dance to the pussycat dolls is just taking you to a dance no more formal than a junior prom. i was excited about this ball because like many others, i planned my attire and was expecting one of the last formal dances that the youth is willing to attend to. all in all, i was very displeased with the black and white ball. i hope next year the music will be more formal ball appropriate.

I would just like to address a misconception about the music.  People on the Fanime forums can request music or even give us samples of what they think would be good swing, cha-cha, waltz, etc.  The staff of the Black and White Ball will listen to the suggestions.  But the playlist itself is put together by the staff, whether we use any of the suggestions posted on the forums or emailed is up to the staff of the Black and White Ball.  The people on the forums do not pick the music for the Ball, they can make suggestions.  But in the end it is the staff of the Black and White Ball that puts together the playlist.

Thank you,
Kevin

Thank you to Tony and Pimpess Rei for saying that.  The staff of the Black and White Ball know about that issue and are not happy about it either and it will be address for next year.  We tried to make the best of a not so good situation.

Thank you,
Kevin

@eHash

We kind of made a last minute decision at a staff meeting this year to make them.

My other suggestion is to get a much bigger ballroom for the Black and White Ball! This was my first year going to the ball, so I don't have much experience with how the ball usually goes and all...but I definitely noticed the constant updates on the ballroom having come to full capacity and such. When I left, there was a HUGE line that even went far outside of the Fairmont. I was a bit disappointed with that because so many people had dressed up so nicely for the occasion but they had to stand outside and wait until some person inside the ballroom decided to leave, even only for a bathroom break.

Thank you for your suggestion.  Unfortuneately that was the biggest room we could get at the time.  It was smaller than the room we had last year, but were unable to get this year.  We tried to get as many people as we could into the ball room.  We take all comments, and suggestions, serisouly and under advisement to improve the Black and White Ball. 

Thank you,
Kevin