Klubbens Historie

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Penguins Denmark har til huse i Hinnerup Danmark og danser C3A om Onsdagene på Haldum Hinnerup skolen fre 19,00 til ca 21.30. Dansernes niveau rækker fra C3A til C4. Caller/undervisere er Ebbe Steen Hansen og Hans Pitters.

Penguins startede i realiteten i 1998 da en gruppe mennesker dansede sammen i klubben Midtjysk Square Dance der havde til huse i Skjød hos Inge og Villy Hjort. Willy evnede at få os til at forstå vigtigheden i at kunne sine definitioner og faktisk gav han os nøglen til den dybere forståelse af squaredansen. Jeg er sikker på at vi alle er født med den holdning, at selvom squaredans er en seriøs ting, så er den absolut vigtigste ting at have det sjovt.
Efter at have danset i forskellige klubber i flere år kom en vigtig begivenhed der lagde grunden til klubnavnet. Vi dansede på det tidspunkt C1 og kom lidt for sent til et A2 tip og dannede en square der dansede C-style med hænderne nede. Dette bemærkede calleren og udbrød “look the Penguins are here” og deraf navnet.

Den næste vigtige begivenhed skete til Celebrationdance i Pløn i 2006/2007 hvor Ross Howell blev overtalt til at calle til en ikke planlagt Summerdance i uge 29 i Danmark. Vi fik derfor travlt med at finde dansested, dansere og en ekstra caller – vi var heldige at Johnny Preston ville være den anden caller så vi kunne afholde vores første Challenge C2 og C3A Summerdance der foregik i Stoholm.
Umiddelbart efter denne dans blev klubben Penguins officielt oprettet i efteråret 2007.
Siden da har vi afholdt en Summerdance hvert år – de første år i Stoholm men siden 2010 er den flyttet til Jyllands vestkyst i Tranum men altid med den gennemgående caller nemlig Ross Howell.

De seneste år har vi arrangeret en række weekend events hvor berømte callere har callet udfordrene C dans for en masse entusiastiske C-dansere. Niveauerne har været C1 til C3B og af Callere kan nævnes Ross Howell, Ian McConnell, Thomas Bernhed, Dave Wilson, Bronc Wise og Christer Bern.

Aktuelle events kan findes under Arrangementer/events.

Klubben er lagt sammen med Midjysk Square Dance, har ansat Ebbe Steen Hansen som Caller/underviser og da vi arrangerer en del internationale events har vi ændret klubnavnet til Penguins Denmark. I forbindelse med sammenlægningen havde vi også Rounddance i klubben i en periode. Nu er vi en C3A klub med det privelegium at vi har hele 2 callere – Ebbe Sten Hansen og Hans Pitters.

Summerdance – Hele historien

Som omtalt blev kimen til rækken af sommerdanse lagt under en nytårsfest i Pløn i 2006/2007. Vi var ikke rigtig klar over hvad vi fik sat igang og der skulle en hel del hurtige beslutninger og økonomiske dispositioner til før vi var klar til at afholde vores første Summerdance i Stoholm i uge 29/2007. Dette arrangement var kun muligt med den store hjælp fra mennesker der senere skulle blive kendt som Penguins Denmark.Callerne var Ross Howell og Johnny Preston der gjorde et fantastisk arbejde med at calle C2 og C3A for de 41 deltagere. Vi fik mange positive tilbagemeldinger og således opmuntrede gik vi straks igang med at arrangere Summerdance 2008 – ligeledes med Ross og Johnny som callere men denne gang var det den officielt oprettede klub Penguins der stod bag arrangementet. Igen var det et super arrangement med 49 deltagere.

I 2009 besluttede vi at tilføje nye C1 dansere til arrangementet og hyrede Ross, Ian McConnell og Tony Collingwood der igen gjorde et fantastisk arbejde. Vi konstaterede at vi havde set rigtigt i at udvide dansen vi havde ikke mindre end 4 squares nye C1 dansere og det bragte antallet af dansere op på 81.

I 2010 fik vi en fantastisk mulighed for at flytte dansen til Tranum Strand hvor den hører til idag. Tranum Strand har en lang historie med squaredance og vi følte alle at det var som at komme hjem igen. Vi udvidede med en A1/A2 uge der gik over al forventning med 64 deltagere. I C-ugen deltog 101 så ialt 165 dansere nød godt af calling fra Ross Howell, Don Moger og Bronc Wise.

I 2011 havde vi 5 års jubilæum der blev fejret med en red- polo aften hvor alle incl. Callerene mødte op i en udleveret rød poloshirt med Penguins logo – en fantastisk aften som vi stadigvæk mindes når vi ser dansere og callere der bruger den rundt omkring til danse. Se billeder ved at klikke på dette link. Dette år havde vi også C3B på programmet og callerne var Ross Howell, Vic Ceder og Saundra Bryant.Det totale deltagerantal var 193

2012 blev året hvor vi igen havde C1 for nye dansere på programmet og det betød at vi løb tør for A dansere og besluttede derfor at Tranum 2013 bliver en ren C- event. Der var dette år 202 dansere der nød godt af calling fra Ross Howell, Ian McConnell, Barry Clasper, Bjørn Andersson and Johnny Preston.

I 2013 havde vi i første event normal C1 samt C2 for relativt nye dansere. Dette var et super arrangement med Saundra Bryant og Anne Ueberlacker som Callere. Vi prøvede af pladshensyn at danse i et telt, men dette var ikke optimalt da larmen fra vinden og varmen fra solen var for distraherende. Vi fandt dog med hjælp fra personalet en fin alternativ løsning indendørs. 2. Event var C2, C3A og C3B og callerne Ross Howell, Saundra Bryant og Anne Ueberlacker gjorde et godt stykke arbejde med at banke special calls og koncepter fra underlige positioner ind i hovederne af dansere. Dette var året hvor vi alle 165 deltagere rytmisk dansede til Blurred Lines som Sandie introducerede.

I 2014 dansede vi med stor glæde til Ross Howell, Vic Ceder og Ben Rubright. En af de helt store highlights var C3A undervisning og Improver, hvor de “stakkels” dansere blev guided igennem utallige calls og koncepter og endte med at danse fuld C3A med stor success. Vi var ca 210 dansere (lidt svæt at regne ud da der kom en del før tiden;-) Dette var også året hvor Ross fik en ny ven (Walter) der altid har en passende kommentar.

I 2015 havde vi Ross Howell, Thomas Bernhed og Todd Fellegy som callere som alle arbejdede hårdt men samtidigt nød de atmosfæren i Tranum. Programmet var denne gang med C2 teach/Improver samt C1, C2, C3A og C3B. Det blev den største event vi nogensinde har lavet med omkring 220 dansere fra rigtig mange nationer. Især var der en del fra USA og Canada. Ian var den oprindelige caller men da han desværre blev syg var der kun kort tid til at finde en passende erstatning. Heldigvis kunne Thomas Bernhed træde til og han gjorde et fantastisk godt arbejde – alle nød hans tekniske calling med fantastiske get-outs.

2016 bød på C1, C2 og C3B i første event og C2, C3A og C3B i anden. Vi havde oprindelig planlagt C4 i anden event men der var desværre ikke nok tilmeldte. Vores Callere var Ross Howell, Saundra Bryant og Darryl Lipscomb og det blev en fantastisk event med super dans og sædvanlig hygge. Der var omkring 200 dansere der nød godt af det gode vejr, vidunderlige omgivelser og det dejlige personale. Desværre døde chefen for stedet – Carsten Østergaard efter længere tids sygdom om søndagen – vi kommer til at savne dig Carsten!

2017 var første gang med ny leder af Tranum og det gik fantastisk godt – Marianne er en god efterfølger efter Carsten. Vi dansede på fuld speed til callerne Ross Howell, Vic Ceder og Barry Clasper og alle nød samværet og dansen. Der var mange tilmeldte selvom C1 niveauet er blevet megert lille – det er lidt bekymrende men vi ser hvad der sker fremover. Lige efter dansen nedbrændte Svinkløv Badehotel – og vi må så finde ud af hvor vi skal have vores velfortjente kaffe på fridagen ;-(

2018 – Ross Howell blev desværre forhindret i at deltage i Summerdance 2018 og i sidste øjeblik trådte Jürgen Löder til og gjorde et fantastisk indtryk, og sammen med Todd Fellegy og Saundra Bryant havde vi et super callerteam og en fantastisk dans med ca 160 deltagere der hyggede sig med challenge niveauerne C1 til C3B – der var 2 square C1 hvilket var tilfredsstillende men vi ville meget gerne have flere!

2019 var igen et fantastisk år hvor der var 182 besøgende – og det er helt klart at personalet er vant til os og ser frem til at se os alle igen. Sandie, Vic og Ross (der er kommet til Europa igen ???? gjorde et formidabelt arbejde og alle forlod Tranum med en følelse af at have haft en rigtig fornøjelig – men hård uge. Det ser ud til at C2 niveauet ikke kan bære 2 events så vi bliver sikkert nødt til at lave en ændring i programmet

2020: Her var det planlagt at Ross Howell, Jürgen Löder og Sue Curtis skulle komme og underholde os – men her kom Covid ivejen. For første gang blev vi nødt til at aflyse – og det gjorde vi med tungt hjerte!

2021: Med bankende hjerte fastholdt vi at vi ville gennemføre Summerdance 2021 under tag line: Summerdance is back!. Vi bestemte at uanset hvor mange tilmeldte der var så ville vi gennemføre for det er vigtigt at komme igang igen. Heldigvis kom der 97 dansere så vi kunne have en god dans. Uheldigvis blev Ross syg og måtte melde afbud. Og samtidig fortalte han os at han gik på pension og at han ikke kommer til Tranum mere. Det var vi meget kede af, men vil benytte lejligheden til at takke Ross for hans store arbejde med at gøre Tranum Summerdance til det store event det er idag. Heldigvis sprang Jesper Wilhelmsson til så vi havde en superdans med Jesper, Thomas Bernhed og Jürgen Löder. Alle tog quick-test inden ankomst til Tranum – og det lykkedes os at gennemføre uden et eneste tilfælde af Covid. 2022 var det år hvor der blev callet C4 for første gang.

2022: Vi er alle glade for Covid restriktionerne var fjernet, og vi kunne alle ånde frit igen. Vi havde Vic, Jürgen og Thomas som callere C1 til C4 for 143 glade dansere. Vi havde en fantastisk dans og vi følte virkelig at nu er vi helt på linie med tiden før Covid. Men – i anden periode blev vi ramt af et Covid-udbrud – og omkring 30 deltagere fik Covid under og efter vores event. Det beklager vi meget men vi er også klar over at vi ikke kunne have gjort noget for at forhindre det. Heldigvis er alle kommet godt igennem og vi er klar til næste år.

2023: Dette år var helt perfekt da vi ikke blev ramt af Covid – eller andre problemer. Vi havde det største antal C1 dansere nogensinde, hvilket er en fantastisk udvikling. Ligeledes ave vi 23 C4 dansere hvilket er det fleste fra Europa. Vic og Thomas er blevet vores House-callers og den tredie caller i år var Saundra Bryant. Alle 139 dansere havde en fantastisk uge.

2024: Her kommer Vic Ceder, Thomas Bernhed og Jürgen Löder og niveauerne er som sædvanligt C1 til C4

English Version

Penguins Denmark is based in Hinnerup Denmark and dances C3A on Wednesdays at Haldum Hinnerup School from 19.00 to 21.30. The dancers’ level ranges from C3A to C4. Caller/teachers are Ebbe Steen Hansen and Hans Pitters. Penguins actually started in 1998 when a group of people danced together in the club Midtjysk Square Dance, which was located in Skjød with Inge and Willy Hjort. Willy was able to make us understand the importance of knowing the definitions and in fact he gave us the key to a deeper understanding of the square dance. I’m sure we’re all born with the attitude that even though square dancing is a serious thing, the most important thing is to have fun. After dancing in various clubs for several years, an important event came that laid the foundation for the club name. At that time we danced C1 and came a little late to an A2 tip and formed a square, dancing C-style with hands down. The caller noticed this and said “look the Penguins are here” and hence the name. The next important event happened at Celebrationdance in Pløn in 2006/2007 where Ross Howell was persuaded to call an unplanned Summerdance in week 29 in Denmark. We therefore got busy finding a dance venue, dancers and an extra caller – we were lucky that Johnny Preston would be the second caller so we could hold our first Challenge C2 and C3A Summerdance which took place in Stoholm. Immediately after this dance, the club Penguins was officially established in the fall of 2007. Since then we have held a Summerdance every year – the first years in Stoholm, but since 2010 it has moved to the west coast of Jutland in Tranum, but always with the consistent caller, namely Ross Howell. In recent years, we have organized a number of weekend events where famous callers have called the challengers C dance for a lot of enthusiastic C dancers. The levels have been C1 to C3B and of Callere we can mention Ross Howell, Ian McConnell, Thomas Bernhed, Dave Wilson, Bronc Wise and Christer Bern. Current events can be found under Events/events. The club has merged with Midjysk Square Dance, has employed Ebbe Steen Hansen as Caller/Teacher and since we organize a number of international events, we have changed the club name to Penguins Denmark. In connection with the merger, we also had Rounddance in the club for a period. Now we are a C3A club with the privilege of having two callers – Ebbe Sten Hansen and Hans Pitters.

Summerdance – the history

Penguins Denmark -history in english. As mentioned the early start of the row of summerdances happened during a new year party in Ploen in 2006/2007. We did not realize what we had started and suddently had to make a lot of quick decisions and meet some financial challenges before we were ready with our first Summerdance in Stoholm week 29/2007. An achievement only possible because of the help from people who later should be known as Penguins Denmark. The callers were Ross Howell and Johnny Preston who did a fantastic job calling C2 and C3A for the 41 participants. We had a lot of positive feed back and immediately started the planning for Summerdance 2008 – again with Ross Howell and Johnny Preston as Callers, but this time with the official club Penguins as the arranging body. Again it was a fantastic event with 49 participants.

In 2009 we decided to add C1 for new dancers to the programme and Ross Howell, Ian McConnell and Tony Collingwood did a fantastic job. We concluded that the decision was correct as more than 4 squares of new C1 dancers enjoyed the event and this brought the total participants to 81

In 2010 we got a fantastic opportunity to move the dance to Tranum Strand where it belongs today. Tranum Strand has a long history with squaredance and we all had the feeling of coming home again. We extended the dance with an A1/A2 event which more than fullfilled the expectations with 64 participants. Together with the C-event’ 101 in total 165 dancers enjoyed the calling by Ross Howell, Don Moger and Bronc Wise .

In 2011 we celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a red-poloshirt evening, where everyone, including the callers showed up in a red poloshirt with Penguins logo – a fantastic evening we still remember when we meet dancers and callers wearing it around the world. See pictures by clicking here This year we had C3B on the programm for the first time and the callers were Ross Howell, Vic Ceder and Saundra Bryant. The total number of participants were 193.

2012 was the year where we again had C1 for new dancers on the programme which resulted in a lack of A dancers and we therefore decided that Tranum should continue with only Challenge on the programme. In 2012 we had 202 participants enjoying the calling from Ross Howell, Ian McConnell, Barry Clasper, Bjørn Andersson and Johnny Preston.

In 2013 we had in the first event normal C1 and C2 for relatively new dancers. It was a super event with Saundra Bryant and Anne Ueberlacker as Callers. Due to dance space we tried to dance in a big tent which was not an optimal solution as the noise from the wind and the heat from the sun was too distracting. Assisted by the staff we managed to find a fine alternative indoor solution.  In the 2. Event we danced C2, C3A and C3B to the Callers Ross Howell, Saundra Bryant and Anne Ueberlacker who all did a great job in pounding special calls and concepts from weird positions into the heads of the dancers. 2013 was the year where 165 dancers danced to the great rythms of Blurred Lines introduced by Sandie.

I 2014 we dances with great fun to Ross Howell, Vic Ceder and Ben Rubright. One of the great highlights were the C3A Teach and Improver, where the “poor” dancers were guided through numerous calls and concepts, and ended up dancing full C3A with grea success. We were approx. 210 dancers (a bit difficult to count as a lot showed up before the start. Ross got a friend (Walter) who always had a suitable comment;-)  

I 2015 we had Ross Howell, Thomas Bernhed and Todd Fellegy as callers, and they all worked hard, but also enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere in Tranum. The programme was this time C2 teach/Improver and C1, C2, C3A and C3B. It became the biggest we have arranged with approx. 220 dancers from many different nations. Especially US and Canada was represented with a lot of dancers. Ian was the original caller but unfortunately he became ill short before the ecent and we had only short time to find a suitable replacement. Fortunately Thomas Bernhed agreed to call and he did a fantastic job – all dancers enjoyed his technical calling with surpricing get-outs.

2016 had C1, C2 og C3B in first event and C2, C3A og C3B in second. Originally we had planned C4 but unfortunately there were not enough dancers registered and we therefore replaced the C4 with extra C2 and that filled up the place – approx. 200 dancers enjoyed fantastic dancing, nice weather and the wonderful staff. Unfortunately the manager – Carsten Østergaard died on the Sunday – we will always miss you Carsten!

2017 was first time with new manager at Tranum and it went very well – Marianne is a good successor for Carsten. We danced full speed to the callers Ross Howell, Vic Ceder and Barry Clasper and enjoyed the dance and beeing together with friends. We had many participants even the C1 level is becoming very small – a bit worrying but lets see how 2018 goes.

2018 – Ross Howell were unfortunately not able to make it to Europe to Summerdance 2018 and in last moment Jürgen Löder accepted to come and he did a fantastic job,and together with Todd Fellegy and Saundra Bryant we had a super callerteam and a fantastic dance with approx. 160 participants who had a nice time with the challenge levels C1 to C3B – we had  2 squares of C1 which is satisfactory but we would have liked to have more!

2019 – again a fantastic year with 182 participants – and it was obvious that the staff at Tranum are used to us and were looking forward to seeing us again. Sandie, Vic and Ross (who managed to get to Europe again 😉 did a great job and everuone left Tranum with a feeling of a fun – but tough week. The C2 level is decreasing very rapidly and looks as if we need to make a change.

2020: Here it was planned that Ross Howell, Jürgen Löder and Sue Curtis should come and entertain us – but here Covid got in the way. For the first time we had to cancel – and we did so with a heavy heart

2021: With beating hearts, we decided that we would go through with Summerdance 2021 under the tag line: Summerdance is back!. We decided that regardless of how many registered there were, we would carry it out because it is important to get started again. Fortunately, 97 dancers came so we could have a good dance. Unfortunately, Ross fell ill and had to cancel. And at the same time he told us that he retired and that he will not come to Tranum anymore. We were very sad about that, but would like to take this opportunity to thank Ross for his great work in making Tranum Summerdance the great event it is today. Fortunately, Jesper Wilhelmsson jumped in, so we had a super dance with Jesper, Thomas Bernhed and Jürgen Löder. Everyone took a quick test before arriving at Tranum – and we managed to complete it without a single case of Covid. 2022 was the year C4 was called for the first time in Denmark.

2022: We are all happy that the Covid restrictions were lifted and we could all breathe freely again. We had Vic, Jürgen and Thomas as callers C1 to C4 for 143 happy dancers. We had a fantastic dance and we really felt that now we are completely in line with the time before Covid. But – in the second period we were hit by a Covid outbreak – and around 30 participants got Covid during and after our event. We are very sorry for that, but we are also aware that we could not have done anything to prevent it. Fortunately, everyone has come through well and we are ready for next year.

2023: This year was absolutely perfect as we were not affected by Covid – or other problems. We had the largest number of C1 dancers ever, which is a fantastic development. We also have 23 C4 dancers, which is the majority of C4 dancers in Europe. Vic and Thomas have become our House-callers and the third caller this year was Saundra Bryant. All 139 dancers had a great week.

2024: Here comes Vic Ceder, Thomas Bernhed and Jürgen Löder and the levels are as usual C1 to C4