Remember back when you were in primary school and you went on school camp. You and your best buddies would share a cabin together, the whole school would meet for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the mess hall, there were activities planned all day to keep you active, there would be party at night where you could all let loose and dance the night away and at the end of the night there would be trays of Arnott’s biscuits and hot chocolate to send you off to bed with – well, this is what the DouDoule Latin Dance Camp was like – only there were no teachers to tell you off for sneaking around late at night.

The DouDoule Latin Dance Camp, was the perfect combination of holidaying, dancing and partying. The beautiful city of the Gold Coast, Queensland was the host of the DouDuoule Camp. The event was held during the 8th-10th of May. This was the 2nd year of the event, and we were told by the organizer that the event doubled up in size from last year’s event. We wonder how big is going to be this event in 2010 then?

Jean-Luc Lambs, a famous promoter in Brisbane, is the man responsible of such a successful event. Being a very charismatic person. Jean-Luc was an extremely entertaining and welcoming host. We are pretty sure that Jean-Luc didn’t sleep a wink during the whole weekend as his main focus was to ensure that all campers had a great weekend and that the event ran to schedule.

The price of the event included the accommodation, workshops, entry to the parties, as well as the meals, drinks and snacks. But with it being a camp environment, you should not expect top quality food. But hey! It was a bargain for the services received and the price you pay.

The event had a strong support from Salseros, Bachateros and Zoukeros. Dancers from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, even from Perth, and of course, the Queensland dancers were present at the camp. The event had international representatives from New Zealand as well.

The dance workshops had the right combination of Salsa, Salsa on2, Zouk, Bachata and other rhythms as well. The Cha-Cha workshop taught by Giancarlo and Masha from Latinissimo had a hall full of dancers, but the workshop everybody enjoyed and talked the most was the Bachata workshop taught by Nestor Manuelian from Modus Vivendi, that pretty much had the whole camp attending. Dancing Bachata at the beach, of course! Such a great idea! Next year the event should have more Bachata workshops.

The shows were phenomenal! The top dancers from Australia were present, Oliver and Luda, Kadu and Larisa, Modus Vivendi and LDA to name a few. The parties were also great, as the DJs played a good selection of Salsa, Bachata and Zouk. And if you were getting too tired of dancing, you can easily stroll out to the beach, which is what everybody did on the last night of the camp. After the Saturday night “Gangster and Hommie” party, everybody went to the beach and partied ‘till early hours of the morning. The only problem was that after a long night of party, we were woken up by a drumming workshop at 10am!

If you plan on going for a holiday and still want to maintain your salsa addiction, then you should go to the DouDoule Latin Dance Camp. Spending time with friends, meeting new salseros, dancing ‘till late hours of the night, learning from top instructors, eating together with the 300+ attendees and going for a swim at the beach are enough reasons for you to go to this camp.

We congratulate Jean-Luc and his team for a successful and well ran event. We are looking forward for next year’s event.

Bachateros highly recommend this event!

“This one time, at the dance Camp…” (sshhh – what happens at dance camp stays at dance camp)