Members from top: Michael Rennie, Elizabeth Curtis, Erin Pick, Enio Cordoba, Bret Welshymer, Jacqui Dorsey, Kerry Clark, Randy Sherman, Martin Kubota, Caron Waldron, MaryAnn Ziegler, Chuck Stanislawski, Dan Gurule, Suzi Stone, Debra Hinze, Larry Young, Rose Stanley, Mark Edgeworth; Coaches: Ron Montez & Carol Montez-Bressan, Roy Mavor
For a bunch of “big city” kids from LA, I don’t think any of us were ready for New York City. Most of the members had never been to New York before and since coaches Ron & Carol were about to compete for the US Professional title, we were kind of on our own. The event was being held at the beautiful Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and we were staying at a less ritzier place down the street. New York in 1977 was not exactly the shiny city we know today, in those days the rats were running back and forth across the sidewalks to the trash dumped nightly in the gutters.
Our 5 dance Latin medley was rehearsed and had been choreographed by the great Roy Mavor. The beautiful ballroom with it’s opera style balconies was a great place to earn our very first US Formation Championship gold medal!
With the school year about to start many of the members had to hustle back to LA but did have a day to see a Broadway show or two (Pippin, Mummenschanz). We all went to celebrate at the famous Stage Deli on 7th Avenue, just two blocks from Carnegie Hall, and most did manage to check out the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.
