30 years of IDO World Tap dance Championships
We all love the Swiss productions where tap dancers from all over Switzerland performed and competed together. In the first years Fabrice choreographed them all until the younger Swiss generation stepped in and they shared their knowledge and enchanting talent - still winning many Production World Cups. Daniel Borak tells this very nicely in the next lines. Fabrice has won so many titles as a dancer in, solo male, duo, trio, small group. But including 2010 he never won the golden formation title. In 2011 his formation performed a story with French content and it is characteristic of Fabrice: if you perform a story you must accompany this also as an actor from the moment you climb up on the stage and until you are off. When I finally read the placing of the Open Marking knowing the so-called Skating System very well I saw immediately his formation was the clear winner. By chance he was standing rather close to me on the stage, and at the same time after I read the rankings he smiled at me saying in a typical French accent: “Oh lala Monsieur Wendt - oh lala……” - we both knew he had won. And despite my self-understanding neutrality to all competitors and participating countries in my heart I felt so happy for him personally. Ket me end with a very typical sentence about Fabrice, by our dear colleague and friend from Zagreb, Croatia, Mrs. Jasminka Zajec: “ I also love to come to Riesa ea ch year just to see what is new from Fabrice this year….”. There is nothing to add! I have asked some also outstanding Swiss tap dancers from Riesa who competed with Fabrice in many different performances for some additional words: Daniel Borak, Shyrleen Müller and Dorel & Costel Surbeck, Message by Mr. Daniel Borak My first participation at the IDO Tap Dance World Championships in Riesa was in the year 2000 - I was 11 years old. That year I presented my first solo in the children's category - and Fabrice Martin presented his last one as a solo dancer. Sitting in the audience and witnessing his final solo-round was an incredible experience: It touched me so much - I felt a thousand explosions of excitement inside of me - it was like dynamite. After he finished, the whole audience - spectators from all around the world - jumped up on their feet and gave him a huge applause. When we received the VHS-tape with the recording of that performance, I watched his solo every day and showed it to everybody. I watched it so many times that I broke the tape. Fabrice became my first Tap Dance Super Hero. In the years after I had the great chance to work with him many times for all kinds of projects and we became good friends. I learned so much from him by just observing him and watching all of his great work. The most impactful life-lessons I got from him were during our collaborations for the production-pieces for Riesa. Only with Fabrice it is possible to create an 8-minute production piece on the spot - in less than three days, with more than 80 students from many different tap dance schools in Switzerland (some speak German, some French - Fabrice only speaks French), without having the music, the choreography or the costumes ready - and on also top: to finally win in Riesa. In my opinion, this is his secret: Everything that Fabrice does - he does it with full involvement, dedication, devotion, joy and with his full heart. He gives everything he has, he tries to share that with everybody in the room and also tries to include everyone. He's able to teach countless classes at his school, loads his huge tap dance floor and all the props into his van late at night after his last class, drives overnight to a theatre far away, sleeps for two hours, unloads and sets up everything, rehearses with his company the whole day, performs in the evening, wraps up
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