Geoffrey Fells Perpetual Standard "A" Trophy

In the mid 1970's the United States Imperial Society, under my Chairmanship, encouraged and helped develop what was then known as USABDA (United Sates Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association) into a more diverse and open organization rather than the close knit group that already existed only in Manhattan, NY. This organization is now known as USADance.


At that time I personally encouraged many students in the Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia area to form a local chapter of USABDA, which became the Mid Eastern Chapter and in appreciation of my help the late Raynard Freidig, one of the Directors, donated a perpetual trophy, in my name.

Raynard Freidig was an amateur student at Danceland II Studio in Washington DC and took lessons from Glenis Dee and me. He also lived in Honolulu for a short time and was instrumental, with the help of Roger and Patsy Izumigawa, in forming what is now the Honolulu Chapter of USADance.

The Mid-Eastern Chapter at its Fall Festival first presented this Trophy known as the “Geoffrey Fells Trophy” in 1979 and continued until 2001.

Beginning in 2002 the Chapter began presenting the Trophy to the winners of the Amateur Adult “A” Standard Championship held at the Yuletide Ball organized by one of my former business partners, Mr. Ron Bennett. This event is held every year around the New Year and will be held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington DC on Saturday evening January 2nd 2010.
It is truly amazing that the Trophy is still in existence and I am honored that it is so.
Although I cannot attend (because of my upcoming knee surgery) I will be donating a $300 Scholarship to this year’s Winners.

Previous Amateur winners include: -

1979 Ronald and Valerie Ford (Ronald is now professional in Chicago).
1981 Peter Pover and Yoshie Fagan (Peter was until recently USADance President).
1982/83 Dan Radler and Suzanne Hamby (both now successful professionals in Boston).
1984 and 1986 Stanley and Jennifer McCalla (now judges and professionals in NY).
1988/89/90 Steven and Annemarie Dougherty (Steven became an American Smooth Champion, won at Hawai‘i Star Ball in 2007, and is co-owner with John DePalma of a studio in Stamford CT).
1992 Thomas Keller and Evelyn Lafferty (Thomas and Evelyn were 5th placed finalists at the Senior Amateur International Championships in London last month).
1993 Peter Collins and Amy Cousins (Peter and Amy are now Professionals and Peter is the DJ at the Yuletide Ball)
1994/95/96/97 Hamid Taba and Tammy Droddy. (They are now both professionals in the DC area and recently performed Tango at the White House together with two other couples)

Geoffrey M. Fells
gmfells@msn.com