Moulin Rouge

[bigdjiver]

Hipsters was just one of the places I wanted to be on Friday night. The other one I actually attended, was the Moulin Rouge fun night at Daventry.

Wow!

In fact triple Wow!

Great cabaret performances, fun (and usable), lessons, and lots of great dancers.

I suggest other venues, especially in the Midlands, put on nights with that theme. All the fruits of all that rehearsal and the work put into the superb costumes deserves a wider audience.

BTW A welcome first, something I had not seen before, someone leading from a wheelchair.

[DavidY]

I also went to Daventry and I agree it was a top night, with lots of great dancers :drool: (and alot of them dressed to suit the night as well)

With both Daventry on Friday & Gus' dance on Saturday I've had a great weekend's dancing! :D :D

(I suspect LL and the rest of them probably had a good time at Rebel Yell too...)

[Lounge Lizard]

Originally posted by DavidY

(I suspect LL and the rest of them probably had a good time at Rebel Yell too...)
Yes it was another fantastic event, full marks to Katy, the cabaret's had enough new ideas to keep the average teacher going for months.
Me-thinks some of the moves WILL be featured in our Camber class in November.:wink:

[Minnie M]

Originally posted by DavidY
I also went to Daventry and I agree it was a top night, with lots of great dancers :drool: (and alot of them dressed to suit the night as well)

With both Daventry on Friday & Gus' dance on Saturday I've had a great weekend's dancing! :D :D

(I suspect LL and the rest of them probably had a good time at Rebel Yell too...)

Me thinks :confused: Hipsters - disappointing :sad: but good all the same

Rebel Yell - fanastic :grin: BUT the dancers were locals, the 'North of Watford' crew were not there AND missed :sad: but now I know where they all were, so I can't say they missed a great night cors they had one

thanks LL the music in the Swing/Blues room was awesum

(sorry about my spelling - but mice never did learn to spell)

[Bill]

Originally posted by bigdjiver

BTW A welcome first, something I had not seen before, someone leading from a wheelchair.

We had a young lad at our club a few years ago who was ina wheelchair and he managed pretty well. He didn't come for too long but long enough to be able to show that it can be done.

And around the same time we had a woman who was blind and who jived when she was younger and she followed very well.

[Minnie M]

Originally posted by bigdjiver
BTW A welcome first, something I had not seen before, someone leading from a wheelchair.

We have a wheelchair jiver in Brighton -

I had a dance with him, being quite short it was OK. Most of the moves where ok, as he had good control of the wheels catching me on the turns - however, the basket proved a problem as he pull me in too fast and instead of stopping when he caught me I continued going backwards, until he shouted STOP I'M GETTING GIDDY

So ladies if you do get to dance with a wheelchair dancer, you must do quite a bit of 'back leading' to help him control the wheels

SUMMARY
It was fun BUT he did take up quite a bit of room and people did keep bumping and tripping over the chair

Whilst on the subject - Le Jive UK championships about 1997 (sheepman might remember) the one NOT in the Hammersmith Palais there was a blind dance and he got into the finals, I had a dance with him after and he was fantastic, never missed a move ! I haven't seen him since :tears:

[bigdjiver]

Wheelcair man did take up a bit of room, but, since he danced less often was probably less than his share. Since I had missed very few dances I was probably far more guilty of space gluttony overall. I was, howver, a trifle annoyed by people who invaded the dance floor to stand and chat. Fortunately they were few and seldom.

I have seen a blind man leading a few times at Ashtons in Cricklewood . He was a better dancer than I. He was a bit player in the one time I have seen a Ceroc class collapse.

Some newbie ladies refused to give up their partner and move on to sit out. The leader did not spot this. The back end of the class became saturated with ladies discussing the matter, so the seats remained empty. At the same time a couple of men arrived.

Suddenly it was men moving on. So some men moved on. Some ladies dancing as men moved on. Some ladies dancing as ladies moved on too, from force of habit. Some of the ladies who had missed a few turns due to the dispute at the far end tried to join the fray. In the middle of this chaos a few people were trying to guide the blind guy, but since they all had different ideas on what was happening it was rather futile. The teacher gave up, abandoned the class, which was just about finishing anyway, and told us to start freestyle.

[Andy McGregor]

Originally posted by Bill
We had a young lad at our club a few years ago who was ina wheelchair and he managed pretty well. He didn't come for too long but long enough to be able to show that it can be done.

And around the same time we had a woman who was blind and who jived when she was younger and she followed very well.

A few years ago we had a deaf woman come to Horsham Ceroc. She said that so long as we danced near the speakers she could feel the beat in her stomach muscles. The good news, for her, was that she couldn't hear the rubbish I usually whisper in my partners ears - the bad news, for me, was that, if she could see you, she could lip read what you said no matter how loud the music was:blush:

[Sheepman]

Originally posted by Minnie M
We have a wheelchair jiver in Brighton -
Whilst on the subject - Le Jive UK championships about 1997 (sheepman might remember) the one NOT in the Hammersmith Palais there was a blind dance and he got into the finals, I had a dance with him after and he was fantastic, never missed a move ! I don't recall that, but there was a lovely lady on the Surrey dance scene who went blind. I didn't know that, when I asked her at a very dark venue if she "minded if we went up to the front in the light?" As might be expected, going blind was a huge blow to her confidence, but she could still manage to follow. She was very young, but, sadly she is no longer with us.

Tough enough to follow when you're blind, but what about leading, and HOW do you learn the moves at a normal class?

Greg