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Bigger Andy
30th-November-2004, 02:17 PM
Everyone seems to be watching 'Strictly Come Dancing' with some forumites even managing to get tickets to attend a show.

However, having watched all the shows, has anyone started using moves learnt from watching the programme and incorporating them into their Modern Jive repertoire ?

If so, which moves do you do and what modifications have you had to make in order to incorporate them ?

Andy McGregor
30th-November-2004, 02:49 PM
Good topic for a thread :clap:

From my own point of view I've been watching what the guys do with their free hand. Most MJers just leave their free hand 'poised' for the next pick up so it looks like it's just hanging there. Some guys rest their free hand on their belly or tuck it behind their back or even put it on their hip. At best those things look like you'd rather not have a free hand at all and you're just doing something to keep it tidy, I do all of those things myself and have been looking for something a bit more stylish to do with my other hand. So I've been copying Anton and Co - I feel really self-conscious about it at the moment, and not a little camp :wink:

MartinHarper
30th-November-2004, 02:57 PM
I feel more comfortable solo dancing while I wait for my partner to navigate her way onto the floor, having seen the SCD folks do similar stuff.

jivecat
30th-November-2004, 02:59 PM
Oh, dunno. Fling my arms about with gay abandon a bit more, perhaps.

Watch the solo bits those awesome professional ladies do very carefully, so that the next time a guy pushes me away from him saying "Your turn now," "Do your thing," or "Strut it, babe", (I'm afraid it does happen) I'll have more idea of available options. Apart from a swift kick to his kneecap, that is.

Get more frocks.

Lou
30th-November-2004, 03:00 PM
Fwiw, there's a thread on the Bristol Forum (http://www.forum.leroc-in-bristol.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Rvw_Mon_Clifton;action=display;num= 1101814376) where John Eastman posted the moves he taught last night - including the rather tasty sounding "Anton's Seducer (borrowed from Strictly come dancing)"... :yum:

SilverFox
30th-November-2004, 03:22 PM
I feel more comfortable solo dancing while I wait for my partner to navigate her way onto the floor, having seen the SCD folks do similar stuff.I've been told that you should never walk off on to the dance floor on your own, leaving your partner to find her own way.

In fact only a couple of weeks ago I learnt this lesson at Camber in the Blues room....the hard way. :tears:

After asking a certain Forumite for a dance I strutted off to the floor shaking it a little - as one does - assuming that she was right behind me. I then started to dance and spun around, only to discover that she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I was met with about 10 people who were seated just laughing at me. :blush: :blush:

She was hiding behind the pillar .... grinning. :D I was out on my own ....dying. :sick: :tears:

Bigger Andy
8th-December-2004, 02:10 PM
Based on the activity in the 'Strictly Come Dancing' related threads, it is a popular programme.

I'm surprised by the small number of replies in this thread.

Do you all watch the programme without even considering whether you can incorporate the moves that you see into your Modern Jive repertoire ?

Trish
8th-December-2004, 04:55 PM
Based on the activity in the 'Strictly Come Dancing' related threads, it is a popular programme.

I'm surprised by the small number of replies in this thread.

Do you all watch the programme without even considering whether you can incorporate the moves that you see into your Modern Jive repertoire ?

No, I've definitely thought about it, but the problem is the moves often go by in a flash, so it's difficult to pick up the specifics.

I've with Jivecat, more of a general thing than specifics. It's the arms/fingers/placing of the feets etc that I'd rather copy. It does make you think about what you tend to do yourself. And just because I love watching it, doesn't necessarily mean I could do it (not without several hours with Darren Bennett/Anton Du Beke anyway :yum: )

Trish

Lynn
8th-December-2004, 05:00 PM
No, I've definitely thought about it, but the problem is the moves often go by in a flash, so it's difficult to pick up the specifics. :yeah: :tears:


I've with Jivecat, more of a general thing than specifics. It's the arms/fingers/placing of the feets etc that I'd rather copy. It does make you think about what you tend to do yourself. :yeah:


And just because I love watching it, doesn't necessarily mean I could do it (not without several hours with Darren Bennett/Anton Du Beke anyway :yum: ) I wish.... :drool:

Graham W
8th-December-2004, 05:05 PM
Fwiw, there's a thread on the Bristol Forum (http://www.forum.leroc-in-bristol.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Rvw_Mon_Clifton;action=display;num= 1101814376) where John Eastman posted the moves he taught last night - including the rather tasty sounding "Anton's Seducer (borrowed from Strictly come dancing)"... :yum:

- my fav class earlier in the year was a SCD one !! me and Easter Bunny used some moves from series 1 including a hand swap ribbon drop move (triple), a sort of rotating swing out and the chunga wunga (okay that one I made up)

G

Gareth
8th-December-2004, 06:38 PM
- my fav class earlier in the year was a SCD one !!

Where was that Graham?

Lou
8th-December-2004, 06:52 PM
Where was that Graham?

:whistle: Someone's fishin' for a compliment... :rofl:

Daisy Chain
8th-December-2004, 08:38 PM
Do you all watch the programme without even considering whether you can incorporate the moves that you see into your Modern Jive repertoire ?

No. I'm afraid I've been too busy sitting on the sofa with Jivecat lusting after Lilia's frocks.

But I have been admiring various familiar drops, seducers, kicks etc whilst thinking "Why are they doing Ceroc moves in the rumba/samba/cha-cha etc? :whistle:

I'll get my coat

Daisy Chain

(A Shallow Little Flower)

Gojive
8th-December-2004, 09:11 PM
No. I'm afraid I've been too busy sitting on the sofa with Jivecat lusting after Lilia's frocks.

OK, I'll be the first to say it....some of us have just been sitting on the sofa lusting after Lilia! :drool: :wink: ouch! only joking T!! (punch from my g/f who probably won't read any other thread in this forum, but instinct will draw her to this one :wink: :blush: )

I've been incorporating a move from the last series of SCD, taught by Gordon & Sally at MJC this year, into my routine for a while now....I think Gordon called it the "Rhumba Steps"?.

I've taped a lot of this comp, and will be watching it countless times until the next series, in the vain hope of introducing something else new and exciting into my "oh no, here comes another Hallelulah" stunning repertoire :D

Gareth
9th-December-2004, 01:04 AM
Someone's fishin' for a compliment...

Was it that obvious..................... :rofl:

Dazzle
9th-December-2004, 02:55 AM
Rather than strictly take a move or action from the programme, I have tried to incorporate aspects of the moves, either arms or legs or hands. I have already seen many of the moves done in competition, the Jivemasters in particular. I think you can draw inspiration from lots of different dancing sources as Marc's Hip-Hop Workshop at Ribby showed. :clap:

I have found myself watching the Strictly Dancing DVD starring the winners of the first series. I hope to assimilate some moves from here to use in Modern Jive in the future anyway. :flower:

bigdjiver
9th-December-2004, 09:41 AM
I am always trying new moves from anywhere, and SCD is no exception.

Sheepman
9th-December-2004, 12:52 PM
I am always trying new moves from anywhere, and SCD is no exception. :yeah:
And there are the times while watching and I think, "Hey, that's one of my moves! How did they get hold of that?" Then I remember there isn't much that hasn't be done before, just because I've not previously come across it...

Greg

bigdjiver
9th-December-2004, 03:36 PM
:yeah:
And there are the times while watching and I think, "Hey, that's one of my moves! How did they get hold of that?" Then I remember there isn't much that hasn't be done before, just because I've not previously come across it...

Greg
Sore point. :sad: I went to a former haunt, St Neots Tuesday, looking forward to dancing with old friends and showing off my latest invented joke move, to be used once only per partner. Late on I got the reponse "was that part of the lesson, its the third time someone has done that tonight". My own fault for trying it first on a teacher in a maximum exposure spot. Oh, well, imitation is ... blah, blah (looking for smiley bearing weapon)

Debster
9th-December-2004, 07:03 PM
No, I've definitely thought about it, but the problem is the moves often go by in a flash, so it's difficult to pick up the specifics.
You mean you don't tape every episode and study them over and over? :confused: Isn't stealing dance moves the reason why VCRs and slow replay were invented?! ;) Yes, I have been picking up some SCD moves.... (although their real origin is another question of course)... even picked up a move from very cheekily watching someone's ballroom latin practise the other night. Love it!



.... And just because I love watching it, doesn't necessarily mean I could do it (not without several hours with Darren Bennett/Anton Du Beke anyway :yum: )

And from "Deb-can't-help-telling-you-how-I-knew-them-before-they-were-famous": several hours with Darren and Anton (and Lilia) isn't enough. Tried it. (More than a few hours too!) They are on another dancing planet I can only dream of.:worthy: But HECK - it WAS FANTASTIC! :drool: :drool: :clap:

Debster
9th-December-2004, 07:14 PM
Sore point. :sad: I went to a former haunt, St Neots Tuesday, looking forward to dancing with old friends and showing off my latest invented joke move, to be used once only per partner. Late on I got the reponse "was that part of the lesson, its the third time someone has done that tonight". My own fault for trying it first on a teacher in a maximum exposure spot. Oh, well, imitation is ... blah, blah (looking for smiley bearing weapon)
Nothing will stop anyone from trying to copy moves...
The trick is to be better at it than the people copying you can hope to be... that is what makes it "yours". ;)

e.g. I recently attended a class here (NZ) where a lot of the moves seemed really familiar and then the teacher told me that he got them all from a video of the Tramp and I at Jive Masters... the imitation was so poor even I didn't fully recognise them... but it was still 'flattering' in a way, and wouldn't stop me from looking at other Jive Masters with a similar eye.

Trish
13th-December-2004, 03:15 PM
You mean you don't tape every episode and study them over and over? :confused: Isn't stealing dance moves the reason why VCRs and slow replay were invented?! ;) Yes, I have been picking up some SCD moves.... (although their real origin is another question of course)... even picked up a move from very cheekily watching someone's ballroom latin practise the other night. Love it!



And from "Deb-can't-help-telling-you-how-I-knew-them-before-they-were-famous": several hours with Darren and Anton (and Lilia) isn't enough. Tried it. (More than a few hours too!) They are on another dancing planet I can only dream of.:worthy: But HECK - it WAS FANTASTIC! :drool: :drool: :clap:

Lucky you!!!! Sounds great!

I have recorded the final and the semi final, so yes I might see if there are any moves I can work out in slow motion and try out on the Peterborough girls. I've already nicked one or two very graceful arm/hand things! The best bits are the lifts and drops though, and as a girl I find it much more fun being dropped than dropping someone else, so I'll have to wait till some of the guys work these out!

Chef
13th-December-2004, 04:04 PM
I have taped just about every dance show (SCD included) that I have seen coming onto the TV for about 4 years now (ballroom, ballet, contempary). There always comes a point where you stop being overawed by a dance move or style and gain the required basic skills to make an attempt at doing a particular move. So even if you don’t think you can do something at the time the video becomes a useful resource later on when your skills improve.

I fell in love with a show called “Burn the Floor” a number of years ago and it, and my girlfriend, prompted me to start learning ballroom and latin American dancing (Anton Du Beke teaches me on a Tuesday at Sevenoaks). Not everything is directly transferable to MJ but the style and precision of training are. The different dances have different characters in the way that you use your arms, legs and heads and this is to reflect the different characters of the music. It has taught me that dance should be driven by the music and not the other way around. Now I cringe when I see people performing drops while dancing to “call on me” (what musicality that track has evades me) or trying to MJ to Reggae. It drives me crazy seeing people arm jive to tango music. Still that’s just me. A dance has to feel good AND look good. Being young and beautiful would be a major help to me (sigh).

I love the style of Bob Fosse and made sure of recording the series “Musicality” and so was delighted when the finalists had the chance to appear in “Chicago”. I found it illuminating seeing the character of Velma Kelly being trained to splay her fingers out when doing a particular action. It was true that it looked much better than keeping the fingers closed. I loved seeing them being trained to do daily dancing drills so that basic skills become and stay ingrained in them. It showed me once again that the devil is in the detail, my dancing journey is far from the end, and how wonderful dance can be.

SCD is only one place to pick up dance move inspiration. I do think that if you only look for the moves you have missed most of what there is to learn. I liked the weekday reports from the training rooms because they showed different peoples attitudes. There was a big story that “Jill is a trained dancer” and this was just not true. She did ballet lessons when a kid and that may have taught her something. The body language expert nailed the reason for her success. She turned up for work, listened to the teacher, and just got on and did it. She did not waste her time saying that she was never going to be a dancer etc, or being aloof and resistant like Julian. Some of the contestants got this part way through the training but that was too late because Jill had it from day one and would always be five weeks ahead of them.

As for your moves being instantly taken up by others I can say it only seems fair since we have all nicked them from somewhere else so it has got to be done you. I had once done an airstep that I seen in “burn the floor” and adapted to make it easier and it had become a feature of our dancing. One night I slipped and grabbed my partners hand to protect her from my falling and she seemed to naturally exit the move in quite a nice way. It was just a mistake that happened to work. We started to use it a lot (not the slipping over bit) and then I suddenly saw Trampy use it in competition at Blackpool. Funny how these things get about.

The take home message is that everything from every dance style is fair game (or hip hop routines wouldn’t win MJ comps) but there is much more to learn from other dance styles than just the moves.

bigdjiver
13th-December-2004, 04:08 PM
... The best bits are the lifts and drops though, and as a girl I find it much more fun being dropped than dropping someone else, so I'll have to wait till some of the guys work these out! I have been trying to persuade some partners to try these, but my communication skills are not up to it. I think we need a lesson in common or joint access to a video.

Jayne
13th-December-2004, 06:21 PM
I loved seeing them being trained to do daily dancing drills so that basic skills become and stay ingrained in them. It showed me once again that the devil is in the detail, my dancing journey is far from the end, and how wonderful dance can be.
This has definitely been my take home message from everything I've learned (or try to learn) over the last year.

I thought it was interesting what a difference practice makes. In both SCD series I noticed it was the couple who complained of little rehearsal time who got knocked out - for example Paul Killick & his partner in the first series with their paso; Anton & Esther the week she was on a cruise; Sarah & Brendon the week she was busy filming.... Whereas Jill & Darren did far more practice than the other couples (so I believe, anyway) and it showed in her dancing, particularly the details of the hand flourishes and the way she used her feet. :worthy:

I take my hat off to the 1% of dancers who are naturally very talented and make everything look effortless - the rest of us have to slog it out the hard way. :rolleyes: But what a rewarding path that can be! :clap:

J :flower:

Chicklet
13th-December-2004, 06:43 PM
(Anton Du Beke teaches me on a Tuesday at Sevenoaks).
..
just nosey - have you ever heard him express an view on MJ??

Trish
14th-December-2004, 11:27 AM
I have been trying to persuade some partners to try these, but my communication skills are not up to it. I think we need a lesson in common or joint access to a video.

I'm willing to give it a go if you are BigD, are you at St Neots on the 17th? If so we can try some out then if you like!

Trish

Chef
14th-December-2004, 12:31 PM
just nosey - have you ever heard him express an view on MJ??


I have never heard Anton express a view about MJ or any other dance form. The subject just has never come up.

I did once try getting my other B&L teachers teamed up with the RockBottoms crowd because I thought that they had something to bring to the MJ scene in terms of styling and movement styles. It didn’t work out but I had lent them a DVD of a RockBottoms weekend and they passed it onto a lady called Lesley Dodds (the trainer of the south of England latin formation team). When I finally caught up with her and asked her what her thoughts were about it, she paused for a while and said that it looked like fun. That was all she said. Since the DVD featured an Amir and Kate and a Will and Kate cabaret I took her pause to find the right word and lack of further interest as being damming of MJ with faint praise.

Having been to latin American competitions I can see her point. The precision and timing of the dancers is incredible even for the formation team of 10 year olds that I have seen at the small local events. They train their posture, arms and steps as a complete item from the very first encounter and so do not do the MJ thing of learning the steps, then the timing, and then try to add styling. They also put way more effort into the costumes and their presentation than MJ event in the social dances. They also have to master the steps, timing and styling for at least 8 different dances while MJ will expect you to do MJ to rumba, cha cha, disco, rock and roll, hip hop, and tango music.

bigdjiver
14th-December-2004, 02:04 PM
I'm willing to give it a go if you are BigD, are you at St Neots on the 17th? If so we can try some out then if you like!

Trish I intend to be there. PM will follow

bigdjiver
15th-December-2004, 01:28 PM
I looked at the video of the final. Most of the lifts are what I call whirl-arounds, and are part of my normal freestyle. However there was one when Jill was lifted by Darren onto his shoulder.

This strikes me as a godsend to MJ crowded venues, pack them two high ...

David Franklin
15th-December-2004, 02:08 PM
I looked at the video of the final. Most of the lifts are what I call whirl-arounds, and are part of my normal freestyle. However there was one when Jill was lifted by Darren onto his shoulder.

This strikes me as a godsend to MJ crowded venues, pack them two high ...Either you like watching people duck all around you, or you must be very tall...

Dave

Trish
15th-December-2004, 02:14 PM
Either you like watching people duck all around you, or you must be very tall...

Dave

Yep, he's a big tall bloke - that's where the Big D comes from!

Trish
15th-December-2004, 02:19 PM
I looked at the video of the final. Most of the lifts are what I call whirl-arounds, and are part of my normal freestyle. However there was one when Jill was lifted by Darren onto his shoulder.

This strikes me as a godsend to MJ crowded venues, pack them two high ...

I have done something similar to this in an aerials class. I'd be willing to give it a go if you want, but ONLY if there's space - which knowing the St Neots Christmas Party I'd be dubious about! Perhaps later in the evening, if you're not worn out by dancing. Oh, and you might like to know I've lost nearly half a stone in the last few months, so there should be a bit less of me to chuck about!

Chicklet
15th-December-2004, 03:23 PM
No. I'm afraid I've been too busy sitting on the sofa with Jivecat lusting after Lilia's frocks.

:yeah: anyone thinking of more sequins, less cloth for Blackpool...than they otherwise might have worn, were it not for seeing them all spangly and sparkly etc etc on't telly?


Andy: leave it flower. :yum: :grin:

bigdjiver
15th-December-2004, 06:41 PM
Either you like watching people duck all around you, or you must be very tall...

Dave I do such moves in uninhabited corners. Unlike your Avatar the lady is vertical, so the floor space involved is for one, hence my attempted joke. St. Neots freestyles are usually too crowded for such activities, although sometimes it thins out. There are many with long journeys and some do not stay to the end.

David Franklin
15th-December-2004, 07:27 PM
I do such moves in uninhabited corners. Unlike your Avatar the lady is vertical, so the floor space involved is for one, hence my attempted joke.Sorry - didn't remember Jill doing any vertical lifts - was this in the showdance? As for the joke - I have seen Yuval actually dance with Natalie in a candlestick for a few bars - not that I think he did it to save space... :wink:

Dave