How long have you been dancing

[Ghost]

Similar to Cruella's. Feel free to elaborate on dancing experience in posts

[Gadget]

Hey, at least vote on your own poll ;)

[Little Monkey]

Have been dancing on and off for many years, and dipped into a few dance styles.

Ballet when I was 5 or 6 (aawwwww), then ballroom when I was about 10-12, then a bit of swing when I was 18 or 19 (dances swing for about 3 years).. Then ceroc/MJ for about 5 years (on and off), with a teensy bit of WCS over the past year, and a teensy-weensy bit of AT....

I wish I'd stuck to ballroom when I was a kid, but my partner didn't want to dance any more, and then we moved to a different place where they didn't have any ballroom classes.:(

So..... In total I've danced for about 9 or 10 years, I guess..... But spread out over the last 26 years!

[Juju]

Pedantic, I know - but I'm assuming you don't include "muggle dancing" (love that term!) in your poll?

[Gadget]

Good point: does "solo" dancing count? or only partner dancing?

(I could add on about 5 years of "muggle" dancing.)

[Juju]

Good point: does "solo" dancing count? or only partner dancing?

(I could add on about 5 years of "muggle" dancing.)

I've been doing it since I could walk. (Not telling you how long ago that was. :whistle:) But that's what made me start lessons - I already loved dancing anyway.

[Ghost]

Hey, at least vote on your own poll ;)

Happy now? :na: (anyway I already know how long I've been dancing ;) )

Any kind of dancing counts

[ShinyWeeStar]

I think I've almost always done dancing of some sort...

I started ballet at the age of 2 or 3 (basically as soon as I was allowed to start classes!), which I did until I was about 15. In the meantime I also did country dancing every year at Brownies & Guides (aged 7-16) for a local festival competition and went to classes at primary school for a year or two.

At uni I tried Highland dancing and finally got the chance to learn tap dancing, which I'd always wanted to do and really enjoyed, but unfortunately after about 6-8 classes the venue was closed and the classes stopped :(. For two years I went to weekly dance rehearsals to learn routines for stage musicals I was in (not sure what type of dancing you'd call it as the styles varied according to the songs).

Since moving back home I've had a taster of salsa from salsa exercise classes (a lot of fun, but sure it's completely different from the "real thing"!), done some more country dancing, and discovered something called Ceroc. That was about a year ago and I haven't looked back since! :D

[Freya]

Total years, or if you added up all your dancing?

Coz I've been dancing since I was 5! but had years off in between!

[straycat]

Feels like I've been dancing all night.
I'm tired...

[Ghost]

Total years, or if you added up all your dancing?

Coz I've been dancing since I was 5! but had years off in between!

Ok years ago I was playing the Game of Life and the question was
"If you do any sport regularly you get a prize" or something like that. There then ensued a brief discussion as to whether my dancing was a sport or an art. My friend wisely said, "If you can live with calling it a sport, then it counts as a sport." I couldn't, so I didn't get the prize.

I leave it to your discretion as to what you feel is an answer that is honest for you :flower:

Dance in beauty,
Christopher

[TheTramp]

Ummm. Strangely enough, to the minute, exactly the same length of time as I've been doing modern jive! :rolleyes:

[ElaineB]

Ballet when I was about 6 years old. Gave up after about a year, because we had a horrible teacher!

Had a couple of Salsa lessons about 6 years ago and then nothing until Le Roc 4 years ago. I danced AT consistantly for about 6 months, but had to stop to practice for competitions, although I still pop into our local class now and then. We stopped competing after Blackpool this year and are now having a bash at latin and ballroom and we hope to take our silver medals later this year. Still yearn to dance AT and Le Roc has gone onto the back burner for the meantime.

Elaine

[Beowulf]

Ummm. Strangely enough, to the minute, exactly the same length of time as I've been doing modern jive! :rolleyes:

:yeah: Same here

[ducasi]

So what is this poll going to tell us?

[TheTramp]

So what is this poll going to tell us?

Whether people did any other sort of dancing before they took up modern jive?

[ducasi]

Whether people did any other sort of dancing before they took up modern jive?
How? By comparing it with the poll on how long people have been doing MJ?

Wouldn't have been simpler to just ask that question instead?

(Sorry, I'm in a cynical mood this morning. :flower:)

[TheTramp]

How? By comparing it with the poll on how long people have been doing MJ?

Wouldn't have been simpler to just ask that question instead?

True.

But you can also read people's responses....

[Ghost]

(Sorry, I'm in a cynical mood this morning. :flower:)

This is what comes of not dating English women......:wink:

What I'm more curious about is not whether people have done dancing before they started Ceroc (there's a poll somewhere about the different dance styles people have done), but how much dancing people have done. Eg Does the Forum tends to attract mainly experienced dancers?

Hence my cunning poll.

But yes, cross referencing it with Cruella's does let you work out how much "other dancing" someone's done if you wish to know.

:cheers:
Christopher

[ducasi]

What I'm more curious about is not whether people have done dancing before they started Ceroc (there's a poll somewhere about the different dance styles people have done), but how much dancing people have done. Eg Does the Forum tends to attract mainly experienced dancers?
Thing is, besides the year and a half of Ceroc, I have been taught Ceilidh dancing at school for 5-ish years, a month or so at a time, then during my adult life I have "danced" at clubs, plus gone to the occasional ceilidh.

So, I've been dancing since I was 11-ish (at school). (Well over 10 years ago.)

I've only been formally taught dancing at school, plus the last year and a half... (Totals about 2 years.)

In the time in between I could take a guesstimate at how much dancing I've done and turn how many weeks I've gone dancing into a number of years' worth of dancing... Maybe 3? (Totals 5 years...)

But none of the dancing I did before Ceroc amounted to much, so maybe I've only been dancing a year and a half...

That's 4 different answers to the question... I don't know which one to use. Others will have chosen their own meaning of the question and answered it their own way.

In real terms, I'm a beginner to dancing, but if I answered your question the way most people appear to have (i.e. "how long ago did I do any dancing?") it looks like I'm an experienced dancer.

So, due to this ambiguity in your question, I don't think much useful information can be gathered from this poll.

(Still in a cynical mood this afternoon. :flower:)

[Ghost]

(Still in a cynical mood this afternoon. :flower:)
Hence the option to elaborate here on your perceived value of your dancing experience if you wish:flower:

I agree that it can't be a hard and fast rule that longer dancing = better dancer. There's too many exceptions. But I do find it interesting to see how long forumites have been some doing form of dancing, even off and on.

Hope you're less cynical this evening :)
Christopher

[Dazzler]

Been dancing for coming up 5 months now!...no dancing prior to ceroc and very little intention of venturing out of ceroc! (is that wrong?) but i am on here!...and i find it a great way as a new dancer of keeping up to date with whats happenin around the community!...yet i know ppl who have danced for a number of years who have barely recognised what the forum is...so in short it attracts those who use the internet regardless of experience! :grin:

[David Bailey]

How? By comparing it with the poll on how long people have been doing MJ?

Wouldn't have been simpler to just ask that question instead?


But then you'd miss all the fun of a Whole New Thread :innocent:

[David Bailey]

I agree that it can't be a hard and fast rule that longer dancing = better dancer.
There's some correlation.

There's a stronger correlation between the amount of time (in hours) you've spent learning to dance, rather than just dancing.

And there's a very strong correlation between the amount of time you've spent working at improving your dancing,

But I also don't see how we can learn much from a simple "how long have you been dancing" question, there are two many variables. Someone going to 200 classes a year for 2 years will probably be better than someone only going to 1 freestyle a month for 10 years.

[Ghost]

There's a stronger correlation between the amount of time (in hours) you've spent learning to dance, rather than just dancing.

And there's a very strong correlation between the amount of time you've spent working at improving your dancing,

True, but I have no idea whatsoever what my answers would be. I just don't keep track of things to that degree.


But I also don't see how we can learn much from a simple "how long have you been dancing" question, there are two many variables. Someone going to 200 classes a year for 2 years will probably be better than someone only going to 1 freestyle a month for 10 years.
You're thinking more in terms of skill, I'm thinking more in terms of interest (that's not quite the right word though :blush: ). Is dance a long-standing part of Forumites lives? Yes in some cases it may be a constant thing of dancing every week, in others, it may be an on again off again love affair. It's still different to "I only started dancing last week and I love it!" There's nothing wrong with the latter, I'm just curious at the spread. At the moment by far the biggest is in the over 10 years section. If you take the split as under a year / over year it's hugely in favour of people who've been daning over a year. Again it's not intended as a right / wrong question, just curiousity (heh I do have a cat avatar after all :cool: )

Be Well,
Christopher

[David Bailey]

You're thinking more in terms of skill, I'm thinking more in terms of interest (that's not quite the right word though :blush: ). Is dance a long-standing part of Forumites lives? Yes in some cases it may be a constant thing of dancing every week, in others, it may be an on again off again love affair. It's still different to "I only started dancing last week and I love it!" There's nothing wrong with the latter, I'm just curious at the spread. At the moment by far the biggest is in the over 10 years section. If you take the split as under a year / over year it's hugely in favour of people who've been daning over a year. Again it's not intended as a right / wrong question, just curiousity (heh I do have a cat avatar after all :cool: )

Interest and skill also have a correlation I think :)

But your typical Ceroc life-cycle could be put as:

0-1 year: instant obsession, dancing 4-5 times a week.
1-2 years: social scene: start skipping lessons, go to pub after, join cliques etc.
2-4 years: "hotshot" phase, avoids lessons, picky about dance partners etc.
4 years+: plateau - starts looking for other dances to learn.
6-8 years+: back to basics: returns to Ceroc, enjoys it for what it is.

[Minnie M]

Interest and skill also have a correlation I think :)

But your typical Ceroc life-cycle could be put as:

0-1 year: instant obsession, dancing 4-5 times a week.
1-2 years: social scene: start skipping lessons, go to pub after, join cliques etc.
2-4 years: "hotshot" phase, avoids lessons, picky about dance partners etc.
4 years+: plateau - starts looking for other dances to learn.
6-8 years+: back to basics: returns to Ceroc, enjoys it for what it is.

so true :rolleyes:
One thing to add not sure where to slot in (for me it is about 5 years)


music as important if not more important than the dance

[Freya]

Interest and skill also have a correlation I think :)

But your typical Ceroc life-cycle could be put as:

0-1 year: instant obsession, dancing 4-5 times a week.
1-2 years: social scene: start skipping lessons, go to pub after, join cliques etc.
2-4 years: "hotshot" phase, avoids lessons, picky about dance partners etc.
4 years+: plateau - starts looking for other dances to learn.
6-8 years+: back to basics: returns to Ceroc, enjoys it for what it is.

erm ok in that case although I've only been doing ceroc for 10 months I skip lessons go to the pub and I guess became part of a clique very quickly!

Obviously I just don't fit the mould!

[Donna]

Done line for 10 years (no it's not all hats and boots, fingers in belts shouting he ha on the top of your voice!!!!! :rofl: ) People have got the wrong idea about line dancing. Lets just say, you can compare it to hip hop - lots of body rolls, spinning, jumping etc etc etc AAANNNND... it's done mainly to chart music today. Used to teach it until I started competing in MJ.

Done ceroc for 3 years now.

[Juju]

Obviously I just don't fit the mould!

Neither do I. Not even vaguely.

[Frankie_4711]

Although I have been dancing since I could stand up, and probably before that, I started actual dancing lessons in my teens (probably about 12 or 13) as a PE option at school. I usually picked that option every time it was available, and also joined the after school dance club (well, OK there were only 2 members, but it was still an official school club!).

For my 16th birthday my aunt and uncle paid for me to have a year's worth of lessons at Pineapple - can't remember if it was called Jazz Rock or Rock Jazz, but it was basically modern ballet type stuff ... I felt like I was in Fame!

After that just muggle dancing and headbanging (but LOTS of both coz I just LOVE dancing every opportunity I get) until I started Ceroc just over a year and a half ago.

I went to a wedding a few weeks ago, and there wasn't really anyone there to dance with. It was so strange muggle dancing again, as I've not done that at all since I started Ceroc. I did manage to convince one lady to have a bit of a go at Cerocing. She loved it and said she was going to go back to Newcastle and find a class! I may never find out if she actually did though.

[TheTramp]

I did manage to convince one lady to have a bit of a go at Cerocing. She loved it and said she was going to go back to Newcastle and find a class! I may never find out if she actually did though.

You should have told her all about the forum as well. Then you could have tracked her progress!!

[Frankie_4711]

You should have told her all about the forum as well. Then you could have tracked her progress!!

Good idea - but she was 'slightly' (:whistle: ) on the tiddly side and probably didn't even remember the Ceroc website address (no pen or paper available!) let alone trying to get to grips with the forum one as well!

I may try asking the friend whose wedding it was ...

[TheTramp]

Good idea - but she was 'slightly' (:whistle: ) on the tiddly side and probably didn't even remember the Ceroc website address (no pen or paper available!) let alone trying to get to grips with the forum one as well!

Hmmm. What's wrong with a serviette and a vein? Have you no dedication to ceroc evangelism?? :rolleyes:

[Frankie_4711]

Hmmm. What's wrong with a serviette and a vein? Have you no dedication to ceroc evangelism?? :rolleyes:

It just smudges too much!

[karlhudds]

erm yeah about this poll lol one thing to add is

time dose not mean better, (no disrespect) a perason once told me they would be better than me cos they had been dancing 15 years, so we danced and they were like "MY GOD" but i had only bin dancing like a year lol i recon the poll should be

how long have you been learning and how many times a week

in my first weeks learning it was like 5 times a week wich i would assume is alot more effective than once a week ???

[fletch]

time dose not mean better, (no disrespect) a perason once told me they would be better than me cos they had been dancing 15 years, so we danced and they were like "MY GOD" but i had only bin dancing like a year lol




Karl anyone dancing with would think "MY GOD" :wink:

Your not quite "GOD" but close :worthy:



PS you give Jammy a run for his money

:waycool: :hug:

:D

[Ghost]

erm yeah about this poll lol one thing to add is

time dose not mean better, (no disrespect)



I agree that it can't be a hard and fast rule that longer dancing = better dancer. There's too many exceptions. But I do find it interesting to see how long forumites have been some doing form of dancing, even off and on.

:wink: Great minds


I recon the poll should be

how long have you been learning and how many times a week

Hey start your own poll :wink:

Be Well,
Christopher

[Twirly]

I answered the poll in terms of how long I’ve been doing Ceroc, but like others on here that’s misleading. Like Frankie, I was dancing from the moment I could stand up, possibly before. My favourite way to spend an afternoon before I started school was to get my mother to move the furniture out of the way and get her to put her old records on (78rpm – still have most of them, some lovely old tracks) and dance around the room – dressing up as well if possible! I think I started ballet aged 4, carried on till 12 but then we moved to the country and I discovered horses (still a bit young for boys!).

At 16 I took up jazz dance at the dance school in Swindon as an elective whilst doing my A-levels (which really was like being on the set of Fame!) – we got stuck in with those doing the dance foundation course who were great dancers (even if their egos were highly inflated, and as for their libidos…!:really: :blush: ) and had a fabulous teacher who used to come up from The Place each week to teach us. That was for 3 years (though at the end I was doing a class everyday, plus a little ballet which was very funny, and some contemporary), then it was mostly muggle dancing from age 20 till last year (it’s a big gap, but I’m not saying how big!). I stopped when I came to London as a student because I couldn’t find anywhere that did jazz dance except Pineapple and I couldn’t afford that at the time. Then I got out of the habit of doing proper dance classes, though I’ve always done some sort of yoga/pilates/stretch type stuff over the years – though right now I wish I’d done a lot more!

[Katie Kicks Ass]

I've ben dancing for about 14months now, (ceroc) you wouldnt tell tht if you met me though! i soend lots of time on my arse!

[Trousers]

I've ben dancing for about 14months now, (ceroc) you wouldnt tell tht if you met me though! i soend lots of time on my arse!

Oh Well!! Never mind!!!!


Good name though.

My favourite attribute AND my favourite number!


oooooh! :devil:

[Nessiemonster]

I think I've probably written something about this on some other thread recently?

I started dancing about when I could walk (approx 30 years ago??!) I did ballet/tap for a few months when I was about 4-5 years old, until I got whooping cough and gave up.

I then did modern (whatever that meant) and acrobatics (crap at it, but the doctor said it would be good for my wonky back) when I was 11.

I did creative/expressive/contempory for 3 years at college from 16-19. This was a lot on Laban's theories and vocabulary of movements. It wasn't examined and was a lot of fun.

Then at 23 I starting doing jazz dance for a while, and from 25-27 learnt salsa. I started doing ceroc when the Inverness class started last year at 31, and still do a little salsa up here too. I've also done a few classes of hip-hop, lindy-hop and rock'n'roll too in the last few years.

In between all that I've danced solo around my living room, my bedroom, on top of mountains and on riverbanks - wherever the mood takes, and in whatever clothing and footwear I have on at the time (full waterproof kit and walking boots are probably the hardest!) Music is optional! For this kind of dancing, it's basically whenever the mood takes, most especially when I'm happy! :flower:

[Jhutch]

I have been dancing for about 2 months now and attend twice a week most weeks:nice: Before this i had done no taught dancing at all. I always quite liked dancing when going out though:yum: