Dancing in Dulwich

[Twirly]

I just spotted this in the latest Ceroc London e-mail:

New Saturday Night Class in Dulwich
We are opening a new venue for Saturday nights in Dulwich, on selected dates.
Ceroc @ St Barnabas Hall,23 Dulwich Village, London SE21 7BT
Beginners Class: 7.30pm
Intermediate Class: 8.30pm
Freestyle until 10.45pm
Contact: Kate: 07779 59 1071
Please see the Freestyles and Special Events section for more information on upcoming dates.

Am quite excited as this is very local to me. However, I do think it's a bit odd as it's a class not a freestyle, but it's not weekly. Will this work being a) Saturday night, b) not regular? Also, the publicity seems a bit late in the day - and I haven't noticed anything in the local shops about it either.

Sadly, I can't make it this week (still have a sore back from the accident and my father is staying with me), but may try it another week. If anyone else can go would be interested to hear how it is.

[Twirly]

Sorry - meant to post the dates listed on the Ceroc London website too:

April 28th
May 12th
July 7th
July 28th
Sept 8th
Sept 29th

[Beowulf]

Am quite excited as this is very local to me.

If anyone else can go would be interested to hear how it is.

Next time I'm down when we're both fit and well we'll have to try that honey Sounds good to have a local class and not have to trek half way across London to dance

[frodo]

...Will this work being a) Saturday night, b) not regular? ...

Not regular may be a problem but I would have thought London could support a single Saturday night class. Not everyone prefers pure freestyle just because it happens to be a Saturday.

Without that if you can only go dancing on a Saturday night you're not going to learn much.

[jammy]

Not everyone prefers pure freestyle just because it happens to be a Saturday.

Without that if you can only go dancing on a Saturday night you're not going to learn much.

yes i agree with that!

anyone going tonight?

[Twirly]

yes i agree with that!

anyone going tonight?

So did anyone go to this?

Assuming that I'm OK for dancing (am going back to it tomorrow after a month off - can't wait!!!! ), I might try the one on the 12th May. This coincides with the Dulwich Festival, and is in their programme (I also believe that they had one last year) so will have had more publicity - suspect that there will be a lot of beginners though, so will manage my expectations

Anyone else around on the 12th May?

[Jhutch]

So did anyone go to this?

Assuming that I'm OK for dancing (am going back to it tomorrow after a month off - can't wait!!!! ), I might try the one on the 12th May. This coincides with the Dulwich Festival, and is in their programme (I also believe that they had one last year) so will have had more publicity - suspect that there will be a lot of beginners though, so will manage my expectations

Anyone else around on the 12th May?

I will be around and am working the next day so i might give it a go

[wayaay bird]

Me and Jammy went to the first one.

There was only 40 or 50 people, (mostly beginners) but there was a weekender on and at least 2 other dances on the same night so i thought that wasn't bad.
Was a lovely hall and the floor was great to dance on.

Not sure if we'll be going to the next one though.

[jammy]

Me and Jammy went to the first one.

There was only 40 or 50 people, (mostly beginners) but there was a weekender on and at least 2 other dances on the same night so i thought that wasn't bad.
Was a lovely hall and the floor was great to dance on.

Not sure if we'll be going to the next one though.

yeh but james Cronnin was there! and no one old me.

[Tessalicious]

yeh but james Cronnin was there! and no one old me.

Is he in London? No-one told me either .

[Twirly]

Well despite the fact that I had to go on my own, I decided to try the new Dulwich venue out last night, and much to my surprise had a pretty good time. The night had positives and negatives.

I arrived for the last 10 minutes or so of the beginners class - and most people there seemed to be complete beginners. Oddly, there was no beginners review class - all the beginners who wanted to could do the "easy intermediate" class. Well it was quite simple (can't remember the exact moves - first move barrier, manspin into a ceroc spin and then some sort of basket variation), but I felt rather sorry for the beginners - they had eight moves to remember. And of course they couldn't. Both the guys I went into freestyle with were a tad confused, and although we tried to walk through the moves together, the last one's brain had gone into meltdown and he gave up...

The next class there isn't until 7th July. I cannot see how this is going to work as a regular class night for beginners. And the teacher didn't encourage people to try other classes elsewhere (although there were leaflets on the table) to get their dancing going. How is anyone going to learn moves if they only go every 6 weeks?

On the plus side, the hall is lovely, and I had no trouble parking nearby, and the area feels safe. The floor was great - very springy and very new, so nice and smooth. They ran their own soft drinks bar (drinks - 50p ). The music was fine good - the usual sort of mix, with a few tracks that I didn't recognise which was nice. The DJ was also down on the floor dancing, so had several tracks queued up at once to play. One of the best things was the space - there was loads of it! Fortunately there were a few faces there I recognised from round and about in London, and they seemed pleased to see me too - one of them saw me and said "at last - an intermediate dancer!" And although there were lots of spare women in both classes, I still got lots of dances - actually I probably danced more than at a normal freestyle.

Since it's local for me, the floor was good and my fear that there would only be beginners there to dance with was far from realised, I'd definitely go back if there was nothing else on/I was feeling lazy. But I doubt I'd bother with the classes, just go for the freestyle. (They do need fans however - it was hot last night, and they probably can't open the windows for ventilation as it's a residential area.)

I'm not sure how successful it will be as it's being run right now though - intermittently, with no follow-through for beginners. As the venue is good, I'd have thought it might be better to try and run something a bit more specialised. Maybe a night with a class for intermediates followed by and advanced class and freestyle where it doesn't matter if you can't do it every week. I wish the venue luck though. Hope it survives and thrives.