Our local ones start with a lesson at, or very close to, the official start time. People do arrive late, but many of them come a long way, and they arrive to a happening dance.
Is it me, or just up North, that freestyles never start till at least half an hour after the start. Sometimes near an hour. And when the freestyle is a mere 4 hours, that's a fair chunk of it wasted. Seems to happen at Nantwich (& Hyde) every time.
Mainly I see this due to a lot of people not turning up till 9pm or so, even though the freestyle starts at 8. Nantwich usually starts when Lai (or occasionally myself) kicks it off then others just follow suit. It's as if they are waiting for someone else to go first yet wasting valuable dancing time in the meantime.
So I ask why do so many people turn up so late for freestyles effectively wasting upto a quarter of dancing time available?
Our local ones start with a lesson at, or very close to, the official start time. People do arrive late, but many of them come a long way, and they arrive to a happening dance.
I aim to arrive after the class, which is this part of the word means about quarter past 9. (Unless it's a certain someone else doing the class, in which case there's no point in turning up until nearer 10! )
Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story
Usually arrive 15 to 30 minutes after start time.
Got the journey time to Rutherglen more than a bit wrong and arrived 5minutes before start time.
I aim to get there before or only just after the start time
Having said that on a friday night we go to a ballroom lesson first so we dont get away till 8.30 normally and hrs drive to the freestyle after that so i guess about 9 30
Am usually a late comer...
Hammersmith starts at 8, class from 8.30 - 9, I usually get there around 9.30 (if I'm doing well) to 10.30 (if I'm doing badly).
This is in part due to habits formed early - my friend I usually go with hates eating early, which to her is any time before 8.30pm! She complains about having to eat at 7.30, and it takes an hour to get there. I usually try and collect her about 8.30, we both run late so it's more like 9, and if the traffic is bad we get there at 10. But that's plenty of freestyle time if we are there till 1 or sometimes 2. We are both nightbirds too, so would rather arrive late and stay late.
Beo likes to get everywhere an hour early, I'm always late...
I do notice that Hammersmith and Chiswick tend to thin out at least an hour before the end. Maybe we should have a poll as when people arrive and when they leave... but why do I suspect that forumites on the whole will arrive at the start and stay till the last notes of the last track have completely faded away... and then some as they at last get around to chatting to people!!
Depends on where it is: if it's just a freestyle locally, I try to put the kids to bed before heading out - so I'm normally there about 8-8:30.
In general I try to be there 10mins early - why waste dancing time? That should give me enough time to get in, get changed, get a drink, find a place to off-load my bag & jacket and be ready to dance when the music starts
Have to admit I like to get my moneys worth being a Fifer and I'll be there between 8 & 8.30. But as my summmer hours lengthen at work I'll prob be a bit later.
I disagree...
I'm usually better later, takes me a while to get warmed up. In fact, I used to have one or two people whom I'd always seek out for the first dance or two (and them me) and make a point of saying to them to grab me for another dance later when I'd warmed up.
Here everyone arrives late but I think thats a local thing. I was involved with running barn dances which were advertised to start at 8pm and by 9pm there would be about 12 people there! (By 10pm it would be 100). We brought in a price structure so its actually cheaper if you arrive before 9pm just to get the event started a bit earlier.
Local salsa dancers seem to often turn up to events at 11pm. So turning up about 9:30pm for an event starting at 8pm is still pretty 'early'.
Personally, I tend to turn up about an hour or after the start time. This was partly cos when freestyles followed workshops I had a crowd of dancers round to eat and change and I let them all get sorted first which meant I was a bit later and I guess I have got into the habit of that now. (I also prefer to arrive after the class as I don't really like leading and no point in joining in as a follower as extra ladies, so I tend to just sit and get cold.)
Hypothetic Situation
Freestyle time = 8pm to 12pm
No Lesson
Within An Hours Drive
Saturday Night
When do you get there?
(My answer is 8:00pm-8:10pm)
Because quite often the music played in the first hour is absolute sh1te. I'm guessing the DJ does this because they know no-ones going to be dancing to it anyway. Vicious circle and all that jazz...
I hate 'fun' classes with a passion. This probably results from the last time I did one at a Christmas party where the guy gets the girl to sit on his knee from a basket and then whispers in her ear "So, what do you want for Christmas then?" Buttock-clenchingly embarrassing.
Dan
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