(Moderators - this should really go in another section I think - but I can never find the 'Amazing' thread - and it wasn't 'Amazing' - just very vey good).
Went to iJig Hatfield for the first time in ages - and it was like coming home. Great atmosphere, brilliant music and a range of fine dancers. In this local area I would say it is the venue with the youngest age profile - apart from maybe St. Albans - and that gave it more ooomph/energy I think.
The floor is just great and you can go out on to the patio for a break if you want. Really very enjoyable - and there is a freestyle there on Saturday as well.
One interesting 'feature' which I had not experienced before was when Jon cued up 'Fever' and announced: "this is is the partner change dance" (or words to that effect). So every time Jon then shouted out "Change!" - we were supposed to swap partners....which kind of worked ok.
There was also a snowball for a Taxi birthday ("the dance equivalent of a gang bang" as someone once said) - always a good excuse for the local hot shots to show off their stuff. Which they did....
Some of my usual class venues try this when they're lots of new beginners - they call it a bus stop track - intention is to get everyone up dancing and to meet new people rather than having some people only dancing with the same people. I find it handy if I'm taxi-ing and have to dance with someone particularly grim as it means it's only a short dance!
(oops, don't know what happened with the quote thing there!)
Last edited by David Bailey; 15th-July-2008 at 10:09 AM. Reason: Fix quote :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by JiveLad
There was also a snowball ("the dance equivalent of a gang bang"
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And towards the end of the snowball, Mick and another guy stepped into the circle to dance together with the taxi lady - a kind of double trouble - but with 2 guys.*
I turned to my friend and said: "............and this is the spit-roast".
She smiled.
* And they did it very well.......
i may be on the wrong thread for this but had to reply. Can i just say to Emmy,that if you dont want to dance with beguinners or have "bad" dances then dont be a taxi dancer, i thought as being a taxi myself, that our role is to help these beguinners to improve and not feel left out by snubby advance dancers who forget that they were beguinners once too and cant wait to get rid of them!!! I think its time that all venue mangers vetted their taxi dancers to see why they are volunteering to help? when behind their backs their snubbing them!! i went to a venue recently where a taxi dancer only danced once with a very young lady beguinner and then left her standing by the taxi rank like a wall flower till their session finished and didnt dance with her again that night. she had to pick up the courage to ask other people to dance and not one person asked her apart from a few of the other beguinners!!! shall i start my soap box session? i want to go to all venues and do a survey of all taxi sessions and email my findings to Mike Ellard !!!!
What on Earth is the point of iJig?
Apart from it being an ego vehicle and business generator, it offers nothing to dancing.
From what I can see of the format and the marketing (busking), it just Yet Another Clone Of Ceroc, but with less facilities (e.g. teacher training), it seems to offer absolutely nothing extra, in an area where there are several competing franchises already.
I mean, I like the Jive Nation stuff - it's a vibrant atmosphere, it's offering competition to a monopoly, it's appealing to a different market, and it offers innovation.
But iJig? All that bunch ever do is spam me, and I get enought of that already - for example, I see that "Ceroc Surrey" wants me to be their friend on Facebook now, how sweet, I feel very special.
Anyway, I've seen absolutely nothing original coming from the iJig stable, and there's no incentive for me to even consider going.
Grrr.
You log on to facebook and see that you have a friend request...you get all excited to see who wants to be your mate and it turns out to be some bloody dance group or other wanting to get in your face and advertise their nights out.
In one second you go from feeling all special and popular, to feeling like an abused Billy no Mates.
One feature, which I haven't seen at any of the local Ceroc venue, is that they will be serving baps at 11pm. I like the sound of that.........
Seriously, when you say that any new entrant should be offering something to 'dancing'....who/what is 'dancing'? How do you know if something is or is not, being 'offered' to 'dancing'? Are you talking about innovation in some way? I'm interested to know...........
You cite Jive Nation as 'appealing to a different market'. I'm interested to know a bit more about this - and what you base that statement on. When you say 'market' - what are you referring to?
I say, that's a little risque...
Me. Me is dancing
Yes, exactly.
Simon's doing lots of innovative stuff. iJig aren't, it's just a smaller version of a bog-standard Ceroc franchise with an even sillier name as far as I can see.
Younger, central London crowd. The music's different, the venues are different, the business model's different, even the classes are quite different.
I don't actually like the music or the classes, but that's not the point - they're new and they're innovative.
But what are iJig doing? Same format, same classes, probably same moves. They have taxi dancers, they have busks. I'm struggling to see anything at all interesting to them, and they look like they're just leeching off Ceroc at the moment.
This is not the way to improve Modern Jive dancing, it's just a way to make a quick buck.
Well, tonight at iJig was interesting - they did something which I have not seen at a Ceroc freestyle - which was a live band. And they (apparently) had a live band at the last freestyle.
For me, it didn't work - it was a 2 piece (guitar and percussion). If it had been a 7 piece souly/brassy outfit - that could have gone down well.
And the baps were plentiful. There is also a patio area where they are planning to have a barbecue at the next freestyle.
I don't know the full story of the Ceroc Stevenage night - but some people I spoke to said it was free to get in - but then as not very many people were there, they all scuttled off to iJig.
I'm interested also to hear you talk about 'improving Modern Jive dancing'. Is that the sole purpose of a dance franchise? Of course, it could be....although I'm not sure always is - or that it needs to be (at least in those kind of words).
I know Jive Nation are different - and I get all their emails - so it is different - and different model as you say - although when you talk about Jive Nation having a 'younger' central London crowd....well, I guess if they opened in down town Manchester - they might end up having a younger..er..central Manchester crowd.
I applaud innovation and experimentation - sometimes you have to give new businesses a chance to find their feet and give them space in which to develop innovative ideas (and I know Ijig are working on this).
Last edited by JiveLad; 20th-July-2008 at 01:33 AM.
Well I'm with DB when it comes to new ventures needing to offer something different. I've been to too many "independent" MJ outfits that end up being poor copies of Ceroc, purely there for the benefit of the organisers ego/bank balance.
I was in the area last night so I popped into Hatfield to give Ijig a try (yes, a very silly name). I only had an hour so I haven't seen their lessons and I missed the band.
Good
A younger average age than most Ceroc nights I've been to (especially Cheshunt ).
Music was fairly good, with some stuff I've never heard before that was good to dance to.
Bad
The DJ calling out that the next dance is a "stealing" dance, then shouting when people have to change partners. I just find that annoying and silly. It's a freestyle, if I'm enjoying a dance and some random stranger tries to take my partner away, I will tell them where to go.
Overall I had a good hour or so and was glad I went there instead of Stevenage.
Hi Gav - nice to see you (briefly!).
On the 'stealing' (swapping) dance: I did get stitched up on that 'cos when he said 'swap' somehow I ended up with.......no-one. It was a bit like musical chairs with no woman spare after the swap....
Anyway, I spoke at length to Jon Brett the DJ about this. He made the very good point that he ony did it because there were loads of people sitting down and not dancing at that time - and it was a way of getting people off their chairs - and dancing/mixing. He was right - it did change the dynamic - and so it worked.
Still it's now twice this week that it has happened - same track (Fever) - and both times, dancing with someone where we were both enjoying the dance...........
The evening (for me) got better after the live band finished.....
Thing is cerocmetro do this in a couple of their class (never a freestyle) venues and have been for quite some time
Its a way of getting people to dance when they just dont want too or are too nervous to ask someone to dance
Perhaps if the music was more inspiring people would get of their chairs and dance anyway, as thats what most people go to a dance to do especially a freestyle. So there would be no need for gimmicks
OK, that is mildly (!) interesting - but not too new, we've had live bands before.
Live bands don't usually work very well in MJ for some reason, I'm not sure why. Possibly because there's no real sense of musical identification within the dance itself.
No, of course not, but it's the sole thing that makes me respect that franchise personally. Otherwise I just go "meh" or when I see a new one.
I do dance with the beginners (guys and girls) . My explanation obviously didn't come across quite right. It's more about there being 1 particular grim guy (actually an improver level rather than beginner) who smells, wrenches the ladies despite him saying he knows he drags people round and not taking advice on from various people including the venue manager who's had a word - on these bus stop tracks, these are a perfect opportunity to use those type of short dances to dance with people like that rather than suffering a 4 minute track with someone you'd really rather avoid, but can't without appearing rude.
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