A master class teaching body isolations, and body rolls please
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
Although I'm not a workshop junkie, my body does not allow me to stay up until 5-6am, or later, to allow me to appreciate this (without making myself ill - not a good move). It would be great to hear more blues earlier in the night - for Everyone to appreciate.
I think I have confused people with my music terminology. By 'swing' I was simply referring to the way the room is billed - 'blues/swing'. I take the swing to mean music that people can dance west coast swing to. There seems to have been much more west coast swing in the blues room recently (according to the aftermath posts, as well as my personal experience). (Though ironically much of the music that people are dancing west coast to is what I would term 'rhythm & blues', and much of the bluesy stuff I love dancing to I would probably musically term as 'jazz', 'soul' or 'easy listening'! How confusing!!! )
Anyone any clearer on what I'm meaning??!
Last year they had a marquee over the decking area, this was great as it enable you to dance even when it rained. June they didn't, it rained, therefore you couldn't dance, what a lovely feeling of dancing outside, to great music, with nice people.
The simple work-around put in place to deal with the loss of the marquee was a stroke of Wes genius and improved the whole blues room immensely
As for the rain in June, it only rained for one afternoon (Sunday) as I recall. But dancing outside in the blazing sunshine on Saturday afternoon was glorious
Last edited by StokeBloke; 10th-September-2008 at 04:08 PM.
I will tell you what I want!!!!!
What I really really want!!!!!
Is lessons by Mikey!!!!!
Lets have some Strictly Sinfull lessons by the master himself!!!
Nothing like a cheeky and sinfull lesson by Mikey........Never been beaten and no one can do them like Mikey.
There is a load of dancers who have never experienced the heart thumping, groin straining, eye popping lessons from Mikey.
So listen up you guys I am a big noise on here so get it sorted bit sharpish like. Chop chop, quick as you like love.
Nuff said.
DTS XXX XXX
Hello is this thing on?
Which part of chop chop, quick as you like love did you not get?
I have a medal, dont you know, and I am a personal servant of the great and God like ...David Bailey.
Hello hello is this on?
DTS XXX XXX
Traffic through blues room.
Give thought to how traffic could be reduced through the blues room. Uncourage use of the main entrance for example and possibly rope off the bar. Possibly offer drinks elsewhere like cans and bottles of water and maybe cans of alcoholic drink somewhere else like the main entrance. This would be easily reached from all rooms.
Steve
Well its a question of balance and for me the percentage of monotone R&B tracks is way to high in the blues room.
This may suit dancers who are content to follow choreographed routines.
However if you believe dance is about musical interpretation lead and follow and change of pace.
Then easy listening R&B may chill you but does it really make you want to dance?
And by the way I would not include Nat King Cole or Elvis as boring R&B they are both superb to dance too. and i would happily dance all night to either.
IMHO Mr Cool is what the Blues room is all about.
Keep dancing mate you is an inspiration to us mere mortals on the dance scene.
DTS XXXX XXX
Right, now all the kids have gone, I'm going to have a crack at this one.
I'd like to see the following:
1. Opportunities for private tuition:
A dedicated room somewhere for personal and private tuition. JA Southport never really had this, and it seemed a waste of a great opportunity to me. This assumes that people actually want to learn from all these superstar teachers, of course.
Expanding this, I'd also like to see a this room reserved as a "practice room", for people to practice and work on their dancing, or to do informal tuition, for some specific times during the weekend. Again, this is acting on the theory that some of the "advanced dancers" are advanced enough to want to practice and take such opportunities.
Similarly, I liked the "masterclasses" idea from Storm, that worked well for me.
2. Clear labelling of music
If you're going to have something called a Blues Room, then for the love of Christ, please play mainly Blues music in it. Alternatively, come up with a better name for the room ("The Ecletic Ballroom"? Nah, too clever...) to describe the fact that a whole wide range of music is played there, and let people know what genre is being played when. If for no other reason than to stop people like me whingeing about the lack of Blues music in the Blues Room.
3. Teach Modern Jive
I know it's a crazy concept, but I'd like to see some real MJ teaching, not just 200 taster classes on "Sultry Salsa" and "Raunchy Rumba". We won't be able to genuinely raise the level of MJ until we get real concepts like connection taught within MJ classes on a regular basis. Basically, hire Franck for the weekend and / or clone him.
By all means, have some taster classes in other dance forms, but I'd also like to see some advanced MJ classes which aren't simply 200-moves-in-a-row routines. It's an MJ weekend; let's go crazy and teach the majority of classes in MJ.
4. Use external DJs and teachers
Bit controversial, but I think it'd be a good inclusive gesture if Ceroc asked a few of the independant teachers and DJs to come along. On the teacher front - Viktor, Nigel & Nina, Amir, even DavidB if he can be persuaded back... Similarly, there are a lot of DJs who are respected and who would enrich any weekender - Ceroc Jock, Zebra Woman, Toby, and so on.
Ummm.... that's about it for now.
Pretty much all of what you say makes sense and some parts have also been covered by other people, especially the music classification issue - that's why Ceroc moved away from the term 'Blues' room and replaced it with 'Chill Out Zone' some time ago. I personally don't think the term is perfect, but along with the explanation that goes with it, it does clearly explain that it is a mix of slower music. The private tuition/practice room is of course a good idea but I'm guessing as the idea of private tuition has never been expanded at SP that an appropriate room doesn't exist? People have said they've had private tuition there though, so does that mean they had it in their's rooms or something?
Private tuition is available at the moment at all Ceroc weekenders and dancers can book their lessons when they arrive from a selection of teachers. The classes are usually held in the same place as the master classes, and there-in lies your problem regarding this all purpose room also becoming a practice area. If the private lessons are booked up there would be no availability for practice sessions.
In any event can't dancers practice in the freestyle sessions by going out early when it's less crowded or between classes? That's what I used to do along with going over moves in the chalet.
Dunno - there are four large rooms in SP that I know of, but I think the external one is no longer usable, which is why they had the Marquee last time. I'd imagine that a way could be found, but I'm not familiar enough with the venue to say.
Cor, I know, why not ask someone official in Ceroc?
The private Tango tuition CeeCee arranged in 2006 was in the Blues room, but that was before it turned into a 24-hour music zone. I believe there have been private lessons in chalets but frankly they're crap venues for teaching.
Even with the JA programme there was some spare capacity, several hours in each day, but my gut feeling is that,that JA weren't really that interested in setting it up. I could be completely off with that feeling though.
Sure - as all ways, you balance one thing against another. But an actual Practice Room would be an innovation - AFAIK there's not been one at any weekender so far,
Hardly the same thing, really - and setting a room aside purely to practice might appeal to these mythical advanced dancers I hear so much about.
I'm not really sure what you mean by a "Practice Room" (with capital letters and all).Originally Posted by David Bailey
Speaking personally, one thing I'd want from a Practice Room is lots of space. Which somewhat conflicts with having one open for general use at a weekender. (For those that know what I'd probably be practicing(!), I'd say this is largely true even if you ignore working on aerials, it just becomes much less negotiable with aerial practice).
If I try and find space to practice at a weekender, I generally don't have 'expectations' about the available space. That is, I know I'm only doing it on sufferance, I don't have a right to the space, etc. I think if I went to a Practice Room (tm) and found it was too crowded to really work on anything, I'd be a lot more frustrated.
This is complicated even more if you're saying "space to work on private lessons". Because if you've booked a lesson and there's not enough space, boy-o-boy would that be annoying. There's also the question of whether you really want to have a 'please, tell me everything I'm doing wrong in my dancing' private lesson with 50 other people standing around?
Not to say the basic idea isn't good, but I think it needs to be a bit more organised that "oh, let's have a practice room".
The concept is taken from Tango (of course), where there's a differentiation between a Practica and a Milonga.
Practicas are for practice, Milongas are for social dancing. That seems to work quite well in AT, something similar might be worth trying in MJ. In a sense, it's symbolic - you're simply saying "dancing needs practice, here's an opportunity to do so". Which will go away from the "You can learn to dance in 45 minutes" ethos, of course, so it'd be a bold step - but who knows, it might work.
I'm not suggesting mixing this with private lessons, that would indeed be a recipe for disaster.
Surely the other problem would be music - you'd have trouble practicing tango with someone wanting to practice hip hop, or are we assuming that the practice room is also a music less zone?
No - I'm definitely thinking of a Modern Jive room, not a Tango room - apologies if that wasn't clear. The concept is from AT, but the application would be to MJ.
So modern jive music would be fine, I think. A reasonably-slow main-room type of playlist, but not too loud, would be my preference. It'd allow you to try out movement to music if required, or ignore it if you want to focus on something else (balance, for example).
To be fair the pub quizzes at Camber at least have been very popular
If its going to happen at Southport the location of where it takes place is important
This forum is dancing mad but given the numbers it would be unfair to suggest there isn’t a need or even a desire for a pub quiz
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