Ceroc Southport Scorch May 2009 Review / aftermath Thread

[Twirly]

As some posts have been split off into a different thread - my pics of SP are up on Facebook and have tagged those that I can.

[sunnybunny]

Better late than never - here’s my twopenn’th

I had an absolutely fabulous time – my best weekender yet. The fantastic weather gave it a real holiday feel. My two favourite things together – sunshine, with a couple of hours sunbathing at midday-ish (well, we are English, after all) then dancing in the afternoon/night/morning. Slapping the aftersun onto slightly (!) pink skin then going out for the night, I was in real summer holiday mode.

Our chalet was located in “party central” close to the action but far enough away to get a bit of peace & quiet for our evening nap-ettes. Our facilities were handily placed for a few of the spacehopper race participants.

I can’t really comment on the main room as I only popped in very briefly, but the latin/wcs room seemed a bit more popular than it was back in March, which was good. Ditto the workshops, I’m afraid – I just didn’t want to miss out dancing with some fabulous dancers.

Like most of the other reviewers, I was a permanent fixture in the pub / blues room and out on the deck where there was a wonderful laid back vibe. The music was excellent. I particularly enjoyed Rocky & Silverfox’s S’Funk sets in the afternoons and Zebrawoman’s Sunday evening set. All the other Gods of Thunder were up to their usual stellar high standards. Not a duff track amongst them. Wuzzle’s first sack the DJ slot was a resounding success – hopefully the first of many.

My main highlight has to be meeting and dancing with the lovely Scottish contingent. I don’t think that it was because they were seeing the sunshine for the first time in about 9 months that made them so friendly and approachable – they are just that, full stop. The guys seemed genuinely pleased to be asked to dance and all my dances with them were a joy. Being touched by the hand of Franck and experiencing Tiger Pant’s wiggle up close sigh ! The girls were delightful too – just ask KPS !

Finally, to add a little bit of balance to my 5-star glowing report of the weekend, there were two not-so-good parts. The first was the looooong drive up – but hey, even Mike Ellard would struggle to have any influence over the M6 (but I’m sure he is working on it) and second was the state of the toilets. Surely it wouldn’t take too much time and effort to fix a leaky pipe and fit a couple of missing doors (the same ones that were missing, back in March) ?

[Little Feet]

Am I the only person that did see cliques - particularly in the main room? Seems so...perhaps I am just not brave enough to approach certain people or just don't know the people involved, so perceived them as cliquey.

Didn't impact on my enjoyment of the weekend at all, I'd rather just ignore the cliques. Music was fantastic, had lovely dances and was great to see old faces and make some new friends. Didn't do much in the way of workshops as it was just too gorgeous outside to be inside, though I did enjoy Tom and Sarah's breaks workshop. Can I also praise the Scottish dancers I met for generally being lovely, friendly and fantastic! Must get up that way more...

Liked some of the stuff that Standout dancewear had on sale too, nice selection of tops and trousers. Saw several people wearing my new trousers on Sat night!

Was just a shame to leave on the Sunday, but at least I left on a good note (with a light tan!)

[Lost Leader]

Reflecting a little more on the SP experience I came to the conclusion that I probably had fewer dances overall than at the same event last year (not that I was keeping a count mind). The reason for this was simply the heat - you had to take more breaks / sit out more tracks than normal and you tended to dance in shorter bursts, especially during the day. The heat also kept me out of the main room more than normal so I missed those that like to dance mainly in there.

Partly due to the heat factor I missed out on dancing with quite a few people I wanted to dance with which was a shame. Then again I know more people than a year ago so the list of people I want to dance with is getting longer - and I still love to make new discoveries so I never dance just with the folks that I know.

Try as you might, at these big week-enders you just can't dance with everyone you would like to.

[batnurse]

Well I had a fabulous time! Lovely to meet so many forumites, just a few that spring to mind -
Barry Shnikov: We meet at last!
Lost Leader: No, I don't have a dirty laugh
DTS: Never been bitten before during a dance
KPS: Who caught me, Battlecat and Firefly stalking the chalets looking for the chocolate orgasm party, honest...
MarcF: took me all weekend to pluck up the courage to ask for a dance, but it was worth it!

Highlights for me were having so many great dances. Spent most of my time in the blues room but did venture into the main room for a few fast tracks. All of the gorgeous Scottish boys were, as usual, a pleasure to dance with - and it was a novelty not to have to form an orderly queue! Great to dance with lots of new men too. Did an excellent Double Trouble WS with Gamebird and Wuzzle, thank you both. Had a fun impromptu WCS lesson with Sindbad and Spartak Lad, I promise I'll get the hang of it next time The five way tag with Tiger Pants, DTS, Batgirl and Mr Darcy was a hoot

Not many downs - I didn't do as many workshops as I'd have liked, I hurt my knee on Sunday, and the blues room didn't play nearly as many slow tracks as I'd hoped. Was it just me or are the blues rooms north of the border much more... bluesy? Maybe we're spoilt by having Franck and Sheena teaching such excellent classes? If anyone gets the chance to do their blues weekender - go for it, Kirriemuir was a revelation! Having said that, did have a few slow, snuggly micro-blues dances with The Whale and Franck, thank you boys
All in all, an amazing weekend and an experience I hope to repeat soon.

[jive-vee]

I had a blast! Great chalet mates, friends old and new, great weather, fab bbq and spacehopper fun, pear cider, great dancers and great dances, group hugs/grinds - all good!

Personally I loved the fact that the bbq was from 1-9. I loved the fact that we could just go and chill out in the sunshine for as long/little as we wanted. Normally I'm all about the dancing but the great weather meant it was too hot to dance as much as I normally would, and the great company and fun atmosphere meant that I didn't feel I was missing out by not dancing all day.

I loved the fact I got to dance with Tiger Pants again - although it always leaves me wanting more It was great to be able to dance a mixture of jive, blues, AT and WCS over the weekend in all of the rooms. I had two quality dances to Low - one on the Sat with a male friend, one on the Sun with a female friend - both awesome.

The breakfast club (and hours leading up to it) on Sun morning was hilarious - so random.

Also fab was the group hug/grind on the Friday night and my dance with Joe and KPS.

The only minor downsides for me (other than it ending) was that there were a few faces missing (but then I made new discoveries so ) and the music in the mainroom from about 2am onwards just wasn't up to the standard I've come to love and expect. I usually love that time of night as there is a fab bunch of fast 'n' funky dancers in there, space to dance and usually quality motown/disco/cheesy classics that just make me want to dance. I still enjoyed dancing in all three rooms over the course of the weekend, I was just a little frustrated not to hear the type of music that normally really perks me up in the main room.

But overall, as I've said, I had a blast!

[Caz]

Another late review...

Just reading this I realise that I missed many forumites this weekend.. Didn't see them around or just missed them in general....Sorry to everyone I missed

Had a mixed weekend overall..

Highs

• Dancing til 5 a.m. every night (giving in to sleep but enjoyed getting some actual sleep on a weekender)
• Space Hopper day - thanx Mark and Lynsey and Happy B for being a great team captain
• Chocolate Orgasms - thanx KPS - amazing
• Seeing so many friends and catching up
• Finally making it to the beach on Sunday for a sun bathe and a swim

Lows

• Pulling knee / leg whilst hoppering so missing out on lots of dances Sat night / Sunday - high point was that I managed to socialise a lot more than usual
• Being really quite tired all weekend and having less stamina than usual
• Missing out dancing with several people - due to injuries etc
• Having a huge loss in confidence this weekend - being shy to approach people (who I would normally ask for dances) but nice to have some of my local crowd around as a comfort blanket for those low periods

General points

• Did like the sparkly wrist bands - was only saying to friends on the way there in the car that we should have sparkly wrist bands!
• Found this weekend more sociable than others.. probably the heat causing people to chat as well as dance dance dance
• Thanx to Rhythm King for booking me on the weekender and for sharing pasta and being a great chalet mate.

err.. think that is all i wanted to say for now.. other than the tango guy is a guy called Richard from Portsmouth.. met him at Camber in November ? when he had a huge hat on and was in the blues room.. he is an amazing dancer.. he can even make me tango (in a fashion ) and a brilliant giggle.

Hope to see some of the people I missed at Skegness - when my knee / leg will hopefully be healed from the hopper accident (my own fault.. falling off the hopper even before the races had begun!)

[marko]

Bit late I know but we have just got back after an extended stay in Southport (seemed a pity to waste the great weather).

What a superb weekend. All the positive posts before have said it all really. Just wanted to add our thanks to Franck & Sheena for the Waffle party (best waffle ever Sheena!), Rachel for playing the great Al Green in the blues room, Fletch for a lovely dance and sharing the story about the 'man at the bar' and to all the lovely ladies who danced with me and made the weekend special. I just wish I knew all your names to mention here. But to you all

Also, great to meet up with all the folks from Scotland again. Hope some of you will be at Edinburgh in a couple of weeks.

Looking forward to Southport-October already...

[DavidY]

Looks like the official photos are up...
http://www.cerocpix.com/index.php?ca...H_2009&start=0

[Froggy]

Didn't do much in the way of workshops as it was just too gorgeous outside to be inside, though I did enjoy Tom and Sarah's breaks workshop.

Thanks so much for the mention, I can honestly say I had a blast teaching that class with Tom and I'm really pleased you enjoyed it, thanks for coming along!!

xx

[Easily Led]

Now I have finally recovered and done the washing I think I can more objectively assess the weekend. Overall it was probably quite similar to previous JA weekenders I have been to there. I did think that there was a generally younger crowd and obviously more beginners. The only complaint I heard was about a lack of advanced type classes but since I only made it to one class this wasn't an issue for me. I thought the music was as good as if not better than previously - although it would have been excellent to have CJ on the decks. The weather was fantastic - although I found it too hot to really enjoy dancing in the afternoon. I was amazed to find it felt like about mid afternoon at after 5 on Sunday (something to do with being further north?).

It wasn't my best ever Southport but that was more about me than the organisation etc. How come no one has said anything about the chalets this time?

Anyway for me the highlights were:

• my wristband matching my nail varnish/outfits (how did they know)
• being inexplicably popular on Friday night.
• 2 dances I had in the Latin room (sock man and stranger)
• Rachel's sets
• a steal dance with Jive Crazy and Steven666 to you both
• the coffee break on the way up
• the resultant emergency stop that had to be made for one traveller!
• CJ suddenly appearing on Saturday
• Georgious dancer for several dances
• Frank and Sheena's class
• Classes transmitted to the rooms
• Seeing a weekender virgin have a good time with the ladies -such a flirt!
• Meeting Batnurse (petite and pretty) and Barry S (see below)

Lows were:

• Missing the best bits of the barbeque and only getting to meet a couple of new people - although one was Barry S (don't think I saw him again though)
• Sunday from about 5pm onwards
• Being too lazy to go to the beach
• Being too tired to do everything I wanted to - like stay up until morning just to see if it is as good as everyone says!

[Donna]

Well what can I say, the Ceroc weekenders are always a treat aren't they.

Had a fantastic time and lots of fun in the sun with friends, sipping on wine and vanilla vodka (thanks josh), spacehopping, dancing. Some great dancers out there, lots of new faces, great music, fab weather.. that's all you need really! Sun, fun, friends, drink, good dancers. I could do it all over again, and thanks to some close friends for making my birthday a very special one. Thanks guys.x xxx