Southport June 2005 - The Aftermath

[Dreadful Scathe]

I just thought of a negative - a couple of female friends complained about innapropriate touching a.k.a groping by a couple of guys. Anyone else experience this? Its a real shame as that sort of thing can spoil what would otherwise have been a perfect weekend!

[Little Monkey]

I just thought of a negative - a couple of female friends complained about innapropriate touching a.k.a groping by a couple of guys. Anyone else experience this? Its a real shame as that sort of thing can spoil what would otherwise have been a perfect weekend!

Yes, unfortunately...... I danced with one very drunk guy in the bluesroom on Saturday night (morning?? ), who made sure to 'accidentaly' brush against my chest, grope my bum etc. I very nearly punched him, but decided to just stalk off the dance floor instead. But everyone else I danced with were lovely!

LM

[djtrev]

I coudn't understand why every, and I mean every, partner that I danced with in the main room couldn't follow my lead on a variation of the Neck Break.
I have just been on to the guy that does my teaching and he tells me it was a move that him and his partner had come up with.No wonder no bugger knew what I was doing.

[Minnie M]

I coudn't understand why every, and I mean every, partner that I danced with in the main room couldn't follow my lead on a variation of the Neck Break.
I have just been on to the guy that does my teaching and he tells me it was a move that him and his partner had come up with.No wonder no bugger knew what I was doing.

I think that must have been the move Wes tried on me, I thought he was trying to strangle me with my own arms he kept telling me to relax I didn't know what relax had to do with dancing with him, he is a good dancer and a thorough nice chap, why should I be stressed dancing with him then the penny dropped and I relaxed my arms more - what a silly move

[Simon]

that's not very nice it was her birthday yesterday , you must be nice to our Angel (must get to bed zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

She's reached a good age (two weeks after I did!). But I was teased with the rumour of a birthday celebration involving 3 gorgeous girls, champagne and chocolates. Sadly no invite for me!

Was so tired driving home that I was pinching my leg to keep my eyes open until we got to the M5 and swopped drivers (very bad!). But this was only 2 hours after I finally plucked up the courage to ask Tatiana to dance so maybe my dreamy state is understandable! (At the end of my dance she complimented me on my shirt! The ropey WCS probably wasn't worth a comment!). By the way, great set from John (who he?) on Sunday am. Full of good soul tracks.

Big thanks, too, to my chalet mates (Janice, Keeley and Nick). Spent a lot of the weekend crying with laughter. Terrific fun.

[Minnie M]

......... I finally plucked up the courage to ask Tatiana to dance

Noooooooooo..... I wish I had been there to watch that your WCS IMO is the best lead of all us mear mortals even a certain Frenchman admired it - mind you Dale (sorry Groovy Dancer) and Tat

Big thanks, too, to my chalet mates (Janice, Keeley and Nick). Spent a lot of the weekend crying with laughter. Terrific fun.

Hmmmm..... didn't we know it, we were next door and they didn't invite us in

By the way, great set from John (who he?) on Sunday am. Full of good soul tracks.

DJ supremo Dance Demon

[Dance Demon]

By the way, great set from John (who he?) on Sunday am. Full of good soul tracks.
:

T'was me Simon. It wasn't planned that way. I had been asked before I went on after the Legendary Peter Phillips ...if I would play some WCS stuff, so I obliged with some swingin blues. Then I played "Guilty" by Al Green, and things just sort of turned quite souly after that. A lot of the tunes in that set were personal favourites of mine...like Groovin' by the Young Rascals, but it just seemed to fit the occasion, and the West Coast swingers had a ball...especially Jordan and Tatiana, who were just awesome to watch .......I will probably post some more of my thoughts later, but too tired at the mo...all these early morning sets have taken their toll...got home with the help of Pro plus... ..

[Danielle]

Wanted to say a big Thank you to everyone there this weekend.

Had an amazing time, was totally inspired by so many amazing dancers there, if not a little intimidiated have booked for september and am planning to get some serious practise in first (hopefully then i won't be a total chicken and spend all night working up the nerve to ask for one dance!!!)

I also thought the attitude of many of the teachers and top dancers there was brilliant, very approachable and happy to dance even with relative beginners like me

Highlights were, well our BBQ!!!! thanks Vince for your amazing cocktails!

Jordan and Tatiana who were so approachable and put so much time into to helping absolutely everyone with there dancing.

Marc and Rachel who (as well a being such a lovely couple) were dancing all the time, really inventive and put lots of effort into every dance with everyone - they looked like the were having a ball all weekend!!

being able to watch so many fantastic dancers!!

And Peter Phillips Awesome 4some class - i haven't laughed that much in a ages, excellent entertainment!!

Ok this list is going on a bit now ...............i loved the whole thing everyone there was brilliant!!!

Thanks John and Wes!!!

[foxylady]

What fabuous weekend !
I had a ball !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too many highlights to mention every one, but absolutely loved Dance Demon's set on Sunday night/Monday morning.... dreamstate dances to dreamstate music.......:swoon:

Forum bbq ,and cocktails was a blast. Huge thanks to SilverFox for reasons multifarious, but especially for letting me be his helper... I had such fun...

Thanks to the many gorgeous and glorious men that allowed me to wrap myself around them in the name of dance...

and thanks to Sparkles for persuading me I should go to Southport in the first place

and how lovely to find that John (of John and Wes) was the same John that I went on a ceroc holiday in barcelona with several years ago.... I had no idea.
Superb weekend John and Wes !!!

and despite dancing till all hours last night, and a long drive home (albeit with Lory entertaining me the whole way ) I still feel wide awake and wonder why I'm not out dancing !!!

Foxy

Oh, and Dale, sir , you are a gentleman !

[Minnie M]

I'M SOOOOOO UPSET! AND A MISSED NICKY HASLAM AND ROBERT WINTERS!!!!

Come to MJC they are there the weekend after next 24th June - not long to wait

(wish Jordon & Tat could be with us a little longer great teachers, amazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing dancers and quite happy to dance and mix with all of us in the freestyle - watching them freestyle felt like our own personal cabaret - wow, wow and wow again )

Oh, and Dale, sir , you are a gentleman !

[Yogi_Bear]

[QUOTE=jivecat]*Doing that swapping partner thingy (much more innocent than it sounds) with Lynn, Ian & Marc in the blues room. I've never done that before.
QUOTE]Ditto to that - many thanks to Lory and Zebra Woman and ?(sorry, forgotten) for the swapping partner dance, and thanks to Lory for letting me drape her across the railings...

[Yogi_Bear]

Back eventually after the scenic route through the Peak District.
So many superlatives about the weekend - just one for now....Jordan and Tatiana

[drathzel]

Just back. So tired I nearly drove over a roundabout just outside Southport. Bad bad bad. . . . Still, all absolutely worth the fatigue. I had an amazing time. Meeting the lovely forumites made it for me I have to say.

I think i made it just out of southport before falling asleep...no i wasnt driving!

It was nice to meet forumites that we didnt know before. Smooth i still dont know who u are...did we dance? I havent a clue who i danced with from the forum so if you danced with me and know it then thanks!

As a souhtport virgin i didnt know what to expect but it was a fab weekend and i made it to the end friday and sat nights and 5 am on sun (was ill and had to go sleep) It was such an experience (including being roped into, ever so nicely, pressing the play button and sound buttons for Marc and Rachel's Cuban blues class!) and i dont know what to do with myself tonight...ne one up for a dance?

[drathzel]

I just thought of a negative - a couple of female friends complained about innapropriate touching a.k.a groping by a couple of guys. Anyone else experience this? Its a real shame as that sort of thing can spoil what would otherwise have been a perfect weekend!

Yes unfortunately. I was in the main ballroom on sunday night. The guy spent the whole dance looking down my top or doing moves that involved stoping me by my breasts. Grrr...... however mad i was i did not let it stop my fab weekend

[Minnie M]

...............made it to the end friday and sat nights and 5 am on sun

I stayed till 6am Sunday morning my feet couldn't any longer only to find it finished at 6:45am

[Lory]

Where do i start

Firstly I'd like to thank FoxyLady, for first class chauffeuring, I knew from the minute we headed off, the smooth drive was the start of a sublimely smooth weekend!
Great Cd's from Sparkles, made specially for the journey, plus lot's of gossip and singing and expectations verbalised, helped to set the perfect mood!


Angelique, as always, was a complete nutter, to share with! Pure entertainment! (she's great at washing up too ) Hmm, I'd like to know who she was dancing with, when she told me she was dancing in the 'upstairs room' most of the night

Franck and Sheena. ... phwoar, how did you know that hot Nachos and a beer, was exactly what I needed at 6-30am on Sunday morning, on my way back to the chalet? I went home a very happy and contented bunny!

Classes; I confess, I know it's silly with the calibre of teachers there but I only managed three, I was burning the candle at both ends as it was.

But a huge thanks to Phil (Hey, I know your a forum voyeur, creep ) for doing J&T's WCS with me and to the lovely Mr Fitz for being the perfect partner for the Blues and Aussie close moves!

I've had so many wonderful dances, in fact, I only had ONE bad one all weekend (yes, I think I got the same very drunk, gropper on Friday/Sat too, that was the reason I left so early... 5-30am)

I thought the all Cabaret showcases were awesome, (how the hell did Jorden catch Tatiana's head inches from the floor, after doing four unassisted spins ) its just a shame that the bits in the middle were so cringeworthy!

Underpar had one of the best costumes yet again this time IMO but to all those who made extra special efforts, it really added to the atmosphere!

The BBQ; WOW how perfect was that? The sun was shinning, DJ TWK's music filling the air, along with the lovely cooking smells, duvets spread en masse om the grass, Silverfox, impressing us all with his 'Cocktail flaring' skills and we even had our very own fire juggler! And best of all, friends, old and new enjoying a good giggle together!

Back to the dancing, I keep having flashbacks to certain moments and I can't contain the smile, I really don't want to mention anyone individuals because I'm bound to forget someone and I'd be totally mortified, cos as I said, you guys and you KNOW who you are, are just fabulous! I was made to feel sooo special!

Music, need I say it..... the early mornings AND the lunchtime sets, were just pure ambrosia.


Someone asked what happened when the last song was played at 6-30ish? Well, the last remaining hard-core nutters, all cheered and clapped and then asked for MORE....and they got it!

Then some of us had a group stretch (which I reckon should be official)


I must make a quick apology to everyone who got a full blast of my singing, I just can't help it, as I've sad before, I sing when I'm happy! To SimonR, I know you love it really!

Wes and John, Well done guys, you've done it again, (you can get some sleep now)!

My only concern for next time is, that the Blues room might have out grown its self, anyone else agree?

[MartinHarper]

Thanks to everyone who danced with me, and a particular thanks to Minnie for getting me to socialise with the forum folks despite my best efforts to hide away in the big room.

We've talked a bit elsewhere about reviews and such, so a few thoughts:

Jordan and Tatiana did a great job on WCS and Hustle. I loved Jordan's precise teaching - I always felt I knew exactly what I should be doing, even if I wasn't yet capable of doing it. Slick class management, too. For me, they taught the best classes of the weekend.

I was impressed with Nigel and Nina's Blues class, but my expectations were very high after so many positive comments on the forum and elsewhere, and they didn't quite meet those expectations. It felt like they were hampered by the sheer scale of the audience, so I'll look out for their names on other, smaller, events.
The "Turbo Jive" class by N&N was... different. I particularly liked the demonstration of a complex move done to fast music. I disliked the routine they taught - it felt too much like Lindy. I was expecting to learn how to dance MJ to fast music, not how to inflict swing on unsuspecting MJ followers...
N&N also did a "Spinning and Style" class, which turned out to be more like "spinning, because falling over is unstylish". This I liked - it went along at a brisk but non-scary pace, lots of excellent advice and exercises. Despite Nina's comments about the goodness of men spinning, I'll steer clear of double spins when I'm leading. It makes followers frowny.

Amir's Jango was good. Still can't do it. It's a fabulous dance to look at, but I'm not sure how realistic it is to attempt to learn it solely from weekend events.
I was impressed by Viktor's class on men's styling. He was very good at going back over what he'd taught earlier, so I felt like there was a higher chance of some of it sticking. More stuff to practice in front of a mirror...

I liked the look of the "Funky Jive" that James and Melanie taught - it came with a definate style, and it all seemed to fit together nicely. Personally, I wasn't a fan of a couple of the moves they used ("Pretzel Pulse", and some move with the lady ducking whilst spinning), but I still enjoyed the class.
Lead/follow was sometimes sketchy. I was never clear on the lead for the start of the "Pulse". Also, I thought they could have placed a little more emphasis on the "C bumps" being lady-led. There was one woman in the class who had a superb lead for it, but I didn't feel the others lead. I suspect the guys were anticipating too much, me included.

I did a couple of solo classes: the warm-up Charleston from Sue Freeman, and a "Funky Street Dance" from Brady and Lindsay. Both great fun. I particularly liked Sue's energy and enthusiasm - very welcome in a wake-up class. On a similar note, Paul and Catriona's "US Nightclub two step" class served as a nice cool-down class prior to dinner.

I thought scheduling a double trouble class at the same time as a ladies only style class may have been a mistake, particularly given the whole event's positive attitude to fixed parners. I took the opportunity to have a wander around instead, so it didn't bug me too much.

Sleep is good.

[stewart38]

Ok still very good etc etc but


Too many men

Awesome foursome involved lines of men holding hands what was that all about didn’t wait to find out

Another class I attended half walked off mid way through

Not sure if a cabaret should be about asking 3 guys stripping of for Mickey’s pants? Surprise surprise they didn’t do it. If you can’t fill an hour reduce it to 30 mins or bring in a Spot line routine etc or another performer?

Queue for drinks very long sometimes

[Sparkles]

After catching up on some of my sleep I just have to say what a great weekend I had!

It was so nice to meet up with so many forumites (although I still seem to have missed a lot of you – hopefully we’ll meet soon) and dance with so many wonderful people.

Thank you to Franck and Sheena for putting up with me during the day on Saturday – and I should have been a good girl and put my sunscreen on , I’ll know better next time.

Big to both Sheepman and TWK for their sets – brilliant music as always (and next time I will most definitely wear trousers to dance in the latin room! ). DD and Trampy never disappoint me with their sets, thank you guys . I definitely agree though that the DJ schedule should be billed just as the teachers classes are – maybe John and Wes would be able to include that in the booklet next time (please!).

The forum BBQ and cocktail party was great, thanks to SilverFox, Lory and Danielle for organising it! I especially enjoyed it when the guys decided to keep us warm when the sun went down – best ‘hot water bottle’ in the world!

I’m so proud of myself for asking Jordan to dance. The hardest part was walking up to him and asking him, he’s a fantastic lead and so even with my limited knowledge of WCS I really enjoyed our dance. I’m really annoyed that I missed KGD and Sheepy dancing with Tatiana though – and the impromptu freestyle J&T did on Sunday – I would have really liked to see that.

I didn’t experience any inappropriate touching (I kind of expect it from Aleks so she doesn’t count!). The only negatives I would say were the limited number of bar staff in the blues room – it was taking on average 20mins just to get a drink (and some people were complaining of much longer waits), and the hideous ‘extras’ during the cabaret – there was no need for some of it, I wanted to see the professionals dancing and that’s it! It was so hot in there that Sal and I thought we were going to pass out, and I know it ruined RK’s back to be standing still for so long. Next time please cut the non-sense and let us get on with the dancing.

Thank you to Foxylady for a great journey (and for not getting upset with me when I fell asleep in the car).

S. x

[Lynn]

I stayed till 6am Sunday morning my feet couldn't any longer only to find it finished at 6:45am

Yep! I had taken my shoes off thinking it was all finishing - ended up dancing barefoot with Ian and Marc doing that swappy thing. They are so good that!!