Bruce Goes Dancing

[Jazz_Shoes (Ash)]

I throughly enjoyed it and will certainly be parking my backside on the sofa for the latin episode next week.

I especially enjoyed it, however it is making my decision of wether to do Tap or Jazz even harder! And I need to decide by tomorrow!

[David Bailey]

I especially enjoyed it, however it is making my decision of wether to do Tap or Jazz even harder! And I need to decide by tomorrow!

Tap.

There, that was easy.

[Yogi_Bear]

Videotaped the whole thing and watched it last night.....which was great as I could fast forward through the boring stuff. My verdict - better than expected, though I skipped most of the last 20 minutes or so. There was quite a lot of really good archive footage of lindy hoppers, and I'm glad he had a session with the Nicholas brother and Frankie Manning (would like to have seen more of that, but a good clip of Frankie, Sugar and some other Lindy club dancers)...Also some 'never before seen' rehearsal footage of Fred and Ginger

On the whole, I'm looking forward with some anticipation to the latin programme next weekend. Anything that continues to put dance to the forefront and package it for the BBC1 mass audience is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

[Mostlysane]

I thought it was good fun, very enjoyable. it's great to learn a bit about the history of dance.

It's just a shame they've got Brucie presenting. IMHO, he's great for The Generation Game and the strictly program(s). But not the right one for a series like this. He just wouldn't let some of the interviewee's talk, or dance for that matter. It actually started to iritate me after a while. He's an entertainer not a presenter, i hope he's not going to be the Beeb's only choice for anything dance in the future.

Having said that, will certainly watch the next one, it's fascinating to see where these dance styles came from.

[jivecat]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially in the fact that dancing seems to have acted as some sort of miracle youth drug on most of the elderly participants.

[David Bailey]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially in the fact that dancing seems to have acted as some sort of miracle youth drug on most of the elderly participants.

God yes - what was the name of that 90+ year-old guy they showed dancing away, then interviewed? 90-odd, and still dancing better than most of us

[bigdjiver]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially in the fact that dancing seems to have acted as some sort of miracle youth drug on most of the elderly participants.

Seeing what they were doing I suspect that all the weak died young.

[spindr]

God yes - what was the name of that 90+ year-old guy they showed dancing away, then interviewed? 90-odd, and still dancing better than most of us

Ummm,
A wild guess, but could it possibly have been Frankie Manning?

SpinDr.

[Minnie M]

God yes - what was the name of that 90+ year-old guy they showed dancing away, then interviewed? 90-odd, and still dancing better than most of us

Yes it was Frankie Mannie spindr.

Frankie comes to England to teach and dance twice a year at Jumping at the Woodside, Gloscester in April and The Swing Jam. Windsor in August every year. An amazing man

[Lynn]

Must remember to watch next week.

Yeah, I've remembered! Off to watch it now.

And will probably watch Dirty Dancing later (Ch5 8pm) - haven't seen it for years!

[Lynn]

Glad I remembered about it this week, very interesting. Bruce’s younger, glamorous wife – he seems very proud of her, which was sweet.
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I noticed he made a couple of comments of music being too loud and needing to use earplugs (noticed it was the salsa club he found this the biggest problem, I have personally also found volume most of a problem with live salsa bands).

The dancing on the roof in Cuba seemed to be very similar to dancing I have seen in West Africa (I spent a little bit of time with an musicologist who took us to see both traditional and contemporary music - this reminded me of the traditional dancing which is still very much a part of village and community life - eg times of celebration).

And nice to see dancers of different ages around the world - happy, friendly people.
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[Tiggerbabe]

Glad I remembered about it this week

Me too, Lynn.
I enjoyed the programme (despite not being a huge Brucie fan), especially liked the bits where they showed the "new" moves being done years and years ago

[drathzel]

especially liked the bits where they showed the "new" moves being done years and years ago

i really enjoyed that bit too!

[Alykat]

Does anybody in the London/Surrey area have this on video that I can borrow?

I happened to be in Swing 46 (New York) having a Lindy Lesson the night this was being filmed, which was soooo cool.

This meant I saw Frankie Manning dancing. He was amazing as a dancer, let alone as a 91 year old.

I would love to see some of the footage of him dancing again

[Jazz_Shoes (Ash)]

Oh Dear, it seems that I missed the final part of the documentary last night I'm not best pleased, any lovely forumites in the Glasgow area have it taped, and can offer it on loan to me? I promise to give you it back!
Ash x

[Lindsay]

Videotaped the whole thing and watched it last night.....which was great as I could fast forward through the boring stuff. My verdict - better than expected, though I skipped most of the last 20 minutes or so. There was quite a lot of really good archive footage of lindy hoppers, and I'm glad he had a session with the Nicholas brother and Frankie Manning (would like to have seen more of that, but a good clip of Frankie, Sugar and some other Lindy club dancers)...Also some 'never before seen' rehearsal footage of Fred and Ginger On the whole, I'm looking forward with some anticipation to the latin programme next weekend. Anything that continues to put dance to the forefront and package it for the BBC1 mass audience is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone able to post a copy ???
Happy to cover all costs.....

[David Bailey]

I loved it - much more so than last week's.

Some random comments:
- Why oh WHY did the Beeb hide this programme away on the post-Songs of Praise slot? Why not Saturday early evening? It'd make so much more sense - get people in the "dance mood" for SCD next week...
- Oscar Hernandez and his explanation of the basic Latin rhythm was superb.
- Bruce's wife :
- I hope the Mambo Kings show comes to the UK at some point
- Bomba: I'm sorry, that dance does nothing for me...
- Bruce "I've spent six months trying to understand what salsa is..." Heh, haven't we all. If anyone ever does, please let me know.
- "In Cuba, the cha-cha is sexier". Well, duh, isn't everything?
- "HP salsa"
- Benny More: OK, that's the 124th "father of salsa" then...
- Why no mention of Miami?
- I can die happy without ever seeing Bruce Forsythe pole-dancing again.

Great couple of programmes; a bit uneven in places, and I'd have liked it to be a proper series rather than a 2-hander, but lovely to see all the same.

[Lynn]

- Why oh WHY did the Beeb hide this programme away on the post-Songs of Praise slot? Why not Saturday early evening? It'd make so much more sense - get people in the "dance mood" for SCD next week...

I thought that too, esp with Bruce as SCD host and with it being on the week before SCD starts - though they did clearly link it in with the SCD trailer straight after.

[bigdjiver]

There has been an awesome collection of talent and people with dance tales to tell, probably enough to fill a twelve part 30 min series, and we kept seeing Bruce instead.

[CeeCee]

Originally posted by DJ
I can die happy without ever seeing Bruce Forsythe pole-dancing again.

I appreciate that Bruce is keen interested and popular (with some) but poor Brucie seems to have lost the plot. During his chat about 'the Bomba' I was amazed to hear him say (at 17.59 precisely),

"I hope you notice that there are no instruments, it's just drums..."

I'd love to know what Evelyn Glennie has to say about that! He has probably insulted all of the amateur and professional percussionists around the world (if only they were watching the programme).