Ceroc at Camber Sands, March 2015

There was much to commend about this event:

• The Bronze highlight of the weekend was a decent patch of weather that didn't give us the snow, floods or continuos driving rain we'd had in previous years
• Stu had constructed some of the most elegant fairy light arches to be seen this side of Disneyworld in the bar.  Gaff tape was - he said  - a vital ingredient. This was the silver medal highlight of the weekend.
• Gold highlight was a chalet dance which beautifully realised some challenging music with a smile that lit up the room. Such dances fill the heart.
• In other news it was less difficult to find space to dance than at a summer Camber.
• The music was, on the whole, good from all quarters - I particularly loved Rachel Pears Blues set which was wonderful paced, taking us down to some very old fashioned slow blues.
• In the bar area, music was more variable but Mark Kerr filled the room with love and energy, as did Denise Jacques, though in a very different way. Some of the DJs should have been sacked but none seems to much care about that any more.

Sadly, there was also that familiar desultory attitude to fellow dancers which we'd seen at Southport.  Anti social behaviour was a tad more varied: ranging from a group which filled the hardwood floor too much of the S'Funk set dancing in a large circle, to the usual floor-hugging drink carriers, vague ditherers and yet another example of filming on the dance floor rather than off it, by a man who had a crutch with him - a colossal trip hazard on a dance floor.

In the main room much of the dancing betrayed lack of experience - no harm in that, but the number of dancers striving to do moves they struggled to complete suggests this was about impressing rather than relaxing.  I'm all for flashing dancing (though I'm incapable of it) but it isn't in everyone's grasp.  There's rarely the same buzz around the front of the stage as there used to be.  Teachers seldom come out in groups to show us how it is properly done and demonstrate what social dancing at the highest level can look like on a crowded floor, to banal music or with a newbie partner. The metropolitan set at the front didn't hit the heights of yesteryear but there were signs of restraint and elegance in their midsts.

The Chill Out Room - with inspiring sets from Moore, Turner, Hewitt-Green and Baker - was more musically fulfilling for me - though some of the same problems remained as people struggled in a deep end when they could have managed quite well dancing within their means.  Badly lit and poorly ventilated you make think it a den for slow dancers but even with the music at dead slow, some were dividing the beat into fast Ceroc moves, though in some cases not dividing it by the same number each bar....  I remember some sage advice for slow rooms - no matter what speed you start off, slow it down, keep it simple and all of the time, listen to the music.

But having said that I had some lovely dancers and for every dancer who was missed, there were new dancers to be found.

There's been some calls since the event to get more dancing during the day - which I support, but we've been here before and when there have been new rooms laid on they haven't been utilised.  I imagine more teachers need rooms for private lessons now in addition.  The  calls for more classes are likely to be equally loud.

The bigger issue remains - with so few dancers coming down to Romney Marsh one wonders if this event can survive at all.  The rush of cars for the gate from 4pm on Sunday and the so called 'survivors" photo - suggest a short weekend might be a better deal.