Mindpoke dance

It's a mark perhaps of how little I'm dancing that the last thing I wrote about was the June Weekender at Southport. But it's a surprise to me that I'm writing anything at all.... I should first off point out that I am booked on the next Southport weekender in Spring 2018 - these are the only weekenders I do now and 2018 will be my tenth year. But I should also say even before I made the journey to the Fylde coast - I had decided that September 2017 was to be my last weekender.  Years of weekenders have taken their toll - I was jaded and more than a little bit cautious of a future that contain fewer friendly faces, more poor floorcraft and a diminishing return in terms of music, dancing and clean and comfortable accommodation.  All of those things were reinforced by my most recent visit - but my determination to ride this storm was tested and I came out the other side clearer where the value is.  Some will ask why I don't stop banging my head against this wall, ...

Southport June 2017 A glance at the cars parked at this Southport showed an more affluent group in attendance than in my early years here.  Sure enough a quick scan of the photos shows a higher average age.  The dance floors are emptying earlier in the evening, the fastest tracks are not as fast as the early years of Ceroc and the young people are in a distinct minority. The dynamics have changed too.  The teachers and their demos mandated to do cabarets, power hours and earn money were understandably more scare on the dance floor.  Their work takes priority over their pleasure.  Their job is different nowadays - I think it takes it's toll.  But there were plenty of GREAT dancers there. Pontin's staff were on the whole jollier.  Our chalet was clean(ish) but the floor was a maze of tree roots - Middle Earth self-catering - one wonders if the entire block will need to come down! The weather was due to be dreadful - a potent burst of optimism on ...

The Beach at Tynemouth A weekender by a beach, with two rooms of workshops with great teachers and freestyle music for 48 hours, 20 minutes from a buzzing city and the same from an area of great natural beauty. Fine restaurants, pubs and cafes all around and a group of welcoming local dancers from Newcastle and groups from Yorkshire and Scotland. Tynemouth was traditional the holiday destination of workers from Glasgow but it has a lot more to it than a getaway from 20th century industrial labour.  A priory, a port and public school give away other aspects of the early pre-holiday destination history of this great stretch of the English coastline.  It's now a mix of well-to-do commuters, artists and artisans and holiday makers. Cullercoats The Park Hotel was for those of us who stayed there something of a mixed bag - my room was clean, comfy and always warm.  Others got less then they paid for...not Ceroc's fault but I think an under-estimation of the size ...

Southport: Swing It's rather sad to see how much of a blog post written 8 months ago still rings true after a weekend at the Fylde seaside in turbulent February weather and after a sunny sojourn to the Sussex border in March. I last wrote about Southport here (last June)  http://mindpokedance.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/summer-ceroc-southport-2016.html  about such matters as the Pontin's upkeep of the site which this time was I think worse for the winter lay off.  Some chalets were filthy.  The site was a bit of a wreck - in our block there was a cable partially rolled up at the bottom of the stairs! Sodden tissues of unknown origin scattered around the bins and bits of the shuttering on our block blew off during the stay.  By contrast the chalet at Camber was in better nick except for the much missed sofa bed which suffered from an unfortunate stuffing droop similar to the one the Scottish Rugby team exhibited on the Saturday afternoon.   This Southpo...

Given that many a dancer's internet forum serves about as much clarity as a three year old a megaphone, I thought it was time that I expanded the conversation on social dancing into areas where many won't tread, or because of their bizarre rules on posting can't tread.  So here are five conversations we could be having but we don't... 1) where are all the people with disabilities in dancing?  We know why they might be put off, but we also now that there is both commercial sense and genuine appreciation of dancers with disabilities.  We have teachers in our midsts, we have perfectly good venues (deposit what some might suggest) and we have stacks of dancers eager to dance with people with disabilities (hidden or visible).  But they don't come.  What does that say about us? 2) we have still not stopped idiot men "teaching" on the dance floor and most especially teaching drops.  How is this acceptable on a dance ...

Your correspondent Stephen North has been floating around competitions for too many years.  I competed once and had to stop because it made my eyes water. I am fascinated by the process, the atmosphere, the venues and the huge variations in definitions of what good dancing is.   This latter varies with time and place and to a certain extent to how competitive the event is.  I've been to comps in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Manchester, Birmingham and each time I'm struck how hard people try to catch that most elusive thing - the perfect dance. Northern Champs this year - under the auspices of Ceroc Addiction, move dot the very splendid Town Hall in Hyde complete with its turn of the last century ceramics intact in the entrance and spacious acoustic and lovely fast floor.  The hall was built 1883-84 and one can imagine thousands of functions there.  Less easy to imagine today are the police cells and magistrates court in the building where murderer...

This blog is one of an occasional commentary on dance events I attend. I'm not affiliated in any way to the dance organisers, I've been to all of the Southport weekenders since Ceroc took over the venue from Jive Addiction in August 2008, including Jive Addiction's last event.  As I've commented before, it is interesting to see how patterns of behaviour have changed.  More people arrive later in the day nowadays - partially because roads seems to be more congested and also because I think more people only leave after work rather than taking the day off.  Similarly more people, it seems, leave on Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening.  I think the age of the participants is changing upwards and the expectation of the customers is changing too.  Summer SP is normally pretty well gender balanced but this year that seemed to go awry and I was very aware that some of the best female dancers in the country were sitting out through lack of partners.  It woul...