Mindpoke dance

We might imagine all was well in the centre of Sheffield this Thursday.  A city centre funfair attracted lots of families to enjoy something akin to a seaside prom experience a mere 60 miles away from the chilly North Sea.  But there were three concerns behind this festive offering: the social, the economic and the public health and they illustrate the position in dance right now. There was a palpable sense of relief and joy for parents to get their kids some break from the reminders of isolation which has so badly effected so many lives.  There was some relief that punters were in the city centre spending money in the lucky business in the area.  The balance between health/wellbeing and illness were difficult still for some but for many straightforward.  It was sunny and hot, an outdoor event and health and safety measures were in place.  Of course I don't know how many chose to stay away or had to stay away.  How many, I wonder, still stayed indoors ...

A weekend at Ceroc Southport reminds me that modern jive is a social dance...but only sometimes. This account of a Ceroc dance weekend will be my last as the waves of positivity and utter claptrap overwhelm me elsewhere in reviews on the internet and in social media. There were some very good bits to this weekender. I enjoyed it a great deal. Many of the songs in many of the sets in the Boudoir were very good, too few of the dancers did them justice, because there's the problem and here's my take on it. The trend toward slower, simplified music drags dancers down to a place where dancing is merely moving on the beat.  Some songs subsist on a diet lacking harmonic complexity, syncopation, melodic line over a dozen or so bars or intricate instrumentation.  This low calorie music is not the realm of the 20th Century minimalist composers like Adams and Reich, but a series of predictable notes which sound right even in the wrong order ( pace Morecambe and Wise).  Swi...

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...

So it's time to get to the heart of Breeze - a week and a bit on. To be fair I hardly danced and also to be fair one tiny thing put my completely weekend out of kilter. More of later. There's been some startlingly candid and unintentionally comical comment on the music - most of it more heat than light except where it was blowing smoke.  The debate revealed the contradictions of the whole business of change (and indeed the change in business).  It was interesting to read and note the blunt edged approach to what the people paying for the event think. That aside for a while, it was a weekend of the usual suspects provided high standards of musical choice though some were hampered by low standard of fidelity.  There were random bits of brilliance but nadirs were also achieved including an ear-bleeding cover version which should remain well under cover. As I have said elsewhere there wasn't nearly enough slow stuff for my liking on Friday or Saturday night.  Thi...

The generals of the Roman empire reported back to their emperor that everything was going well.  They were the last to notice when their empire started to collapse from within.  Futile expeditions, wasteful extravagance, expensive wars, decentralised control of the provinces, integration with local cultures and barbarians at the frontiers all lead to the empire collapsing.  But the main thing was that nobody knew whilst it was happening. There's been no time in the history of modern commerce when companies have had such short lives - the turnover of the FTSE 100 is much greater than it has ever been before.  Companies which thrive generally do so by diversifying from the core business and having every now and then root and branch overhaul of products that are not selling so well.  Sometimes they move to selling something else (more money to be made from printers when no one has them, when everyone has one make money from printer ink).  Business models nee...

I rarely post on this blog nowadays - nothing much changes in dancing, but I'm moved to write on this topic because something very important happened this weekend. Welsh Champs has expanded since it's early days and is now as much a test of endurance and ingenuity as it is pure dancing.  Virtually everyone to whom I spoke was thrilled but exhausted by the end of a day which finished at 1am.  The stakes were high though as competition goes there was a great deal of camaraderie.  These factors heightened the drama of last Saturday night and as a result dancing competitions just became a bit more grown up. They do say you find out what people are really like under pressure and in adversity. And so it was at this Championship where the judges started tentatively but finished vigorously arguing for more discipline from the competitors.  Video's were reviewed and some competitors were ruled out for transgressions.  The results came and one team was relegated...

Northern Champs 2015 Cerco Addiction's Northern Champs - a midsummer party  and dance competition combined hit the ground running last year with a three day even that many regarded with great fondness and this years was event has been keenly anticipated.  It wasn't just the innovations and enthusiasm of the crew - it was in truth a different kind of championship.  A championship where sitting outside with an ice cream was to be enjoyed as much the intricacies of picking a winner in Lucky Dip. Relaxed, confident and still competitive. So there was much expected of this year's event and it brought dancers from London, Scotland, Essex, Wales and the South West so the players are set for a good battle for medals. It started this evening (as I write at 3am) with a superlative freestyle where Sheena Assiph provided a play list of the familiar and the extraordinary.  Ceroc Classics mixed with the most challenging tracks one might find.  All good fun - along w...

The evenings are getting lighter, and the nights are warmer and it's time to think about how we are going to spend our time before Southport.  The next BIG thing for dancing folk has to be the ambitious Freestyle Kieran Moore has planned for mid May in Colchester.  In time honoured fashion, I asked him a few questions about what's in store... SN: How are preparations for Prizm going? KM: Preparations are going well for Prizm! We have got a great team that is very enthusiastic and prepared to go the extra mile, to make sure this event is one not to be missed by the dance network. This is the first major event that i have run. I apply the same fundamental rules I work by with running regular freestyles events concentrating on what is best for those looking for a great night of dancing and socialising. It’s all on a much bigger scale. I'm learning new things and taking on much more of a challenge and I find this very exciting! Working with a corporate venue i...