Mindpoke dance

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...

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 DJ...

Most of my weekenders look remarkably like this from about an hour in....until they finish 60 odd hours later.  They are the most fun you can have but they can be daunting.  They are full of great dance enthusiasts and ideal places to combine learning new dance styles and techniques in a concentrated wine.  They are the peak of dancing finesse (or they should be see below). I know that the behind the scenes staff worked very hard to get this Southport event (called Blush for reasons that are unclear until the biting cold of an Irish sea wind brings out your rosy cheeks).  Pontins seem to invest money here and there in this site but it's starting to show signs of wear.  The floors in the pub were grim in places - but mostly manageable.  Not for the first time a layer of cheap varnish proved to be a reminder how not to treat a floor.  That stayed with us as dust most of the weekend.  The cracks and bumps near the bar were an adventure. ...

I don't know much about the technicalities of dancing - as anyone who has seen me dance will know - I have a limited number of moves and I don't really have anything technically challenging in my repertoire.  So I would forgive people for say I know bugger all about dancing, so you may discount my view on dancing in these blogs - but people ask my views and sometimes I think it's easier for me to write them down. Judges say musicality is important for competition dancers. I have spent most of my adult lift striving to study and understand music - and it is one of the most important things in my life - not the kind of music I hear at dancing.  So I decided to write about music and dancing and competitions here.  I promised a blog on musicality because here I see a disjunction between what judges see as important and what is presented to them and to the rest of us on the dance floor. For me the best dances 'dance the music' - they don't dance to it, they ...

I've been to half a dozen dance competitions this year and I've seen some amazing dances and few more thrilling than Gary Stubbs and Jen Hoy who have - it seems to me all the technique one could want to see, the good taste to realise that dancing isn't all about flash moves and the spooky sense of a telepathic link which ensures spontaneity and congruity. But - much as I love them both - they are not the norm So I think it's time I wrote about three things...Connection, Musicality and for want of a better word Reputation.  Not because I know much about dancing or competition but I am happy to write about things talk to me about as issues - this seems to be worse this year than any other. So first, Connection The Ceroc champs website has a lot on it - though it's not called connection - it covers all of those things that we'd pretty much agree we'd want to see, I think, but some which seem to me to be outside of what we mean by connection - here...