About Ross Jive and Swing
We all enjoy our dancing socially and our teaching is primarily to have fun, get a bit fitter, meet new people, and learn to dance at your own pace. We are not expecting you to be the next Fred and Ginger. Most people just want to be able to get up and dance something competently at social events. For those of you who are not familiar with these dances let me explain what they are about:-
Modern Jive
This is a very easy to learn partner dance. One leads the dance (usually the man) and the other follows (usually the ladies) – Sorry girls, you have to let the boys be in charge – but it's only while you're dancing! The footwork is fairly simple, so even with two left feet you should have no problem.
The dance is made up of a number of individual moves which can be linked together in any order the leader decides. In the beginners class we usually teach a routine of 2 to 3 moves, we recap on the move we taught the previous week, teach a brand new move and once you are a few weeks into it we add in one of the moves you have learned earlier to make sure you don't forget them. The leaders will find some of the moves they like and others they don't, but there are so many you can just abandon those you are not so fond of. The followers end up with a different dance with every partner as each leader develops their own library of moves.
The Intermediate or Improvers Class still carry on introducing new moves each week, or variations on the old ones, as well as including moves you learned from the very beginning. The routines in this class are usually contain about 4 – 5 moves.
Musically we tend to lean towards the Swing/Rock and Roll type of music rather than the modern type used in many modern jive classes.
The new term starts on SUNDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2010 at Bishopswood Village Hall.
7.00 for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS class.
8.30 for the INTERMEDIATE class.
Practice time 8.00 to 8.30 and 9.30 to 10.00pm
OR THURSDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2010 at Drybrook Memorial Hall.
7.30 for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS class.
08.45 for IMPROVERS class
Practice time 8.30 to 8.45.
Lindy Hop
This swing dance has its roots back in the 20's and most other swing/jive forms are derivatives from this original jive dance. It does take a little more determination to learn at first as the footwork is more precise. However, if you have tried any other partner dances you will recognise many of the moves/shapes and quite a few jive moves are directly transferable to Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop is usually danced, socially, to the slightly slower swing tunes and is a smoother dance that the Jive.
It is a lovely dance which most people, once bitten by the dancing bug, want to learn. We currently run two different levels in these classes; beginners, improvers/intermediates. The beginners first term will be embedding the foot rhythm and learning the core moves. Like the Jive (above) each week we look at a new move or shap and show you how to add it to the others you have learned to build up your repertoire.
The intermediates we assume have a good gasp of the basics (Lindy Turn, Circle, Send Out, Charleston) and are looking for a bit more of a challenge with more complicated routines and learning to dance to some of the faster tunes.
New Term starts on MONDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2010 at Bishopswood Village Hall.
7.00 Absolute Beginners
8.30 Improvers/ Intermediates
Practice time 8.00 to 8.30 and 9.30 to 10.00pm
Practice Nights - see Events Diary
About once a month, usually on a Friday night (occasionally a Saturday), we run a 'Practice Night'. This is not a structured lesson but chance to come along anytime between 7pm and 10pm to work on the moves you learned in class, in your own time. We are on hand to give some individual tuition to fine tune your style, refresh your memory on the moves you can only half remember and it's a chance to see if you can keep going for a whole track! We also attract dancers from classes outside our areas to the practice nights which will give you chance to see how others do it and get to know people you will inevitably meet later at dances.
We provide refreshments and put out the tables and chairs so you can also sit and watch other dancers and socialise too. Again if your single don't worry – you'll get plenty of dances - we are a very friendly bunch.
Dances - see Events Diary
We run a dance about once a month with an increasingly wide variety of dancers turning up. If you haven't been dancing long it is great to sit and watch the more experienced dancers, but don't be surprised when you are asked to dance, after all that's what we are there for. You will find everyone very friendly and experienced dancers are quite happy to dance with you which will help your own dancing immensely – after all they were beginners once too!
Izzy is our resident DJ and she knows her music! She is well respected on the dance scene and is always successful in pulling in the crowds from Gloucester/Cheltenham, Worcester, the Forest and down to Cardiff as well as all our locals.
We supply refreshments which operate on an 'Honesty Bar' basis with people serving themselves, but you are more than welcome to bring your own drinks/snacks
Venues
Practice nights, dances and Sunday and Monday lessons are based at Bishopswood Village Hall (opposite the Inn on the Wye pub). This is about 4 miles south of Ross on Wye, near Goodrich. The hall is a new millennium hall with a fabulous floor and views across the open countryside to the river – another reason we get folk from further afield, it has a great atmosphere.
Thursdays Jive is at Drybrook Memorial Hall - A cosy little hall with a bar/social club attached. The hall is well signposted off the main road through Drybrook (coming from Ross it is on your right) - plenty of parking.
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