Dance Related Video Clips

MODERN JIVE

A Typical Modern Jive Social Freestyle Evening. Lots of great dances from 8pm till 2am!



Workshop - Scarborough Weekend Oct - 2011
If memory serves me correctly the main part of the 1 hour workshop has finished. Jo & Mark are repeating the routine the dancers have just taught so that it can be practiced & put into the 'moves' memory bank!! There are a lot more moves than what you would learn in a typical weekly class. The group are mostly at an Intermediate level who know the basic beginner moves.


DANCE WORKSHOPS - GROUP

Grease (the film) dance routine 1 taught by Sheena. A fun workshop of 3 hours - we learnt 2 routines.

Modern Jive Intermediate Class - Smartdanceworks - 19th Feb 2011
Teacher Harry Cartwright with Viv showing some great variations that can be made to Beginner moves.

INFORMAL DEMO - March 20th 2011
This was a fun & informal demonstration of Modern Jive done to show how easy it is to put together a few moves. Modern Jive is very forgiving of 'mistakes' which can generally be made to look like you intended to do them. The secret for the 'lead' is never look surprised, go with what the follower does & for both of you ..... keep smiling & continue dancing!!




LINDY HOP
Below are a series of Lindy clips - don't be scared! Many of the wonderful clips below are of very high level dancers. I included them as they are just amazing to watch.
The clip directly below is one of my favourites - a competition showdown for who of the 5 couples is going to be 1st, 2nd & 3rd. They are all darned good as far as I'm concerned.


The Shim Sham demonstrated by Frankie Manning - a wonderful man I had the pleasure to meet many years ago. His enthusiasm for dance just shone out of him & is dancing was awesome - hope I'm still like that in my 80's!!


FUN STUFF
Here is a video clip of Tracey and the the girls doing their Thriller routine for the evening cabaret. Scarborough weekender Oct '10


SALSA
The gorgeous Rasa & Nicolai dancing some freestyle at The Cubana (Sheffield) - Saturday 26th Feb 2010.


Video clip of the 3 classes with some freestyle - The Cubana (Sheffield). Nicolai kindly did this demo specially for me & my reluctant memory cells!



WEST COAST SWING
When I saw this video clip i went a lovely shade of GREEN. Wonderful dancers - enjoy.


FUNNY STUFF

Evolution of Dance
Very clever, fun & seamlessly put together routine showing the evolution of dancing by comedian Judson Laipply.



This is an unbelievably cute clip of a toddler ballet dancer. In the words of Theresa McKeon "Oh for the love of God someone give this dancer a TAG point!" For info of an amazing teaching methodology called TAGteach visit www.tagteach.com

Things are Hotting Up - Feb 2011.

PHOTOS - Top left

- Caravan no.2 arrives!!! Top right - local goats off home for the night.

Bottom left - Elvis takes it easy whilst surveying his domain. Right - Portagem river pool. **

The river pool opens around June time & is just heaven on a hot day. Free, with views of Marvao castle, bar & cafe. An excellent recipe for a hot day.

** last 3 photos by Kim Willis

What a great start to the month - Mona (being the thoughtful, kind & considerate person that she is) sent me a series of photos showing the installation of my 'new' caravan. Despite a rather dramatic tyre blow out on the motorway bringing the caravan up from the Algarve Chris, Mick & friend successfully manouvered the caravan I'd bought off them into its new home in the olive orchard. So now there is space for 4 more dancers who'll have their own private comfy space.

Chatting with a teacher friend at a cafe about the joys of 'leading' & the challenges of dancing with someone who makes you feel like you are utterly redundant. ie they just do the moves irrespective of the fact that you exist - never mind the fact that you are the one who is 'leading'. He came up with a politer description of the one that came to my mind. His description cracked me up ..... "yes, you feel like you are about as much use as a one legged man in a butt kicking competition!" Just about sums it up I think. Luke another teacher friend came up with a more usable one for use in public teaching situations & more sensitive souls - "there can only be one driver". Very acceptable - thanks for that Luke.

Spring is in the air in Portugal. I asked how Elvis & Titch were doing (the two resident mousers at the farm). For a long time Titch was Elvis' adoring fan & besotted groupie. But I think with the effects of the warmer weather & all that .... the tables have turned and in Ben's words "Titch and Elvis: An oestrogen shock relationship. She was so a nice kitten and now she becomes a multiple personality. Every week a different cat. Elvis is in stress". You gotta laugh. Aaaaah. Poor Elvis bless him. I'm sure all will be ok soon when her hormones calm down again. Hormones have a lot to answer for don't they!

This month has been somewhat busy with lots of people being incredibly generous with their time & help.

Nicolai & Rasa spent the good part of a day with me doing Salsa in Leeds. It was great to spend some time with them & I sooooo hope they come to Portugal. Nicolai is just such a great teacher - I love his attitude to the people he is teaching & the way he teaches. He makes it sooo accessible & most important of all .... FUN. He takes all the stress out of learning. Rasa who is a gorgeous gal with buckets of enthusiasm & a pure delight has been shadowing Nicolai for a year & wants to teach - YEAH. With her attitude she is welcome to come over to Portugal for as long as she wants.

Sheena who runs Every Dance - what can I say? A star who has also been a huge help & incredibly generous with her time sharing her knowledge & experience. Not forgetting the fun Grease workshop when we learnt 2 routines (see the video on the videos post). I am really p**ed off that I wont be around in England when the Thriller workshop is on.

Nisha Lall - another star who is taking me through her teacher's course for Salsa (oh my goodness - have I got a lot of learning to do). Nisha is incredible & knows so much. I'm one lucky lady that she is teaching me. For the course another lady joined us - Lesley who is Roger Moore's wife!! Talk about coincidences. Some ladies I occassionally meet when walking the dogs told me about their friends Roger & Lesley Moore who teach dance. It is a small world.

This month we had the case of the unco-operative left foot at the Lindy Hop class when it came to doing Suzie Q's. That flippin move has always driven me batty. I was like a gone-wrong version of Rolf Harris doing his Jake The Peg song sketch. My left foot just wouldn't behave itself. Hannah said she could hear me laughing the whole way through the lesson.

Did 2 workshops (Beginner & Beginner Plus) - one on the Saturday & the other on the Sunday - both organised by Ceroc (Nottingham & Leeds). Thoroughly enjoyed them - excellent. BUT when I got to Sunday evenings class at Chesterfield I could barely remember any of it. Damn. The knowledge just packed its bags & went into ether space. So frustrating. I guess my brain cells are on strike again.

Taught my first group this month - they want me back & I don't think they were being polite bless 'em.

Things are really taking off like a rocket - it feels a bit unreal. I was expecting it to take 1 -2 years!! More people are booking their flights to come over & help which is great.

Teachers Tracey & Jatinder have booked their flights for 10th May. Roy Greenhalgh is doing his utmost to fit in a visit with his Stylz Jive staff. I heard that another recent lovely dancing friend is planning to come over 17th March for 6 days with another 2 to 3 dancing friends - that is 2 days after I arrive back in Portugal! YIKES. I Better get organised!