(Hove Actually)
Spent the last week in the SE sorting furniture for Edd's flat, but took a chance to visit a few classes / dances.
Jules Jive Wednesday in Worthing at the Assembly Hall - very nice venue, teaching seemed a bit short (2 25 min classes) but there was latin ballroom going on as well that people could dip into (me being a big wuss didn't want to make a fool of myself in a Cha Cha class). Way too many women - some football match going on apparently, so that might have tipped the numbers. Most men were in couples and not too keen on putting it about, so Julia had to put up with dancing with me most of the time.
Events for Charity King Alfred Suite Hove Friday taught by Viktor. Quite a nice venue - small with a nice floor but beware of the cost of soft drinks - £2 for a bottle of J2O. Viktor's teaching was excellent in the beginners / improvers class and it was noticable how he identified individuals problems with moves & was able to correct them. Interesting to see a different "dialect" in the moves - they signal a neckbreak similarly to our figure of 8 and in the yo-yo the man turns towards the lady rather than just pulling her back in front. The intermediates / advanced class looked interesting but had built a routine over 3 previous weeks so was rather too quick for me - so we just lurked at the back of the room. The routine was very wrappy uppy and from Julia's experience with men dancing freestyle, it seems as though this is the norm for the class. The freestyle after was excellent - great variety of music lots of friendly people to dance with AND THE MEN ASKED THE WOMEN!!!! Viktor may have something to do with this as he announced from the stage that there were extra women so each man should make the effort to ask at least 4 women to dance. We met Andy McGregor who was charming and funny (highly entertaining to see him dance in the woman's role, complete with aerials).
Jules Jive Saturday dance at King Alfred Hove Saturday. Very quiet (70 or so) but apparently there were 3 other dances locally. again the music had great variety and the locals were friendly - Julia hardly sat down all night. The flapjacks were nice too.
Findon Village Hall Tea Dance Sunday. Tiny venue but great with 30 people. Super friendly, music by request, newspapers to read if you wanted to, tea, cakes and stuff aplenty. The people at the dance varied in ability but were all fun and complimentary so that was good for the ego - several were taken with the fact that I could wiggle a bit (easily impressed I guess
). Again we had the Andy McGregor show (I'm sure he knows more than the 4 moves he claims), he also spent a lot of time with Julia teaching her some new stuff which fills me with dread as it means that I'll have to learn how to lead properly.
So - we had a really good time dancing in and around Hove & I'd recommend people to go dance there if you're in the area
