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Ballroom Dancing Report - QM2


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We’re just off an 8-day westbound crossing (08/27 – 09/04.) Here’s our report.

 

As we all know, the QM2 has a large, wooden dance floor (25’ x 43’) and there is dancing every night. The Queen's Room Orchestra (QRO), under the direction of Andrew Hillier, does a good job playing a variety of dance music in the correct tempos. Singer Carl William, who joins the QRO for about 25% of their songs, is also very good. I would say their song selection is slightly weighted towards waltzes, foxtrots and cha-chas, but they include at least two VWs, quicksteps, tangos & rumbas each night. Every night the singer added a few of what I would call “shuffle-sway” type songs into the mix and these were very popular.

 

For the most part the dance floor was crowded during prime-time and less so early/late in the evenings and during the recorded music. Unlike in our prior crossing, I am happy to report that the recorded music played through the end-time listed in the daily programs, usually 12:30AM. As one would expect there was a wide mix of dancers, and they all seemed to mesh well together on the floor. We did not witness any of the tension other CC posters mentioned in their dance threads. The accomplished dancers and first timers shared the floor just fine. The ED did cautioned parents not to let children play unsupervised on the dance floor.

 

The dance hosts (6 men and 1 woman) were capable and friendly. Yes – there is now a lady dance host. She can both lead and follow and dances about 1/3 of the time leading other women. A few times during the crossing there were afternoon sequence-dance only sessions in the QR. One evening there was a Big Band Ball which was excellent and one evening the band Vibe played in the QR. They are a good wedding-type band. The Dixieland Jazz concert, which used to be held in the pub, has now been moved to the Winter Garden and the band encouraged people to get up and swing dance. Our one disappointment: there was only one afternoon tea-dance during the 8-day crossing. On our prior 3 crossings there were two tea-dances.

 

The professional dance couple was the best we've seen in four crossing. Very accomplished and entertaining. We did not attend any of the dance lessons. We heard from people that they were good but packed solid.

 

All-in-all, we were very pleased with the QRO and ballroom dancing on the QM2 and would recommend it to others.

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We’re just off an 8-day westbound crossing (08/27 – 09/04.)

 

As we all know, the QM2 has a large, wooden dance floor (25’ x 43’) and there is dancing every night. The Queen's Room Orchestra (QRO), under the direction of Andrew Hillier, does a good job playing a variety of dance music

 

The dance hosts (6 men and 1 woman) were capable and friendly. Yes – there is now a lady dance host. She can both lead and follow and dances about 1/3 of the time leading other women.

 

The professional dance couple was the best we've seen in four crossing. Very accomplished and entertaining. We did not attend any of the dance lessons. We heard from people that they were good but packed solid.

 

All-in-all, we were very pleased with the QRO and ballroom dancing on the QM2 and would recommend it to others.

 

Q-Step, thanks for that interesting trip report. I have a few questions about the woman dance hostess. Was her dance skill on a par with the general dance skill of the male dance hosts? Or was she more of a dance instructor type? And did she go around the QR inviting male passengers sitting in the QR to dance, or did she just make herself available for male dancers to invite her to dance?

 

Who were the professional dance couple on board; their names?

 

Thanks.

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Q-Step, thanks for that interesting trip report. I have a few questions about the woman dance hostess. Was her dance skill on a par with the general dance skill of the male dance hosts? Or was she more of a dance instructor type? And did she go around the QR inviting male passengers sitting in the QR to dance, or did she just make herself available for male dancers to invite her to dance?

Who were the professional dance couple on board; their names?

Thanks.

 

The woman dance host's skills are on par with most of the male hosts. She did go around and ask both men & women to dance. I asked her for one dance, a foxtrot, and she was fine. Not competition level, but a solid social dancer. Of all the hosts on board, I would put her right in the middle in terms of ability.

The prof couple are Sergey and Olga. I don't know their last names.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This was a S’Ton to NYC crossing and had about 60% British passengers. People used both American & International style footwork. Some did inside and outside turns in foxtrot and waltz, but most danced in closed position. When the floor was not crowded you could see more people dancing Int foxtrot. And obviously the quicksteps were all Int style.

 

The orchestra played a variety of tempos for swing. Depending on the song people danced West Coast, East Coast, Jive, Lindy and Balboa. Some also did swing in the middle of the floor during the Quicksteps. Hustles and Meringues were also played, but I think these (and possible WC swing) were by request. There were also one or two Tangos each night.

 

The dance styles were dictated mostly by space. We are International standard dancers, former open competitors. When the orchestra was playing Foxtrots we mostly danced small check & weave or small O/S spin figures (emphasis on small.) A few times we pivoted across the short wall. But most of the time we shuffled along. The Waltzes were almost impossible to anything other than basic figures.

 

When the recorded music was playing the few advanced Int style dancers opened up on the floor. I think this is because dance students are used to recorded music while first-timers prefer dancing to a real band. If you came early or stayed late you could dance Int style using pretty much the whole floor. This was the only time one could dance an open Foxtrot or Quickstep.

 

I didn’t attend any of the lessons so I can’t comment on what style was taught.

 

Let me know if you have other questions.

You can also read a review we wrote a few years ago for American Dancer Magazine – See page 13.

http://issuu.com/usadance/docs/online?e=1630545/2810679

Edited by Q-step
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got an email from someone on QM2 now. She's very happy with the quality of the music, both recorded and QRO. She mentioned they play what they call a Bossa Nova at Bolero tempo- if I recall correctly it was originally mambo tempo? She says when there's no receptions or sequence dancing, they dance from 7.45 til about midnite, sometimes they even squeeze in some early sessions. She didn't give me many details about other nights.

No dance hostess. She's raving about the amount of dancing she's doing, figures she's the unofficial hostess. From my point of view, it sounds like there a lot of extra guys looking for someone who can actually dance, not too promising for picking a cruise at random.

This trip had a last-minute sale, there's a lot of North Americans on board. Thinking it might be nice to keep a gap in my schedule next fall to see what happens with prices, although I don't know what will happen with the refit.

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She mentioned they play what they call a Bossa Nova at Bolero tempo- if I recall correctly it was originally mambo tempo?

 

Historically, during the first US Latin craze in the 1920's and 30's, virtually all Latin music was referred to as mambo whether it was mambo-tempo or not. As music got slower sometimes extra steps were added (this became triple-mambo, later renamed to cha cha) and sometimes the dance was just danced slower (this became bolero, then English-style bolero, later renamed to international rumba). As a result, a lot of dances were identified as mambo tempo that shouldn't be. Bosa Nova is officially 30-40 MPM - a far greater range than any other style - which gives it a bit of overlap with American rumba at the slow end and not quite as fast as samba at the quick end.

 

No dance hostess. She's raving about the amount of dancing she's doing, figures she's the unofficial hostess. From my point of view, it sounds like there a lot of extra guys looking for someone who can actually dance, not too promising for picking a cruise at random.

This trip had a last-minute sale, there's a lot of North Americans on board. Thinking it might be nice to keep a gap in my schedule next fall to see what happens with prices, although I don't know what will happen with the refit.

 

That would be Vivian. She's got her ballroom dance group on board and had a fantastic offer that we alas were not able to take advantage of.

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By the time I added in supplement, Cdn $, and other expenses, the price was no longer fabulous. Because it was a sale, my regular agent quoted the same price (not sure what consumer protection Pennsylvania has compared to Ontario).

The music on QM2 seems to have improved vastly. But because of the access to G32, QM2 compared to QV/QE has the problem of an alternate venue when QR is otherwise in use. Also, I'm not comfortable with American smooth, so I have to consider passenger mix when deciding what's best value for my travel budget. So I'm really only considering what Vivian is offering with groups.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I was the unofficial dance hostess on that sailing :-) and I am with Vivian’s group. To add on what was missing from other comments, yes they played WCS, and yes it was good WCS, not just a foxtrot turned WCS and they actually told us its a WCS. Most of the time when they said they play a BasoNova, to me it is s slow Rumba or a Bolero. When they played a very slow tempo piece for the non ballroom dancer, we could do a Nightclub 2 Step. The QRO played some good and popular pop music that one can easily hustle with. Furthermore, when they played a Samba, I got asked by passenger for a hustle and it was so good (for someone who is not very fluent in Samba, take note :-)

 

During the 14 days we danced every night, when they scheduled a sequence dance at the Queens Room, its our night of shorter dance time but no complain as we need to share the floor and let my feet rest a bit that evening. One night I even got in and tried a few Sequence dance and it was fun. I run ballroom party at home where I DJ and most people love my dance music. I have given the DJs on all three queens many of my good collections, and they do have a lot more from other contributors. The DJ on our sailing, Chris, knows me well but I did not have to talk to him at all this time. He play many good dance music for our dancing pleasure every night (some I noticed were from the songs I gave him). Over the 14 nights I only counted about half a dozen songs that were not to my liking, what a good job he'd done for the recorded music.

 

A passenger told us that other lines (such as RCL) has formally abandoned ballroom music. Keeping my fingers crossed that Cunard will not follow this trend.

 

Bob’s comment on G32 is very valid, unless you are brave enough to go through the crowd during the reception and you are not stopped by the staff (reception usually by invitation only) then you can go to G32 to practise your dance moves but the floor size is odd, and G32 has SMOKERS.......In that regard the QV and QE are much better, having their Hemisphere/Yacht Club on deck 10 as an alternate dance venue whenever there is a reception or a seq dance in the QR.

 

Sergey and Olga are excellent teachers, all international style, the dance floor was always packed whenever they are giving lessons. And their performance was fabulous.

 

Finally, Tea Dance is almost non existence in the QE and QV.... we had two tea dances in 14 days (possibly due to the two seven days segments).

 

 

 

 

Historically, during the first US Latin craze in the 1920's and 30's, virtually all Latin music was referred to as mambo whether it was mambo-tempo or not. As music got slower sometimes extra steps were added (this became triple-mambo, later renamed to cha cha) and sometimes the dance was just danced slower (this became bolero, then English-style bolero, later renamed to international rumba). As a result, a lot of dances were identified as mambo tempo that shouldn't be. Bosa Nova is officially 30-40 MPM - a far greater range than any other style - which gives it a bit of overlap with American rumba at the slow end and not quite as fast as samba at the quick end.

 

 

 

That would be Vivian. She's got her ballroom dance group on board and had a fantastic offer that we alas were not able to take advantage of.

Edited by cc815
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  • 4 weeks later...

GCurry and his little wife Susan are booked on a crossing East to West on QMII in May. It's her college semester break and as she also works for NASA, her off time is limited. But as a crossing on a Queen and dancing the Queen's ballroom is on my "Bucket List", she thought to indulge me before I got too old to enjoy it.

I've been in contact with my old friend "Slow Foxtrot"; who has finally switched from P&O to Cunard for dance reasons, for sage words of advice as to dancing on a crossing, and he had several. But, recognizing some of you from a previous thread "Ballrooms at sea" and seeing that you were still pontificating on yer ballroom dance addiction, I thought to perhaps benefit from yer sagacity as well!:D

 

Question: the Merengues, anybody doing any Salsa dancing to that?

As the only Gringo in Texas to dance Cumbia that might be too much to ask?

Edited by GCurry
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Hello

 

I was also on this crossing, and while not an expert dancer really enjoyed the ballroom and the orchestra most especially the Big Band Ball. It was especially fun dancing with one of the RADA actresses. As far as I know there are no other cruise lines that offer ballrooms and orchestras for dancing on a regular basis as does Cunard. It is one reason I keep coming back. I cannot imagine they would ever cut back on this very popular activity. And yes, it would have been marvelous if there had been one more tea dance. I have been on crossings when the entertainment director scheduled two.

 

As a great bonus, the British National Orchestra was also on board this crossing and performed three concerts which were hugely popular. I am very hopeful they will be back this Summer. It would not bother me a bit if they replaced the Jazz Crossing on 8/1 which I am avoiding like the plague.

 

 

Deck Chair

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Hello

I was also on this crossing, and while not an expert dancer really enjoyed the ballroom and the orchestra most especially the Big Band Ball. It was especially fun dancing with one of the RADA actresses. As far as I know there are no other cruise lines that offer ballrooms and orchestras for dancing on a regular basis as does Cunard. It is one reason I keep coming back. I cannot imagine they would ever cut back on this very popular activity. And yes, it would have been marvelous if there had been one more tea dance. I have been on crossings when the entertainment director scheduled two.

This past May, we sailed on NCL's getaway out of Miami and were pleasantly surprised by a large dance floor in the main dining room, and a good combo playing dance music nightly.

We contrast that with our fall cruise 11 days on Carnival Triumph where the only good music aside from the Capt.'s reception with the ship's band, was a combo from the Dominican Republic who played Latin, Salsa and Bachatas. As there were a number of Texas Hispanics on board my Cubias got a workout.

Sadly, the lounge was a smoking & cigar bar which eliminated us after a dance or so.

 

As a great bonus, the British National Orchestra was also on board this crossing and performed three concerts which were hugely popular. I am very hopeful they will be back this Summer. It would not bother me a bit if they replaced the Jazz Crossing on 8/1 which I am avoiding like the plague.

Deck Chair

We are looking forward to this as an ultimate dance cruise, or at least the best at sea.

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.........I've been in contact with my old friend "Slow Foxtrot"; who has finally switched from P&O to Cunard for dance reasons, for sage words of advice as to dancing on a crossing, and he had several.........

 

Er, not quite right Gene. We have been alternating between P & O and Cunard since the days of the Canberra and the Queen Elizabeth! For many years P & O's Oriana has been the ship of choice for most British ballroom and sequence dancers because of a decent dance floor and the excellent strict-tempo music.

 

When Queen Mary 2 came along we all admired the ballroom but, as these columns will testify, many UK dancers were not happy with the erratic dance tempos. This was due to the orchestra/band not being aware of the different requirements of the American style and the British (and others) who dance the international style of dancing.

For example, 99% of British dancers have never heard of the Cumbia and I suspect that 99% of American dancers have never heard of the Tango Serida! Although a sequence dance the latter is popular at most UK social dances. So, it's not easy for the bands to satisfy all the requirements of an international passenger list. One therefore has to dance some and watch the others.

 

We shall be aboard Queen Victoria again very soon for a lengthy spell and hope the dancing strikes a happy medium. Of course, dancing is not the be all and end all of cruising but for keen dancers it does play an important part of the overall cruise expereince.

 

Have a great cruise Gene, perhaps you can teach the Brits your Cumbia?

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I love the idea of female dance hosts. While I try to translate what the gentlemen dance hosts have shown me to my DH, I am spectacularly unsuccessful. It would be so nice to have a lady that knows what she's doing help demonstrate and practice some of the lessons the instructors teach. We try, but all we seem to do is get in the way of the pros. What a great idea.

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I love the idea of female dance hosts. While I try to translate what the gentlemen dance hosts have shown me to my DH, I am spectacularly unsuccessful. It would be so nice to have a lady that knows what she's doing help demonstrate and practice some of the lessons the instructors teach. We try, but all we seem to do is get in the way of the pros. What a great idea.

We had a woman dance instructor for a number of years, and yes she danced both parts, and would have no problem dealing with the egos of the men.

After all, she subdued mine!!:D

Er, not quite right Gene. We have been alternating between P & O and Cunard since the days of the Canberra and the Queen Elizabeth! For many years P & O's Oriana has been the ship of choice for most British ballroom and sequence dancers because of a decent dance floor and the excellent strict-tempo music.

Sorry Foxy, by expressing a half truth, I realize that there is still hope for me becoming a politician!!:D

 

For example, 99% of British dancers have never heard of the Cumbia and I suspect that 99% of American dancers have never heard of the Tango Serida!
Actually, 99% of American dancers (U.S. & Canada) have never heard of the Cumbia as it is native to Mexico & Central and South America, or my neighbors here in Texas!!:)

Now, as to a Tango Serida, no I've never danced it, but, I'm sure that I've always wanted to!!:rolleyes:

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We shall be aboard Queen Victoria again very soon for a lengthy spell and hope the dancing strikes a happy medium. Of course, dancing is not the be all and end all of cruising but for keen dancers it does play an important part of the overall cruise expereince.

 

Slow Fox, might you be on the QV during part of her world cruise next year? I'll be on the QV from HK to Singapore, 29 Mar to 02 April. And again on the QM2 transAtlantic, NY to Southampton, 11 - 18 October 2016.

 

Chance of being on same QV segment?

 

tangoll

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Slow Fox, might you be on the QV during part of her world cruise next year? I'll be on the QV from HK to Singapore, 29 Mar to 02 April. And again on the QM2 transAtlantic, NY to Southampton, 11 - 18 October 2016.

 

Chance of being on same QV segment?

 

tangoll

 

Hi there,

Unfortunately our paths don't cross this time as we are on the Jan/Feb sector heading through the Panama Canal and up to L.A. Then flying to Las Vegas to hopefully recoup the cost!!! I trust that you will be demonstrating your legendary Viennese Waltz on the Queen Victoria? Whatever, have a great cruise.

............ Slow Foxtrot.

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Hi there,

I trust that you will be demonstrating your legendary Viennese Waltz on the Queen Victoria?

............ Slow Foxtrot.

 

I will be in London on 05 Oct 2016 at the Freed's shoe shop at 94 St Martin's Lane to purchase ballroom dance shoes, some for my lady friends in Hong Kong and one pair for me.

 

Not sure if "legendary" is proper description for my VW, but thanks for what I think is a compliment. Only Dancer Bob has seen my VW, though I have danced the VW, plus foxtrot, slow waltz, tango, cha cha, and rumba with CC815 who has posted on this thread. But it's not easy to dance to some of the music belted out by the Cunard ships' Queen's Room orchestras.

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Ah, the Viennese Waltz! After learning the basics in half an hour on QV nearly 3 years ago, I am finally learning the fleckerl in my weekly dance lessons. It is not easy! My teacher tells me that he has had professional students give up on the Viennese Waltz because it is so difficult. It looks simple and perhaps boring to the onlookers who do not realise just what is involved, but it is not at all easy.

 

The owner of the dance school I attend will not even teach it because too many accidents happen. In fact, at a professional dance society event one couple led a session on Viennese Waltz and one of them fell over, hit her head and had to be taken to hospital!

 

Perhaps one day you and I will be on the same cruise, Tangoll, and will be able to try our VW steps together.

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[A passenger told us that other lines (such as RCL) has formally abandoned ballroom music. Keeping my fingers crossed that Cunard will not follow this trend. ]

 

This is good news on the QM2.

 

It is not completely hopeless on some other lines. On the HAL Veendam in 5/2014 they had a combo in Oceans, and we also had a combo in Medusa on the NCL Jade 12/14. It was mostly Latin but nice in Boleros on the Navigator of the Seas in 2013 And we just got off the Constellation (10/15) where they had a small dance floor but a nice combo (Saints) who would play a lot of ballroom. Hopefully we can take our business to ships where you can still dance. Lousy DJs playing at earsplitting volume don't count.

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