Ballroom Dance Lessons

[HappyDancer]

Our cruise on the Enchantment is in one week!

 

I'm so glad someone mentioned bringing along dance sneakers. You're right....no one but another dancer would know I'm wearing them. I'll be taking my fav broken in latin shoes and my Capezio sneakers.

 

When we get back, we're going to set our sights on learning the Viennese Waltz to do at our wedding in July. We're both pretty good at waltz, foxtrot, and quickstep, so even though I've only done this dance once or twice, I feel like I can get the hang of it.

 

Well.....no more time to piddle on the internet....gotta get started packing or I'll be up late the night before our plane leaves for sunny Florida!

[Lisa141]

Smooth, we are taking a 7 night Eastern Carribean cruise on Mariner of the seas. I am really excited! It stops in Coco Cay, St Martin and St Thomas. This is our second cruise but after watching people dancing on the first one, we really wanted to learn. My husband actually brought up the idea! I wish we could have done it sooner. I'll be glad to take some pictures. My camera also takes video clips and I am going to try to get a few with that as well.

[kgymn]

I do a lot of dancing in my spare time, all swing dancing (Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing), and hopefully before our cruise (hopefully in august!) I'll be able to teach some to my boyfriend. So far no luck, but i KNOW he'll want to dance with me on the ship and if I'm going to attempt to club dance, he can attempt to swing dance. Besides, it's just so much fun and between the two (west coast and lindy) you can dance to SO much different music!

 

~Katy

[tangerinebunny]

Can anyone suggest a good ballroom dancing DVD to supplement lessons?

 

We're learning the rhumba, swing, and foxtrot in class, but my two left feet need help practicing at home.

[tropicalsunset]

We have never worked with instructional videos... mostly as when we do practice.. we have enough material to go over from our private lessons... we do enjoy the Ballroom dance cds I have picked up from Amazon -- especially when the whole CD is Rhumba and we can put it on and just continue to practice our dance!!!

 

Happy Dancer... have a great cruise!!!

[C 2 C]

RCCL: Grandeur: Mexican Riviera 2002

RCCL: Enchantment: Southern Carribean 2003

Carnival Spirit: Southern Carribean 2003

RCCL:Brilliance: Mediterranean 2005

RCLL: Grandeur: Cozumel 2005.

 

I'm trying to find which of the mainstream cruise lines offer lessons and have daily dancing opportunities. I have been on few RCCL cruises and noted your cruise history. Did your ships have either lessons or reasonable dance floors?

[C 2 C]

 

I ask because my husband's university just offered the faculty a great deal - group lessons for faulty, staff, students - $5 each for six lessons and a dance at the end.

 

But are we going to be out there alone on the Mercury's dance floor?

 

We spent Feb. on Mercury and danced every night. There were lessons on sea days. The dance floor was always packed but there are three lounges to dance/practice... The Rendezvous before and after dinner... a Hungarian duo, The Pavilion Night Club for after dinner and evening dancing to a good Philippino band and the Navigator's Club for a DJ and an empty floor for practicing.

 

I love Freudian slips:

just offered the faculty a great deal - group lessons for faulty, staff

[C 2 C]

Can anyone suggest a good ballroom dancing DVD to supplement lessons?

 

We're learning the rhumba, swing, and foxtrot in class, but my two left feet need help practicing at home.

 

Yes. With great effort we finally found and bought one.

 

UPC 054961801695.. Ballroom Dancing Classics.

It is wonderful for beginners and refresher for those who want to simplify their routines.

[smoothdancer]

Ditto for us on the Mercury. We sailed a Calif Coast Cruise last April on the Mercury and each night we were not lacking opportunity to dance. A close second for us was on the Dawn Princess where the dancing was very good too. We have sailed RCCL twice, and did not have all that much opportunity to dance, but both were short cruises and may account for the lack of ballroom dancing.

 

About instructional DVD's, I have bought a few from Dancevision.com, and they were pretty good. Still the best one I have is a professional comp done at the Yankee Classic. I learn alot just watching the pros on this DVD. It is amazing to see just how many basic steps they are doing, ones we all know. The difference of course is they do these steps extremly well!

[clofty]

Lisa,

 

I am asking everybody I can.... We host a non profit travel website and are in the process of doing a section on ballroom dancing on cruises. If you are bringing a camera coluld you bring back some pictures of dance floors for me? I am very interested in pictures of dancing at the captians party.

 

Thanks,

Smooth

 

Well if you really want to impress, the Carnival Spirit's Captain's party has their dance floor 'on the stage', and yes, you guessed it we were up there:o . Of course I had far too many Captain's cocktails before we got up and so I had enough 'gumption' to get up there, but boy, talk about intimidating. Of course no one else gets up to dance. How dumb, having a Captain's cocktail party in the auditorium!! Oh well, the cruise was a family reunion and everything else was right, destination, price, cabins, FAMILY from Australia (so we missed out on good dance floors - I did sort of care because it was DH's family:p and not MINE!) But I didn't mind because my family came on a cruise last Xmas and yes we dance on RCCL Grandeur until our legs fell off.

[Ms Belvedere]

Well if you really want to impress, the Carnival Spirit's Captain's party has their dance floor 'on the stage', and yes, you guessed it we were up there:o . Of course I had far too many Captain's cocktails before we got up and so I had enough 'gumption' to get up there, but boy, talk about intimidating. Of course no one else gets up to dance. How dumb, having a Captain's cocktail party in the auditorium!!

The cruises I've been on with Carnival when the Captain's Cocktail party is in the auditorium it's because there's a 12 piece orchestra! Very impressive and perfect for dancing, there's actually room to move and it's not often I get to dance to music from an orchestra. :D

 

We hope to practice some of the Latin steps we've been learning on our next cruise with RCCL. They have a cute little dance floor, I think it's called Bolero's. If we have our camera with us we'll snap some shots and send them to you, Smoothdancer.

 

Ms B.

[smoothdancer]

Pictures would be great Mrs B, along with your impressions!

 

We sailed on RCCL out of Miami, and the latin band was exceptionally good. (coming from a smooth dancer at that!) People were dancing merganue (sp) a lot so you might want to grab a lesson in this dance!

 

Yes there are goods and bads the way Carnival does it. When we sailed this line dancing was also on the stage. It was wonderful dancing to the orchestra. But you know the way the seats are close together to get out of the seats, up the stairs to get to the dance floor was a challenge. Either you decide to stay on the dance floor, or just end up saying "forget it"! I think it might of been intimadating to some, being on somewhat of a display.

 

I actually liked the captains party on RCCL a lot. It was in a lounge with a good size floor with tables and chairs all around the floor. It was really easy to get to the dance floor, and when not dancing, close enough to the floor to enjoy watching the other dancers. The band was very good too.

 

I have been receiving a lot of feedback on ship dancing and it has been wonderful.... Keep you comments coming so I can gather all different impressions...TONS OF THANKS!

[GCurry]

Just returned from 10 days Hawaii on the Wind, we danced every night of the cruise. One neat thing they did, was retract the stage in their main showroom, exposing a dance floor, and the show band would play ballroom standards for 30 to 45 minutes before and between shows. Their was a duo playing rock in the Observatory lounge every night as well, with a DJ at another small floor midship.

As Norwegian seems to be a cookie-cutter operation, Smooth, I think you can look forward to a similar experience.

[Ms Belvedere]

Yes there are goods and bads the way Carnival does it. When we sailed this line dancing was also on the stage. It was wonderful dancing to the orchestra. But you know the way the seats are close together to get out of the seats, up the stairs to get to the dance floor was a challenge. Either you decide to stay on the dance floor, or just end up saying "forget it"! I think it might of been intimadating to some, being on somewhat of a display.

This is true and if you're not close to the front of the auditorium there's quite a distance to walk to get to the stage itself. That can make it not worth the bother.:rolleyes:

 

Ms B

[tropicalsunset]

WElcome home, GC!! I am dying to hear more.... did you HULA!!! did they have Hula lessons on the ship.... ??!! :D :D

 

We went to our dance class last nite...missed last week as Dave had a heavy cold...Sahra, our dance teacher announced to us that she is leaving the studio and teaching preschool full time... . tough for us as this is the second teacher we've had in 2 1/2 years... and we really don't know now who we want to take with.... :( We are happy for her as she is getting married and will have a regular job with regular hours... but

feeling now like we have to start over with someone who doesn't know where we are at. :( we are going to do some group classes as it is hard right now to reschedule everyone with the teachers they have... and will start again our regular privates in April... breakin' in a "new" instructor..

 

Smooth are you interested iN HAL ships... one of my friends is going on the NOORDAM next week...tho' she is not a dancer... she'd probably take some photos.

[smoothdancer]

GCurry,

It cant be ten days already, can it! (I bet you and your group feel the same way). Anyway, welcome home!. That is good news on NCL. I cant wait to hear your impressions of NCL and your trip.

 

Continuing the conversation of ballroom dance on cruises, I ran into a site while researching for our travel site. An agency is recruiting heavily for RCCL. They are looking for "ballroom dance Duos" and hosts on many of thier sailings. That is good news. I have not seen hosts or dance instructors all that much on RCCL, so looks like we will see more of an emphasis on dance on this line in the near future.

[GCurry]

“Got a whale of a tail to tell you lads, a whale of a tale or two

Bout flappen fish and the girl I love on moonlit night with the stars above

A whale of a tale and it’s all true, I swear by my tattoo!!”

Coming soon to a thread near you – “The Curry’s Hawaiian Vacation”

• SEE – WAIKIKI BEACH & HONOLULU FROM THE FORTRESS OF DIAMONDHEAD
  
• SEE – THE BLACK SAND BEACH OF PUNALU’U
  
• SEE – LAVA FLOWING INTO THE SEA
  
• SEE – THE PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF MICRONESIA 1000 MILES FROM HAWAII
  
• SEE THE TEXAS HULA GIRLS OF THE NORWEIGAN WIND
  
• SEE THE GRAND CANYON OF THE PACIFIC ON KAUAI
  
• SEE THE HUMP BACK WHALES OF MAUI FIGHT FOR A MATE
  
• SEE TWO LUAUS, AND THE SAMOAN FIRE DANCE
  
• SEE THE SEA TURTLES OF KONA
  
• SEE THE NORTH SHORE AND BEACHES OF OAHU

All this and more shown in a fantastic color slide presentation from MSG Curry productions.

[GCurry]

In answer to your question Tropical, yes they did teach Hula on board along with Hawaiian arts and crafts, lei making (flower and nuts), palm frond weaving, and some kind of sarong tying. There was also a troop of Polynesian Dancers who performed several times taught crafts, and tattooed cruisers with tribal designs with Marks-alot.

The women of Texas jumped right in on the hula lessons while the men of Texas hung back and took pictures, as they sensed a trap. This was proved correct later in the cruise when they had the "Official Hula Recital" (go hula honey, and make the family proud of you). The women wore leis and did three numbers and got a certificate as Master Hula Instructors, while the men in the class got to appear half naked in grass skirts to do their number, which was mostly foot stomping and thigh slapping. So naturally, the women bought the video and the music to bring back home, and inflict this art form on their friends.

 

In the early 1800, we sent missionaries to the islands to convert the natives to Christianity; made them wear clothes, and stopped the recreational sex and sacrifices that were a big part of their culture.

I feel the Hula lessons and the rest of the Polynesian HooHa all the cruisers lugged back home are payback for them missionaries!!

 

I did, however, get a tastefully done ankle tattoo, and learned how to pronounce Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (the state fish).

[mummsie]

Welcome back Gcurry. Sounds like you had a nice trip. Next year we are tossing up between Hawaii and Alaska - both huge trips for us as it entails a 20 hour flight either side :) Tell us more.... Mummsie

[smoothdancer]

Nothing can take the place after a long day at work then a good chuckle from MC!!!.... Cant wait for the presentation. So glad your back.

 

Tropical...

Now dont let the new teacher thing scare you!.. I think I told the story already, but about 6 months ago after some fustrations with the studio we danced at for 7 years we just left. We found two new teachers, and after just a lesson or two they were able to evalulate our level, and began to teach.. I hardly felt the bump at all and in fact are quite happy with our new instructors.

 

I think it comes down more to personality. Can your personality work with the new teacher? As luck would have it we started to work with one of the best smooth dancers in the US. She had an hour opening due to a student relocation and we grabbed the opportunity. She only comes to Ct once a week, so it was just luck. At first I was quite intimidated being taught by such a high ranking competiter but after a few lessons I found her to be just "one of us". Now my next hurdle to overcome.... On Friday we are dancing a comp in Stamford and she is attending to watch how we perform in a comp setting.... Man I actually lost sleep over this.... Hope we dont blow it!

 

Oh, we are going on the Noordam in November. (our first HAL cruise) I would love pictures.

 

Pictures can be sent to JUSTEATIN@yahoo.com

 

THANKYOU!

[tropicalsunset]

Smooth: wondering how it went last night at the competition.

One of these days we will get down to Stamford to watch!!

[smoothdancer]

Great!.. On both Friday night and Saturday day we took first place in all dances except our new forxtrot routine. Our goal was to just get through the new foxtrot routine , which we did! We dont often score this high so it was a great feeling.

 

The thing about competitions is that it is so iffy! All it takes is one mistake when a judge is looking right at you, to destroy your placement. You can dance that step perfectly every time, and then this one time you dont, and it is all over for you. It happens in a split second. For that reason we dont put a lot of weight in scoring, and our goal always is just to be improved dancers. Really the journey of preparing for the comp is the benefit and the joy, not the event itself. But still when you have equal competition, and do score well, it does wonders for your self confidence.

 

The comp itself was quite entertaining and a lot of fun. This is one of our favorite comp. The organizers are the most gracious couple you would ever want to meet.... Maybe I'll see you there next year! Back to work on Monday, we are competing again in Mass this Friday coming up.

[tropicalsunset]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!

 

It looks like you made the right move with your instructor... !!!

[GCurry]

Congratulations Smooth, looking behind the veneer, you are a tough competitor.

Life is back to normal, we had our 2lftft club dance last night, well attended with all the usual suspects.

 

This is a link to our Hawaii Wind review for those of you with an interest.

It was really tough to write, as I had to stick with the facts and leave out all the humor & embellishments!!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=316838

 

Our pictures will link later.

[smoothdancer]

Thank you..Thank you!

 

Taking a curtsy for the crowd, he taking his bow!!!

 

Settling in now to read the Hawaii review