Ballroom Dance Lessons

[suezyq50]

We got some lessons in at the rec. department. They also gave some lessons on the ship. Watch for the posting in the "Compass" or whatever it may be called. You could tell it was the first for many. But that was ok.

[tropicalsunset]

Well, Mummsie is off!! Bon Voyage!!!

 

We went to a group class last night... for Hustle... it was open to all levels... most times its great to trade partners.... but it is so frustrating to dance with Mr Perfect and IMPATIENT!! oh well... makes it all the better when I dance back into Hubby;s arms... this is the only thing I do not like about group classes.!! Its so Much fun to add turns into the Hustle... good thing I wasn't drinking on top of it!! :D :D

 

Beautiful weather up here today... got in the garden for a bit of trimming... I do believe the ground has dried up enough to mow now... but we watch the sky for unexpected dark clouds!!!

 

Just upgraded to a corner aft cabin on Adventure in October... I don't know how much time we will actually spend in the cabin on this sailing... and I'm thinking that 7 days is just toooo short!! :rolleyes:

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4Th of July holiday!!!

 

Lorraine

[smoothdancer]

What a day we had yesterday, and today shoud be the same!!

Cool, we leave on our cruise today and should be great sail away weather!

[GCurry]

What a day we had yesterday, and today should be the same!!

Cool, we leave on our cruise today and should be great sail away weather!

Have a great cruise to Bermuda Smooth, give us the details when you get back.

Rain blessed rain here in SE Texas which we always seem to need these days. Most of Texas is in a drought situation San Antonio and West Texas are very bad. The down side to the rain is we are having the worst mosquito problem in 10 years.

We had our Mainland Club dance last night, about 90 dancers; we worked on our steps and visited with friends.

[dance4fun]

We do a number of dances equally poorly, but people think we are good because we have a good time dancing and it shows. Don't let your skill level keep you off the floor. Most of the women sitting down would just love to be out there dancing and admire anyone who is. Our favorite dance is east coast swing. Dancing is very flexible - great way to meet other couples or just focus in on your partner.

[smoothdancer]

We our back from our NCL Bermuda cruise and we did have a wonderful time. We both really liked Bermuda and being docked in the same place for 3 days. We had perfect weather for the entire cruise.

 

As mentioned before, NCL does lower their stage to become a dance floor and that was really nice. One evening the orch. did a tribute to Glenn Miller and it was a lot of fun to dance on this floor.

 

Then of course there was the night that we somehow got picked to be in a twist contest, and not knowing how to twist it was interesting to say the least! Funny story about this. When it was our turn to twist and the CD asked us our names a whole section was cheering for us. He says you must know these people and we say no... Then someome in the group yelled we know you Smoothdancer!!.. I had more people on this cruise come up to me to say "you must be smoothdancer". It was a great and fun way to meet a lot of people. There were not many people dancing so we stood out more so than usual.

 

The Crown is certainly a small ship, yet the bands and dance floors were actually pretty good. We expected to see a lot of informal dress on this cruise, but I would say half the ship did dress for the formal nights. So as it turned out we liked the Freestyle concept. Once we edit our pictures and write the review I will post the link. The 220 plugs turned out to be a hassle and we could not begin the review on board like we had planned.

[tropicalsunset]

Smooth: glad you had such a wonderful and fun cruise!!

You were a "Celebrity" on a NCL cruise!!! sounds like you won this comp!!!! :D

 

It's been a beautiful week up here!! actually had to water my plants today!! Next weekend we are off to Cape Cod with friends for the weekend.... My friends place is very close to Provincetown... so we will be sure to spend some time there .... and enjoy some great seafood!!

 

Monday night we are going to try to do a group class on swing and then stay for our private lesson... it just works out that the group classes at our level are now the same night as our private lessons time... they revamped the schedule when our last instructor left a few months back... we are still trying to get used to the changes.... and get some group lessons in....:rolleyes:

 

Enjoying the Sunshine here in Northwest CT!!!! :cool: :cool:

[ZydeDiverDC]

Hello,

I am hoping someone on this thread will help me with a question. I have a new friend, C*****, who is a very fabulous lady waitress at a local diner.. she is, I believe over 50 yrs old a year or two : ) , and widowed. She loved ballroom dancing and is sad not to go any more. She lives on Long Island NY and I would just love to bring that joy back to her somehow!!

Question: I was thinking a cruise or something?

Any thoughts? :confused:

She is big on dancing very correctly and with heart! and she is the dearest lady!

( me, I sit back and dream while I watch my friends dance what my heart feels)

[smoothdancer]

You could start by looking at the DancersatSeas's website.

USABDA also hosts dance cruises. Both organizations host cruises for ballroom dancers a few times a year, and the average passanger in the group is in the 50 age range. Especially if she is going to sail solo, she could be a part of a group of people with her same interests. I understand they host dances through out the cruise, dance lessons, ect.

 

I have never gone on one of these cruises, but have had freinds who have, and they reported back good things.

 

http://www.dancersatsea.com/comingcruises.html

[mummsie]

well hello all. Thanks we did have a bon voyage too :D The SuperStar Gemini is a lovely ship. Weather was good. Seas were calm (first time ever I didn't need drugs on a cruise).!! Food was good. Dancing was ok although they did things backwards. Most of the ballroom dancing was from 6.15-7.30pm when we wanted to eat so we only ended up doing a bit of dancing here and there. They had 2 rooms with dance floors both very small but we made do and had fun all the same :) We visited some interesting places - went to Patong beach where the Tsunami hit last year. You would never know anything had happened there. Everything is rebuilt and life goes on..... Now back to work and saving for our next cruise in February and then hopefully later next year we will be cruising Alaska (that's the plan anyway)!!! Mummsie

[smoothdancer]

Welcome home Mummsie!!! Was kind of bummed that I forgot to wish you a great cruise... Sounds like you had a good time...

 

We left for our cruise the same time as you... We sailed NCL which has a freestyle type of dining... you can dine anytime from 5-10 PM. Like you, the ballroom dance time was limited so we danced first and then went to dinner.. How crazy is this, we scheduled our dinner around the big band music!!

 

Truth be told, a cruise is not the best place to dance. The floors are small, music is not so great, but we had a great time non the less.... We had a cruise booked for 10 days in November on HAL.... We have recently cancelled this and decided instead to use our vacation time and vacation $$'s traveling to regional dance comps... We love to cruise, but we love to dance more. Each to his own, I guess.

[mummsie]

Hi Smooth, Yes Superstar Gemini is the same with meals - you can eat anytime. I just prefer to eat early. If I don't eat at regular times, I get really sick in the stomach. Well good luck with your regional comps. We are hoping to dance in a few weeks at a country comp about 2 hours drive north of us. Its usually a good comp with a nice big floor. Anyhow we will see. It got cancelled last year due to lack of entries. My son danced last weekend - I didn't get to go but he wasn't a happy chappy. His dancing was excellent but apparently he didn't have enough flair so didn't score well. Never mind - there is always next time :D Mummsie

[smoothdancer]

Well thats the great thing about dance comps... If you have a bad time of it, there is always another comp coming up right around the corner!!.. I just shake it off.

 

As a matter of fact, I had to do this last week-end!... Our new coach is really changing our dance and it is becoming much more dynamic. The problem in a comp is that I have old habits, starting to use new habits and I am ending up with a mess!!!.... It is Ok with me, it is changing for the better so I will just go with it for now. I thought it was pretty bad. but when I came home and looked at the tape I could see where "parts" are really improving, so that was encouraging.

 

Just a few more weeks and we leave for California for the nationals.... Right now the Adult Standard has 50 entires.... That is a pretty big comp for us.. It is so exciting!! After the comp we are going to Napa valley to the wineries. We are staying at a B&B and I have a hot air balloon ride scheduled. I am really looking forward to that. Now if I can just figure out how to get up early... The ride starts at 5:00 AM!!!

[tropicalsunset]

Zyde: good to see you back on the board... keep us posted with your friend!!

 

Mummsie and Smooth: so happy you enjoyed your cruises!!

 

Smooth: my coworker is getting married on Aug 16th and going out to Napa Valley for their honeymoon... If you run into Stephanie and CJ out there... say "Hi" from me!!! :D

What you speak of in changing your dance is exactly how Dave and I feel everytime we change teachers... Last class our new teacher told us she is looking into going back to college and we are already wondering how long she will be at the studio..

[smoothdancer]

Oh No Tropical!!.. You do seem to have a time with your dance instructors dont you!! At least our change in instructors was by our choice.....

 

Right now both of our instuctors are concentrating on getting us ready for the Nationals and we are for the most part working on timing, and presentation... the showmanship stuff. Now that we are back from the cruise and in the swing of things again, it is going good. Tonight after our lesson, we had a really good practice session.... dont you love it when everything feels right?

 

I have started to post our review.. By this week-end I should have the ship pictures up, with of course the dance floors!!... Here it is so far if you have an interest in NCL.

 

 

http://WWW.Justeatin.com

[GCurry]

Welcome home Mummsie!!! Was kind of bummed that I forgot to wish you a great cruise... Sounds like you had a good time...

Glad you had a great time Mummsie, did you ever find anything that would fit?

We left for our cruise the same time as you... We sailed NCL which has a freestyle type of dining... you can dine anytime from 5-10 PM. Like you, the ballroom dance time was limited so we danced first and then went to dinner.. How crazy is this, we scheduled our dinner around the big band music!!

We did the same thing on our Hawaii cruise, four couples together, so we danced first, saw a show, and dined late with no waiting.

I'm enjoying your review Smooth, love the accommodations. Also knock em dead at the Nationals.

 

Truth be told, a cruise is not the best place to dance. The floors are small, music is not so great, but we had a great time non the less.... We had a cruise booked for 10 days in November on HAL.... We have recently cancelled this and decided instead to use our vacation time and vacation $$'s traveling to regional dance comps... We love to cruise, but we love to dance more. Each to his own, I guess.

How true; you would think if dancing, as touted, is part of the cruise tradition, that they would have bigger floors. It certainly benefits you to learn the modified steps that take less space for cruising.

 

We are still taking and helping Ole Lance, America's Dance Curmudgeon. It is a great bargain for the price, and his dance knowledge is incredible. Certainly we'll never come close to learning all he has to teach.

 

This next month we are looking forward to going to Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country, our version of the Berkshires, for a Big Band weekend. The Sentimental Journey Orchestra out of San Antonio will be playing.

 

Tropical, our tropical weather patterns are beginning to arrive, a depression out of Mexico is giving us rain this week. 8 inches is fore casted for some parts of our area today. I won't complain, our lawn and tropical garden is having a great year. Bananas, lemons, Plumeria, Bouganvilla and numerous others are some consolation for the heat and humidity.

[smoothdancer]

Been having fun posting our picture cruise review.

 

Here is a link of our pictures of the dance floors... The stage that lowers to a dance floor is really cool. We had a lot of fun ballroom dancing on this cruise.

 

http://www.justeatin.com/CruiseShips/ncl%20page13.htm

 

For anybody that is contemplating a Bermuda cruise, here is the whole review.... It is long, but what the hell...its my internet storage space!!

http://WWW.JustEatin.com

 

Enjoy!

[mummsie]

hi all, gee its been quiet on this board for a while. Everybody must be busy dancing :-) We had our main studio fundraiser on Saturday night - Xmas in July. Its the only time cold enough to feel like dressing up in xmas clothes and have a roast dinner. We had a special visit by Santa who gave the kids a present. Was a good evening. We had roast lamb and roast pork with all the trimmings. Put up lots of Xmas decorations and even had a live Xmas tree this year. We usually make between $1200 and $1500 profit so will be interesting to see how we did this year. We have nearly 80 people. :D We do all the cooking ourselves so we save on catering. The dancing was good too - there were a lot of our social people so it was just a big hoot. :) Mummsie

[tropicalsunset]

Smooth: What a wonderful review!! with pictures and all -- you did an excellent job!! makes me want to ask for more vacation time!!! did you think the owners suite was worth the extra $$$.... we have a balcony this time.. but I don't want to spend too much time in the cabin... I like to be out and about !!

 

Mummsie: What a celebration!! I don't think my credit card could handle Christmas twice in a year!!! :rolleyes: :D

but it sounds like you had a great party!

 

our studio had a dance camp this weekend and we had hoped to take some classes this past sunday... turns out we entertained one of my friends and her two young granddaughters... it was fun... but do they ever sleep???

of course, they didn't want to miss a thing!!! I think my friend and I did have a quiet coffee on the deck one afternoon for about 15 minutes!!

'

I went to Dancevision.com looking for Salsa CDS... looks like most of the latin cd mixes only have 1 salsa tune on them.... Are we wasting our time on Salsa... ratio on the cdes seem to be 3 rhumbas, 3 chachas, 3 sambas, 2 jives and a salsa.... Smooth, you said you did Salsa on the ship??!!

 

My roses are in bloom and are awesome this year.. I am trying to plant some MT Laurel along the back woods to place color there ..... tho' my tomatoes and peppers are very slow this year....Previous owners did alot of raised bed here with railroad ties that became ant infested as we bought 10 years later... and I'm still nursing an apple tree that bent over in the ice storm 4 years ago...

 

oh, and our dance instructor is looking at school in Springfield, MA as they will take alot of her previous credits.... we will really rethink our dance lessons when our contract is up in the fall...

[smoothdancer]

The owners suite was REALLY nice!. We were offered an upsell on this after final payments. We purchased this cabin at 50% off the original price. I did not originally book this cabin because I just did not think it was worth it, but at 50% off it was.

 

Yea, we did do salsa and samba too(which I can barely do)... What the hell right?? We had fun dancing!

 

Fred Astaire in West Hartford and Glastonbury (same owners) has pretty solid instructors that dont move around alot.. When your contract is over take a look. We are very happy there.

 

Really, it is just hard for me to picture that it is to hot for X-Mas! So interesting for Mummsie to post a different point of view. Sounded like fun!

[smoothdancer]

Mummsie

There is a new dancer on the Dance Forum board that lives in Australia looking for some advise. Maybe you could help??

[Coolcruise02]

Mummsie

There is a new dancer on the Dance Forum board that lives in Australia looking for some advise. Maybe you could help??

 

Help, where is the Dance Forum Board? Thanks

[smoothdancer]

Here you go!

 

http://www.dance-forums.com/

[Coolcruise02]

Thanks, what a great forum. :)

[pacmktg]

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife and I love to dance, matter of fact that is what really brought us together 6 years ago. We dance mostly East Coast Swing, Cha-Cha and most CW dances. We booked a cruise to South America next January and have never cruised with Celebrity before. Anyone know what we can expect for dance floors etc?

 

Thanks

 

Bob