Ballroom Dance Lessons

[critterchick]

Whew, glad to hear it! I'm going to be trying out all kinds of shoes on this cruise - I'm going to bring both pairs of dancing shoes for indoor wear only, plus a couple of pairs of high heeled regular shoes to see how I do in them. Since it's just a short drive to the port for us, I figure I may as well use this cruise to decide what works and what doesn't. Then I won't have an overweight luggage problem next time we have to fly!

[smoothdancer]

You really dont need to bring danceshoes on a cruise, but I always do, too!!

I pretty much end up wearing latin shoes because they can go with so much and then you can dance all kinds of dance.

 

Have fun.

[mummsie]

I agree. Just one pair of latin shoes is sufficient as well as normal dress shoes to wear to dinner. Went back to the cabin after dinner to change shooes. I took 3 pair last time and ended up only wearing the latin pair. - Gayle

[critterchick]

I'm bringing my practice shoes (black) for regular dinners and a pair of silver dance shoes for formal night. I've ditched one pair of sandals and am probably gonna ditch the other heels. I don't think they'll stay on my feet, so I'll just bring a low heel for on deck activities. DH is very happy that he's not bringing his usual 10-ton tux shoes. He'll wear his practice shoes most nights, too.

 

I'm really good at packing efficiently for a trip where there's air travel. When it's just local, I always bring too much!

 

Happy Labor Day weekend to all!

[smoothdancer]

Critter...

You have a good plan going on here!!....I too always bring my silver's because they go with so much... And they are so close to practice shoes because I have worn them so much they just feel like my practice shoes...

 

I start out every cruise with a goal not to overpack. And I do really good right up unitl the night that I close the suitcase up... Then I think well what if I change my mind about what I want to wear, and Damn, at the last minute the suitcase has all this stuff in it I never intended to pack!! I end up never wearning half of it.

 

So I have just come to terms with it.. This will happen every vacation, it is just me, so I go with the flow... What is interesting is that I use to travel close to 80% for business.. I had the ability to pack for a week in a carry on and no problem at all.. Somehow I just have no ability to transfer this skill to a vacation!!

 

Have a great dancing vacation..... Bring us back pictures to see...

[nkpeeps]

Dreams ( Linda) are you still going to the Catskils on the 16th? Our group from Chicago is up to 53. Do you still want to dancew Latin. Cha-cha and salsa our my favorites. The best teacher there is Donna Desimon. she teaches hustle

[smoothdancer]

Actually Mc...

 

We dont want to go the next level anymore!!... It is funny but we have come full cirlce...

 

This has been a tough couple of weeks for us as we have come to terms with this whole dance situation.... We started at Arthur Murray, a few lessons before a cruise, and loved the whole social and fun atompshere... After a few years we decided we wanted coaching on technique and left the studio.... For 10 years we have been coached 3 times a week on our frame, our dance stance, head position, bent knees, you name it... Eventually we stopped socail dancing because it would limit our flight and cause negative marks in the comps.... Up until recently we enjoyed this intense training....

 

Then all of a sudden we realized yeah... what happened to the fun??? I mean ca'mon we are not professional dancers, we do this for fun, and getting yelled at by some of the best coaches is no longer fun..... Dragging our asses to dance lessons 3-4 times a week after work is not fun.... So last week we said no more and just walked away from it all.....

 

We have stood firm this week as the coaches left constant voice mails that we can work through this.... We have not picked up a phone call in a week!!!.... And good news, we are still happy with our decision..

 

Next week we are going to a intro lesson at Fred Astire.... We want to find a place to dance where we can just have some fun and not be pushed so hard... After reading so many of the posts on this thread from you guys who just have fun doing this... I thought Wow, we use to have fun doing this and well we missed it...

 

Wish us luck.... We have been dieting non stop for 8 weeks for a comp.... Last night with no lesson to go to we did take in pasta..man was it good!!!!!!!

 

J

[dreamscometrue2]

nkpeeps

 

Yes DH and I are still going to the catskils and I love the latin dances. I know quite a few ChaCha steps(taught to me by Ron Montez videos) and few of the others so I hope to concentrate on the latin workshops. I am more excited than DH, but he's just trying to be cool about it all. We are beginner dancers, I just love it. I danced a lot when I was younger, but somewhere along the way I just forgot about how much I loved to dance and now I can't dance enough. Poor husband is indulging me but secretly I think he loves it too.

 

Thanks for the advice about Donna Desimon I hope we can get her workshop, although my least favorite dance is the hustle and I have refused to learn. Hope to see you and your group there.

 

Linda

[nkpeeps]

Hi Dreams ( Linda ) glad you two are still going. There will be a room that just plays Latin music all day. You will be sure to have your fill. My wife nancy is not as eager as I am to be going, but always has fun. We hope to meet up with you both .

 

Smooth. Your last message could have come from us. We decided at the start not to compete just for that reason. Competing may have made us better dancers, but would take a lot of the fun away. From what we have seen of our friends that compete, it can be very expensive, more so for the women, with the outfit costing so much. The instructors also make most of their money on the people that compete. We decided to spend it on becoming better social dancers . I think we made the right choice .

 

Eric

[smoothdancer]

Eric,

You are right, for some, competing can be very expensive if not cost prohibitive altogether. A women dancing pro-am(dancing with instructor), will pay entry fees, fees to enter the ballroom, often they pay the instructors rooming costs and so on... We have been to comps where the pro-am entry fees are as much as 40.00 per dance... Add it all up and it is not out of the questions for this one comp to cost well over $4,000..... I dont know how they do it.. You can go on a cruise for a whole week (maybe in a suite)for this price. I guess we all make our own decisions how to spend our fun money.

 

For amatuar competitiors like ourselves the cost is very different. We dont travel with our instructors so there is no mark up on entry fees. We buy our hotel thru Travelocity or whatever so we can do a comp including flights usally for about 5 to 8 hundred. We use our miles wherever possible. We catch late flights so usually dont have to take time off from work. My costumes have cost about $3,000 each, but I take very good care of them. I replace them about every 3 and 1/2 years or so and re sell the old ones. For us it was not the cost that was the issue but finally just the stress of it all.... I dont regret at all that we have done this, we have learned a great deal and has been an interesting experience to say the least. Now, we both are just looking forward to moving on. We will do a comp in a few weeks in CT then a few weeks later in Atlanta and then that will be it for us!

 

We have done competitions every year in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. We were just in New Orleans last month. Watching the news we are just so sad to see what is happeneing there. The people there are so incredibly friendly and warm and my heart goes out to them. I just cant imangine that NO will ever be the same again.

 

Hey, have fun in the Catskills!

 

Janet

[GCurry]

Most of us rebuild and go on with our lives, but Texas might have picked up several thousand new residents, as they didn't have anything to start with.

It might make us think about how really trivial a hobby, and discussions of cruising and ballroom dancing really are, until you remember, we been there, done that, & got on with our lives.

That being said, brother Curry's sermon for this morning; we had our Mainland dance club last night, theme "A Night at the Oscars", hokey, yes, but everyone had a great time. I'm an old Marine, so I took an Italian Shepard's Pie as a contribution to the evening; another hobby! We have a lot of good dancers, and a number of us who just have fun.

We've got some cruise partners coming down from Austin today to visit my garden, so we'll go over to Kemah for seafood, and watch all the boats in the world go by. Have a great dancing weekend folks.

[smoothdancer]

It is really great that Texas is taking in with open arms all of these displaced individuals....

 

Really, are ballroom"issues" do seem kind of silly compared to this, dont they?

[tropicalsunset]

We just got back from our weekend in Boston... we stayed at the Marriott... and watched pictures of people sleeping on the streets and wherever in the devastated area... made us feel like we were in a different time warp...

made a donation to the Red Cross and will continue to donate.. this is going to be a long term thing...

we took a tour of Boston...Its been ages since I've been up there and many years ago .. I attended school there... sooo much has changed.. I do believe NO will be rebuilt but it will never be the same as it was.. :( I missed seeing it at is was...

 

We did after attending the Red Sox game on Sat night... head to the lounge for some dancing... we danced on the

lobby floor outside the lounge as the dance floor was tiny..

we had many people watching us and one came over and wanted to know if we studied at that studio (AM)... it was fun and we had a great time -- danced the hustle , cha cha and a waltz.. and we are still novices...

 

Smooth..... I wish you lots of fun and enjoyment in your future Dancing!!!!

[GCurry]

This is bizzare, we pay thousands to go cruising, and these people would rather stay on cots in the Astrodome!

 

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=580f32c8f67b5cc5

 

When you think it through, it's a pretty good idea, a ship is designed to house and feed 2 to 3 thousand people, and provide security.

Believe me when I say they will fit right in to Galveston, basiclly, the island has the same population mix as New Orleans.

 

No dancing on these cruises.

[tropicalsunset]

GCurry: looks like this will put a strain on the facilities in Galveston... It must be extremely traumatic for these people to be removed from their communities and placed in tempory facilities..!! dancing or no the future is very unclear for them.

 

I know the day of 9/11 schools up here closed right away and the whole area was prepared to take in any casualties from NYC..... but we know that story..

 

Our dance schedule is all messed up this week with the holiday... so we will have our private on Thursday and then another one on Monday....

[mummsie]

Well we are going to have our first lesson in 3 weeks tonight - ever since I sprained my ankle. Hopefully will get through the hour - I am going stir crazy being cooped up at home at night :) Don't think we will try and do much practice Saturday though - might be too much I think. I still haven't got clearance from the doctor but he told me my ankle would let me know if I did too much. I think we will just stick to some New Vogue tonight. There isn't quite so much turning and pivoting so it shouldn't be such a strain. Gayle.

[GCurry]

I went through this in 83, 13 days in a beach home with no electricity, living out of an ice chest, going through Nat. Guard checkpoints to get to work & home, standing in line for ice. The real heros are not only those you see on TV, but those that come back, work through their insurance, and put their lives back together. You won't hear them complaining about the govt. that should be giving them money, we had no expectancies to start with, but, we paid a premium to live on a barrier island, insurance wise, and insurance was there to help us rebuild. Granted, windstorm and flood payments, flat makes your eyes water, but that's the way it is here.

 

Back to Ole Lance next week, we'll demo for the newbies at 7, and learn something at 8. MsCurry seems to have recovered, we'll find out Tues..

[mummsie]

Hi all, well first lesson for 3 weeks went better than expected. We stuck to looking at body sways and also kept to basic New Vogue Foxtrot dances so there wasn't too much rise and fall and pivots. Even managed a few fairly decent heel turns on my sore foot. It was a different story after I got home though. I had a shower and then relaxed for a while in front of the tele. Could barely walk after an hour. Its a bit sore today so I guess no practice tomorrow. Just as well our next competition isn't for another 4 weeks or so. We were supposed to dance all 3 styles as its a elevating championship and we need to win one more latin competition to elevate to the next level but I think we will skip the latin and just do standard and new vogue. - Gayle

[nkpeeps]

Hi All. Has everyone heard of the new 37cent postage stamps featuring Latin dancing? They are to be released on Sept 17th . There are four dances featured. Cha-cha, Merengue, Salsa, And Mambo. These are commemorative stamps, so they will only be available for about 6 months. Most post offices should have them , so be sure to ask.

 

 

Dreams (Linda) We should pick a place to meet up in the Catskils. I was thinking in the Latin room on Friday. You mentioned that it was a favorite. After the evenng show. Should be around 10:00 or 11:00.

Eric and Nancy

[nkpeeps]

Dreams. Latin is one of our favorites also. Cha-cha and Salsa

[critterchick]

We had a ball dancing on the Monarch last weekend! We attended a very basic swing class and still learned something new. The Monarch All Stars played for 1/2 an hour during the Captain's Gala. We were the first ones out there and danced to every song. It got a little crowded, and every now and then we stumbled due to the ship's movement (NOT the champagne:rolleyes: ). We couldn't stay awake long enough for the salsa and samba classes at Bolero's. They've tweaked the schedule there so that the Dueling Pianos play until 10:30, then the Latin band takes over. Last time we were on board, you could hear the crickets chirping in the lounge, but this time it was quite crowded, lots of people having fun.

 

We've decided not to rotate partners anymore during our group classes. There are too many women (sometimes twice as many as men), which means I spent a lot of time dancing with myself, no fun at all. Plus now that we know 4-6 moves in each dance, we want to practice them. So we stick to our little corner of the studio. Last night was tango, and my thighs hurt! Oweeee! I know, it's in a good cause.

[SilverG]

Hello all,

 

DW and I are doing a cruise next year for our 30th anniversary, and decided to take ballroom dance lessons in preparation. It's something that we've discussed over the years, and just never acted on, until now. We're taking the class through our local community college, and had our second class last night. I am SO SORE today! Although our class is 1.5 hours, I had to rest during the class. The class is a rude revelation of just how out of shape I really am.

[smoothdancer]

Silver.... You remind me of me!!!.....

 

Many years ago we were going on our first cruise and decided to take a few dance lessons previous to our cruise..... It was so much fun, and after a few lessons we knew enough to dance a few swing and Rumba steps at the captians party..... Have fun on your cruise with your new dance steps.....

 

And then hopefully, after the cruise you will find that dance adds a real spark to your life, and will continue to find joy in dancing.....

 

Jan

[dreamscometrue2]

Nkpeeps

 

Bad news for us. My DH was hospitalized yesterday with an viral infection and they are still running test to find out what is making him sick. I hope you guys have a wonderful time in the catskills this weekend, but it looks like we will have to wait for another time. It was painful to call and cancel, but my energy has to go in the direction of getting my DH well again.

 

Linda

[SilverG]

Many years ago we were going on our first cruise and decided to take a few dance lessons previous to our cruise..... It was so much fun, and after a few lessons we knew enough to dance a few swing and Rumba steps at the captians party..... Have fun on your cruise with your new dance steps.....

 

And then hopefully, after the cruise you will find that dance adds a real spark to your life, and will continue to find joy in dancing.....

 

Jan,

 

Thanks for the encouragement. We've been to two classes so far, and right now, it's almost overwhelming. The class we're in is only 4 sessions, so I think they may be trying to cram too much information into the available time.