Dance Music QV/QE- Current Situation

[BobBranst]

Have fun and enjoy the music.

Thank you. I'm certain that we will.

 

I'll be sure to compliment the Entertainment Director :)

 

Bob

[Dancer Bob]

Back when Cunard started putting real dance music during band breaks, I recall writing a letter to Southampton suggesting whoever did it should get a bonus. I can't find my file copy and I can't recall exactly what I said about the Orchestras.

A couple of years ago, there was an "Ask Peter Shanks" thread. I recall making some concrete suggestions, and getting complete drivel in reply.

I've found that many times, the drummer has stayed on the selected tempo, but when the horn players have jumped up with their horrid cacophonies, it takes a lot of concentration to stay with the drummer.

In Canada, we have SOCAN, all the dance clubs pay the fee. I'm wondering if there's a loophole for ships with flags of convenience in international waters?

[Slow Foxtrot]

......A couple of years ago, there was an "Ask Peter Shanks" thread. I recall making some concrete suggestions, and getting complete drivel in reply.

.....

 

The question is 'Is Shanks a dancer' ? If he's not then that's why you got complete drivel in reply. One day maybe Cunard will appoint an experienced dancer to oversee the proceedings in the Cunard ballrooms. We live in hope.

 

Perhaps Shanks prefers Shanks's Pony!

Edited May 12, 2014 by Slow Foxtrot

[Dancer Bob]

This was just before his unlamented departure. I assumed it was just a PR exercise, but since I didn't have to pay for a stamp, I'd make the post. One of the suggestions was that the UK is full of highly qualified teachers, surely one must be willing to act as a consultant just for bragging rights.

[corporate services]

Why don't Cunard go the whole hog and get judges to stand round the floor, and a scrutineer and a chairman of the judges, then it could be a proper competition. :)

[Dancer Bob]

The point was that they could probably get someone for free,to provide the expert advice and quality control which is now sorely lacking. corporate services' suggestion would probably cost some money.

[Victoria2]

The point was that they could probably get someone for free,to provide the expert advice and quality control which is now sorely lacking. corporate services' suggestion would probably cost some money.

 

Was Corporate's post tongue in cheek? If it was for real, when we've looked down 'from on high', the floor's often too crowded to judge who's doing what! Some passengers must like what's on offer, correct tempo or not.

[corporate services]

It was of course very much tongue in cheek! But the ballroom on QM2 is no place for dancing in a competitive style, in full ballroom hold or flinging your arms out in a cha-cha, and there are always the couples who feel the need to show off what they have learned in their lessons. It is a social dancing venue, if you want to compete go to a competition. :)

[Slow Foxtrot]

... But the ballroom on QM2 is no place for dancing in a competitive style, in full ballroom hold or flinging your arms out in a cha-cha, and there are always the couples who feel the need to show off what they have learned in their lessons. It is a social dancing venue, if you want to compete go to a competition. :)

 

You miss the point entirely. No-one wants to dance in 'competitive style' as you call it. And why are people 'showing off' if they wish to dance in a competent and sensible manner? Is this the reaction of someone who knows next to nothing about dancing on a social floor? In the UK there are thousands of social dance venues where dancers do their very best to dance in a competent manner. Would you like everyone to slouch and stumble around the Queens Ballroom as if they were three sheets to the wind?

 

Many Cunard passengers on this forum merely ask that the band has the competence to play music at the right tempo for each dance. Is this asking too much? And yes, we all know that it's a social dance but the right tempo makes it much easier for beginners and casual dancers to keep in time. It's a win-win situation that seems to elude many people.

[corporate services]

You miss the point entirely. No-one wants to dance in 'competitive style' as you call it. And why are people 'showing off' if they wish to dance in a competent and sensible manner? Is this the reaction of someone who knows next to nothing about dancing on a social floor? In the UK there are thousands of social dance venues where dancers do their very best to dance in a competent manner. Would you like everyone to slouch and stumble around the Queens Ballroom as if they were three sheets to the wind?

 

Many Cunard passengers on this forum merely ask that the band has the competence to play music at the right tempo for each dance. Is this asking too much? And yes, we all know that it's a social dance but the right tempo makes it much easier for beginners and casual dancers to keep in time. It's a win-win situation that seems to elude many people.

 

This is very much not the reaction of someone who knows next to nothing about dancing on a social dance floor. I know about dancing on a competitive floor and on a social dance floor - thanks for asking. Nor do I expect people to stumble around the ballroom, far from it, but I do expect a bit of give and take from people like yourself who seem to want a regimented system of dancing on board ship.

[theTom&Carol]

So silly. So much complaining here. Tempo's bad, etc. Between bad tempo and worn out Dance Hosts with two left feet, suggest some of you best book P&O or whatever cruise line 'DB' recommended. Or, maybe the UK terra firma ballrooms are your best choice. BTW, are there any youthful qualified Dance Hosts at these UK ballrooms?

 

We enjoy Cunard's whole enchilada, including many fun evenings dancing, gym sessions, lecture series, food, dance lessons, etc. Whoever said the Queens Room is full of dancers has been our experience, too. Wonder why that is? Guess they like to dance, and seem to adapt to the tempo. Oh, well.

 

Anxiously awaiting "BobBranst"'s first QR tempo report; he boards QM2 tomorrow. However, I worry about old Bob, fearing that he will not remain seated dutifully recording the orchestra and metronome. If he leaves his seat, and gets up to dance, guess all is lost.

 

DB, if you ever rebook another Cunard voyage, that would be an unexpected sad day.

 

Bye

[corporate services]

So silly. So much complaining here. Tempo's bad, etc. Between bad tempo and worn out Dance Hosts with two left feet, suggest some of you best book P&O or whatever cruise line 'DB' recommended. Or, maybe the UK terra firma ballrooms are your best choice. BTW, are there any youthful qualified Dance Hosts at these UK ballrooms?

 

We enjoy Cunard's whole enchilada, including many fun evenings dancing, gym sessions, lecture series, food, dance lessons, etc. Whoever said the Queens Room is full of dancers has been our experience, too. Wonder why that is? Guess they like to dance, and seem to adapt to the tempo. Oh, well.

 

Anxiously awaiting "BobBranst"'s first QR tempo report; he boards QM2 tomorrow. However, I worry about old Bob, fearing that he will not remain seated dutifully recording the orchestra and metronome. If he leaves his seat, and gets up to dance, guess all is lost.

 

DB, if you ever rebook another Cunard voyage, that would be an unexpected sad day.

 

Bye

 

Hopefully he will only try to dance if the tempo is correct, otherwise things could end up in a terrible mess ;)

[Slow Foxtrot]

.... I do expect a bit of give and take from people like yourself who seem to want a regimented system of dancing on board ship.

 

What absolute nonsense. You expect a bit of give and take? What's that all about? If you want to plod around the floor then that is not a problem and you will find that experienced dancers will give you a wide berth. If you think that dancing to the correct tempo is a 'regimented system' then you fail to understand the essence of dancing. Anyone who knows the first thing about dancing will tell you that dancing to the right tempo is easier for beginners and casual dancers. What part of that statement do you not understand?

Edited May 15, 2014 by Slow Foxtrot

[Dancer Bob]

This thread originally asked for advice for dancers at the pre-bronze to silver level. And only for QE & QV- I've already written off QM2's enchilada as not worth it, Carnival charges a quarter the price for a product that's not hugely worse.

Just realised I didn't post a review of my December QE trip. Sorry about that. If I recall correctly the band was mediocre but not really bad, and the recorded music was 80%, some duds that quality control should have thrown out- that's probably where my idea of finding a consultant came from. I seem to remember posting somewhere that the YC DJ was Chris and that he had an excellent personal collection of ballroom music. I'm pretty sure there was one of those asinine party nights- I can't definitely remember, probably because I would have walked out, those things are what you get on Carnival.

[DWhit]

To some, it may be a chicken and the egg thing... which comes first? Is the dance the purpose and the music should fit the desired dance; or does the music come first and the dance should follow whatever is being played?

 

To me, I have no problem if the band plays a waltz, but the waltz seems too fast for the way I normally dance. I just sit down and wait for the next song. I just hope there is not a disconnect where the band wants to play a ballroom waltz, but never understands that its always playing too fast. I believe that is what SlowFoxtrot , Dancer Bob and others are talking about.

 

Of course, either way, it usually is best if the music tempo remains constant at the desired speed when its supposed to. But that is usually a function of the skill of band's rhythm section.

[fantasy51]

I am a single and my main dancing is on cruises. (Other than that, I have a 30-minute lesson/practice once a week.) I therefore value the few good dances that I have on cruises. It was disappointing when one of the passengers asked me for the quickstep last week on the QV and the music was slow. It meant we could not fly around the floor but were reduced to plodding. (A good quickstep is the closest thing to flying that I know!) Those who have regular partners can afford to sit it out when the tempo is not right. Those of us who are dependent on the whims of the Dance Hosts or the kindness of other passengers, really notice when our few dances are not as good as they can be, purely because of tempo.

 

I had a few dances each night with a beginner who has only started dancing in the last year and is still finding his way. He found it difficult enough to keep time with the music. When the tempo changed, it threw him off. He thought he had gone wrong. It would be very easy for a beginner dancer to lose his confidence.

[DWhit]

Those who have regular partners can afford to sit it out when the tempo is not right. Those of us who are dependent on the whims of the Dance Hosts or the kindness of other passengers, really notice when our few dances are not as good as they can be, purely because of tempo.

Good point, and one that had not occurred to me. At our On-Land Practice Dances its not unusual for people to dance with people other than their regular partner for a dance every now and then. On other non-Cunard cruises, I have not seen too much of this thing happen. On Cunard, do other dancers tend to stick only with their regular partners, or do they dance on occasion with others?

Edited May 15, 2014 by DWhit

[corporate services]

What absolute nonsense. You expect a bit of give and take? What's that all about? If you want to plod around the floor then that is not a problem and you will find that experienced dancers will give you a wide berth. If you think that dancing to the correct tempo is a 'regimented system' then you fail to understand the essence of dancing. Anyone who knows the first thing about dancing will tell you that dancing to the right tempo is easier for beginners and casual dancers. What part of that statement do you not understand?

 

If you were any sort of a decent dancer as you claim to be you would be able to adapt to the tempo being played, even if it is a bit off. I don't think I do fail to understand the essence of dancing, as I told you earlier, and I don't plod around the floor either, I just try to be aware of other people around me in a social dance situation, many of whom will not be experienced enough to take evasive action when someone is steaming towards them at full tilt. Experienced dancers will give me a wide berth - if they are flailing their arms about and trying to do a Viennese waltz on a social dance floor I hope they do give me a wide berth, as I would them. Anyway I think we had better agree to disagree, I'm getting bored with this now.

[Slow Foxtrot]

?.... Experienced dancers will give me a wide berth - if they are flailing their arms about and trying to do a Viennese waltz on a social dance floor I hope they do give me a wide berth, as I would them....

 

 

Well, the UK and international dancers can't be blamed for that because, as you may know, there are no 'flailing arms' in the international Viennese Waltz. It's danced in closed hold. And no competent dancer would attempt it on a crowded floor as it is the fastest tempo ballroom dance when danced at the correct tempo of 58 - 60 bpm.

However, whenever the band announces this dance on Cunard ships there are usually very few couples who accept the challenge and so it is possible to do a reasonable version of the dance under those conditions. Our Viennese Waltz enthusiast is Tangoll who I am sure will elucidate. Incidentally, I loathe 'flailing arms' as much as you do.You don't see much of them in international style dancing but the American Smooth versions can't do without them.

Enjoy your dancing - whatever you do.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Slow Foxtrot

[fantasy51]

Good point, and one that had not occurred to me. At our On-Land Practice Dances its not unusual for people to dance with people other than their regular partner for a dance every now and then. On other non-Cunard cruises, I have not seen too much of this thing happen. On Cunard, do other dancers tend to stick only with their regular partners, or do they dance on occasion with others?

 

I have found it varies. There have been some cruises where I only dance with the Dance Hosts. Lately I find that I get a few dances with other passengers. Unfortunately at times I have to say that the dance standard of some passengers is greater than that of the Dance Hosts! On the last cruise I was fortunate:

- One passenger was very skilled and chose me as one of his 'quickstep girls' (I think he chose different passengers for different dances) and they were the best dances of the cruise. I guess I had 2 or 3 dances per evening with him.

- Another passenger had a couple of dances with me most evenings because his wife is recovering from a broken back and unable to dance.

- I was friendly with one couple from another cruise, and had about 3 latin dances with the husband when his wife was too tired. That was a challenge as latin is not my forte. I always felt my dancing went up a notch when I danced with him.

- I was asked to help out a beginner dancer, so generally I had 2 or 3 with him.

- One of the passengers had been a Dance Host on some occasions (but was there with his girlfriend) and had 2 dances with me during the 11-day cruise, while also dancing with people he'd known as a Dance Host.

 

This was on a cruise where there were so many single ladies that I could only expect 1 or 2 dances with each Host each evening. I was grateful for the other passengers. However, I know I can't go on a cruise and expect that to happen. This experience was the exception rather than the rule.

[theTom&Carol]

I've already written off QM2's enchilada as not worth it, Carnival charges a quarter the price for a product that's not hugely worse.

.

 

 

DB, how is Carnival 1/4 the price of Cunard? Please give us a booking cost comparison example or two. This is fascinating.

 

CCL does own Cunard and all their Queens Rooms and supposed ill-tempo'd combos. BTW, have you folk taken advantage of CCL's stock ownership $100 stateroom credit when floating around on a Cunard ship? Suspect CCL is trying to figure out what to do with Sam's old Cunard. The stuffy old voyagers are departing to the other side, leaving a younger set who may not understand the finer tempo finesse crowd, let alone the Cunard 3 former elegant dress codes. Demoted Shanks may have been bad for the old stately Cunard seniors way of thinking. Who knows? We need someone in 'Corporate', maybe like our Corporate Services insider to offer insight.

 

Back to DB..... maybe your side calling on this CC blog site might be as a discount dancing booking agent adviser. DB, give us you best deal to avoid the QM2 and save us 75% on a cruise, and still have some small semblance of dance space for a reasonable DJ who has packed along a half-dozen canned-tempo dance tunes.

 

Bye

[Dancer Bob]

It's fairly obvious when you think about it. Since Carnival provides the same dance environment (some decent contemporary Latin, albeit no standard) on any ship, I can pick whichever Florida selloff works best, instead of Cunard's “take it or leave it”. With travel, I usually don't get much change back from $4000, as opposed to $1000 (recent price quoted on solo thread) with Carnival.

And shareholder OBC is good for Carnival, Cunard, P&O and Costa, so it doesn't matter which I pick.

Around here, there are several places, from real dance clubs to glorified singles dances. People tend to dance with other people at the same skill level. Some are couple-y, some aren't.

Being picked as the “quickstep girl” is a compliment, there's a lot of women who won't or can't do it. Maybe I can get pointers on how to find cruises with so many single women who actually dance?

[sarafinadh]

Don't know about 'your Carnival' ships and the dance opportunities, but I promise it is a gross exaggeration to say they offer ANY decent dance opportunity on *all* Carnivals. The short cruises out of Long Beach offer nothing but discotheques, and sad ones at that. Don't even bother to take your dancing shoes 8 -O

[theTom&Carol]

DB.... Here's a deal. Today received a USPS mailing advertising a Cunard QE 7-Day $899 offer for 31 Oct or 14 Nov 14 (RT Rome or Venice to Athens). Cash in your air miles and enjoy dancing the QE Queens Room.

 

(or)... Spend the same money, go with a fun bunch of cruisers, and savor a flashy quickstep across a Carnival ship ballroom, all dressed in classy sneakers and clean distressed jeans.

 

This $899 QE dancing deal is about the best it gets, huh?

 

BTW, which (non-Cunard) Carnival ship ballroom do you prefer?

[Slow Foxtrot]

DB...and savor a flashy quickstep across a Carnival ship ballroom, all dressed in classy sneakers and clean distressed jeans. ..

 

A quickstep in 'sneakers and distressed jeans' would certainly distress me!