Queens Room Dancing - Just Ballroom?

[Silverspringcruiser]

Is the dancing in the Queens Room only ballroom? I know there are theme nights of modern music, but in the videos I've seen even when the band is playing a pop song the people are doing foxtrots and waltzes and what not.

[Pushpit]

Also Latin as well as Ballroom, to be slightly pedantic. But yes, that's the main thrust of the Queens Room approach to dancing. There is a separate nightclub, which is usually pretty popular, which does - well the sort of music you hear at weddings, so not much drum and bass, but plenty of hits from the 90s and Noughties. There the dancing is let us say free-form.

 

Occasionally people dance away in the middle or sides in ways which aren't exactly Strictly, but usually no-one minds too much.

Edited June 5 by Pushpit

[Lanky Lad]

It is mostly ballroom dancing. However, there is a disco as well and once or twice a voyage there will be a "party night" when the on board band from the disco are in the Queens Room. 

[D&N]

1 hour ago, Silverspringcruiser said:

when the band is playing a pop song the people are doing foxtrots and waltzes and what not.

 

I'm wondering what sort of dancing you are supposed to do to a pop song. 🙂

Most music has three or four beats to the bar and depending on the tempo you can dance anything that fits that.

We danced most ballroom and latin dances to the party band that was on most nights in G32. Their musicality was more inviting to dance to than the Queens Room band. And sometimes more challenging in avoiding the pillar and getting in and out of the odd corners. There were only one or two numbers we couldn't fit a dance we knew around and had to resort to disco. Never having had any disco tuition I do a mix of cha-cha, samba and jive steps to fit the music.

If the floor fills in the disco or ballroom we modify our steps so we can continue dancing with other folk in close proximity.

 

 

[NE John]

I’ve heard the band play an “interesting” waltz version of the Beatles “Yesterday” that came across more of like a German Oom-pah-pah knee bender. Odd, just odd…Maybe that’s the pop music the OP mentioned. 

[mahasamatman]

6 hours ago, D&N said:

I'm wondering what sort of dancing you are supposed to do to a pop song.

 

It depends on the music. I highly recommend Night Club Two Step for the slower songs, and rumba frequently works. There is virtually nothing that's not danceable. We frequently dance ballroom/Latin (including waltz, foxtrot, rumba, cha-cha-cha) to Pink Floyd. Argentine Tango is also famously adaptable and can be danced to virtually anything. For example, we don't really like Viennese Waltz, so you will see us dancing tango vals instead. For a real treat, try dancing to some music in 5/4 or 7/4 time.

[Victoria2]

2 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

It depends on the music...

 

For a real treat, try dancing to some music in 5/4 or 7/4 time.

Or join in the 'disco dancing' in the Queens Room on QA. Now that was a treat to see.A lively, full floor of 'alternative' dancers. 🙂

[Fox trotter]

On our last QM2 cruise, we found the band would change tempo midway through the music which made it difficult to dance true ballroom. Someone asked the bandleader why they do this and the reply was "sorry we don't do strict tempo". On our recent QE cruise there was lots of recorded music before the band came on which was much better for ballroom and Latin.

[D&N]

4 hours ago, Fox trotter said:

On our last QM2 cruise, we found the band would change tempo midway through the music which made it difficult to dance true ballroom. Someone asked the bandleader why they do this and the reply was "sorry we don't do strict tempo". On our recent QE cruise there was lots of recorded music before the band came on which was much better for ballroom and Latin.

I wouldn't get too hung up on that. Our ballroom dancing seems to be under attack from the disco police and their supporters! 🙂

 

If we decide to dance to music from a "pop" band we're aware there's no guarantee the tempo won't change part way through, so we don't expect too much from the Queens Room band.

[D&N]

It seems that if popular opinion has it's way, I need to practice standing still and bending my knees now and again to the music and waving my arms about. Or perhaps adopting a gorilla stance and violently nodding my head forward in sort of time to the music. 🤣

 

And making sure of course that my wife and I always dance in a different manner. 

[new to cuising]

Was there any sequence dancing? Usually most Cunard cruises I’ve been on feature such sessions to recorded music

[mahasamatman]

5 hours ago, Fox trotter said:

On our last QM2 cruise, we found the band would change tempo midway through the music which made it difficult to dance true ballroom.

 

The key to any dancing, especially ballroom, is adaptability. Otherwise, you could just dance to a metronome.

[D&N]

15 minutes ago, new to cuising said:

Was there any sequence dancing? Usually most Cunard cruises I’ve been on feature such sessions to recorded music

There were two morning classes and a 45 minute session at 7pm one evening each week/way on our crossings. We only made the last evening one due to my failure to fully analyse the daily programs.

We're not big sequence fans, preferring freestyle, but there are a few we quite like.

Edited June 6 by D&N

[Silverspringcruiser]

Here's an example. It's Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love but it's swing style and everybody is coupled up and dancing like it's a '50s sock hop.

 

 

[new to cuising]

6 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

 

The key to any dancing, especially ballroom, is adaptability. Otherwise, you could just dance to a metronome.

You mean like on strictly 😉🤪

[D&N]

39 minutes ago, Silverspringcruiser said:

Here's an example. It's Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love but it's swing style and everybody is coupled up and dancing like it's a '50s sock hop.

Tony Maria (dance), in bottom left of screen, are keen hobby dancers so that was probably an advertised dance session and may well have been 'called' as Swing or Ballroom Jive.

As you often find on Strictly or Dancing With The Stars, playlists are often compiled using more contemporary music, perhaps with tempo slightly adjusted to suit the dance.

 

There's nothing to stop anyone getting up and disco dancing to that, or any other dance where most of the steps are in one place.

It becomes more of a problem to share the floor when it's a travelling ballroom dance and the bulk of dancers are moving around the floor, a stationary dancer/couple would cause a traffic jam.

 

Edit to ask; Have you looked at the rest of their playlists? I think it's exclusively dancing, mostly on Cunard or Princess ships.

 

Edited June 6 by D&N

[Silverspringcruiser]

I looked through several because they seem to give the best idea of what dancing in the Queens Room is like, and it seems to be mostly older, skilled dancers.  Although I did see one that was to Martha & the Vandellas' Dancing in the Streets there were couples dancing like your average wedding guests.

[D&N]

I don't think they've been on QM2, at least I don't think they've any videos from there.

If you see any dance where couples are not dancing round the floor there's no reason why you can't do your own thing at same time. Rhumba music would be more suited to a couple in close hold than individuals dancing.

 

If we do ballroom in a disco and folk join us on the floor dancing disco we either dance round them or if that's not possible we change what we're doing since it's billed as their type of dancing.

When party dancing is arranged for Queens Room, which is a much bigger floor, we and others should be able to dance ballroom on the perimeter while others dance in middle, but nobody else thinks about that.

Sometimes we can thread between other dancers depending how they position themselves.

 

And for Dancing in the Streets, we'd be doing foxtrot, cha-cha or a slow jive before we'd resort to dad dancing.