The road to Ceroc.

[Allez-Cat]

I've never done any formal ballroom or dance training, but was brought up on the customary disco diet. Apparently I had rubber legs and a reasonable wiggle.

Unusually, I had evolved a form of jive (inherited from time spent in Southern Africa) which involved a lot of yanking and laboured spinning. I bumped into a senior member of this forum (who shall remain unidentified) who suggested - very kindly - that ceroc lessons were available in my locale, and that I might benefit. So I went along, and enjoyed myself so thoroughly that I can't get away from it.

The big plus is that I no longer yank my partner around like a sack of new potatoes (well, not all the time, anyway). The downside is that I still, a couple of years down the line, gaze upon my 'mentor' with awe and admiration, and descend rapidly into suicidal mode.

But my abiding memory at my first evening was the owlish expression from the lady at the door, and the strict admonition that "this is not a pulling club". Well, I almost gave up on the spot....

[Jazz_Shoes (Ash)]

I was wondering how you all got started / introduced to Ceroc (or dancing in general)...
Were you actively looking for a dance class, was your arm twisted by a very enthusiastic friend? Franck.

Umm....well I did the kids ballet/tap when I was about 5 for a couple of years....not that I remember anything Then about two years ago I danced for a bit in a theatre group (I won't mention the name) but I actually think I learned more on my first night at Ceroc, than I did the entire time I was there, all we did was practice a routine for like 8 months on and off (dance/singing module), and strangely enough didn't even know it that well by the end. Although I do think that it made me a slightly better dancer and we did get an introduction to Ballet thingy.....can't remember much of that either, apart from our attempt at syncronized leaping (don't ask). Between me leaving that group 2 years ago and joining here I always wanted to go to dance classes, but...I dunno sumfin was stopping me...
Then last saturday I was flicking through channels, turned to VH1 just as flashdance was starting and was engrossed from start to finish....well almost, I did the whole dancing round the living room to the groovy music thing too Umm...then on sunday I decided to look up yellow pages for dance classes, checked one's with web-site's-found this place, went through a rather large rigamole on another thread and there I was on wednesday night I guess i've just changed since two years ago

Luv,
Ashleyx

[Purple Sparkler]

If my Mum's to be believed, I'm the living embodiment of the Abba lyric "I was a dancer before I could walk", or pretty close on.

My parents enrolled me in ballet classes when I was three, because they simply could not get me to stop dancing whenever there was music around, whatever else I was supposed to be doing (there's a story I think I don't need to detail involving this particular tendency and a musical potty when I was 2). I stayed doing ballet until I was 15, which was a long time after I realised I would never be a professional- too tall and just not as good as the other girls. The final straw was a concert my ballet school gave, where my class (of which I was the oldest member ) was dancing to some music from 'Carousel'. My teacher decided it would be a great idea to do a maypole dance. I was informed that as I was too tall for the maypole dancing, I would be holding the maypole steady for everyone else. It was at this point I realised that I was fed up to the back teeth of being put at the back of the class all the time while my teacher made much of the girls who also did tap and modern with her.

5 years later, after a brief spell learning belly dancing, I was at university, and my friend Ed did some Ceroc with me at a university club night. He was taking classes at a Working Mens Club in York, and I accompanied him and fell head over heels in love with Ceroc. Unfortunately, I was less enamoured of my then boyfriend, who had known Ed longer, and when we broke up, I lost my transport to classes. When I graduated I moved back to Basingstoke where there was no Ceroc class (Reading being a bit too far away).

Another 5 years on, and I moved to London. I was looking for something to do in my spare time, and Ceroc was the natural choice. So I looked online and found my local venue, and 2 weeks later turned up ridiculously early at Ashtons (continued doing so for about 4 weeks beyond that- until they told me I didn't have to come so early!). Kept going once a week for about 11 months, then I was busy on a Wednesday night and decided to give ISH a try... cue a huge improvement in my dancing and the birth of what is now a fully-fledged obsession, which is about to reach new heights with my first dance weekender!

[cedar]

firstly i would like to say hello (im both very new to dancing and this forum)

i had always wanted to dance, but never really had the courage to (most men that i know my age just lack any interest in anything apart from the pub and women), until a certain lady gave me a push in the right direction! ok so its only been 2months at the most but im strangely addicted. its already at the stage where no matter how hard my day at work has been, i just dont feel i can miss a class ( that comes from one of two things, the enjoyment i get from it but also a desire to improve)

i must say its quite an inspiration when you see certain couples Dancing very mesmorizing, and very encouraging!

ah well there is my short and sweet story

jx

[Night Owl]

firstly i would like to say hello (im both very new to dancing and this forum)

i had always wanted to dance, but never really had the courage to (most men that i know my age just lack any interest in anything apart from the pub and women), until a certain lady gave me a push in the right direction! ok so its only been 2months at the most but im strangely addicted. its already at the stage where no matter how hard my day at work has been, i just dont feel i can miss a class ( that comes from one of two things, the enjoyment i get from it but also a desire to improve)

i must say its quite an inspiration when you see certain couples Dancing very mesmorizing, and very encouraging!

ah well there is my short and sweet story

jx

Welcome to the forum


I`ve only been dancing ceroc since sept 1 too

love it and hate it if i`m even late for a class

And if you find your self up in Scotland there are plenty venues who will welcome you up here too

And of course the BFG next May

Enjoy

Iain

[Anna]

*long ago, in a galaxy far far away.. *

How did it all begin..Well..I did jazz ballet and rhythmic gymnastics for about 2 years (from 8-10 years of age) and then one day I saw the tv programme "Battle of the Ballroom" and was so charmed by it that I decided I wanted to do competitive ballroom dancing (my main goal being to possess one of those puffy frocks with the fluff around the bottom ) and so I started learning latin&ballroom at age 11ish.. Two years later I saw a flyer about a type of dance called "Ceroc" posted on the whiteboard in my social studies class at school and thought I would give it a go as I was finding L&B to be frustratingly structured.. and the rest is history.

That year about halfway through, I started learning Salsa because my Mum worked in the same department as this guy called Andreas who was a Salsa teacher.. and because Mum thought he was so delightful I was soon shipped off to his classes.. for the first month I hated it because it was so hard, but my Mother forced me to go and then eventually I started to enjoy it (and now it's my favourite but shhh don't tell him )

from that point I learnt some of the other Street Latin dances, a bit of Argentine Tango, Bellydancing (when I discovered the religious education teacher at my school was also a bellydancer weird I know), Westcoast Swing, Blues, and Samba.. Only ever done a few hiphop classes but seeing as the NZ teenage population's native danceform is hiphop, I think I have a fair grasp of it..

mmm yeah The End

[killingtime]

Well in contrast to Anna's "I danced from the age of 0.25" Ceroc is my first sort of partner dance; I'd been to a whole two Ceilidhs and my ex-girlfriend probably spent around 2 years (ok not non-stop) trying to teach me the basic step to the waltz. I did always enjoy club dancing; though I wasn't that regular a clubber.

I've always wanted to try some form of dancing and one night at a friend's he pointed out an ad for Ceroc (which a few of my other friends had been to and enjoyed); I went online to get some more details and turned up to a lesson and have succumbed to whatever additive they put in the water. That was just over 4 months ago . Since then I even did a waltz class down in Southport and managed to get the basic step .

It took me a while to make a post in this thread .

[Bozo]

First time into Ceroc was because SWMBO did a taster class at work during a Children in Need charity day. We went along together for some months, dragged another friend into it with us, but stopped going for some reason - probably because our hectic social schedule meant that we couldn't find a night free to go to the class

That was about eight years ago. Interest was spurred again by our good friend Gary:

I've always wanted to try some form of dancing and one night at a friend's he pointed out an ad for Ceroc (which a few of my other friends had been to and enjoyed)]

who has become dedicated to the cult of dance!

My wife started back a while ago - I had to wait to get clearance from my physio (recovering from a broken knee). On Tuesday morning I got the go-ahead, and Tuesday night was my first lesson back, where I realised I've forgotten all of the moves and I can't hear the beat unless it's a drum solo.

Oh well, I look forward with anticipation to the day when I have enough moves to have a real choice of what to do next, rather than just not repeating the last one.

Martin

[scotttwin]

Franck,

I started Ceroc about a year ago after pulling out a Cd rom from my desk which I had put in there about 6 months previously having been handed it outside Clapham Junction station one evening.

There was a group of dancers outside the station and I remember it well - not because they were dancing on the pavement, but because they were dancing in the cold and rain on the pavement. I remember thinking they must be barking, taking the CD rom paying little attention and then going home.

For some reason, and I can't remember why I eventually put the Cd in my disk drive at work and was inspired by the dancing and the interviews with men saying it was easy and great fun.

My first few weeks I wouldn't describe as easy and fun, but I was blown away being in the company of friendly, non-smoking, non-drunken people all out mid-week just wanting to have a few laughs - in London, this is very hard to find, and I now never miss my weekly fix.

[Frankie_4711]

Someone I used to work with kept trying to bully the rest of us into going with her - and I have to admit I was tempted as I've always loved all sorts of dancing, but because of the venue she attended it would have been impossible for me to go with her, and at that point I didn't realize there were other venues. Then I saw an advert in my local theatre brochure, saying they held classes there, so decided to go along - I was totally addicted from day one!! It was like going to a fantastic party every week! After a couple of months, I decided once a week wasn't enough and sought out my next nearest venue, so have been going twice a week ever since. I would do more, but hubby isn't into dancing in any way, shape or form, and I feel a bit guilty keep leaving him home alone!

But Ceroc is by far the best thing that has happened to me - it makes me happier than anything else, and I will never look back now!!

[AndrewMc]

A friend's wife was teaching and all I had to do was mention it to my Mum who was really into dancing but that was back in the late 30's and 40's. It was pre meditated really, I knew that by mentioning it to her she would keep pushing me. I liked ballet when I was in my teens, was taken to see Romeo & Juliet, but Mum said she "wouldn't take me seriously till I did latin".

[Lost Leader]

My partner and I had talked about doing some kind of dancing for years but always found reasons not to follow it through. Neither of us have any previous dance experience but we had heard of ceroc so eventually we plucked up the courage to give it a try. Luckily we were given a warm welcome at our local venue (Daventry) and in spite of a few bad nights and dodgy moments we have never really looked back. Six months in we are having a ball and have even booked a chalet for Breeze in October. Life without ceroc now seems unthinkable - if only we had started earlier.

[Lian]

I got introed to Ceroc through my friend Mike, who said, "You should come to Ceroc dancing on Wednesdays with me!".
My first thought was, "Mike, when have you ever even seen me ATTEMPT to dance?!"
I am not one of those girls who can just get up to music and move around and look sexy and dance, and stuff. I have the severest inability to move my body in curvy shapes like you're required to do.

I move like a potato on the dance floor. Except I don't even bounce.

So I thought, "I'll go and maybe I'll learn how to move to music, and not be so self conscious, and stupid at dancing"

So, I went, three weeks ago, to this place called Jumpin Jaks, which I'd never been to before. [I ended up thinking the place was awesome, with its alligators] And was there, on the dance floor, gripping Mike's hand like I was Rose and he was Jack, and then we started.

And I had the BEST time of my life!

Subsequently, the next week, I brought my friend along, and the week after that, we brought two more.

I'm a regular newbie bringer!

[bigdjiver]

... Subsequently, the next week, I brought my friend along, and the week after that, we brought two more...

[SOAPBOX]I believe that MJ could be modelled as a contagious disease. Many people are immune. Some "recover" quite quickly. Some remain carriers all of their life (and perhaps beyond, transmitted by their writings and recordings). An organiser should know what the pattern of attendance of its new members is. Here we have an example of a new member bringing with them over 100% growth at the start of their MJ experience, and in a period of a week. When you are dealing with exponential growth in such short periods even fractional changes in the parameters have enormous effects. No matter how hands on the management is, a human being is just not capable of differentiating such small changes. Minute differences in venue performance have huge effects in the long term. Ceroc should be capable of collecting and analysing such data, but is woefully negligent (IMO) in doing so. It is impossible to identify a new member. Many on this forum will have membership cards from several franchises. To each franchise they are a "new" member. Some members will have returned after a break, and lost their card, and will rejoin as "new" to collect new member benefits. These behaviours distort the statistics. The number of attendances per new member appears lower. This lowers the perceived value of new members.
When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of advertising these effects become critical. An expensive ad will apparently just bring in one or two members immediately. If it softens some people up so that when a friend later invites them they decide to come the friend may be credited, rather than the ad. I believe that Ceroc should, from time to time, advertise big, double sided, cut out and keep, covering the common questions. Perhaps HQ should subsidise such local advertising that spreads across franchise areas, provided that advertising gives HQ's contact details. I believe that the membership form should ask a) if the new member has done dance classes before, b) has danced MJ before, and c) danced Ceroc before. There should be a central record of members.[/SOAPBOX]

[SteveK]

I guess my route into Ceroc is different to previous ones; an ex-girlfriend of mine used to do Lindy Hop. After we split up, I fancied a new challenge, thought it would be nice to be able to "partner dance" properly and went along to a convenient local Ceroc class in Watford. That was last September, and I go virtually every week since...

I used to live up in Inverness, and am back up mid-week for the first time in a while. I'm looking forward to going to the Inverness class - if you see me there, please say hello to the intermediate coming for the first time there!!

[Lee]

I remember seeing a 'modern jive' type busk in Kingston town centre (Surrey) on a Saturday (in the Summer of 2001) and walked past trying to ignore them (as if they were collecting for charity) but found myself turning round about 20 yards later and sat on a wall and watched for 10 minutes.

I suppose it took my brain about 6 months to process the idea and I eventually found out that something called Ceroc was being taught on a Wednesday in Clapham Junction, so I persuaded a girl in my office (that I liked, that also used to teach ballroom to kids) to come with me.

8 weeks later she stopped, but I carried on and the rest...is not history.

That was in Feb 2004 and I’ve have been going pretty much about once a week ever since. I used to ice skate 5 times a week before that (for 8 years) and I didn’t want this to become my life, else I might end up hating it.

Wonder what I'd be doing now if I'd just gone to Bingo instead?

Lee

[jive_me]

My best friend lives a 3 hour drive from me so I don't get to see her very often. On one visit to my house she and her mum showed me a few moves from this new thing they were trying 'Ceroc'...'What's this?!' thought I as she pushed me round the room and I stumbled everywhere. A few months later she became a taxi dancer for Ceroc Chesham. I went to stay with them in the summer for a week and they took me along to a night. I had so much fun I was hooked! When I came back up North I tracked down a few local venues and although sometimes I can get frustrated, tired and achey (don't we all?) a year or so on I haven't once even been tempted to look back

xXx

[straycat]

I was at Uni (Southampton), and had been persuaded to join the ballroom dance society. This was at the end of the summer term though, and I wanted to get a head start with some form of dance - so I went along to this Ceroc thing which a friend told me about. (think Ceroc Southampton had been going less than a year - this was well before all the 'troubled times')

I knew I might take a while to get it, so I promised myself I'd go for five weeks - and if after that I hadn't had a really good evening, I would permit myself to stop. Weeks 1-3 were OK, but nothing special. Week 4 was hell, and I wouldn't have come back had it not been for said promise. Week 5 was amazing. Never did go to the ballroom dancing society (it clashed with Ceroc)

[Swinging bee]

Got started about 10 yrs ago after we saw a demo on local TV of LE ROC...Never forget it, on the first day we were given cards showing the FOOTWORK for the moves!
Stood us in good stead in the long run tho'

[jacksondonut]

Remember being down in Bournemouth one Summer and watching
a Mojive (!) demonstration in the local Shopping Centre... I was mesmerised... (came to MK Bletchley Ceroc venue to start very soon after... the rest is history)..

realised it was something I had been looking for, for a very long time... ten years later I still love it...