Ceroc Scotland Forum

Only just discovered youtube and google videos - last night - hence spent what seemed like a couple of hours browsing beginning with a couple of MJ ones - then rapidly on to Lindy, Blues and WCS (one amazing one with Benji Schwimmer)....finally logged out. I'm in tonight, guess what I will be doing.....

straycat264 wrote:Wow. Beautiful. What show's it from - any idea? (reminds me very much of Cirque du Soleil)

That's word for word what I was going to say..

Thanks David, I've seen a couple of the Cirque du Soleil's but not that one.

Amir wrote:It is WCS. At least it should be since these videos are from the US Open West Coast Swing Classic division.

It's not WCS, but I was inaccurate in calling it Hand Jive - it's Hand Dancing. Or at least, that's what Deonna Ball (the woman in the clips) calls it, and she ought to know.

As far as the US Open, although WCS predominates, it is not the "US Open West Coast Swing" competitoin but the "US Open Swing" competition, and the rules for Classic say only that it requires 80% Swing Content. In defining Swing Content, they use this definition:

"Swing is an American Rhythm Dance that is identified primarily by 6-beat and 8-beat patterns that incorporate a wide variety of rhythms. 6-beat patterns include, but are not limited to, passes, underarm turns, push-breaks, and open-to-closed/closed-to-open position patterns. 8-beat patterns include, but are not limited to, whips, swing-outs, Lindy circles, and Shag pivots. Although they are not part of the foundation of the dance as stated above, 2-beat and 4-beat rhythm breaks may be incorporated to phrase the music, to extend a pattern, and/or to accent breaks."

This comes from the "statement of swing" at the NASDE website, and if you look there I think it's fairly clear it is specifically meant to include styles other than WCS such as Hand Dancing, Shag, Lindy Hop, etc.

David Franklin wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fab9CNbBvMM (Tatiana Gousarova, Oleg Ouchakov - Varekai).

WOW That is Fantastic!

DavidB wrote:That would be Varekai by Cirque Du Soleil

On the same theme, here's an act from the show, that I've seen.

It didn't look humanly possible then and it still doesn't now!

From the Cirque Du Soleil show, Quidam

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2055512956611330773&q=cirque+du++soliel

Lory wrote:From the Cirque Du Soleil show, Quidam

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2055512956611330773&q=cirque+du++soliel

I believe that's actually from Allegria - colours are a bit bright for Quidam!

Incidentally, Oleg and Tatianna are in Quidam as well (in the Banquine sequence). She is scary thin in that one though - proverbial girl built of matchsticks!

David Franklin wrote:I believe that's actually from Allegria - colours are a bit bright for Quidam!

I think THIS might explain it

I'm positive I saw this act in Quidam, when it was at Battersea

We had fromt row seats and could almost touch her (and it still didn't look real)

Lory wrote:I think THIS might explain it

Reading that, she did the same act in Quidam (so you're right in thinking you saw it!), but I'm pretty sure that particular clip is from Alegria as it seems to be exactly the same as what's on the Alegria DVD, not just the costumes and music, but right up to the choice of camera cuts.

They specifically say the costumes were changed for Quidam, and if you look at the Quidam costume they give:



you can see what I mean about the colours being a lot brighter for Alegria than Quidam. (It's a while since I've watched Quidam, but my overriding memory is that it was all rather dark and gloomy, with the exception of the very very pale looking performers - it was rather like the scenes of the poor in productions of Oliver Twist / Les Miserables).

To clarify my other comment, Oleg and Tatianna are in the recording of Quidam that was made a few years back, but I'm pretty sure they're not in the currently touring show. In fact, Oleg has a new partner now - Tatianna got injured. Apparently he's gone through about nine partners due to injury!

[Before anyone asks: Yes, I have a lot of Cirque DVDs...]

For slow-dancing enthusiasts, This is nice

straycat264 wrote:For slow-dancing enthusiasts, This is nice

For those who want a higher quality version, (or who struggle with Google Video - it doesn't work well for me for some reason), you can find it here (warning - 80MB download!)

N.B. ftp://dans.poy.no has a lot of Lindy/Rock'n'Roll/BoogieWoogie clips. It's really just an FTP archive though, so it can be hard finding things...

David Franklin wrote:It's not WCS, but I was inaccurate in calling it Hand Jive - it's Hand Dancing. Or at least, that's what Deonna Ball (the woman in the clips) calls it, and she ought to know.

Alot of hand dancing is found in Washington DC. Both Marcus and Deonna are pretty cool and extremely popular. I've been lucky enough to dance with Deonna and she is pretty incredible.

People keep +repping me for video links I've posted on here. Now don't get me wrong - I'm vain enough to love getting +repped....

but I'm beginning to feel ... kind of cheap ... as if I'm getting +rep on the back of other people's fantastic dance skills...

I setup my own profile last month, so that i could show a friend in the USA what I've been up to:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Lee191074 (profile page)

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Lee191074 (my videos)

I've only put up a few recording of some weekenders I went on in 2005, I hope my dancing has improved since then, else I may as well stop now.

Lee

A couple by Jordan and Tatiana and Benji and Heidi.

I'm reasonably certain these are wcs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4J8C2Ka ... ed&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C0GzFJG ... ed&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znPE2Tdv ... st%20swing

DavidB wrote:Thought I'd start a thread just for links to You Tube dance videos.
My starter for 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkEMVGOnOJ4

That's Maxim Kozhevnikov & Yulia Zagorouitchenko from US. They are ranked inside the International top 12 Pro latin. Very nice show piece.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... oast+swing
This is seriously the coolest yet - my favourite US WCS couple, Jordan and Tatiana

and this one isn't bad, either
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... oast+swing

No this is not dance vidio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1g-UJ52cTI

Not a dance video either. Slightly musical though. Sorry if this link's been posted already - it's hard to keep track.

Click here for some nostalgic goodness

Lots of WCS moves here.