So, I did my First Ever WCS Class last night
It's a new night, it's in the Moonglow at Watford, and it's being run by Paul Alex (an experienced Ballroom and WCS dancer who also owns the studio) and Carol Clarke (an experienced Ceroc teacher who also teaches other styles)
(Disclaimer: I and Carol occasionally teach AT together. But did I get a discounted entry? Pah, did I hell...
so, at least, you know this is a "pure punter" review.)
The evening was billed as a mix of AT and WCS - in the event it proved far more WCS than AT, but that was fine with me. (I'll slip in the AT review bit at the end.)
The class started at 8:30pm, and consisted mainly of learning two patterns, the Sugar Push and the Whip. Paul clearly taught "ballroom-stylee", drilling the patterns into us again and again. Normally I'd not like this approach, but I did find this kind of worked in this context; I certainly needed the comfort blanket of muscle memory for it.
We spent about 45 minutes on the 6-count Sugar Push, then about 20 minutes on the 8-count Whip - I think trying to teach the Whip was a bit ambitious really, but I can see why they wanted to get both patterns introduced. My impression is that the "by-the-numbers" teaching style might get a bit limiting for me in the long run - but that this structure is precisely what I need at the start.
They played a fantastic selection of music during the class - I can certainly see the attraction of the music, it's lovely to dance to.
I also got a vague idea of why the dance can look nicer than MJ in some way - the elongation of the in-and-out movements does create a different look and feel.
I also see why the dance takes up a lot of room - we did tend to take up a lot of space on the dance floor, and I can see why it's difficult to have MJ and WCS dancers in the same room. WCS doesn't seem to be a dance that's easy to dance small.
My two main problems were:
1. My complete lack of anything vaguely resembling a lead for at least the first half of the class. Partially because of my brain trying to assimilate the pattern concept (I'm not good at remembering patterns at the best of times), but probably also partially because there was not a lot of tuition on that area in this class.
2. The "tap-then-step on the same foot" bit during both the Sugar Push and Whip movements. I'm now completely conditioned to the concept that if you take a step, you transfer weight onto that foot. So I did so, almost every time. Grrrr...
Considering the relative lack of marketing for this, there were a good number in attendance - about 30 in total I reckon. Certainly more than enough to generate a good atmosphere in the class. I'd say that most of the attendees were of a MJ background.
Overall, I really enjoyed the class - much more than I thought I would, in fact - and I think I may even go back there again next week. It's certainly good for me to get out of my comfort zone with dancing, and I did enjoy the occasional points where I started to get a feel for the dance.
Oh, I nearly forgot, the AT bit: Paul taught a Basic 8....
