It’s not often I feel the need to write about a standard Ceroc class – I covered the format of classes in general in earlier posts on my pages dedicated to Ceroc, which you can find here Rhythm – Ceroc
However, while the country has been experiencing a heatwave over the past six to eight weeks, Ceroc in general has been suffering a bit of a drought of its own. Dancing uses up plenty of energy, causes plenty of sweat and increases your overall body temperature – plenty! So, faced with the choice of whether to dance or whether to sit on the patio soaking up the last of the evening’s sun with that second glass of Prosecco, some dancers have naturally opted for the latter. You really can’t blame them for wanting to enjoy the sun. After all, we see so little of it in Great Britain that its a craving we need to satisfy whenever we have the chance.
But fellow Ceroc dancers, and prospective new beginners, I think we have seen enough of those harmful rays now and the excitement of getting an actual suntan without leaving the country has dwindled into normality and it is time for normal service to resume. That is not to say that normal service has not continued. Ceroc Fusion have continued to offer classes to those die-hard dancers who want to sweat it out on the dance floor whatever the weather – yes, they make it to classes through rain, hail, snow, ice and (more recently) heatwaves. Its just that numbers may have been a little lower than usual, combined with the standard holiday season of course.
Many of the Ceroc Fusion venues offer air conditioning, some are only able to offer fans but copious numbers of them are drafted (see what I did there?) in for the warmer evenings, and what better way to actually cool down than to dance in the chill of a welcome air-conditioned venue? Either way, the staff do their utmost to help the dancers to remain cool. Recently, the franchise owner of Ceroc Fusion, Anna, has been offering iced lollies and slices of cooling watermelon after the intermediate class, to refresh the dancers who are heading into the remainder of the evening’s freestyle. Needless to say, there are very few leftovers at the end of the evening.
I digress. I wanted to talk about a particular evening, yesterday evening in fact, at the Carnegie Room in Thetford which is in the county of Norfolk but its expanse of forest straddles the border and into Suffolk. The air conditioning had been switched on early. On entry to the hall we were greeted with a refreshingly cool, albeit gentle, blast of air. Per the above, and the return of the heat after a short thunderous break, nobody knew whether to expect thirty or sixty dancers but all were prepared to enjoy, whatever the turnout.
Following a recent discussion about the introduction of new members, last night at Thetford introduced the trial of member-led introductory leaflets. Ceroc information and event leaflets are, without fail, on display on the front desks of Ceroc venues but this time, a small white sticker was added to the corner, upon which members were asked to write their membership number before handing a leaflet, or ten, to prospective new members. Dancers were encouraged to do this because if a new member came along and handed the leaflet to the staff on the door, the dancer who had passed on the leaflet would be entitled to a free night of dancing. This would be added to the system whether or not that dancer was present when the new person joined. This would not impact on new member joining offers either, such as the ever-popular six lessons for the price of three if you sign up on your first night. Plenty of dancers took leaflets and it remains to be seen whether it is successful.
The dancers piled in last night. Tables soon filled and the lesson began as usual. Steve, the dancer teacher, noticed that everyone was bubbly and chatty in the lesson (which is always encouraged as dancers are getting to know other dancers) and there was a general good vibe around the hall. The intermediate lesson was fun, with one slightly challenging move in the middle, but the dancers embraced the challenge and lots of laughter could be heard around the hall as they were determined to master it. There was such a feel-good vibe around the room, it was infectious. The dance floor was kept full throughout the classes and freestyle and Steve played a selection of newer and older tracks to suit all tastes – which is never an easy task. With almost eighty dancers at the venue, it couldn’t have been easy to cater for all but, with dancers in all age ranges in attendance, he pulled it off seamlessly.
As always, he offered to allow intermediates to record us dancing the intermediate lesson moves when the lesson was finished, for their own learning and not to be shared publicly.
With such a happy, enjoyable evening, you just don’t want it to end but its great to know that when it does, there are classes all over our area on various nights of the week so the next night of dancing fun is never far away.
Writing and Rhythm 