Southern UK Jive

[Southern Jiver]

As there was not much on offer on this friday, I decided to attend the first Halo Dance (Duality) Freestyle at Romsey. This was represented as a Jive/WCS/Blues event - It was misrepresented. As a Jiver I was bitterly disappointed and as a result I left by 9:30pm. There were a few Jive tracks played between 8:00 and about 8:45pm but then it was almost entirely WCS tracks which was great for the Westies that came along but not good at all for those of us who were just Jivers. I had three dances in an hour and when I approached the organiser about the lack of Jive music in the mix, he informed me that the Jive music was over and it would be WCS tracks for the rest of the night. So, as I said, the Westies probably had an excellent night but I certainly wasn't the only person who left very early. What is the point of paying £8 to mostly sit out because you can't dance to the music being played? This only goes to further confirm the view I have held for some time that WCS and Jive do not belong in the same room together. It's ok to have two rooms, Jive in one and WCS in another but anyone could see that when the Jive music was playing , most of the westies were sitting out and the Jivers on the floor and when the WCS tracks were being played, it was the other way round. To be fair, I was offered a refund for the evening so I appreciate that. I wish Halo dance all the best in their new enterprise but it appears to me that they will be holding mainly WCS/Blues freestyles and I will not be advertising them on the Calendar as Jive Freestyles.
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"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb

[Ilona]

I had a fantastic time tonight at this event - absolutely loved it. I got there just after 9, and heard some comments that the music had been slow, but it was promoted partly on the basis of more Blues style music so it didn't surprise me. After I arrived, they played a perfect mix of Blues tracks, then some uptempo Jive (All the Lovers, Fire with Fire, to name a few). The dance floor was pretty busy most of the night, but with the added bonus of having room to dance, show flair and style, and not bump into anyone - a major bonus in my book as I love to have room to move.

Fabulous dancers, great mix of music.

On a personal note, it really helped that when I walked in, it was like coming home with lots of my favourite people there.

For me, one of the best nights in ages, loved it.

Ilona

[Mandy H]

[Olly]

Mandy H said:

[Southern Jiver]

[DJ Andy]

It's interesting isn't it, that three reviews of the same event can be so different.

With apologies for glib labels, ...'old-school' modern jiver says music was all WCS... Westie teacher (I know you dance other styles Mandy, but I'm assuming you attended as a westie)says music wasn't suitable for WCS at all... and relatively newbie modern jiver who perhaps isn't quite so particular about music, has a great evening...

I bet if I'd have gone, I wouldn't have thought the music suitable either!
(I've heard that Bryan Adam's 'Everything I Do, I Do It For You' got a play...er...not for me thanks )
Personally, if I want to dance Blues, then I want something, you know, actually 'bluesy'!

It probably just goes to show that you really can't please all of the people all of the time!

And I'll take a little comfort from Mandy's comments about the music just running off a laptop - maybe that disproves the theory that old-style DJ's are no longer required, now that anyone can set up a playlist on a laptop, and let it run.
Maybe I've got a job for a little longer.

Perhaps over time, these nights will find their niche or level, but it may well be without a lot of the modern jivers and Westies the organisers were targeting.
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DJ - ModernJivePortsmouth
www.ModernJivePortsmouth.co.uk

[Boogie Boy]

Well I've never seen so many dancers sitting out with perplexed looks on their faces with a half empty dance floor!

For much of the evening I found it a real struggle to work out what, if anything, I could do to the tracks being played. There certainly wasn't much to jive to, but when on the odd occasion a jive track was played the floor instantly filled. As a WCS novice I was hoping to get some needed practice, but surprisingly there wasn't much to do that to either. Same problem with the Blues I'm afraid.

I think it's a great idea for organisers to introduce music not usually heard, and some of which I really enjoyed, but the point is the tracks must be good to dance to - and many of them weren't!

Yes many were disappointed and left early, at varying times as the evening progressed. I have to say I did have some really good dances, but that was down to my dance partners.

Sorry Duality you missed an opportunity here. Many at this freestyle won't be back. If you're going to run this event again, I think you need to get a professional DJ.

[Jiveonaut]

I didn't go to this freestyle (Champagne was involved, so....) but having been buried in facebook messages before it took place, and followed the chat on the SJF abou the the music ("the playlist is the event") I'm surprised the biggest cause of discontent laid out here was the music, and even more surprised that there was no DJ.

Speaking in general terms therefore, I would say that the two most important things for ANY dancing event are (a) the floor and (b) the music. Sticking to commenting about music now, I feel quite strongly about the need for a DJ. Only a DJ can 'sense' what the dancefloor likes, can see what fills the floor and what empties it, and can adjust the music to suit. In my experience as a dancer, too many obscure tracks puts people off, especially if they are VERY obscure, whereas one or two can enhance an evening. Too much of one sort of thing can get boring, too much of different sorts gets bitty etc. Every night is different, so if the DJ gets the mood right the night gathers a momentum of its own, and if he doesn't the night is usually just 'OK'. This event, sold as a musically challenging one, surely shot itself in the foot by not having a DJ. Playlists are great fun to compile (I've done a few) and even play (once at Minstead last year - thanks for the opportunity Olly et al!!!!!) but what I may like isn't necessarily what others may like, as I found out when I cleared Minstead's floor (it was tea and cake time mind....). However, I managed to refill the floor before my set was up, (a) because the cakes were all gone but (b) I tweaked my list to play a couple of more well known ones that I had in reserve for precisly that eventuality.

For great examples of how to play different genres of music at the same single floor event, Minstead with its Blues half hours at the end and Twisted at Newbury (with its 60/40 split at its longer than average events) are probably the best way to go. Halo's event seems, to me (who didn't go, so am basing this on the comments above) to have tried to have crammed in to many sorts of music over too short a period of time, and so please no one.

Another point: I've been to quite a few 'first' nights in my time now, and I've never before heard of a bargain entry of 8 quid, down from £10. Thats the price of most Ceroc franchise freestyles, with £10 being a Twisted entry if bought online. Most first nights have usually charged a lot less, right down to nothing, or laid on a lot more, or even both. The most recent one I've been to, Jive Mads event at Enham a couple of weeks ago, was free, and they laid on a colossal amount of nibbles, cakes, ice cream etc which were also free. I get the sense that Halo haven't done any analysis of the local competition, both in terms of cost (they've gone in at the top end) or in terms of what they lay on (not a huge amount compared to other events, though as I say, I wasn't there so am very happy to be corrected).

Final thing: I hadn't thought of it in such terms before, but I do find myself having a lot of sympathy with Olly's comments above, about helping to grow the dance community, and also agree that its also a bit cheeky using other organisations facebook pages to plug your own event without asking. The electronic version of leaving your flyers on their tables????
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Words are good, but hens lay eggs.

[Steve]

I have seen this kind of mixed genre freestyle in Hove, Bath, Newbury etc. and they can work. Very difficult to pull off tho, I think you need very experienced organisers to even have a chance.
And in this immediate area, given the pre-Ceroc historically narrow range of music people have been taught to dance to. Well, that just makes it even harder.

I only saw what was posted on this forum, I didn't see any emails or facebooks messages, so all I had to go on was that it would be Modern Jive, West Coast Swing and Blues. And that's very roughly what it delivered. A third of jive, a third of wcs and a third of blues. The music was pretty much what I expected in terms of genre. I've no complaints there.
However, the way it was structured, if you weren't able/didn't want to dance to one of the three genres, you did end up sitting out for a long while sometimes.

That said, I also agree with what Ian said, what passed as WCS music was decidely dodgy in places.

It is perfectly possible to get away with not having a DJ if the music is not only good enough, but matches the audiences requirements. This night highlighted why sometimes you have to have a DJ watching the floor. Also DJ'ing isn't a case of sitting down and listing your favourite tracks one after the other, which is what this felt like. Overall the playlist had no flow to it at all. Very bitty.

The bottom line there was a huge discrepancy between the audiences expectations (although I'm still not 100% clear why that was given the organisers delivered "what it said on the can") and the music played. That huge discrepancy was what caused the problems on this night.
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My local WCS dance guide: http://www.southernjive.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726

[Chrissim]

I was really looking forward to this dance because I’m a jiver and hubby prefers WCS, and unlike the Hub we would be in the same room, so this should have been perfect, but alas not. There just simple wasn’t enough jive music nor WCS music for that matter. I thought there would be 3 to 4 jive records then WCS then a couple of blues, but no the jive music was over too quickly, then the dance floor was almost empty for a number of records. Eventually about 10ish more jive music was played, but the damage had been done and they had lost a lot of jivers. I have been moaning here, but I can say I did have a good night and made the best of what was played and I did have some lovely dances (jive and WCS). I do hope they listen to peoples complaints and wish them luck on their next night.

[TeeDee]

[Jasper]

I didn`t attend this, but just wanted to comment on the facebook thing. Totally out of order. I joined jive and kickings facebook page as I keen to be updated on their Kinson events, due to me living a stones throw away, but the next thing I know 'Jive mad' had been through the page emailing everyone and I can only assume they have been through other organisers pages doing the same thing. I find this a deperate measure and totally wrong. It is along the lines of getting bugged by junk mail and sales phone calls. It should be banned.
Phew.. glad I`ve got that off my chest .. I feel better now

[Andy McGregor]