Southern UK Jive

[Southern Jiver]

This was ostensibly for Blues beginners of which I am one. Perhaps I'm not the best person to be writing this review as I am so new to Blues, perhaps someone else who was more familiar with the dance style and attended the workshop could add their views below. The first couple of hours dealt with the basic forms of dancing the Blues and dealt with frame, connection, and timing among other things. This was all good stuff to a novice and it was very interesting. However, the remainder of the workshop was a dizzying rush through three routines designed to give you something to work with. Personally I found that I was just beginning to get the hang of one routine when we were moved onto the next. Perhaps it was felt that the routines could be practiced later at the freestyle but it wasn't long before my brain went into overload, especially while trying to remember and practice all the basic features of Blues which were taught in the first two hours as well as trying to put the three routines together. Maybe it was just me. Sara was an excellent teacher, even though she insisted on making a number of disparaging remarks about Southern Men lacking "manliness"! However, I did find her style a little intimidating and I felt that her concept about how the whole point of Blues was to make women look good was rather demeaning to men in general. I had intended to do the freestyle but I had had enough after 4 hours and an accident with a rather over-enthusiastic partner lurching into what wasn't supposed to be a dip, left me with a rather sore back. I hope I don't sound too negative about the Workshop because I did get a lot out of it. There were many of the basic principles of Blues that were taught that I will endeavour to include in my Jiving as I can see that they are "best practice" principles for any dancing but I can't say that the experience left me eager for more Blues.
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"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb

[Andy McGregor]

[Jiveonaut]

I rather liked being described as a car. The man is the engine, the suspension, the steering (the oily bits on the inside). He provides the direction and the power. The lady is the bodywork, the aerodynamics and the paintjob (the goodlooking bits on the outside). She provides the grace, the elegance and the fluidity. A car is rubbish without all of these things (A Ford Ka would be rubbish with a W16 1000 horsepower engine, the same as a Bugatti Veyron would be rubbish with a 3 cylinder 50 horsepower one), but put them all together and you get synergy, and a thing of beauty, and its the same dancing. A man using nothing but strength to hoick a lady around the dancefloor looks awful, as does a lady wafting around like a prima ballerina, all flower and flounce. Get the balance right though, and great things happen.

(PS, I went to a supercar show yesterday.....Aston Martin V12 Vantage for me please, on the road and the dance floor!!!!!)
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Words are good, but hens lay eggs.

[Boogie Boy]

Wow what an experience! As a relative newcomer to blues dance I found this an excellent workshop.

Sara's assertive and fast-paced style of instruction was certainly challenging, but I took her remarks about southern guys to be just a device to get us guys to be more assertive ourselves. The attention to blues basics was of real value and yes, like you SJ, I would dearly have loved more time on the elements of the 3 short routines.

If we all took away just one thought from the afternoon, for me it has to be this - Question, who leads the dance? Answer, the music!

I did stay for the freestyle, with some apprehension - being a blues freestyle virgin - and loved it. Thanks to the 2 DJs - what a great selection of music, much of which I'd never heard before, and most of which made me want to dance.

And thanks to the blues dancers who came from various parts of the country to support this event and who, together with all you followers staying on from the workshop, certainly boosted my confidence.

Nicky what a day to remember, well done you for putting it all together.

And now the Oliver Twist moment - I want more!

[Nicky]

We had a real mixture of people who turned up for this workshop. Some like yourself, SJ, were relative Blues novices, others had varying degrees of experience in Blues dancing.

SJ wrote:

[Southern Jiver]

I encouraged Sara White to read my review of her workshop. She asked me to publish her response :

"Thanks for sharing the blog post, very good of you to take the time to write.
Some of your comments lacked the 'tongue-in-cheek' smilies etc that are often used to indicate that they are meant to be taken in a light-hearted manner - but then, my light-hearted references about 'Southern Men' (used only to create a gentle, harmless, and yes, sadly stereotypical, call to dance appropriate 'manliness') must have lacked those too...

I take on board your comments about the three routines being fast paced. It can be difficult as a provider, to ensure that customers feel they get full value for money and enough to work on in the future. (For every hour of workshop, probably 10 hours of practice is required to consolidate the learning points.) We spend a lot of time on techniques, the fundamentals that underpin the entire dance - and our routines were carefully put together to incorporate all of the earlier work we had covered, because dancers in general, find it easier to put them into practice that way. It takes time to assimilate the information and then to get to the point where you re-evaluate all that you have previously learned. So with those thoughts in mind, we choose to give more, and run the risk of possible overload, rather than less, and run the risk of people feeling short-changed. I hope that makes some sense.

Your feedback is really useful, and very much appreciated, the only way for us to improve what we do, as I have said, is to know what works and what doesn't. It was lovely to meet you at Bramshaw and I really hope that your back is on the mend now - having suffered a recent back injury I know how uncomforable and enduring the problem can be."

Take care
Sara
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"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb

[Southern Jiver]

Sara also sent the following about a return visit to Bramshaw :

"Hi There...

Firstly we just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along to Bramshaw and helped to make our first Blissfully Blues experience down south such a memorable one! We had such a fun time during the workshop - and what a superb venue for a freestyle... It lent itself to Blues perfectly!

We hope everyone enjoyed the events, and that you got from them all that you hoped for. We welcome and appreciate feedback so do feel free to inbox me with any thoughts and suggestions you might have - we can only improve what we do, by knowing what you want...

On that note, we would very much like to head back to Bramshaw and do another similar event, perhaps this time with a more advanced workshop attached to it, we have quite a selection of workshops to choose from that we're sure you'd enjoy.

Obviously we need to gauge interest before we book again, so... Over to you guys! If you want us back - let me know and we'll make it happen."

Take care
Sara & Stanley.
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"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb