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Ceroc will teach you modern jive at its best. A partner dance somewhere between traditonal jive and salsa that is easy to learn and lots of fun. Ceroc offers you well run nights with, we would claim, the best teachers - but the only way to really find out is to come along.
- The dance is perfect for weddings and social events.
- A form of modern jive based on French style rock and roll. The dance has been influenced by Salsa, Ballroom and Tango and is an exciting and stylish fusion of moves which can be danced to a wide range of music.
- The dance, when compared to other types of partner dance, is quick and easy to learn
- Complete beginners are welcome every week.
- You can come on your own or with a partner. The teaching method ensures that dancing partners are frequently changed.
- The Ceroc night is a sociable, fun activity. Not just a dance class.
- A bar is usually available.
- There is a DJ for the evening and the tracks played are varied and all musical tasted are catered for. Music will range from the latest chart hits to 1940's swing through latin and blues.
- The moves are the same wherever Ceroc is danced. Once you have the basics you will be able to meet new people and dance all over the UK .
- All teachers have qualified via the highly exacting Ceroc teachers association (CTA) training system.
What is Modern Jive?
The following information has been unashamadly stolen from John Sweeney's web site. This is the way John usually explains what modern jive is:
In the 80's some clever people in London realised that they could get more people dancing a partner dance similar to jive if they didn't try to teach them any footwork. So they devised simple moves which could be taught quickly and only involved the dancers walking to the beat - not worrying about which foot was which. This developed into a range of styles involving hundreds of moves ranging from simple to complex and danced by hundreds of thousands of people across the world.
A generic name for these new styles is Modern Jive, but most people learn it at a club and use the name of the club to refer to the dance. One of the biggest and most successful chains of clubs, with branches on at least three continents, is Ceroc.
Most clubs have a standard evening format something like:
- start around 7.30pm with a Beginners' lesson for 30-40 minutes - you don't need your own partner as the teacher moves everyone around every couple of minutes so that you get lots of practice with lots of partners
- a short freestyle - just dance with anyone you like and practice what you have just learned
- an Intermediate lesson (same format as the Beginners' lesson) for 30-40 minutes with the really new beginners often going off to practice what they have just learned in a separate room
- freestyle dancing up to about 10.30
- a chat and a drink after the night if there is a bar or a hostelry available.
"Freestyle" dancing just means the man (or "leader") leads the lady (or "follower") through a random sequence of moves. Most people change partners after every track or two so you get plenty of variety.
As far as I am concerned Modern Jive is wonderful because:
- you can dance to all the great hits of the last 100 years - Modern Jive clubs usually play a wide variety of music and don't stick to specific genres
- it is so free-form you can steal moves easily from virtually any other dance style
- there are clubs everywhere so I can dance wherever I am working
- the people at the clubs are always very friendly and happy to dance with strangers
- there are always new moves to learn
- it keeps me fit!
Actually, to be quite honest, you can't easily dance Modern Jive to ALL the great hits - some of them are too slow and some of them too fast. Modern Jivers tend to like music which is between 120 and 160 beats per minute, but the better dancers can cope with other speeds.
Most Modern Jive clubs teach a standard range of Beginner and Intermediate moves at their club nights. If you want to learn more then there are lots of opportunities to:
- attend workshops
- go to dance/party nights
- attend the big "events" around the country which involve workshops all day and dancing all night
- visit lots of different clubs
- get videos of championships and other weekend events and study them frame by frame.
With thanks to John Sweeny.
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