Alan Mathers - Dance - Ceroc and Jive

Dance venues - dancing as a hobby - dance move database

Dance has been a hobby of mine for around two and a half years now. My main interest in dancing is with Ceroc.

Ceroc, Jive and modern dance moves database:

View jive and ceroc move descriptions, learn how to dance jive moves. Save your own. Watch video illustrations.

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Jive moves database

Dance has been a hobby of mine for around two and a half years now.
My main interest in dancing is with Ceroc.

Official links:

Ceroc London champs@ceroc.com

Quick links
Championships
Ceroc and me
Venues
Ceroc moves database

Venues I attend (not necessarily Ceroc)
Prices may not be spot on!

Please Note:
This list is hardly ever updated and probably contains out of date information. If you are looking for a venue in your area have a look at UK Jive which is a great site...

Of course if you have suggestions for improvements let me know, or better still drop a comment in the Jive Treasure Box Forum.

Venues I attend (not necessarily Ceroc)
	Venue	Address	Time	Verdict
£6.50 member	Bisley occasional West Coast classes	Bisley Pavillion (Gun club), Surrey	Tuesdays 7.45PM till 11.00	Check here to find out what's on and when
	Reading	South Reading Youth and community centre	Mondays 8PM till 11PM	New venue. Floor tricky, lesson a good challenge.
	Newbury (Ginger Jive)	Liberty ballrooms, Newbury, RG19 6HW	Wednesdays 8PM till 11PM+	Nice big hall, friendly, good lessons.
	Twyford	Loddon Hall, Twyford, RG 10 9JA	Fridays 8PM till 11.30PM	Friendly, nice to dance a bit later.
£7.00 members (cheaper after 9:30 £5-6.00 members probably)	Fleet (Now Ceroc Plus)	Harlington Centre, Fleet, GU13 8BY	Thursdays 8:00PM till 11:30PM (!!)	Lindy + jive lessons. Nice big hall, friendly, crowded at times. Always a good dance and good music. tea and cakes afterwards are a must :)
	Guildford (Rebel Roc)	The Stoke, 103 Stoke road, GU1 4JN	Wednesdays 8.30PM till 11PM	Not nearly as big as Fleet and crowded.
	Croydon	Arnham Gallery, Fairfield Halls	Tuesdays 8PM till 11PM	Quite crowded, lesson average.
	Orpington	Crofton Halls, near Orpington Stn	Wednesdays 8PM till 11PM	Busy, lessons variable.
	Bromley	Civic centre - the Great Hall	Thursdays 8PM till 11PM	Nice hall, crowded, good lessons.
Weekends £8.00+ entrance for members.	Bromley	as above	Last Saturday of each month 8.30PM till 12.00PM	A nice evening out, if a little crowded.
£10.00 for members, but hey - this is London!	Hammersmith	Town Hall, King Street, W6 9JU	once a month 8.00PM till 12.00PM	Excellent evenings with a real buzz. Beginners lesson.
Others (Prices vary depending on event)	Rivoli dance hall*	350 Brockley Rd Crofton Park London SE4 2BY	Saturdays and more	Marvellous place, unlike any other. HAS to be seen!
Others (Prices vary depending on event)	Notre Dame	6 Leicester Place, Leicester Sq, London WC2	Fridays, Saturdays and more	Nice venue and not too crowded.

*all details may be changed without notice by the relevant parties. It's best to contact them
directly using the links for exact information - this is intended as a convenient guide and no more!

*If you are interested in more than just Ceroc and want to try something else, such as Latin, Ballroom and so on then the Rivoli is well worth a visit. The 20's decor of the place is quite amazing - all I can say is you have to see it for yourself :) Give them a ring to see what is on.

I'd suggest getting involved in Jive Party who regularly hold evenings catering for Jive, Swing, R&B and R&R at venues such as Notre Dame often with live bands :) They also have an email mailing list to keep you up to date.

Ceroc Dance Championships 2006

Venue	Date	Time
Hammersmith Palais	Sunday 20th Apr 2006	10.30AM-12PM

For the seventh year running, the Ceroc Dance championships were held at the Hammersmith Palais.

Reasons to attend

Great venue with a real "vibe to it"
Wonderful dancefloor
Meet dancers from all over
Good music - well hosted
It's a real buzz taking part

You can either attend to take part in one or more of the heats, to spectate for the whole event (Midday to Midnight), doing the freestyles*, or attend just for the 'Party' (7.30 PM to Midnight). *There are several freestyle session throughout the day that anyone can join in on.

Heats are as follows

Intermediate's Freestyle Trophy - if you have danced 6 months or more
Advanced Freestyle Trophy - compete with the best dancers
Showcase - dance any style without restriction. This is usually brilliant fun!
Lucky Dip - Your partner is chosen at random. This could be good or bad news.
Open Trophy - Do what you like as long as you are really advanced.
Showcase - Choose music and choreography - any style
Old Gits - Over 45s need apply
Double Trouble - dance twice as long for half the time ;)
Aerials - if in doubt, throw your partner around.
Team Cabaret - do it in groups.

More words

The Hammersmith Palais has a lovely sprung dance floor and also a good stage area both of which are free to be danced upon during the many freestyle sessions throughout the day. There are also many balconies at different levels overlooking the dance floor which allow good visibility when the events are taking place. It's really quite a wonderful atmosphere when there is an event going on (especially in the later stages when most of the elimination has been done) and everyone is crowding around at all levels to watch :)

Prizes: Winners of the various trophies will win a dance holiday sponsored by Dance holidays (if you have any feet left by then ;) )

Hopefully I have helped convince all you dancers out there it is worth a visit to the next one, if only for the evening freestyle session to try out that lovely dance floor.

My Ceroc addiction

It all started when I was convinced to attend a Ceroc (a modern jive) class in Beckenham (UK) and after the first evening I was eager to go back. Not bad for a complete non-dancer! After three weeks I was writing all the moves I learned down. About two months after that I was trying to dance with everyone I knew. Even at work :)

The Ceroc logo states 'Pure Dance Addiction' and after about six months dancing it became clear why. The only way to feed to addiction is to go more and more, but there are only seven days a week, so everything else has to go (apart from, of course making music ;) )

Ceroc Moves Database

This is now online and available at this address:

http://www.jivetreasurebox.com

Around early 1999, I started writing a relational database to catagorise and record all intermediate moves I came across. The form is of simple text descriptions but there is a framework for making the entering of new moves easy.

After much interest from many people far and wide I have decided to go ahead with the online database. I am in the process of finishing it off now..

Screenshot from the move entry section of my Ceroc database selected at random.

Screenshot from the routine entry section of my Ceroc database selected at random.

I recently heard that there are well over 500 official Ceroc moves and variations and I now have recorded 376 (by August 2005) in my database so I'm getting there :)

Ceroc Links

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