Slow Foxtrot

Mr 'mcloaked' posts some knowledgeable comments on ballroom dancing aboard Cunard and his suggestion to perhaps have two sessions for each dance is worth considering.  If competent dancers are frustrated by novices blocking the floor and if novices are intimidated by competent dancers then maybe this solution would satisfy everybody.  For instance there could be a simple Social Foxtrot followed by the international style Slow Foxtrot. Of course it would need a competent MC to make the appropriate announcements and make them clear enough for everyone to understand.  As someone who has cruised spasmodically with Cunard for over 30 years my own personal bugbear is the lack of knowledge of a simple Ballroom Quickstep!  So many dancers, upon hearing Quickstep music, immediately go into the corners and dance jive or rock 'n' roll or anything between - meaning that dancers who wish to dance a Ballroom Quickstep might as well give up!

That's when Cunard could do with a proper MC.  But don't hold your breath. 

Furthermore, as another poster has said ' the Queen's Room Orchestra' is no guarantee of strict tempos.  Some are excellent but quite a few leave a great deal to be desired.  With Cunard it is always the luck of the draw!!   

It would certainly be an interesting scenario if cruise lines banned the 'over 70s' for the foreseeable future.  Should they go ahead and do this then they might as well jump the gun and file for bankruptcy now!  On the other hand there won't be many elderly people thinking of cruising this year.  The cruise lines are stuck either way and the immediate future looks pretty grim.

We've done a number of 30-40 days segments on Cunard and P & O world cruises and found that there is little difference between the service given to full world-cruise passengers and that given to 'segment' passengers.  Yes, there are occasional extra bonuses for those doing the full world cruise but nothing to shout about. 

And no-one 'looks down their nose' at you because there may be two or three thousand people on board so how are they to know?    So, nothing to worry about.

In the Commodore on QVic this summer the pianist was a very talented guy who played a lot of 60s and 70s pop songs like Elton John e.g. I enjoyed it a lot.

..

When Mark Bear bemoaned the downgrading of sophisticated music such as the Great American Songbook and Cole Porter in the Commodore Club I very much doubt that he included the piano thumping of Elton John in this category :)

 

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• The Commodore Club continues to feature sleepy classical music at the piano after dinner, with the resulting almost-empty room. It almost hurts to remember how popular it was with sparkling conversation, when it featured smart nightclub music like Cole Porter, Sondheim, and the Great American Songbook standards from the 40s-50s-60s.
  
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- Mark

Quite agree Mark - if they want the ambience in the Commodore Club to reflect sophisticated musical tastes then the cocktail-pianist should have a wide repertoire of the great musical 'standards' of yesteryear. Five or ten years ago this was never a problem but if the current tendency is for classical music then that tells you all you need to know about the young executives who organise these things. Small wonder that business in the CC is not what it used to be.

:)

I had to look it up. Roy Hunt.

Yes, Roy Hunt, the Music Historian. Anyone interested in the great popular music of yesteryear should not miss Roy's interesting and amusing lectures. Very approachable and a real gentleman.

Slow Foxtrot (not Social Foxtrot)

Quickstep

Waltz

BUT - don't expect to do any of the above properly at busy times on Cunard dance floors. Sadly, the floors are not really big enough and the majority of 'dancers' have very limited ability. This is not a criticism - but it is a fact!

Hi Tangol, a budding singer as well as an excellent dancer eh? We did the crossing with the N.S.O. some years ago and it was truly memorable. Anthony Inglis is quite a character and changed jackets with the Captain who then conducted the orchestra ! Plenty of good old British patriotism and not unlike the Proms.

After watching this you will be all set to exhibit your dancing skills in the ballroom.

[quote (Hi Foxy,

Glad to hear from you again.

I saw that exhibit last year at the Peabody & Essex Museum here in the colonies. Two of the main ships featured were the Imperator and the Rex, the Italian's answer to the Normandy. The Imperator carried my father when he was eight years old from Hamburg to the US. He was processed at Ellis Island in New York. My mother came to the US a dozen years later on the Rex. She was 15. Again processed in NYC, but not at Ellis Island.

Next month I will be on my 5th S'ton to NYC transatlantic crossing. I think of my parents making the journey as kids. Not knowing what to expect, not knowing the language or customs. Q-Step

Hello Quickstep,

That's a fascinating story about your father arriving in the USA aboard 'Imperator' all those years ago. And your mother too, arriving on the 'Rex'. What a contrast to you dancing the nights away on a transatlantic voyage next month.! Perhaps your love of sea-travel is in your genes!

Have an enjoyable crossing and let us have your report on the dancing and, in particular, the music!

Bon voyage

Foxy

Does anyone know how many significant on-board features were first introduced by Cunard ??

Sorry, Pol Acker does not count as a significant feature :)

Was it Cunard, P & O, White Star etc etc? Sorry!

According to a booklet purchased at the recent Ocean Liner Exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum it was the German-built 'Imperator' owned by the Hamburg America Line. Launched in 1913 it was the largest passenger ship in the world. It boasted a luxurious ballroom situated amidships. After the First World War 'Imperator' was briefly acquired by the United States Navy and eventually passed to Cunard as part of the war reparations. Cunard then changed the name to RMS Berengaria.

Nice to know that the current Cunard 'Queens' are continuing the ballroom tradition, thus following in the footsteps of the 'Imperator' over a century ago.

Immigration process for people in wheelchairs is annoying. Everyone has to get off unless in the sick bay or confined to cabin. If you don't want to visit New York you still have to get off. We had to wait right up until leaving the ship with last passengers. If we left before we would have to sit for hours waiting to return to the ship. We were told it's better and more comfortable to sit on the ship Right up until the last minute. There must be a better way. We will have to do this process twice at Christmas.

Is this annoying procedure exclusive to the USA or does it happen at other ports where handicapped passengers do not wish to disembark ?

Nothing has changed there for many years. Fort Lauderdale immigration authority has a reputation for being pathetically (some say deliberately) slow, especially for cruise ships which are not registered in the USA. Without a doubt, countless thousands of potential day trips have been ruined by their ponderous inefficiency They have long since ran out of excuses and therefore Port Lauderdale is a port to avoid if at all possible.

No, I don't think Cruise Lines should boycott Russia, it's up to individuals to decide if they want to visit a country.

Absolutely right Hattie, cruise ships call in at dozens of countries that have policies that are utterly abhorrent to many in the West. Shall we exclude them all? And cruise passengers have the right not to go to these countries if their conscience so dictates. Conversely, Cruise Lines have the right to choose the ports that they wish to visit. If you are not happy, then don't book!

Simple.

I personally thought it was great, like a mini river cruise on an ocean going ship. A really pleasant and surprisingly enjoyable experience. I suppose it depends on what you enjoy about cruising, each to his own.

Quite agree. We've been through the Panama and Suez Canals several times but, although completely different, we found the transit of the Kiel Canal aboard Black Watch very enjoyable. Granted, the weather was sunny and warm which always helps. The pastoral scenery on either side was delightful and a few glasses of bubbly completed a very pleasant transit.

Could Warren tell us if he will be dancing with Dolores on this occasion?

...... But on the Cunard Queens, too many quicksteps are played, and I tend to shuffle along. And not enough Viennese Waltzes, which is a real challenge for most men found on Cunard cruises.

 

Have you seen the thread "Shipboard Romance"? I've posted there and my routines are described in more detail there.

Do you mean 'dance routines' or routines for getting very friendly with the opposite sex? Shipboard romances sound very exciting but just as a matter of interest we have been ballroom dancing for many decades and in contact with all kinds of professional dance teachers and I know of no other profession that involves so many divorces! Maybe it's the close contact with so many partners :)........ but it's a fact none the less!

....Our first experience with the Quickstep was on our first QM2 crossing. After that, we bought a Quickstep DVD and learned enough to get around the floor for our next Cunard voyage.

That's the way to do it Bob. It's amazing what you can learn from YouTube and DVDs if you know the basics of dancing. Perhaps Dancer Bob from Canada and Tangoll from the Far East could let us have their comments on the Quickstep.

.........Finding dance teachers in the US who can teach the Quickstep can prove to be somewhat difficult.:D

Why this should be difficult is a mystery to UK dancers because the Quickstep in its basic form is quite easy to learn by anyone who knows the fundamentals of dancing. A mixture of just progressive chasse/locksteps/spin turns etc is all that's needed to get a beginner around the smallish Cunard dance-floors. One can easily pick this up from Youtube. Yes, of course, there are many tricky advance movements but on crowded floors you rarely need them. Cunard play a lot of up-tempo music so it's well worth picking up the basic Quickstep.

 

Remember, the Queen Mary 2 is THEE only ship that has a Ball Room at Sea.

Not quite right, many ships have a ballroom for dancing. Just one of many examples is P & O's Oriana.

'Cassandra 14' rightly states that QM2 has the biggest ballroom at sea but what really counts for dancers is the size of the actual dance-floor, not the size of the ballroom. Does anyone know if any ship has a bigger dance-floor ?

.......For the same reason that Cunard ships have a dress code, there are certain conventions for what is described in the daily programme as "Ballroom and Latin Dance Music". It's said often that adherence to the dress code is out of respect for other passengers on board. Would one show up in swimwear and sandals to the Britannia or Grills dining rooms, because as having paid the fare, that's what you feel like doing? It's hard to fathom the attitude of the poster who said they "make it their business to get in the way of dancers" who happen to be doing what the poster says ...

Absolutely right - what sort of people 'make it their business to get in the way of good dancers' who dance in the proper manner? Apparently, the same poster also implies that anyone dancing in 'ballroom hold' is 'extremely pompous'. Is she not aware that virtually all social dances in the U.K. are danced in 'ballroom hold?' It does not follow that if a couple dance smoothly and correctly they are 'competition dancers'. And no competent dancer invades the space of the novice dancers. If they do then they are not competent dancers! Cunard are rightly proud of their 'Ballroom and Latin Music in the Queens Ballroom' so sorry, it's no sin to dance to the best of one's ability even though, for some misguided reason, it may annoy certain posters on this forum.

These people you are so scornful about are not professional or competition dancers: they are on holiday and "giving it a go" many for the first time in proper ballroom conditions. If someone asks them to dance they are assuming it's for a bit of fun not to be marked out of ten and would probably be very upset if they knew your attitude.

Dancer Bob is not being 'scornful' as you allege - as an ex-dance host himself he is simply describing how things were on his last cruise. "Giving it a go for a bit of fun" is all very well but it's worth remembering that Cunard have gone to great lengths to provide a first class ballroom and a professional orchestra and it would seem more considerate to both Cunard and other dancers if complete novices could at least first try to master just the very basics of general dancing. If the only aim is 'a bit of fun' then one of the nightclub discos would seem to be the perfect place. Yes, we know, you have paid your money the same as everyone else but on occasions a little forethought is handy, and perhaps this is one of those occasions. And no, you do not have to be a good dancer to dance in the Queens Ballroom but it really does help if you have at least some idea of what you are doing.

..... Music -- same as always, no VW's despite requests to Social Hosts, too many quicksteps, slow waltzes too slow....

Tangoll, it seems that some Cunard dance-band leaders still lack the basic knowledge required when playing for ballroom, latin and social dancing. This has been the subject of many posts in the past. How can they play a waltz too slow? Surely every band-leader knows that the correct waltz-tempo is around 29/30 b.p.m. It's simplicity itself. Of course, you could always take bigger strides to take up the time-lag! :D As for too many quicksteps; did you find that most of the dancing was in International or American style? The amount of quicksteps would indicate the former as my American friends tell me that quickstep is not widely danced in many American dance venues, although it is extremely popular in the U.K.

So after the ho ha about the dress code, we now have a shoe dress code?

 

You Do NOT need proper dance shoes. What is the point of all the expense of dance shoes when all you are doing is a spot of dancing on a two week cruise? Wear what you like on your feet, it's up to you not the dance hosts who are their for the guests, not the other way round.

True, ladies do not need to wear proper dance shoes when dancing in Cunard's ballrooms but they are well advised to wear appropriate footwear. As previous posters have pointed out, bare feet, flip flops, trainers and similar footwear are an accident waiting to happen. All experienced dancers would never dance in a public ballroom without proper dance-shoes. However, for ladies who just dance once in a blue moon then leather-soled court-shoes are usually okay. Rubber soles are not suitable as they often result in sprained ankles. However, for ladies who are seriously interested in learning to dance properly then proper dance-shoes are the only way to go. You can even buy them on-line from China/Hong Kong at less money than you would pay for an ordinary pair of shoes. And, as Tangoll advises, a two inch or two and a half inch heel is quite appropriate for ballroom dancing. Wishing you all 'happy dancing'.

...A dance instructor will possibly start you off with waltz or foxtrot and ChaChaCha but learning any of the dances would be great. You can always do a bit Rock n Roll as well. Its not easy but nobody was born being able to dance and if you stick with it you'll soon get to grips with it.

Good luck.

The various dance teachers I know usually start beginners off with a Social Foxtrot which is very easy and quick to learn. Not only that, it can be slowed down or quickened up a little according to the music.

However, the Social Foxtrot is not to be confused with the Slow Foxtrot which is one of the hardest dances to learn and can take years to develop to a high standard. As dgs1956 mentions, the Waltz and the Cha Cha Cha can be picked up in their basic form with a little dedication. The thing is not to try and master too much at first as it could end in frustration.

Incidentally, it does no harm to learn a few of the easier sequence dances such as the Rumba 1 and the Square Tango. Many UK social dance venues play a mixture of Ballroom, Latin and Sequence so it's always handy to be able to join in these too.

We have been dancing socially and on cruises for very many years and it really is the best way to keep fit and, often, to develop great friendships.