Ballroom Dance Lessons

[tropicalsunset]

Ahoy there, Texas!! DWTS is not what your "typical" ballroom dancing... I LOVE the judges.... I have a couple favorites already but will wait to see a couple more dances!!

 

Mummsie: it was in our Sunday Hartford paper about the record heat you are having there this winter!! (I think they were trying to contrast our lousy winter so far!! :rolleyes: )

 

Jeff: I won't be able to watch as we will be cruising... it is great to see ballroom dancing getting some airtime!!

 

Smooth: this is my big 50th birthday cruise... we are doing a 4 day then 5 day back to back... some friends are doing one or the other some are staying on for the whole party...!! We are on the Zenith out of Miami... doing one night precruise then off to Key WEst(twice --as is on both itineraries!!) then Cozumel and Grand Cayman.. we just want sun and fun..:cool: :D

The last couple years several of us cruising ladies that met on a cruise a few years ago have been doing a long weekend winter break in Marco Island .. this year we have enhanced the annual trip for this momentuous occasion..

I may need a vacation to recover from this vacation!!!:eek: :D

[seadancer]

Hey Smoothdancer

 

 

Thanks for the welcome. I was wondering about the main differences between Celebrity and Rccl . My wife and I are in our mid 30's and are looking for a line with a little more of the old cruising charm versus the way some lines seem to be going .We Love smaller ships and don't need a big party every night or 6million children:D .Right now we like Rccl but are starting to look for something a little more settled down if that makes since.We've heard theres not a lot of difference between the 2 except price.I would love to hear your opinion and anyone elses.

Please let me know when you come down. I would love to go to a big comp and see some pro's. The one we went to didn't have any there mostly college teams. We saw a local dance team do the paso adoble this weekend with 6 couples.That was neat. Our whole dance chapter gave them quite a long standing ovation. Evidently the area schools are starting to get into formation dancing. My wife is tickled to death since she has the most dance experience and is a teacher.

Hey tropical let me know if you would like me to tape it for you.No problem if you'd like

 

Thanks

Jeff

[mummsie]

Smooth, I am sure its just been held up in the mail somewhere - maybe missed a few connections between there and here. It is a long way afterall. If it doesn't arrive in the next week or so, I will let you know. You can now put it onto DVD - we have one that will read pretty much anything now :)

Weatherwise they are saying the monsoons have finally arrived up north, so with a bit of luck we will get some good rains and lift our water restrictions. We have been getting enough rain to keep the pool topped up though thank goodness. Have been swimming a few times but the water has been too hot to stay in for long. Heat hasn't been too bad for the last few days but the humidity has been dreadful. Gayle

[clofty]

Hello Julia

 

Welcome. We went on Grandeur of the seas a few weeks ago and I tried to Rumba (I've only had 2 lessons) in front of the 3piece that was playing in the centrum.They seemed to enjoy the fact that someone was dancing to there music:D .This has oly encouraged me further to learn the rumba ,cha-cha/ waltz or tango buy next years cruise.

We go saturday to see our first Dancesport comp in Daytona.I'm looking so forward to it.

Its going to be in the low 30's with windchill into the 20's on saturday, and they say it doesn't get cold in Fla.

 

Seeeuuuu

Jeff

 

Hey Jeff,

 

Did you stay on for the 12/22 leg? We went on that leg only with our Aussie family and also danced in the Centrum. It was a bit intimidating but I'd had a couple of champagnes.:o Some couples we saw later on the ship remarked on our dancing. Obviously they weren't professionals!

I really like the band in the Centrum and the trumpet player was from Adelaide, Australia.

 

We learned to ballroom dance in Australia over 16 years ago!! :eek: We only get the chance to remember our old old steps from before kids (aged 7 and 11) on the 5 cruises we've been on over the last 5 years! However we do miss the "New Vogue" dancing which is easier to remember the steps but is only danced in Australia. I guess "Mummsie" will know what we are talking about.

 

Actually we never really learned how to foxtrot except for the "Barclay Blues" and tried learning to foxtrot here, but the American foxtrot is different to the Australian one (there is no rising) and we tried some lessons, but found we couldn't get out to practice and forgot all the steps. :(

 

Anyway, I found your post somehow when I was searching Alaskan/Princess cruises for a prospective cruise summer 2007. I have only sailed RCCL and Carnival.

 

DH is just going out to get a TIVO from Comcast, so I can watch DTWS sometime soon.

 

Nice to meet you folks.

Chris

[GCurry]

There used to be some real differences between cruise lines, now, Carnival owns Holland America, Princess, & Costa. Royal Caribbean owns Celebrity which leaves Norwegian as the only stand alone major line. HAL & Celibate were considered premium lines, but they have suffered from the change in ownership in my opinion, as the qualities that made them special are in many cases going away. They do, however, cater to older cruisers with better food smaller ships and longer cruises. Notice Smooth I didn't mention deluxe lines like Raddison/Seven Seas, or Crystal, never having cruised them, but, I've always wanted to.

We were doing a 12 day Celiberty Panama Cruise before circumstances had us switch to the 10 day Norwegian Hawaiian.

 

Mummsie, with 102 degrees and humidity, you would feel right at home in Texas!

Welcome Chris, Mummsie competes in New Vogue and everything else from what I can tell.

 

Tropical, Key West has to be the kinkiest place in America, but it can be a lot of fun. Instead of a ball drop for New Years, they dropped a drag queen in a shoe.

[seadancer]

Hey Clofty

 

I wish we could have stayed on board for the next week,but our concilation was that we are going on Legend of the seas also out of Tampa the week of thanksgiving in 11 months .We booked on board to get the ship credit.We really liked the crew of Grandeur of the seas. As you can tell buy my signature we're getting to be big Rccl fans but don't really like the big ships. I think you lose a lot of the personal touch and we like that.

 

Seeeuuuuu

Jeff

[clofty]

Hey Clofty

We booked on board to get the ship credit. We really liked the crew of Grandeur of the seas. As you can tell buy my signature we're getting to be big Rccl fans but don't really like the big ships. I think you lose a lot of the personal touch and we like that.

 

Seeeuuuuu

Jeff

 

Hey Jeff,

 

Despite 5 cruises, we have never been near the sales desk on the ship, too dangerous. :eek: But I am curious how does the cruise credit system work? Can you cancel without penalty after booking?

 

I'm getting itchy feet for another cruise this year, but all the rest of the family have agreed for us to get out of debt first! Can you believe that, even my 10 year old:o And the major reason, is that we have to renew our Visas after November and have to go out of the country (normally back to Oz) to renew them in our passports. Very costly business being an alien.:(

 

So I will frequent the boards and dream for the next 18 months.

Chris

[smoothdancer]

Seadancer,

From what you posted I think you are going to like Celebrity..We have sailed RCCL three times, and each time we liked it a lot, but Celebrity, at least to me, was a different experience from RCCL.

 

The service and attention to detail is quite over the top. Yes, RCCL has good service, but it is up a notch on Celebrity. It is kind of hard to describe, it is subtle. We also noticed that the ship just in general has a more formal atmosphere. For example, on our cruise I could not figure what I wanted to wear for formal night so I brought extra. When it came to semi formal nights I was absolutely under dressed, and used some of the more not so formal, formal stuff I brought.(ha... I have said this before, no such thing as overpacking!)

 

We are not pro dancers, we dance in the amatuar category.... But we have been competing for I think coming up on ten years now... Sure we will let you know our next comp in Sarasota. Dance consultants does a series of comps, I think the last one ending in Satasota. If you want to see a great comp in a five star hotel this is the one to go to.

The website is http://WWW.Triplecrowndance.com. They are just the nicest people you would ever want to run into.

 

Here is a link of some picutres I have of Celebrity if you want to get in the mood!

 

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos

 

Smooth

[GCurry]

We were really looking forward to our Celebrity cruise for the reasons you mentioned. They have the best reputation for dining and service. We found HAL to be excellent as well.

That being said, I have some concerns about Norwegian's "freestyle" cruising, but, it might be just fine, I'll try not to be judgmental. We are taking formal wear for two to three nights.

 

Regrettably, it doesn't look like Celebrity is sailing out of Galveston in 2007.

[mummsie]

Welcome Chris, Nice to have another OZ on board. :) Barclay Blues would be my almost all time favourite NV dance. My very favourite is the Carousel - one of the newer ones. We have used the cruise desk to put a deposit on future cruises. Only problem is we booked the original when we were on the Sapphire Princess and we booked the Pacific Princess ok. But because Pacific Princess is now on hire to P&O we can now only book P&O cruises through the system. Bit of a bugger because P&O only cruise around the Pacific and we would like to go further afield. Gayle

[smoothdancer]

Gcurry,

If you sail on NCL before us(we are in July) let me know what you think of freestyle. I think it might work out OK for us. We will be docked 3 days in Bermuda and the flexability might end up to be a plus....

 

Anyway, I am with you... We will dress to the occasion for formal night , even if we are the only ones!!

[GCurry]

We really enjoyed last night, although I don't think I ever saw a basic Rumba box. I had to take their word for it that what they were doing was rumba. George Hamilton really surprised me with his classic quick step, he was really good. The boy band guy, the wrestler, and the journalist continue to impress me. I think the rapper is gone.

 

Smooth, we are doing ten days Hawaii on the Wind March 1. Four couples, all of us friends and dancers. We visit 4 of the islands and cruise down to Fanning Island in the Kiribati Republic (primitive Polynesia) as well.

We usually do second seating to allow time for shore excursions, with freestyle, we'll call for reservations for party of 8 each night.

[tropicalsunset]

Thanks GCurry for the opinion on that.... I was getting ready to FIRE my dance instructor.... That is not what I am learning when we do Rhumba!!! ;) ;)

 

We are thinking of booking a cruise for 2007 while onboard Zenith... maybe a med cruise with our son for the end of his freshman college year... we did a cruise for our oldest when he graduated from college and want to do something with our youngest. I am thinking RCCL.. but didn't someone on here do Costa??? wonder how my 18 year old would enjoy that cruise line???

 

Are the whales still in Hawaii in March....definitely want to do a whale watch if/when we ever get there!!!

 

Back to dancing on Monday night.... I am sooooo ready!! :)

[GCurry]

We start again with Ole Lance Tuesday, I'm sure he has sharpened his fangs over the holidays. Speaking of holidays, Monday we are off for MLK Day. We have a wedding reception Saturday with dancing to look forward to.

 

Yes Tropical, Whale watching off Maui is on our todo list. The Humpbacks are there through April I believe. Two Luaus, snorkeling at Kona, Waimea Canyon on Kuai, Volcano National Park out of Hilo and a bunch of stuff on Oahu. A non-stop 8 hour flight out of Houston is the only down side.

 

Warm dry and windy down here, with a fire ban for all of Texas.

[seadancer]

Hello Everyone

I to was a little concerned about the Rumbas. I saw no basic box step or any newyorkers that i can think of. This is my first season watching dwts and they are not winning me over. I enjoyed Ballroombootcamp a lot more and the other show( So you think you can dance) 2 totally different styles of shows but I thought they were well done. We might be going to a neighboring chapters dance tonight .We are undecided rigth noe the temps are supposed to go into the 30's tonight with 25mph winds:eek: .Thats just to cold.

 

Seeuuu

Jeff

[GCurry]

Wow, Tatum got the ax, happy MLK holiday Master P.

We did a wedding reception last night, Mexican food and wall to wall kids which is what it's all about right? We did dance.

 

Three years ago, we spent a couple of nights in a condo on a Key off Pensacola before going up to Tenn. for Christmas. It was much colder then our Galveston area which was a surprise.

 

We continue to be warm and dry and windy, which is a problem. The dog, Samba Wigglebutt, is tearing up the yard as there is not enough moisture for the St. Augustine to grow.

 

Next Saturday is my last dance as President of the Two Left Feet Club. It was an "interesting" year. I've been the leader of several organizations, but dancers can be like cats in a sack.

[smoothdancer]

What Tatum got the ax? I saw her dance on the first show and I thought she was very good. How could she get the ax while the rapper guy is still there????

 

I am with Seadancer. I am not so crazy about the show, if I happen to catch it fine, but no big deal. At the end of last season I did not watch it much becasue I just felt for an average dancer it was unrealistic... Most of us dont dance like this, would take years to learn thoes lifts, ect... It seems to lack just good solid dancing. I also like ballroom bootcamp better. This is more how it really is....

 

Interesting thing though I picked up on. The first show I watched the Russian instructor and I could not believe how her attitude was just like our new instructor who is also Russian. We are starting to get ready for our first comp of the year in March with our new instructor. He gave us this speech the other night that he will prepare us for first place, and that any thing other than first place is useless.... Well we dont come in first place often and further dosent bother us much... He was appauled by our attitude!!

 

So this Saturday we had our first of many two hour coaching sessions... I thought I was going to die of pain!! It is a day later and my sides and knees are still screaming!! Oh did I mention that he needs me to loose 20ILS by March.... Yea, sure!

[mummsie]

Hi Smooth, don't you just love the first lesson of the year. I am really looking forward to ours next Thursday (NOT)!!! Always takes a few weeks to get the body moving again. We are dropping down to one lesson a week this year and I think we may be dropping latin so that won't be too bad. We have a wedding to pay for in September and every little extra $ helps. :) Social classes start Wednesday night - will be interested to see how my foot does. Its still giving me a lot of problems - one of the tendons isn't doing what its supposed too. The physio I have been going too has an uphill battle to get it fixed I think.:rolleyes: I am not supposed to do any long walks until further notice so I don't know how dancing comes into it. I guess I will just keep it strapped and see how it goes. Gayle

[GCurry]

One advantage to being at a major medical center is the availability of Sports Medicine experts, Orthopedics, trainers, and therapists. I was playing racquet ball at age 55, when my knees started wearing out, I also got a couple of partial tears of Achilles tendons, and knew it was time to quit. So we switched to dance, which for you competitors, can present similar problems. Mummies does your Physio(?) have you on a warm-up routine before you dance?

 

Instead of quitting Latin, we probably need to take Salsa as more and more social events with coworkers can be Mexican oriented. Have you ever been to a Quincenera? We Rumba very well, and Cumbia on occasion, so Salsa would be good to know. We also Tango, but that never comes up at Texas social events.

[tropicalsunset]

Wish we could send some of this rain, snow, and sleet down to you in Texas... I am tired of driving in it and shoveling it!!

 

we went down to the CT shore this weekend... was beautiful and out dancing at the Mystic Hilton... they had a DJ ... everyone seemed to leave after the football game so we had the dance floor to ourselves and the DJ was asking us what to play!! they had all rain on the shore and came home to 4 inches of snow in the driveway ..... I sure am ready for a cruise!!!

 

Wow, Janet ... with those 2 hour workouts the lbs should just melt away!! I don't think I have the stamina for competition... but I admire those of you who do!!

 

We are back to class tomorrow night... lets see if we can remember our latest new steps and properly execute them?!!

 

those of you lucky enough to have a holiday tomorrow ....ENJOY!! :D

[GCurry]

Back to class with ole Lance. I think DWTS and other programs have inspired people, he had ten new couples in his beginners class. We'll see how many last. We always come early, work on basics, and help the newbies if called upon. The second hour is advanced, when we learn new steps and he fine tunes the really good dancers.

 

We could certainly use the rain, you can keep the sleet and snow Tropical. We got about an inch Monday night, but it blew a gale (MPH)Tuesday and dried everything out again. It pushed the water out of Galveston Bay and exposed the flats and oyster reefs. It's back up to the 70s again today, we have to run the A/C in the afternoons to get the humidity out of the house. Winter in SE TX is milder every year, it's the global warming thing.

 

On a cruising note, The World http://www.aboardtheworld.com/ is in port for a couple of days.

[mummsie]

Well I decided to stay home last night as foot is still very sore. Went to my physio on Tuesday who told me that she can't do anything else for me so now I am off to a Podiatrist who speacialises in sports injuries. Interesting to see what he says. I know I am fed up to the eyeballs being not able to do anything and being in constant pain. My son went along for the first night of the year and said there was a good crowd there. Only 4 staff though so would have been busy. I will go next week - I need to start getting fit and losing all the weight I put on when on the last cruise :( Gayle

[tropicalsunset]

We have had a week of crazy springlike weather...lots of rain and flooding... the snow is nearly gone...but next week back to the deep freeze.... We can see the driveway-- the ice has cleared with the help of Mother Nature... the heck with the "ICE MELT" !!!!

 

I can't even imagine that lovely shoreline in Galveston being that far out....

 

It was great to get back to dance lessons the other night..

our dance instructor is planning a June 2007 honeymoon cruising to Alaska... any ideas ... she had a bad experience on the Empress last October... turned out it was like a booze cruise for the locals in PR.... she has cruised before so she knows that is not the norm but she wants to be assured of a great experience to AK!!

 

Dave tried out his new dance shoes... he didn't feel any difference...but sure looked sharp dancing in them!!

 

Anyone watch DWTS last nite???? I really enjoyed the competition!!

 

Love the World... what an Itinerary!!! sign me up!!! :D :D

 

Mummsie --hope you find healing for that foot.... it must be very frustrating....

[GCurry]

You know all at once they went conservative on the Tango! Perhaps it was the limited time to practice, but there really wasn't much beyond basic steps that I saw. I think overall, about everyone danced better in spite of what the judges said, but I'm guessing tonight we can say bye to Master P.

 

Sorry you are hurting Mummsie hopefully the Podiatrist can help you out. Although he might make you quit dancing for an extended period.

 

Rain expected for the next week, we'll see, let's hope it's true. I've got Geraniums, Pansies, Petunias, Daisies, and Cyclamen blooming, but, I'm having to keep them watered.

My last dance as President of the Two-Left-Feet Club is Saturday, I don't think I will miss that honor.

[clofty]

I am researching an Alaskan cruise for June 2007. I found some good CC researchers who are maybe booking Jun19landcruise, or just cruise on Sapphire Princess June 23 from Vancouver to Whittier. This itinerary is supposed to be one of the best. Just my two cents worth for your question.:)