Dance Hosts, Dance Teachers, Dance Music, Dancing (MERGED)

[Dancer Bob]

I hope some of the regular posters will see this and add someone else's evaluation of the Queens Room Orchestras. Regrettably, the Dancers Opinion thread has been deleted, you would have found it quite interesting.
The recorded music music has in the past couple of years been quite good on QV/QE (not on QM2, on my last trip), although the technicians are not dancers and don't get the mix right (6 jives in a row!). That's the reason I haven't written off Cunard. The majority of hosts are indeed American style, but I fear you may not find the level of competence to your liking.

[Slow Foxtrot]

[quote name='Dancer Bob']I hope some of the regular posters will see this and add someone else's evaluation of the Queens Room Orchestras. Regrettably, the Dancers Opinion thread has been deleted, you would have found it quite interesting [/quote]

It's been emphasised many times on the previous 'Dancers' Opinions' thread (now sadly deleted) that the QM2 Queen's Room Orchestra has often left much to be desired as regards correct tempos for proper ballroom dancing.
In QM2's inaugural year they were just not with it at all!! Since then the quality has varied but on our last QM2 cruise (about 7 months ago) we danced to the Maurice Williams Band and they were fine. Waltzes, Quicksteps, Tangos, Slow Foxtrots .. all at the correct tempos.
However, as detailed on another thread, Maurice Williams is leaving QM2, having a short spell on Queen Victoria and then leaving Cunard altogether.
Sad news for keen ballroom dancers.
One therefore hopes that the new Orchestra/Band will take a leaf from Maurice's book and keep up the good work. We shall be able to verify this later this year on our next QM2 cruise.
As for the dance hosts; I think there were 6 on our last cruise. Two very very good indeed, two were fair and the other two I'm afraid were simply not up to it.

Foxy

[Dancer Bob]

Thanks, foxy. Strictly will be on QE, I found the recorded music, when they got the mix right, to be much better than QM2. I didn't think about the scenario where two hosts are helping her to improve but two are worse than useless. I suppose that's something where Strictly could give us advice.

[Slow Foxtrot]

Is there any reason why this dance-oriented thread is not amongst all the others on the main forum page? I'm sure many dancers will miss this thread as it is not immediately noticeable when logging-on to the message boards.

Foxy

[Dancer Bob]

I don't know why the whole Dancers Opinion thread was deleted, not just any intemperate posts. At the moment, I really don't have much new to add, just replying to Strictly Ballroom, and she's promised to post on the main board if this thread has disappeared.

[DanceForPleasure]

Hi, from a UK dance host perspective ...

Almost all of the dance hosts that I've seen on both QM2 and QV do wear dance shoes. One host had brought 5 pairs with him! The quality of the host dancing varies considerably, but this is usually of a standard that is fine for most of the ladies on board. Some of the dance hosts are very skilled and proficient dancers.

The hosts aren't paid and pay a daily fee to the agency and usually only get their air fare paid when they do at least 30 consecutive days on board.

I have seen American, Canadian, UK, Irish and Australian dance hosts and on the last cruise I did on QV there were 2 UK hosts and 2 US hosts. The UK hosts could cover international ballroom, latin dancing and sequence dancing, while the US hosts brought US standard dancing to the 'party'. Just based on my experience, nationalities have been about 50% US, 50% UK/other which does cover just about all of the dances that the bands play.

All hosts are required to attend the dance classes and dance in the evening in the Queen's room. Apart from an hourly 15 minute break most dance hosts are up on the floor dancing all night.

The dance teachers I have seen on board can all teach basic dance steps during the daily at-sea lesson (usually waltz, cha cha, salsa, tango, quickstep). These lessons are usually packed with people and the teachers do an admirable job considering the amount of room they have and the fact that most of the passengers are absolute beginners. They work hard to try to make sure everyone is 'getting it'. Afraid that I've never seen any of them teach privately - looks like private lessons take place in G32 on QM2 and Hemispheres on QV.

Some early sessions are swapped to sequence dances, compered by the social host/hostess. They are normally flexible on how many of these sessions there are and look at how well the session is attended before adding another to the programme.

The standard of the Queens Room orchestra varies - the QV orchestra in June were superb, mainly on tempo, good variety of music and dances. Also good mix of strict-tempo recorded music played when the band took a break. They will try to accommodate requests. Occasional party nights or cover bands give the orchestra a break (well, they are probably off playing in the theatre or elsewhere!).

I believe that Cunard aims for 10 hosts on QM2 and 6 on QV/QE during world voyage and 6 on QM2/4 on QV/QE during other times.

[Dancer Bob]

I did a “Three Queens” package last year. I found the QM2 and QE disappointing. Two friends, who dance at roughly silver, were on QV (tangoll was also there). They did not consider their money well spent and were not impressed with even the best of the hosts. We will be going on Costa Luminosa this winter.
I don't know DFP and can only respond to what I think he said. I would consider an orchestra mainly on tempo as not much better than acceptable. And that wouldn't apply to Trevor Newby with his endless quicksteps that empty the place by 11PM, even if technically they were on tempo. I did find the recorded music to be good on QE/QV (not QM2), although the mix needed work. The party nights were absurd, if I wanted that Carnival offers better for a quarter the price.
I agree dance shoes indicate interest and enthusiasm- 5 pairs sounds enthusiastic. But if Cunard hasn't added dance shoes to their long list of the costumes the hosts need, that suggests their attitude hasn't changed. I'm not sure what covering dancing means. Bronze? Silver? Pathetic? At one time there would always be a couple of excellent dancers, a challenge to meet their expectations, and several learning dancers, a pleasure to help them improve. Lately there's been far too many creatures who just want someone to hold them up while they waddle around panting in his face. With some glaring exceptions the UK hosts did seem to be qualified to bronze/silver, but not US hosts. I suspect that the hosts at their age, can't dance 4 hours (8-12?) almost continuously without cutting corners somewhere.
As far as I know the musicians do get one night off, except the Caribbean bands, who seem to be badly treated and under-appreciated.

If I've misinterpreted anything from DFP, please let me know. With all the posts mysteriously disappearing on the main thread, I'm suspecting that Cunard's new marketing policy is shoot-the-messenger, not listen-to-passengers. I'm not going to try to get my friends back on Cunard unless I'm sure the problems have been corrected.

[DanceForPleasure]

Afraid DB is right on the money... although come on, there are some good points with Cunard - decent sized floors, live orchestra every night, (and very good musicians I've been told), dancing every night. OK, not a sprung floor, music leaves lot to be desired some times, and the odd party night thrown in to boot!

Please, if Cunard are listening: it would be so easy to make it better - lay down a few ground rules: strict tempo, variety of dances, don't play several fast ones in a row (I've seen jive, followed by a viennese ..), don't play for the band (i.e. if nobody can dance to that argentine tango, don't go and play another one an hour later!), give the technicians dance music and a play list, make sure the floor is clean, singers - don't forget people are trying to dance to your warbling, social host/hostess to feed back to the agencies if a dance host can't dance, dance hosts to wear dance shoes ...

Accepted that some hosts can't lead, some can't dance, some take long breaks and some can't moderate their dancing to match the lady's standard. A few don't do any of the above! The ladies definitely notice as they comment to me - I just wish they'd feed that back to the social host/hostess. Though I have heard of hosts being thrown off at the next port because they can't dance.

Quite a lot of the ladies on the ship don't dance well (I've heard the 'haven't danced for years', 'I've nowhere/no-one to dance with at home' or 'I don't dance from one cruise to the next' so many times). I've been through my medals (to 1st gold bar) and get frustrated with doing a basic social foxtrot - again - but being a dance host is 95% about getting people up on the floor. 5% having a proper dance with ladies that can dance (oh to dance with them all night). I reckon that 5% isn't high enough for the agencies to put in much effort to find hosts that can really dance.

The party nights are very well attended and Cunard has to cater to a wide audience - as a dancer I absolutely hate them but accept them and at least get people onto the floor and keep the party atmosphere going. Good dancers will always have a better experience at home: a sprung floor of a good size and strict tempo music. DB - any cruise operator out there that caters to the dancer better than Cunard?

When I mentioned covering dances I really was just saying that the hosts came from different countries and I could always point ladies in the direction of the US dance hosts if they wanted to dance those funny American dances (tongue in cheek!). The variety was there but I'm not trying to say that they were danced to any great standard! Variety is a real problem though - there are so many dances out there that a dance host can't possibly be proficient in them all.

[Strictly Ballroom]

I think I might just drive any non-US dance hosts a little bit batty when it comes to the Smooth (yes, I just called them that!) dances! Though I seriously do want to learn Ballroom while aboard for four months.

Rhythm and some Latin I've got covered, my teacher just refuses to do Ballroom. . . that said, the ability to open hold in Smooth is what makes it fun. :D

Going to have to figure out from day 1 which are the US hosts :D

[Dancer Bob]

Looks like DFP and I pretty much agree. A lot of people know I cruise regularly and ask my advice. That's why I emphasise objective criteria like "dances at silver level". I don't expect competition-grade on a cruise ship (I'm not a competitor myself). I think QV/QE are the nicest ships afloat, with far more dance potential than Cunard is achieving.
I figure the most important question for a dance host is "What makes you a dance host rather than a gigolo?". I eagerly await Cunard's answer.
Strictly, we don't use the term frame, but it's pretty much the same concept (that's what my comment about "holding them up" is really about). If you can find a host who knows what they're doing (see question above) you should be OK. From my experience dancing with American women, good International technique is good American technique, if you can just remember "no open work".
PS. DFP, surely you've also heard "I'm a good natural dancer" and "I can follow anything".

[Strictly Ballroom]

The no open work is going to be particularly interesting for me. Being a Yank and all. I do agree about technique though. Even though I'm in a more advanced level in Smooth I feel like my technique is lacking.

Though, I did just find out we're going to have Mr. Sodano at our studio this week (my first week back from nursing stress fractures!) so I am really looking forward to getting some great nuts and bolts on American Rhythm, which really is the style I'm most suited to.

I will admit I'm hoping for at least one good U.S. dance host for QE's world voyage, I think I'd be sad to go four months without some East Coast Swing. :D