Dancing Shoes?

[BklynBoy8]

8 minutes ago, mcloaked said:

  In the past year or two there seems to have been a change from all male dance hosts, to one couple with a man and lady, and the others single men.  So the lady dance host will be happy to dance with any single men, or with any ladies, who want to dance with her. So there should be a pretty good availability of dance hosts to dance with you at either the teaching sessions or the social sessions, both for normal ballroom/Latin and the sequence sessions.

 

So hopefully you won't need to come to the sessions and just watch!

mcloaked,

 

So happy to see the new concept of lady dance hostess being added to the Cunard Fleet since our last sailing a year and half ago.

 

I am still blessed to have my DW as my partner but wondered in the past how single men handle the embarrassing task of asking a single lady to participate. So happy this idea was introduced.

[mcloaked]

I guess that there are various reasons why single men often find it difficult to ask a lady to dance, but yes having a lady among the dance hosts is hopefully being accepted as the norm for the reason you suggest, and will help at least some fraction of men without a partner to get onto the dance floor and enjoy being able to dance to the music.

[Dancer Bob]

Bell Boy's wording led me to believe personal knowledge, not Cunard PR hype. That claim was abandoned years ago, impossible to substantiate. To my personal knowlwdge, depending how you define and measure dance floors, it's not true. Surely any serious dancer can recognise strict tempo music that's being played at generally accepted social dance tempos, which I expect from a "best" ship.

Good news from Camgirl. My last trip on QE the musicians were playing to 3 or 4 people, every lounge, every night, all night, so it looks like the Cunard experience can vary wildly cruise to cruise.

You can form a quick estimate whether a woman is a dancer by posture and whether she's wearing dance shoes. A good dancer will be less likely to say no, and not be a struggle for the entire song.

[Camgirl]

On 11/20/2018 at 2:39 PM, mef_57 said:

Excuse the slight topic diversion, but 'sequence dancing' is new to me. Google provided some enlightenment.  As a solo traveler, do the dance hosts attend these to partner, or shall I assume I will be watching only?

Thanks.

On our cruise there were indeed 3 male and 1 female dance hosts (as there have been on at least our last 3 cruises). All were available for all dance sessions, including sequence and classes, plus at the tea dance. They all knew the sequence dances and were happy to partner any single people around. Most of the singles on this occasion seemed to be reasonable dancers.

As for sequence being purely British, there always seems to a few Japanese couples that know the dances as well.

[LittleFish1976]

On 11/22/2018 at 2:56 AM, Camgirl said:

On our cruise there were indeed 3 male and 1 female dance hosts (as there have been on at least our last 3 cruises). All were available for all dance sessions, including sequence and classes, plus at the tea dance. They all knew the sequence dances and were happy to partner any single people around. Most of the singles on this occasion seemed to be reasonable dancers.

As for sequence being purely British, there always seems to a few Japanese couples that know the dances as well. 

In Australia and New Zealand we have a style called 'New Vogue' which is effectively sequence dancing. I'm sure the dances are similar if not exactly identical.

Edited December 1, 2018 by LittleFish1976
typo

[LittleFish1976]

On 11/21/2018 at 3:48 AM, mcloaked said:

I guess that there are various reasons why single men often find it difficult to ask a lady to dance, but yes having a lady among the dance hosts is hopefully being accepted as the norm for the reason you suggest, and will help at least some fraction of men without a partner to get onto the dance floor and enjoy being able to dance to the music.

I'm a single female dancer so therefore rely on gentlemen dancers inviting me to dance; what a shame if men feel it difficult to ask a woman to dance when we are there for that reason. I'm not averse to inviting a man to dance in certain circumstances (if everyone is clearly just there to dance) but I fear that some fellows might find this odd especially on a cruise where dancing is not the focus.

[mcloaked]

1 hour ago, LittleFish1976 said:

I'm a single female dancer so therefore rely on gentlemen dancers inviting me to dance; what a shame if men feel it difficult to ask a woman to dance when we are there for that reason. I'm not averse to inviting a man to dance in certain circumstances (if everyone is clearly just there to dance) but I fear that some fellows might find this odd especially on a cruise where dancing is not the focus.

 

It  is usually fine if both parties are enjoying the dancing and the music as a pure social occasion. In some cases the invitation to dance can be interpreted as the beginning of a relationship, and some people of any gender can be concerned that is more than they want from purely enjoying the dancing. So for a few people there are anxieties around asking someone to dance. If everyone goes to a dance with the intention of enjoying the occasion it is fine. Of course not all men are confident in asking someone to dance either! However the dance hosts do make it much easier for solo passengers.

[mef_57]

4 hours ago, mcloaked said:

 

It  is usually fine if both parties are enjoying the dancing and the music as a pure social occasion. In some cases the invitation to dance can be interpreted as the beginning of a relationship, and some people of any gender can be concerned that is more than they want from purely enjoying the dancing. So for a few people there are anxieties around asking someone to dance. If everyone goes to a dance with the intention of enjoying the occasion it is fine. Of course not all men are confident in asking someone to dance either! However the dance hosts do make it much easier for solo passengers.

I have done all my dancing as a solo and in social ballroom settings where people go to dance more than looking for a relationship. Women ask men to dance. So I can see the more casual North American style may seem brash. I am glad I learned that now.

My next dilemma is that I know American style rather then International style. Do the dance hosts know both? Or can I go to onboard dance lessons to pick up the differences? I am watching youtube to try the differences, but not the same as with a lead.

[Dancer Bob]

Dance hosts used to come from American agencies, mostly Americans with at least a minimal ability in American style but rarely Quickstep, which gets played a lot, or sequence.

Camgirl's mention of sequence dancing makes me wonder if Cunard has started using a UK agency, perhaps Floataway in Ipswich, which I believe has had the Fred Olsen contract for quite some time.

There's considerable overlap between latin and rhythm, but much less between standard and smooth.

Precise details are very lacking and Floataway is pretty coy about what qualifications they actually require (although it appears they do test hosts for dancing skills, which the US agencies don't). I don't know if they'd be willing to talk to you, even in general terms, if you gave them a call.

At the very least any information that's more than a year old may be out of date.

[mcloaked]

Although originally it seemed the dance hosts were American, in the past year or two the Cunard dance hosts on the cruises we have been on are a mix of American and British men, and more recently one British couple among them. So typically it might be 4 American men, one British man and a British lady.  It seems to work well - but given the mix it is possible they recruit both in the USA and in Britain.

 

From what I have seen there is a mix of American and British styles - and there is capability among the dance hosts to do both - having said that there is more International style dancing than American on those cruises that start in Europe - and more American style on the dance floor when the ship starts in the USA such as New York departures for Transatlantic or the Caribbean - though there are usually significant numbers of Americans on both east or westbound TA voyages. That said there are times when the Smooth dances aren't entirely easy to work with those dancing International styles because there is more time when Smooth dances are almost stationary compared to International styles in ballroom. A classic case is the Viennese Waltz when couples trying to keep the flow going anticlockwise around the floor can be blocked by a couple standing apart moving from side to side. 

 

From my experience it is often the case that Canadian dancers do the International style and not American.

Edited December 1, 2018 by mcloaked

[mef_57]

I can't find any details on line for Floataway, but I did find Dance Afloat so just an autocheck error, I presume.  Their website mention Fred Olson and Cunard, so you may be correct Dancer Bob.  mcloaked, thanks for your observation.  I am on the QE, so not sure whether that makes a difference.  But with numerous sea days, I attend whatever lessons are provided and hope for a strong lead from the host.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by mef_57

[Camgirl]

On our last few cruises (all on QE or QV) virtually all of the hosts have been British. On the cruise we did in November all four were British. There were also a couple of male guests that danced with solo females (they just went up and asked if you wanted to dance). Having said that, this was one of the best cruises we have ever been on for dancing and for the queens room music. I shall be back on board QE for the new years eve cruise and am really hoping to find it is just as good and that this is how it will be for the future. Fingers crossed!