DanceCentral was designed to provide a service to the dance community that I felt was not available.
As a dance teacher of ten years I wanted a dance directory where I could publicise my dance classes and dance workshops easily at little or no cost to myself. I wanted to be able to change those entries quickly and with ease and I wanted the public to be able to view those up-to-date dance event details immediately. That was a good starting point, but not really enough.
I go to dance events too, and I wanted users of the dance directory to be able to search for any dance event or dance professional whether it/they were a dance class, a dance evening, a dance workshop, a dance instructor, a dance venue, a dance dj, a dance demonstrator, or a dance demonstration. This is subtly different to what was generally available. I wanted to be able to search for a specific type of dance event or person, and I did not want to scroll through information that was of no interest to me. In summary I wanted a more accurate but also comprehensive and detailed dance event listing than anything that was previously available. So I went ahead and produced danceCentral. An example of how danceCentral works might be useful.
Suppose you want a salsa instructor to teach you privately and you are based in Sheffield. Dancecentral allows you to search for all salsa dance instructors in Sheffield (or anywhere for that matter).
Alternatively perhaps a dancer is interested in seeing or arranging a tango dance demonstration and needs a list of forthcoming demonstrations or available demonstrators. These are just a few examples to illustrate how comprehensive danceCentral is. In fact Dancecentral was designed to be more detailed in other ways.
Dance directories typically focus on one or more dance types. I have learnt many different dance styles and I teach people who have learnt many more and so it seemed logical to cater for as many different dance styles as possible. Currently the following dance styles are included on DanceCentral: Bachata, Ballroom, Ballet, Barn dance, Baroque, Belly dance, Blues, Cajun,Capoeira, Ceilidh, Contemporary, Country, Cumbia, East Coast Swing, Flamenco, Folk, Formation, Jive, Merengue, Morris, Reggaeton, Rock and roll, Rumba, Tango, Salsa, Tap, Traditional, and West Coast Swing. The list of dance styles grows each month.
The advantage of this of course is that dancers often have many dance interests, and perhaps want a single point of access to information about dance events in their area that can be accessed from one site.
DanceCentral is constantly being improved and we welcome feedback. Why not contact us and have your say?
French Jive (Street Jive, Leroc ™, Ceroc ™) is a popular partnered dance form for beginners and experts alike. It is perfect for chart music and anything that stirs the pulse and compels you to tap your feet. It is probably the most popular partnered dance form for various reasons.
If you are at a club, a party, or listening to a live band, it is likely that jive will be the dance most appropriate at the time. This is because the tempo at which jive is most appropriate (say 60 to 80 beats per minute) is likely to be the tempo of the music being played. But there is another reason for its popularity.
Jive has experienced a strong growth in the last twenty years so dance partners are comparatively easy to find. You can often find them when you least expect to, and this popularity feeds itself.
I could also claim that jive is easier than say for example salsa, but jive can be much more challenging than is often thought. Ask yourself this. If you lead this dance, when you dance with an experienced but unfamiliar partner, are your leads ever mistaken for some other move, and if you follow, do you find that after you have been spun, the next move is sometimes the most difficult?
I began teaching a form of jive to Sheffield university students ten years ago. This is a form of jive that any French Jiver will recognise, but with a slightly different emphasis. I encourage my students to:
I resume teaching jive at Brook Hill Hall in October when the new Sheffield University term commences (Sunday evenings) from 7:30 till 9:00 in term time. Come along and try it. No partner necessary. Admission: £4.00, £2.00 concessions (and Salsa Soc.).
Location: Brook hill is on the A57. The hall is between Brook hill, Favell road and Leavy Greave road
To find out more about jive look at the articles pages, or enter here.
DanceCentral is a free dance directory for dancers searching for dance partners, dance classes, dance evenings, dance venues, dance workshops, dance DJs, dance instructors, dance demonstrations, dance demonstrators and dance festivals.
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DanceCentral is the dance web site where you can publicise almost any dance event. Whether it is a class, a dance, a dance demonstration, a dance venue or your services as an instructor or DJ, this is the place to be seen.
To start entering your details and let the world know about you, just click the Enter DanceCentral link.
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