Mikey's Dirty Dancing Workshop - Sunday 10th June - Dartford

Mikey's Dirty Dancing workshop is coming to Dartford on Sunday 10th June 1pm - 5pm.

You'll learn moves from the movie, plus Mikey's style of Blues to help you dance to slower tracks or musical nuances in songs. This is not a strictly sinful workshop. Which means you'll be able to dance with other people and it will be tastefully taught and danced.

Mikey's an excellent teacher who has been in the business for 15 years and is admired by a lot of dancers and organisations across the UK.

Book your place by sending the flyer and payment to the address stated, your confirmation will be sent to you via email or post.

Any questions, please call Nicky on 08708 03 55 03

Pete's 40th Birthday

Dance Coach Pete turned 40 last week! we know, he doesn't look it. A group of us surprised him at a Chinese restaurant singing Happy Birthday as he walked in the door! It took him half an hour to stop shaking and several pints of lager and a glass of wine!

A good time was had by all, we completely took over the restaurant practically with our loudness and dancing. They had a band at the restaurant and I don't think they knew what hit them when it came to us not dancing round our handbags :-)

Pete was so pleased that everyone had made time for him on his special day and hopefully he'll remember the night for a long time to come.

p.s.....ask him about his blow up birthday present!!

Jenni & Tony start em young!

Dance Coach Tony Still (Crayford) and daughter Jenni (who used to teach for Dance Riviera) taught some children how to smooth jive. Here's their article.

A week or so ago my niece Sue (a teacher of 5-11 year olds) asked Jenni and myself if we could teach a few kids to dance and then demo for the school and then dance with the kids in front of the whole school.

We got to the school about 1.00pm and were introduced to 6 kids, 3 boys 3 girls aged about 10-11 yrs. We spent the next hour and a half teaching them three simple moves, in and out, side to side and the arm jive with a return. they struggled at first but in the end they did really well and were looking good.

At about 2:45pm the whole school, 150 children and all the teaching staff arrived and took their places, Sue introdued Jenni and I, and Jenni gave a very short lesson on the history of jive dance in this country. We then demoed for one record to the enthralled children who really liked what we did, then came the 6 dancers we had taught. We danced along with them as Jenni called out the routine, they did fantastically well and the whole assembly applauded wildly.

I guess it's never too early to teach people to dance, the teachers and children were coming up afterwards and talking about the dancing.

Well done Tony & Jenni! Let's hope that the teachers will want to learn themselves :-)

Jive Addiction Dance Holiday, Jim & Nicky are back.....

We've just come back from teaching for John & Wes at Jive Addiction's La Pineda dance holiday (near Barcelona).

The week was fantastic, there were over 90 dancers joined together in one hotel (fully inclusive of food and drink) with 3 sets of teachers and 3 DJs to give dance workshops, plus freestyles every night.

Jim & I have been on a dance holiday before with another company and we have to say that Jive Addiction have got it just right. The planning and attention to detail are second to none. We took a trip to Barcelona on the Wednesday which was great and Jim & I finished the night off with a fun Bump n Grind class followed by 4 hours of freestyle! We were tired, you betcha! it was worth it.

The hotel was lovely and the fact that the dance venue was in the same hotel was a real bonus, air conditioned and plenty of room.

Plus sides for Jim & I were getting to know John & Wes (plus wives Maryann and Chris), who all know how to have a good time and facilitate a dance holiday, meeting Smooth Jive Fusion teachers Mandy & Ian (from Bournemouth) who are lovely, great people and can certainly teach Argentine Tango for Jivers superbly - the best we've ever seen. Peter Phillips and Evelyne taught a fantastic dips and drops class and of course Peter played some great DJ sets, as did Ian and Wes. All in all, what a great team the holiday had and I think the dancers enjoyed themselves too :-)

We would like to thank the dancers as well, they took to our classes really well, considering Smooth Jive was a new concept to them. We got a lot of compliments and of course we're very grateful for those. We just love to teach this style of dance and we're glad that it's being well-received.

We would definitely recommend Jive Addiction's dance holidays abroad and also their weekenders, the infamous Southport (1st - 4th June) is coming up soon (not sure if it's sold out yet), but here's their details if you want to get in touch with them.

www.jiveaddiction.com 0115 986 8336 or 0115 910 9879

Ian and Mandy's website www.smoothjivefusion.co.uk

Peter and Evelyn http://www.peterphillips.dj/

We had a great time, thanks for inviting us John & Wes!

Jim & Nicky

Swanley - Bank Holiday Monday

Just to let you all know that we are open and Nicky and Jim will be teaching.

If you've not been before then here's your chance to give it a try.

If you've been before then why not bring someone new along....

Cya there,

Jim x

Happy Birthday

A very Happy Birthday (special one!?) tomorrow 25th May to Dance Coach Pete Woodcock (Swanley) from all of the Dance Riviera team.

Happy Birthday!

A very Happy Birthday to dance Coach David McMillan (Herne Bay) tomorrow (25th May).

Love from all the Dance Riviera team.

Mikey - This Thursday at Dartford

Mikey will be teaching for us this Thursday at dartford 24th May.

He's one of my favourite teachers and never fails to entertain. For those that had the pleasure of doing his workshops at Camber, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Be sure to tell your friends and bring them along with you.

Don't forget that if you bring a brand new person your receive an extra stamp on your loyalty card.

Cya there..... Jim x

Happy Birthday...

Wishing DJ Steve 'Hitman' Strong a very Happy Birthday from all of the Dance Riviera Team.

WOW Moves Workshop is a hit!

The WOW moves workshop that Keith and Francis ran last Sunday was a definite success for anyone wanting to put the WOW factor into their routines. They taught a mixture of Dips, Drops, Seducers, Leans with lots of style and technique and of course FUN.

Here's some of the comments afterwards:

Excellent teaching, the pace of the workshop was just right for the group.

Lots of good moves that I will use. Just what I wanted. Pitched at a perfect level.

Really excellent teachers. I felt very at ease.

Good fun. More please!

A lot of fun as well as informative.

If there are any workshops that you would like us to run please contact us at:info@danceriviera.com.

30 second interview with Karen...

How long have you been dancing?

About 6 years

What made you start dancing?

I was introduced by a friend

How long have you been coaching for Dance Riviera?

About 3 1/2 years (one of the first!)

What made you want to be a Coach?

I wanted to help people to accomplish something, get better and then progress to Intermediate levels

What do you most enjoy about Dance Riviera?

The friendliness of the people and knowing that you can go to any venue on your own and be made to feel welcome

What's your day job?

Head of Music at a secondary school

Cyrus was happy to take achy-breaky feet home

Billy Ray Cyrus says getting voted off “Dancing With the Stars” didn’t give him an achy-breaky heart. In fact, the country crooner says he was thrilled to be booted off the hit show.

When late-night host Jimmy Kimmel asked Cyrus to tell him, on a scale of one to 10, how happy he was to be off the show — with ten being happiest — Cyrus quickly exclaimed “Ten!”

Cyrus claimed that from day one he felt that he didn’t belong on the high-steppers’ show.

“I’m a singer, songwriter and musician,” he said, though he added, of course, that he was grateful for the experience.

Dirty Dancing Workshop with Mikey - Sunday 10th June

If you want to learn some Dirty Dancing Mikey-style, then come along to his workshop on Sunday 10th June at our Dartford Acacia Hall venue 1pm - 5pm.

You'll learn moves from the film, plus Mikey's style of blues dancing to help you dance to those slower songs (or songs with breaks).

This is not a Strictly Sinful workshop which means any intermediate dancer can attend knowing it's all good clean fun.

You don't need a fixed partner, we will partner you up on the day and numbers will be limited so make sure you book your place - flyers are available now!

£25 per person, pre-bookings only. Any questions, please call Nicky on 08708 03 55 03.

WOW Moves Workshop - THIS SUNDAY 13th May - Men and Ladies needed

Our WOW Moves workshop this Sunday at Dartford needs a few extra people.

Call Nicky on 08708 03 55 03 if you want to book yourself on this workshop. You'll be learning moves and technique not normally taught in our weekly classes, and with some one-to-one teacher attention, you'll be getting value for money.

Click here for the FLYER

£25 for 4 hours, 1pm - 5pm.

Happy Birthday....

A special Happy Birthday (Saturday 5th May) to our very own Dance Teacher - Pete.

Have a great day Pete from all of the Dance Riviera Team!

x

Special Promotions for those with Email and Texts

Have you received your special promotion this month for Dartford Princes Park? The promotion is for email dancers only who receive our newsletter, you'll get in for ½ price on 15th, 22nd and 29th May (closed 8th May). Just print off the promotion each week and present it to get in for ½ price.

We're also going to be providing a new Text Message Alert service to remind you of any special events, guest teachers, bands, freestyles coming up that we think you'll like. Not everyone's on email and we want to reach as many of our dancers as we can. We will be doing special text message promotions too, so watch out for our texts over the next month or so (we won't bombard you at all, don't worry!!)

Nicky

Dance for Charity! This Saturday at Gravesend

Come along and dance for charity (Breast Cancer) this Saturday 5th May at Gravesend (St George's Shopping Centre) outside Marks & Spencer between 12noon and 2pm.

Our dance experiences are a great way of showing new people what Smooth Jive's all about, plus we get to raise money for a charity that means a lot to us.

Just turn up, wear black and white if you can. We will appreciate it immensely and give you a FREE entry ticket as a thank you.

Click here for Flyer

Friday Freestyle - this Friday!

It's just 4 days away...our Flower Power Friday Freestyle at Maidstone promises to be another fun night to dance; catch up with friends and generally have a good 'Dance Riviera' night out.

Wear anything with flowers on; flowers in your hair, etc...