Bexleyheath Busking Success!

August and rain shouldn't go together in a sentence should it?! When you book a busking event for outside, you pray for no rain. Obviously the weather gods weren't listening on Saturday.

We met in Starbucks and whilst drinking our lattes and cappucinos we debated on what we would do. Then our heros, David & Chris (from the mall and town centre management) arrived and answered our prayers. We could dance inside with our very own DJ Ian from Time FM!

Luckily, most of our dancers had turned up and so we danced from 2pm - 3pm handing out loads of flyers with many people taking photos and filming us!

Big thanks to the staff at the Mall, Ian the DJ and approx 40 dancers including our wonderful crew who helped to dance and promote Dance Riviera.

Here's an email we received from 2 of our crew about Saturday.....

About to tuck into our tea but just had to say ...Brilliant busk at Bexleyheath today - probably the best we have ever been to! The crowd watching us was about 5-6 people deep - and all seemed to be taking photographs and leaflets! Mind you we all put on quite a show - and it was a great atmosphere. I am sure the infectious friendliness of Dance Riviera will bring along a lot of people to the venues - I think I managed to persuade the centre manager too!!! We had such a great time that even when the official busk was over it took a while for a few of us to leave the dance floor since the DJ continued to play music - whoops! And still people stayed to watch!!!Got to the pub eventually!!!Thanks to Nicky and Tracy (and Jim from afar) for their organisation! Christine & Terry

The Jives Aces are back in September

If you've not experienced the Jive Aces yet, then you're in for a treat!

They're the UK's No1 Swing & Jive band. They constantly tour the UK and around the world producing top songs and they're fantastic guys and friends of ours too.

Book Thursday 14th September - Dartford venue in your diary.

Tickets will be 10 pounds on the door

Advanced Smooth Jive Class - Thursday 17th August

NOT QUITE!! ONE LADY SPACE AVAILABLE

A lady space has now become available for this Thursday's Advanced Smooth Jive lesson. Ring Nicky today to book this place!

The classes are going so well we're getting fully booked each week. If you'd like to come along next week or til the end of October, please ring Nicky on 020 8692 3821 or email info@danceriviera.com to book your place.

Also, if you're already booked but can't make it, please call me so that I can give the space to someone else. Thanks!

Nicky

Busking Events Saturdays 12th + 19th August

BEXLEYHEATH

Saturday 12th August 1pm - 3pm Clock Tower, Marketplace (outside The Broadway Mall)

Come along and dance, hand out flyers or collect money for Breast Cancer Research. Get a FREE ticket as a thank you. Wear Black & White.

HERNE BAY

Saturday 19th August 3pm - 4pm Clock Tower Plaza, Herne Bay

As part of the Herne Bay Festival, come along and dance, hand out flyers and get a FREE ticket as a thank you. Wear Black & White.

Dance World Record Holders #1

Longest Distance Morris Danced
A team of six Morris dancers from the Shakespeare's Revenge Morris (UK) danced from Madder Market to South Walsham, Norfolk, UK, in a choreographed Morris-dance routine that covered a distance of 42.0628 km (26.1 miles) in a time of 8 hours 4 minutes on April 21, 2002.

Morris dancing is an English folk tradition in which stories could told in the form of dance, usually by costumed men.


Shakespeare's Revenge Morris
April 21, 2002
Norfolk, UK
26.1 miles

What ever rings your bell, Jim x

In the News...

• Dance stars back young dancers

Two of the nation's best-known dance stars are backing a Preston troupe's vital cash bid.

• Brasil Brasileiro

West End in a sexy display of Brazil's other great passion - the samba.

• Fuse will take a hit anywhere

"How hilarious would this be if we did this in the nude?"

Jx

Testimonial from one our dancers

It's always good to hear that our dancers enjoy Dance Riviera nights, here's one that we thought you might enjoy reading.....

Dance Riviera (Smooth Jive Dancing) is one of the friendliest social groups I've ever met. I go on a Thursday, and for the first time going somewhere on my own, I felt at ease and welcome. Everyone is so friendly and good fun. The dancing is great exercise and not so complicated that you feel you'll never pick it up. The dance tutors and coaches aren't pushy nor do they show off, they love helping you learn. I found after about 8 weeks, things started to get easier and I picked up the dance moves much quicker. I've found it a really 'safe' place to be, where I can enjoy myself without feeling stupid or on the sidelines. It's been a fantastic place for me to build up my confidence, and I would recommend it to anyone (male or female), who find themselves on their own, or in a relationship but looking for something different to do. You get to meet some great people who simply love dancing, and it's a great night out". Patricia Fry (People Face2Face Ltd)

Busking this Saturday at Bexleyheath - 1pm - 3pm

This Saturday 12th August 1pm - 3pm we'll be busking by the Bexleyheath Clock Tower. We'll be there to show off our stuff to the shoppers and hopefully get a few people involved too! We'll be collecting money for Breast Cancer Research so please come along and help to dance, hand out flyers and collect for charity.

Please email Nicky at info@danceriviera.com to let me know if you're coming along. A FREE ticket to everyone that helps support this event.

Thanks. Nicky

This Thursday's Advanced Smooth Jive - places available

We have 1 Lady place left on this Thursday's (10th Aug) Advanced Smooth Jive's workshop class at Dartford.

If you'd like to book this place, please ring Nicky on 020 8692 3821. We like to keep the numbers even and there are only 30 limited places each week. However, not everyone turns up so if you'd like to be put on the reserve list or turn up on the night to see if there's any spare places, please do so. If you'd like to prebook any future weeks, please call Nicky.

What do Carrots and Dancing have in common??!

Yep, the answer should be nothing!

However, a little story from one of our Advanced Smooth Jivers (crew member Tracy)...........Jim & I were teaching some fundamentals of musicality last Thursday and it blew a lot of people's minds. Anyway, so much so that when Tracy was preparing a meal on Friday night, she was chopping her carrots and listening to the radio - a dance-able song came on and she was chopping to the beat. And then A BREAK OCCURED IN THE SONG!!!! So Tracy, stopped chopping and hit the break perfectly!!!

Well done, we're proud of you Tracy and that you're starting to really listen to the music :-)

Our Crew Day Out

Here are a couple of pics from our Crew Day Out that we had on Saturday. We spent the day in Deal and what a fantastic day it was. We had team games and a quiz for bucks fizz and sweets, yummy fish n chips by the sea, then games on the beach (naughty man Clem got half the crew wet or in the sea!), then we had well deserved and relaxing coffees and some of us had a curry in the evening - superb day and night. Thanks to everyone that came.

We've had so many lovely comments from our crew, about our crew!

Can't believe how nice and friendly everyone is......new crew member Pete

Dance riviera are really a lovely bunch of people, I'm glad to belong......Joe

Many thanks to all three of you for a lovely, friendly day on Saturday. It was good being able to fit names to faces and how clever of you to organise the weather. (So, even the "man upstairs" does as he is told!).......Joy & Wally

Thanks for such a great weekend, had loads of fun and learnt lots about the other crew members. Thanks again......Nick & Pete

It was a brilliant day out - thanks very much! Thanks again for having such a great crew and for including me as part of that crew - I love it!.......Christine

Thanks to you three!! We had a fabulous afternoon, and the friendly atmosphere shone through, you can only create atmosphere from the top down, so thanks for setting the tone. Dave also had a good time, and felt very welcome, thank you personally for that.......Kerry

Coyote Gozo!!!

Hiya all, 2 days to go til we fly home for our "holiday" - we are all getting very excited, Maria has my diary full up so I will be liaising with her once I land in the UK to see what she has planned (although Swanley on Monday night is a definite!!!)

We are all feeling very jaded here today, we went to a karoke night last night at our local bar Bo Jangles - after we had drunk many "house doubles" a couple of us ended up dancing on the bar to the Coyote Ugly song "Cant fight the Moonlight" - what a laugh that was, the only problem being that the bar was less than 5ft away from the ceiling so we had to bend down throughout the whole song (I know I am small but even I could not stand up straight!!!!).

We are back out tonight and we were aiming for a spot of "Gozo Clubbing" but not sure whether our feet (or stomachs) will carry us until the clubs open (around 1am!) so we may just settle for dinner and a couple of bars then home to bed - we are getting too old for all this!!!!

Take care and have a great weekend everyone - hope the Crew Day went well, wish I could have been there with you - see you next week - lots of love Shelagh xxxx

Music Survey - what do YOU think?

We always value your feedback and everyone has their own opinion about the music we play at Dance Riviera Venues. We try and please the majority of people but it would be nice to know what type of music YOU like to dance to and the mix during the night.

Please take 30 seconds out of your day to complete out survey so we can improve the quality of music played.

Click here for survey

Thank you!

Advanced Workshop this Thursday - 1 lady place left!

This coming Thursday's Advanced workshop night with Jim & Nicky has been fully booked - apart from 1 lady place that has just become available!

However, not everyone turns up so if you'd like to be put on the reserve list or turn up on the night to see if there's any spare places, please do so.

If you'd like to prebook any future weeks, please call Nicky on 020 8692 3821.

New Baby for Deal's Welcome Host Tanya

Big CONGRATULATIONS to Tanya, Tony, Sam and proud grandparents, John & Linda on the birth of baby Isabelle Rose born on Thursday 27th July (Deal Carnival day!). She's beautiful, hope she brings you lots of joy and not so many sleepless nights :-)

Jim, Nicky & Tracy x

Life in the Fast Lane!!!

Morning all, Maria's week is nearly over and we have had a brilliant time, the highlight being swimming with the dolphins yesterday which everyone really enjoyed. Maria has taken 1 week to get the same colour as me and I have been here 4 months - she looks like a right local!!!!! Tonight we are heading down to Xlendi for their farewell meal and a bottle (or 2) of wine and as long as the kids are happy playing in the sea, we will settle down to an evening of Uka, great card game, anyone know it - we have just learnt it and are totally hooked.

Maria is missing her dancing (as I am!!!) and hopes to be there Thursday night (especially as her husband has just announced he is playing golf Friday morning!!!) - so she will see you all there for a dance or two.

Bye for now, lots of love Shelagh and Maria xxxx

Deal Carnival this Thursday (27th July)

Dance Riviera will be taking part in the Deal Carnival on Thursday in the parade. John & Linda Ford (http://www.jivehive.co.uk/) will be decorating their van with posters, flags and of course loud music for us to dance to along the parade. We'll be handing out flyers and dancing along the way, so if you fancy coming along and supporting us, then look at this flyer to get the details.

6.30pm along The Beach, Walmer - wear black and white if you can!

FREE ticket to those who help out and of course the essential bottles of water :-)

Nicky & Tracy


UPDATE.......'Just to say a big 'thank-you' to everyone who came along and danced with us in the Deal carnival last Thursday evening.
The carnival was a huge success and attended by around 15,000 people.
We decorated John and Linda's ( huge thanks to them) with Dance Riviera posters, photos, flags etc and even won a 'highly commended' certificate from the judges for our decorations...
I must say, it was lovely being part of the procession and great to have the gentle sea breeze to cool us down! Thanks again everyone'. Tracy x

Boogie by the Bay....what a night!

On the evening of 22nd July we had our Saturday Night Special Boogie by the Bay down in Herne Bay, Kent. What a fantastic night. DJ Colin Shaul (Dorking LeRoc) played a fantastic set, Jim & Nicky's fun class had everyone laughing and being a bit silly :-), the buffet (especially the donuts) was incredibly yummy and plentiful and finally the Dance with a Stranger competition was great, thanks to everyone that took part. The Winners are pictured above.

Our next Saturday Night Special is 23rd September at our Dartford venue. Theme will be "School"! so start preparing your short shirts, ripped shirts, pigtails and wonky ties :-)

Dance Riviera is part of a World Record!!

Dance Riviera World Record Breakers!

We took part in the (Dartford Festival) Big Dance Class World Record attempt and we (and thousands of people across the country) broke the world record!

We had great fun on Saturday, although the routines were harder and more complicated than we first thought. Well done to everyone that turned up and took part, especially as we were dancing in the blazing sunshine. Very proud of us all.

We also did a 30 minute busk at the festival and got people up dancing and hopefully created a lot of awareness for Dance Riviera's classes.

The icing on the cake was Nicky & Tracy's BBC TV appearance on the news!! We gave a short interview about the world record dance and we made it on TV, we're famous :-)

p.s. if anyone taped the programme or news, please let us know as we'd love to see it!

"Girls in Gozo"

Hiya all, look who's turned up on my door step this week - Maria and her family are over here for a week's holiday under the Gozo sun!!!

We didnt waste any time catching up when they arrived, straight out to a lovely restaurant overlooking the harbour where we sat til 1am chatting and drinking - we even did the "chair" trick on them (ask Pete/Jill about this) - much to the enjoyment of the restaurant staff and other diners!!!!

We have been very lazy during the days, with pool volleyball being about as much exercise as we can handle. Me and Maria escaped into town one morning for some girlie time and found a lovely wine bar with air con (a must out here!), where we wasted a couple of hours just gossiping - dont think the men missed us, the golf was on TV!!!!!!

On Tuesday we are going "swimming with the dolphins", the kids are very excited and me and Maria even more so! Look out for the photos on the blog next week.

Off now to read the Sunday papers and work on the tan!!!!! Lots of love Shelagh and Maria xxxxx

It's Time to go Break a record

Good luck everyone!

Cya there in a few minutes to start practacing.

Jim x

So you think you can dance - New York

New York is internationally renowned as the city that never sleeps, but visitors are surprised to learn that the Big Apple is not so hot on dancing.
Of the thousands of city bars, clubs and restaurants, only 275 hold cabaret licenses. Begin moving your hips in any of the others and chances are the staff will ask you to stop, for fear of a fine.

Read more here

Nicky & I couldn't believe this law when we were there a few weeks ago. What's worse is that a Caberet license costs a lot of money, so dance clubs are far and few between...sad.

Go for it Guys, we support you!

Jim x

3 men places on tonight's Advanced Smooth Jive class

We have 3 men places on tonight's Advanced Smooth Jive class with Jim & Nicky at Dartford. All lady places have been filled, so unless you have booked with Nicky for tonight, you may have to wait until next week. If you'd like to book in for a specific week, please ring Nicky on 020 8692 3821 or email info@danceriviera.com to guarantee your place.

The Advanced classes are going extremely well with very positive feedback. Jim & Nicky enhance your technique with smoothness, style and gives you confidence to change and adapt moves to suit the music or partner you're dancing with. Click here for flyer.

Dance Riviera Radio Interview!

Nicky & Tracy will be interviewed tonight by Neil who DJs for Valley Park Radio at 7pm tonight!

This serves the patients of Darent Hospital. check out their website www.valleyparkradio.org.uk

Dance Riviera will be famous for 20 minutes :-)

UPDATE.....Well done to Tracy who did the interview last night (Nicky was stuck in horrible traffic) apparently it went extremely well. It lasted for 20 minutes and hopefully a lot of people are now aware of Dance Riviera and what we do.

Boogie by the Bay, Saturday Night Special this coming Saturday!!

Don't forget we have one our famous Saturday Night Specials this coming Saturday (22nd July).

Boogie by the Bay at The Kings Hall, Beacon Drive, Herne Bay

Tickets are only 10 pounds and there's a finger buffet, TOP Guest DJ Colin Shaul, Dance with a Stranger competition and a fun class with Jim & Nicky

Wear your summer gear and cool off outside by the sea

Tickets are on sale at our venues or on the door - get there early to guarantee your entry

Happy Birthday Keith!

Happy Birthday Keith who celebrates his birthday on Wednesday 19th July. A birthday to remember especially as it was the hottest day of the century so far!

Swayze calls Dirty Dancing sequel ``piece of c**p``

Washington, Actor Patrick Swayze claims money can never lure him to accept a role he is not convinced about, insisting that he turned down the multi-million offer to reprise his character in Dirty Dancing sequel, as he found it a "piece of c**p".

Read more here

J x

Sweet Dreams...

No more Bill Gates.....Honest Kate

J x

Pirates of the Carribean 2

Nicky & I thoroughly recommend going to see this film. It's got all the emotions running through it and Depp is just awsome!

Funny thing happened in Greenwich cinema. The first 5 minutes of the film were silent as the Cameraman had forgotten to turn the sound back on for the film.

We received a full refund after the film had finished... Cool.

If anyone can remember all the words spoken in the first 5 minutes and post them here it would be much appreciated.... hehehehe

Jim x

Weird Dream

I had a very weird dream last night. It was about meeting Bill Gates "Mr Microsoft" and chatting to him about being an icon of the age, a pioneer and a great guy.

No offence Bill, but your not exactly top of my dream list, so how the hell did you get in my head!

It's given me the ebejeebies....

All comments welcome,

Jim x

Do you want to be a Record Breaker?

At 12.30 PM on Saturday Dance Riviera along with others will be participating in the largest Dance Class ever. It's going to be a world record breaking attempt across the whole of the UK.

I've always wanted to part of a world record, so you can bet I'm very excited about attemting this feat.

The Dance Riviera crew will be there at about 11.00am to practice the special dance that you have to learn. There will be teachers there to teach you the steps. Click here to learn the steps before Saturday!

We will be wearing black and white clothes for the attempt to make us stand out in the crowd.

You never know we could make it on television..... Cool!

Cya There... Jim x

WOW! I saw this event advertised on tele last night. Should be fun.

We will be taking part in the Dartford Festival on Saturday 22nd July at 3pm in the Dance Zone in Central Park, Dartford for 30 minutes or more to show people what we do and hand out flyers etc. Hopefully we'll be on TV later that night on BBC!!
If you'd like to come along, please let Nicky (020 8692 3821) or Tracy (07939 699271) know.

How to make a GAP advert

BY 9:30 on a Friday morning in May at a studio in the meat-packing district in Manhattan, the choreographers Rich and Tone Talauega are two hours into a video shoot. To the sound of blasting rock music, and in front of a green seamless backdrop, a dancer in a denim pencil skirt, black sleeveless tank and newsboy cap reaches her arms out and rolls her hips. Tone crouches by her feet, pounding out the beat with his hand, while Rich watches through a monitor as the camera zooms in on her shifting torso. They get the shot, but the day’s work stretches out for 12 more intense hours — all for the Gap’s fall television campaign for its denim line, which begins nationally this week.

If you want to read more go here

Contact us

Flattery, criticism, disbelief... we value your comments and will endeavour to reply to them all.

We are often asked questions or are offered comments on a range of topics. We always respond and always listen. It may take us a while to change something, but hey were busy people here, but we are trying to make your dance experience the best.

Email: info@danceriviera.com

or

Tel: 020 8692 3821 Nicky

PS: Is it me or are we having a whole week of sunshine?

Summer in Gozo!!!!!

Hiya all, life over here is "hot, hot, hot" now summer has finally arrived, the temperature does not dip under 28 degrees even in the evenings now!!!! The long evenings spent outdoors chatting and drinking through to the early hours are simply the best.

We have a new lot of guests this week (see the picture), they arrived just 3 days after Pete and Jill departed - just enough time for me to wash bed linen and clean the apartment!!!! Not that Jill and Pete were at all messy mind you, they were the perfect guests and it was lovely to spend time with them - they would be welcome anytime, as of course would any of you, just dont all appear at once!!!!!

Today's picture was taken at the Kempinski Spa Resort about 5 mins drive from us, our friends decided to book themselves in for a 2 night pamper break and we got day passes to join them yesterday - well it was "very quiet and peaceful" until we all arrived - two 3 year olds plus Sam and Cally soon brought the peace to an end - still we had a lovely day out and saw how the other half lives!!!!

Have a good week everyone, enjoy the party tonight - I am on countdown til next Thursday when Maria arrives - cant wait to see her and catch up on the gossip - lots of love to everyone and see you all in August xxxxxx Shelagh xxxxxx

Advanced Smooth Jive

All of our teachers have now been through the Advanced Smooth Jive training program and will be incorporating many of the features as part of the normal Beginners and Intermediate teach.

This will take time to filter through as there are many aspects to ASJ, but every effort is being made to improve our teaching and style of dance.

For those that wish to learn more quickly we are hold a weekly workshop at Dartford on Thursday nights. However, booking is essential as I do not wish to teach to more than 30 people in a single session.

Apologies to anyone we may have to turn away on the door.

Cya there.... Jim x

A Good Nights Sleep

During our regular teachers meeting the other night Jill & Pete metioned that they now use Tempur Pillows to sleep on. They apparently are fantastic and support the neck, so Nicky & I are going to buy a couple.

There's quite a few different types available, so were not sure which to buy.

Here's a link to a web page with good info, but they seem a bit pricey.... here

Does anyone know a good place to buy these from?

Jim x

Dancers compete for starring role

DANCERS have shown off their best moves to wow one of the stars of a hit television show and compete for a starring role in a new programme.

A dance workshop was held at the Ipswich Corn Exchange for more than eight hours yesterday and those who impressed were invited to a masterclass with Anton Du Beke, professional dancer and star of the TV hit show Strictly Come Dancing.

Read more here

Well Done Swanley

I'd just like to congratulate those of you that were at Swanley this Monday for doing very well with a hard Intermediate routine.

The routine was this:

Move 1 - Riviera shoulder spin catapult into a Manhatten

Move 2 - Manhatten with step turn and turn into Manhattern repeater

If that makes no sense at all ask someone who was there to explain it. I'm sure they would like to show it off.

Well done all, Jim x

Happy Birthday to Us

It's Dance Riviera's Birthday today.

3 Years on and were still loving it as much as the first night, although it's not as nerve racking now..hehehe

We couldn't have done it without the huge amount of support from all of you and as a thank you we will be donating all proceeds from our celebrations at Dartford tonight to Breast Cancer Research.

Nicky has bought lots of cakes and chocolate - yummy - for us all to eat.

Hope to see you there

Jim, Nicky & Tracy x x x

Gotta love Mat!

Matt is a guy who decided to quit his videogame programming job and travel the world. At each of his locations, he dances. A stupid, silly, and happy dance. I love it.Matt's recently put up another video of his travels and dancing and it's just as lovely. There are some amazingly beautiful locations here, and it makes me smile and chuckle to see him do his little jig. Sometimes people look at him strangely, and sometimes they join in.

Matt is a 29-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. He achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around the planet until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride long-lasting gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

Matt, keep doing what you're doing, you make me happy.

Check him and his videos out here

Note: Each video has multiple locations

Young dancers clog up The Hague

Nearly 500 teenagers from 26 countries have staged a huge clog dance in The Netherlands in a bid to win a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Read more here

Couples twirl to tea dance record

Setting a world record can rarely have been so much fun.
Under blue skies and sunshine, hundreds of people of all ages, shapes and sizes grabbed the first partner to hand and jived across London's Trafalgar Square.

Read more here

Herne Bay Picnic

Just to say a 'BIG THANK YOU' to all the crew and dancers who supported our dance demonstrations at the Herne Bay picnic on the Downs event.
We had a great day despite the rain, wind, and the huge challenge of dancing on grass on hill with the strong winds from the sea attempting to blow us over!
The highlight of the day was being challenged by a Tribute to Status Quo band, who said ' see if you can dance to this!'. Of course we did...and proved that Dance Riviera Smooth Jive can be danced to any music!!
Thanks again.

Tracy

Advanced Smooth Jive

Were only 2 lessons in with our Advanced Smooth Jive lessons, but I can honestly say that the feedback has been way more positive than I expected.

We are teaching technique for about 1 hour and then a pattern of moves for another 1 hour.

What's great for me is that the dancers are really pushing themselves to improve and are visably changing the way they think and perform Smooth Jive. Let me tell you that this is no easy task! Changing ones technique is hard to do and normally results in the pulling out of hair and shouting at your partner...hehehehe

I am extremely confident that in 6 weeks time we will see some great results and great dancers capable of much much more. In fact the whole experience is improving Nicky & mines dancing ability and expanding the way we think about dance.

Something that's worth a mention: Recently we have heard quite a few comments about Dance Riviera dancers like:
"where do you dance?"
reply
"Dance Riviera"
response
"Hmmm, I thought so, your really good! You can tell."

Smooth Jive is NOT Modern Jive. I can easily see the difference from 20 feet away. So can you!

I'm proud of you all; and this warm feeling I get when I dance with or watch you just grows by the day. Well done!

Have a great weekend,

Jim x

Competition

The following phrase is made up from 2 quotes from famous films. Can you unravel it into the real quotes and name the films and characters that said them...

Hi, Professor I've never seen everybody, this is your dear Cousin Brucie. Whoa sit! Our summer romances are in full bloom, and everybody, but everybody's a cat. so in love My stiffly.

Jim x

Quote

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word

Mata Hari

So You Think You Can Dance

I'm not sure if you have been able to see this show, but the dancing is phenominal. Unlike Strictly Dance Fever the contestants in this show are dance students and not true amateurs. As such the level of dance is much higher and professional.

The whole format is very different too (to get around the copyright I expect). The Judges pick the bottom 3 couples and they go up for the public vote. What's weird is that every week you pick your dance partner from a hat followed by the dance style. This possibly makes it a fairer contest, since the UK show assigns you a partner that you are then stuck with.

When Nicky & I have watched the show we have spent most of our time slagging off the judge Nigel Lythgoe (picture above) for knowing nothing about dancing. He seems to repeat what ever the dance teachers say in the training clip and little else.

Since he produces the show we thought that he had put himself in as a judge and is attempting to be another Simon Cowell wannabe. Then I read this.....

Nigel Lythgoe, currently the President of 19 Television, joined 19 as Chief Executive in 2001 from London World Television (LWT), where he was controller of entertainment and comedy. At LWT, Lythgoe attracted award-winning programming, including Ice Warriors, Live By Request with Phil Collins, Michael Barrymores My Kind of Music, Don’t Try This At Home, Friday Night’s All Wright, TV Nightmares, Kids Say the Funniest Things, Animals Do the Funniest Things, Guinness World Records and Hidden Talents of the Rich and Famous. One of the UK's most respected TV talents, Lythgoe began his career at the age of 10 as a dancer. Later, he switched to choreography for The Young Generation dance group and went on to choreograph over 500 television shows around the world, including shows for Engelbert Humperdinck, The Muppets and five Royal Variety Performances. Lythgoe became a household name as a tough judge on the UK series Popstars, leading him to be dubbed Nasty Nigel by viewers. He has produced multiple shows, including Gladiator, Pop Idol and the British version of Survivor, which he also directed. Lythgoe’s executive-producer credits include all four seasons of the No. 1 televison show AMERICAN IDOL, All American Girl and currently SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.


OK, so we were wrong. Doesn't make me like him though!

Jim x

WARNING SPEEDO ALERT - Avert Your Eyes!

David Hasselhoff would be proud!

Chicken Dance

(CBS) The chicken dance has become a staple at weddings receptions along with the electric slide and the macarena. The goofy set of poultry-inspired moves is usually danced at a point late in the evening when guests are at their most festive.
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take the chicken dance out of its usual setting in an attempt to break the Guiness World Record for the number of people doing the dance at one time.
The World's Largest Chicken Dance organizer Konrad Bouffard visited The Early Show Monday to talk to co-anchors Rene Syler and Harry Smith about the event.
The current record for the world's largest chicken dance is 72,000 people, set on Sept. 1, 1996 at the Canfield Fair in Canfield, Ohio. But the Texas-based Bouffard figures his state will have no problem beating the record.
"Hey, we're from Texas. Everything is bigger and better in Texas," he said. "We had to beat it. Now we're at over 400,000."
Anyone can participate in the event, even if they're not anywhere near Texas. For more information, log on to chickendance.org.

Guinness World Records keeps track of mass participation events around the world. Here are a few:

Largest Country Line Dance A total of 12,168 people danced to "Baby Likes To Rock It" for 7 minutes 40 seconds at the Happy Valley Recreation Ground — in Hong Kong! The event took place on December 29, 2002.

Largest Group Hug On April 23, 2004 5,117 students, staff and friends from St. Matthew Catholic High School in Orleans, Ontario, Canada participated in the largest group hug on record.

Largest Human Chain Over 5 million people joined hands on December 11, 2004 to from a human chain 652.4 miles long. The chain stretched from Teknaf to Tentulia, Bangladesh.

This is Big Bro

Congratulations to Big Brother contestant Glyn for winning the "Last Man Dancing" competition.

He managed to dance on a little square of carpet for 10 hours straight beating Richard who came 2nd.

The prize was the surprise though. Instead of the much coverted immunity that they thought they might win it was actually a little silver cup. Bummer!

I can't see Glyn being up for nomination though.

Who do you think will win?

My moneys on Pete, but I think Nicky could come in a close 2nd.

Jim x

Mikey at Swanley tonight and Dartford on Thursday

Guest teacher Mikey will be at Swanley tonight taking both classes and also at Dartford on Thursday. Mikey's classes are always fun to attend and his humour will always crack a smile on your face :-)

www.danceriviera.com venues for maps and directions. Tell your friends!!!

Gozo Time!!

Hiya everyone, did you wonder where Pete and Jill have been hiding this week? Well look no further, they are shacked up with us here on Gozo - and we have had a brilliant time - lots of chatting and catching up, interrupted with long swims in the pool, sightseeing around the island and of course the obligatory card night (ending at 3am!!!!).

I have had 1 dance with Pete (1st night!!!) and need to still catch him for a few more to tide me over til I come home in August (the kids are tiring him out in the pool so much that I think dancing is the last thing on his mind at the moment)

We will post another photo and update in the week - until then, take care, have fun dancing and love to all - Shelagh, Pete, Jill and Pete xxxxx

Joseph & Sadie - what a fantastic night!

We had a fantastic night at Dartford last night with guest teachers Joseph & Sadie, they did a mambo style dirty dancing class to the fastest piece of music! there were lots of laughs and smiles all round. They then did 2 wonderful cabarets that left everyone in awe and feeling that they couldn't dance after that!

We're pleased you enjoyed yourselves, those that came and we'll get them back again for you.

Dance Riviera joins in the Big Dance - Dartford Festival Sat 22 July - come along!

Big Dance is a week-long celebration of dance organised by the Mayor of London in partnership with Arts Council England. Big Dance events will take place across London from Saturday 15 July to Sunday 23 July.

Dance Riviera will be taking part in The Big Dance on Saturday 22nd July at the Dartford Festival (which has approx 20,000 people attending over the 2 day event).

We will be doing some stage dancing (if you're up for showing off, please let us know so we can put you on our list!), and then we'll be taking part in the Big Dance (there's a Dance Zone which will be held at the Acacia Hall Ballroom's marquee). There will be some BBC coverage on at the Dartford Festival so you could get yourself on TV!

Details will be clearer nearer the time, but if you're able to come and help with this event, please let us know. Nicky on 020 8692 3821 or Tracy on 07939 699271.

Herne Bay Busking Event at Kings Hall - Sunday 9th July

Tango

TangoThe Milonga is the forerunner of the Tango. The Milonga had already the characteristic head and shoulder movements that suddenly switched over to stillness.

In the beginning of the 20th Century the Milonga was danced in small theatres for the High Society from Brazil. in that period the name was changed from Milonga to Tango, the Milonga name carried to many memories from the ghetto's of Buenos Aires.

The Tango was introduced in Europe, actually in Paris in the Argentine community. Until 1907 the Tango was not accepted in London, the dance was to erotic and had many opponents. After some stylistic changes the Tango was acccepted by Paris and London that was the time (1912) of the tango-parties, tango-teas and tango-soupier with professional tango demonstrators.

In 1920/1921 the Tango was standardised at the Conference in London, during the "thirties" the staccato actions merged in to the Tango choreography.

History - Tango
This dance comes from South America (mainly Argentina), where it was first danced in "Barria de Las Ranas", the ghetto of Buenos Aires.

It was then known under the name of "Baile con corte" (dance with a rest). The "dandies" of Buenos Aires changed the dance in two ways. First they changed the so-called "Polka rhythm" into the "Habanere rhythm" and secondly they called it Tango.

From 1900 onwards several amateurs tried to introduce the dance from Argentina into Paris, but without success. The Paris teacher Robert made great efforts to make the Tango popular. Still, the path of the Tango was not strewn with roses.

There were many supporters but also many opponents. Especially the French bishops were against this dance. They pointed to the tempting and sensual nature of the Tango, and those who danced it were said to endanger the holy sacraments.

In 1924 Dr Boheme from New York even discovered a new disease: the TANGO-foot. The press, too, came with strange news. On 30 may 1915 the New York Times published an article with the following headline: THE TANGO-DANGER, BIGGER THAN GERMAN IMPERIALISM. Nowadays such messages would raise a few eyebrows.

How things have changed.... Jim x

Confessions of a Dance Teacher :-)

We did some busking on Saturday at Dartford (which went very well by the way) and during the day I got speaking about when I went to a Take That concert. I was (shamefully admitting) 24 :-) at the time and my friend was pregnant. I didn't want to stand at the end of a long queue, so I told her to stick her belly out and pretend she was more pregnant than she was and that she needed the toilet!! It worked and we got in an hour early!

I then admitted that I was in love with Shakin' Stevens!! My Mum even brought a life-size cardboard cut out of him (from Woolworth's) home for me to gaze at (I was only 10 at the time). My Nan used to sleep in my bed when she stayed over and once woke up screaming after finding "Shaky" on top of her!!! hee hee.

My last confession is my obsession with Wham and particularly George Michael (I don't care that he's gay, he was my teen idol). There wasn't one inch of my bedroom wall that didn't have a poster, article or "Nicola 4 George 4ever"! on it. I went to their Wham - The Final concert. I was 15 and sitting on the shoulders of a very tall school friend. George came down one of the massive stage aisles and touched my hand!!!!! As you can imagine that memory has stayed with me so far and will do forever :-)

Anybody else got any confessions?.........

Nicky

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

We can't wait to see this movie.

Hopefully, it should be one of the best films this year. For those that haven't seen the first film, treat yourselves, it's great.

More here

Jim x

Melbourne wins 2008 dance date with the stars

IF YOU thought salsa was something to dunk your biscuit in, think again.
Australia's growing love affair with the dance floor is set to blossom further after Melbourne was yesterday announced as host of the 2008 World Latin Dancing Championships.

Read more

Come On England

Well done England and of course Golden Balls for the fantastic free kick goal - just when we were wondering whether it was possible for us to score!!!!! From having temperatures over here of 37 degrees and not wanting to do anything other than swim in the pool and hide in the shade (shame hey!!!), I can totally sympathise with what the guys had to go through yesterday - lets pray for rain and cooler temps for Saturday!!!!

As you can see, my son Sam has got totally into the spirit of things, with his hair changing colour for every match so far, not sure what he will be doing for Saturday's match but I am sure it will be bright and imaginative!!!

Only problem is we are now due to play the dirty playing Portuguese!!!! Did you see the match last night, I just hope Figo's headbutt fiasco (missed by the Ref!!) gets him excluded from Saturday too, lovely example of how not to behave!!!! What a shambles, but very entertaining, kept me interested anyway!!!

Have a brilliant week everyone, we will do our best to keep enjoying the sun!!!! Pete and Jill are visiting us on Wednesday for a well earned holiday, cant wait to see them and catch up on all the latest news and gossip - love to all, Shelagh xxx

Something for the Guys

Woof Woof!

Jim x