Week 3 ~ Initiation into the world of Ceroc

7.15pm on the 18th of Febuary and I found myself walking down Stranmillis towards the Belfast Boat Club - we were going Ceroc dancing! I remember vividly about four months ago when I had stumbled upon the Ceroc website when I was looking for some ancing in the area and had thought it to be some sort of cult group! But I am glad to say that my perceptions of it had been very wrong.

So, I get down to the venue and meet up with the others of the module, there were six of us if I remeber correctly. After paying the fee and having received my Ceroc membership card (there was no choice in the matter) we sat and talked at the side waiting for the class to begin.

A few minutes later we all are asked (by the lady with the head-set) to move onto the dance floor, there was quite a large crowd - there must have been well over fourty people there, and not that unbalanced male/female wise which came as a huge surprise to me. Anyway, the class begins by the 'instructor' showing us the basic 'swing' move, after a quick run through of that she says "everyone get a partner" - of course this is the dreaded moment as all the regulars move towards their usual partner, and the new recruits look around slightly nervously, however the tension was soon eased as everyone partnered up and repeted the basic move in tandem. As per usual I am totally engrossed in the movement and fail to hear that the ladies are supposed to move up (clockwise) four partners, however I am soon shuffled along and find myself faced by a new dance partner - the instructor talks us through the moves once more "swing to the left"..etc.; again we are urged to move down four partners and the 'ritual' is repeated. One of the things I had greatest difficulty with was that there was no set foot pattern to the moves, stepping out was stepping out, whether that was with the left or the right foot didn't seem to matter.

To be honest my first thoughts were that this was the oddest experience - the females moving from partner to partner, the men staying in the same spot simply observing as the women walk past until the fourth stops infront of them and introduces herself. But once you looked past this it was actually rather great. There was no seperation of regulars and new comers, rather the more experienced helped out the new comers whilst the dance itself broke the 'ice' so to speak as it was fairly hands on.

Two more 'basic' moves were taught in the same manner and then followed the practice, or more accurately, the 'freestyle' time. My own experience of this has always been that those with regular partners stay on the floor and that those who are new to the scene stand at the sidelines and observe. However this was not the case here; as I moved across the floor with the intention of going and find the others, I soon found myself in the midst of the twirling and twisting bodies, myself twisting and twirling with a more experienced dancer - and this appeared to be not the exception but the norm; the men asked the ladies to dance without hesitation. I was amazed at how relaxed, free, and exuberant an environment this was - every one was there for the same purpose, to dance!

Though this was to be both for enjoyment as well as informational purposes, I have to confess that there was alot more participation going on on my part than there was observation, but then isn't that the best way to gain knowledge?

One thing I did pick up on (on my several tours of the floor in the arms of yet another dance partner) was that the Ceroc space was very much one of male/female hierarchy, as one of my partners said that evening "it is one of the few occasions we actually get to tell you what to do" - the 'you' referring to women, this was emphasised by another who said "you have to let me lead".

But I would argue that any couple dance, in order to be executed succesfully anyway, requires this hierarchy. I am a very independent and strong female, but couple dancing is one of the few occasions where I welcome the man taking the lead (or so I thought I did, but perhaps the above quote shows that I find it more difficult to let go than I imagined!). Recently I have come to question whether the male is perhaps more adept at leading a dance? or is that just my preconceived idea of what couple dancing entails? The reason I started to query this is due to the salsa workshops which take place on wednesdays. As mentioned in week 1's blog the females greatly outnumber the males in these workshops and as a result some of the females have had to become leaders, but I have found that the female leaders just don't 'lead' strongely enough - they are not assertive in their movements and thus make it difficult for the followers to interpret what their intended steps are. But this could well be due to the fact that they are beginners and uncertain; as there is only one male in the class it is difficult to compare male/female leads.

Getting back to the Ceroc evening; after the freestyle came the 'intermediate' dance class, which was intended for those who had been attending Ceroc for eight to ten weeks or more. Whilst this class was going on the beginners were taken by the 'taxi-dancers' (these are experienced ceroc dancers whose responsibility it is to ensure the new-comers know what to do) to practice the three basic steps moves once again - I would say that I found this the least enjoyable of the eveing, it was just too long to spend on such basic moves. However, after the intermediate class was over there was another freestyle session. Again no hesitation on the males' part to ask the women to dance.

The overall experience, I have to say, was fantastic. The whole atmosphere in the place was just so welcoming and lively, and what I really enjoyed was that everyone there was there for dancing! There seemed to be an atmosphere of camraderie, all present were there to enjoy themselves. If dance is a language then this evening the conversations were flowing, and on a personal level this evening re-awakened a part of me that had been silenced for quite some time.