Ceroc
|
|
Ceroc is a company that teaches Modern Jive, the generic dance style that derived in the 1980s from dances including Swing, Lindy Hop, and Rock and Roll, the main innovation being to simplify the footwork.
According to the particular teacher, it may incorporate elements of other dance styles including Salsa and Tango.
Ceroc was started in London, England, by the Englishman James Cronin who had been living in France, where Swing / Rock and Roll dancing had not been so suppressed by the onslaught of Disco. Ceroc, in fact, is an abbreviation of the French C'est le Roc (It's Rock). Cronin, his brother, and a friend hired Porchester Hall in 1980 and put up some posters. Around 80 people turned up. Within 3 months the numbers had grown to 700.
Ceroc is operated as a franchise business, and Ceroc is a registered trademark of Ceroc Enterprises Ltd, founded in 1991. Currently (Sep 2004), there are over 30 Franchisees holding around 100 events per week which are attended by over 10,000 people each week. Ceroc has also spread from the UK to other countries, most notably Australia and New Zealand.
Ceroc takes steps to avoid the circulation of secondary material (such as dancer produced lists of moves or move sequence). Any such material must not bear the Trademark Ceroc.
| Contents |
Class format
Most Ceroc venues run regular classes, every week, usually on Monday through Thursday (although a handful of venues run classes on Sundays).
The franchise nature of Ceroc enforces a degree of uniformity across all teachers and all venues. The uniformity between franchises and venues is significantly greater in the UK than in New Zealand. In the UK Ceroc classes follow essentially the same format, and comprise:
- A Beginners lesson, involving a routine drawn from a restricted repertoire of 19 beginner-level moves, and lasting approximately 45 minutes. To allow beginners to practice what they have learned with beginners from other venues, the Beginners routine taught on any given day is the same across all teachers and all venues.
- A freestyle period of approximately 15 minutes, in which beginners are encouraged to practise what they have learned, and experienced dancers are free to dance whatever they wish.
- An Intermediate lesson, involving a routine drawn from a much larger repertoire of intermediate-level moves, and lasting approximately 45 minutes. (In many venues, depending on available space, a Beginners Review class takes place at the same time, where beginners may review the moves taught in the Beginners lesson. Beginners may instead watch the Intermediate lesson, if they so choose.) Individual teachers are less constrained as to the content of the intermediate-level less.
- A second freestyle period lasting for the rest of the evening.
The start time varies from venue to venue, according to local circumstances (and the day of the week — Sunday classes often start earlier in order to comply with English and Scottish licencing laws, which require that music and dancing be licensed), but is generally between 7pm and 8pm. Whatever the start time, the entire class lasts 3 hours in most venues (with rare exceptions).
In New Zealand there are typically Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced classes, with the clearer seperation of moves between the classes. Moving up the classes leads to moves which which are more complicated, more syncopated and closer. Beginners moves have 2-4 timing, preserve contact between partners at all times, have single speed, single turn spins, the dancers keep their balance (no leans, drops or dips) and partners only contact with each other is hands, arms and shoulders. Intermediate moves introduce single speed double spins and assisted double speed turns, contact with the partners back, and leans (in which one partner takes the others' weight with their body). Advanced moves can include multiple speed, multiple turn spins, loss of contact, significant syncopation, dips and drops (in which one partner takes the weight of the other with their arms) and/or contact with different body parts.
Ceroc classes are not arranged as a fixed sequence. Beginners can "just turn up" (to quote the advertising) to any Ceroc classes. The routine taught in the Beginners lesson is permuted from day to day such that if a beginner attends classes regularly for approximately two months, each beginner-level move will have been taught at least once.
Dancers need not bring a partner, and classes are usually advertised as "no partner required". Lessons are organised so that partners are rotated every few minutes, or every couple of moves.
In Ceroc classes a small number of experienced dancers (called taxi dancers or taxis) are available specifically to dance with beginners, and are in fact forbidden from dancing with other experienced dancers until near the end of the evening. The number of taxi dancers varies according to the size of the venue. In some venues the taxi dancers also take the Beginners Review class.
Events
Most Ceroc venues occasionally put on special events, termed freestyles, on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. (Sunday freestyles are often termed tea dances.) The format of these is less rigidly determined by the franchise agreement, and franchisees often exercise the greater leeway that they thus have to differentiate their own franchises from others. Some franchisees organise their freestyles exactly as they do normal weekday classes, with Beginners and Intermediate lessons; some have just fun lessons, with "guest" teachers or unconventional moves, near to the beginning of the evening; some simply have freestyle dancing, with no interruptions, for the entire evening; and some organise themed events, sometimes even to the extent of having accompanying dance workshops through the daytime, prior to the main evening event.
Workshops
Many Ceroc teachers also occasionally run daytime dance workshops, a.k.a. Cerocshops. Places on these are booked in advance, and one cannot just turn up as with regular classes. This is to ensure that the numbers are limited, allowing the teacher to focus far more on individuals, and that the sex ratio is approximately 1:1.
A workshop lasts for several hours, and covers more moves than are covered in a single regular evening class. The standard Ceroc workshops are graded (Beginners 1, Beginners 2, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Advanced), although the grading is fuzzy at intermediate level and no workshop is a prior requisite for any other. (In particular, the attendance of a 1 workshop is not a prior requisite for attending a 2 workshop, and Advanced is not of a higher difficulty than Intermediate.)
Some teachers will teach additional workshops. These will vary according to the specific teacher, and include (amongst many)
- Style & Footwork,
- Dips, Leans, & Seducers,
- Lifts & Drops,
- Latin,
- Double Trouble (one leader with two followers),
and
- "set piece" choreographed routines .
Ceroc UK Championships
This is an annual dance event, held in London at the beginning of May with any number of opportunities for freestyle dancing and for taking part in competitions. Competitions range from beginner oriented ones, such as the Lucky Dip in which dancers are randomly allocated partners, all the way up to the Expert and Team competitions in which competitors will dress up to a particular theme.
Competitions are held over a number of rounds, with judges deciding who will continue on to the next round.
External links
- CerocWiki (http://www.cerocwiki.com/)
- The Ceroc UK web site (http://www.ceroc.com/)
- Ceroc in West Yorkshire, England (http://www.dance-ceroc.co.uk/)
- The Ceroc Scotland web site (http://www.cerocscotland.com./)
- UK Licensing Act 2003 (http://www.hmso.gov.uk./acts/acts2003/20030017.htm)
- Ceroc and Modern Jive (Australia) (http://www.ceroc.com.au/)
- Ceroc Melbourne (Australia) (http://www.cerocmelbourne.com.au/)
- Ceroc Perth (Australia) (http://www.cerocperth.com.au/)
- Ceroc New Zealand (http://ceroc.co.nz./)
- Ceroc Kidderminster's list of Beginners moves (http://www.cerockidderminster.co.uk./ceroc_beginners_moves.tpl)
- Ceroc Kidderminster's list of "classic" intermediate-level moves (http://www.cerockidderminster.co.uk./classic_ceroc_moves.tpl)