new experiences – 40 things…

29th “thing” achieved: 37. Do a West Coast Swing or Lindyhop Workshop

A new style of dance under my belt!

Over the last 20 years, I have learnt many styles and forms of dance, from Ballroom, Argentine Tango, Modern Jive, to dabbling in Salsa, West Coast Swing and even had a go at Belly Dancing.

One form of dance I never got round to learning was Lindyhop. It originated in America as a form of jazz/swing dance. It looks like fun – bouncy, exuberant, playful – and I have had it in the back of my mind for a while to learn. Very occasionally at a dance event I see someone doing Lindy, and I thought it would be fun if I could join in, at least a little.

e9e5d4f564276c0b_large1 — Looks like fun! (picture source: http://www.ridleymcintyre.com)

I love the music, and I love the “look” – kind of jazzy, think vintage 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. Guys in braces, flat caps, high waisted wide-leg trousers and two-tone shoes; women in dresses that are fitted up top and flare out when you spin. Definitely my cup of tea!

lindyhopsecond — Lindy style (picture source: http://cam3297.cias.rit.edu/projectone/lindyhop.html)

A friend of mine recommended a local class that meets on a Monday in Guildford, however I was really looking for a quick, intensive course to get a basic understanding of the dance. A bit of research and I found a workshop (full or half day) run by Swingland in London.

The day dawned and I headed on over to Balham where the class was to be held. There was no-one there! After wandering into an empty bar, I discovered that the class had been cancelled. I contacted the organisers who were really apologetic, somehow my email was rejecting their messages so I didn’t get the emails about the fact it had been rescheduled.

20170729_113950 — Sad face as I arrived to find a cancelled class 😦

Apology accepted, I booked myself onto the next available course. This time when I arrived the teachers and other attendees were all there, which was a good start! One thing I loved was that the instructors requested that you shouldn’t give tips or feedback to your partner but allow the teacher to do so. This meant that people could get stuck in without fear of criticism from their partner.

Lindyhop is a partner dance, closely related to Jive and Charleston. We partnered up and swapped around so everyone got a chance to dance with everyone else.

We began by learning the rhythm and footwork, I found this bit OK but I have a tendency to use my hips and close my feet – both pretty big no-no’s in Lindyhop. The posture is also unusual – almost leaning forward with your bum out – and I kept having to correct myself! We learnt various steps and soon had a little routine to dance through.

Martin and Romayne teaching

The class begins

The other people on the course were a mixed bag of abilities. Some beginners who had never danced before found it really difficult to get the hang of the rhythm, whereas others seemed pretty experienced and breezed through the morning session.

During the lunch break, I chatted to a few of the others. The general feeling was that everyone was finding the new dance style challenging, but a few people complimented me on my style and asked me if I had done it before! In the meantime I was thinking the same thing about them. It seems we truly are our own critics, something I’ve noticed before.

The second half of the day we learnt some more complex moves, including a beginner’s version of the classic “throw out”, and some charleston-style jumpy kicky stuff. Sadly it was a bit too challenging for some, who dropped out, but we were joined by some more people who were “improvers”, so the class was a little fuller (albeit mostly followers so we had several ladies standing out in between rotations).

Class in progress

Trying not to kick your partner in the shins

Kick, kick, turn, kick, jump, turn, kick.

I had a really great time and definitely enjoyed myself. I am pleased I’ve finally got a new dance under my belt, and I am sure with a little more work I could become fairly competent at it. My only (slight) criticism is that I would have liked more dancing to the music and less talking/walking through. But that might just be my impatient personality – I just wanted to get stuck in!

However for me, whilst watching advanced dancers is truly fantastic, I am afraid that with less experienced dancers it looks to me a little bit like someone’s had an underwear accident. I am sure it feels great but I do prefer dances where there is a little more elegance and grace.

It’s just my opinion though, so I would still thoroughly recommend that you give it a go. I can especially recommend Martin and Romayne from Swingland who were absolutely brilliant. The class was fun, well taught, and the right balance between challenging and achievable.

For more information:

Swingland – London
Swingout 123 – Guildford

22nd “thing” achieved: 19. Learn Sign Language

I now know more signs than just the rude ones!

There are almost a million people in the UK with severe/profound deafness. If we included age-related hearing loss, this rises to over 11 million! That is one in 6 of the UK population!

When I was a kid, there was an old lady at my church who was deaf and blind. Her husband used to sit beside her in the services and translate the sermons using a version of the BSL (British Sign Language) alphabet which is drawn onto the other person’s hand. My brother, sister and I all learnt it so that we could communicate with Elsie, and I can still remember it to this day, but never really used the skill again after she passed away.

I have often watched the late night shows with the little translator in the corner, especially in my Student days, and I always fancied giving sign language a go. The Deaf/Blind alphabet is all very well, but I never met anyone else that was deaf/blind and the alphabet, whilst similar, is different enough that it doesn’t quite translate to BSL. So I popped it on the list and started to research courses.

BBC-Breakfast-News-British-Sign-Language-news — Typical late night telly with sign language

As the skill can be considered a transferable skill I asked my employer if they would be willing to assist in funding the course. I wrote a justification as to how I thought it could enhance our company’s offering and was delighted to learn that the company would make a contribution towards the cost.

I began my research by looking into an Adult Learning evening course. There was one at Surrey Uni for £252, but they were one term in to a year’s course and they felt it would be a big jump to catch up. I then found a private company (Dot Sign Language) who offered a 20 week course in BSL Level 1 for £350 (plus assessment fees). Unfortunately I missed the sign up deadline, and the next term didn’t start until October, so I enquired about private tuition instead.

Amazingly, the Director, Kathleen Grehan, was more than happy to offer one-to-one sessions at a cost of just £30 an hour. She even agreed to meet me at my workplace during my lunchbreak, so that I could fit it into my working day! We agreed a 10 week course, and we would take a view as to whether I would be able to complete a qualification or not, depending on how quickly I picked it up.

When arranging to meet, I discovered that Kathleen is deaf and that we would be communicating by pad/paper or typing onto a laptop; or sign language. I was a little nervous before we met, but luckily Kathleen was absolutely fantastic; very friendly and non-intimidating.

Our learning objectives were:

Understand and communicate basic conversations when meeting Deaf people
Know basic numbers
Know different weather conditions
Know range of transport modes
Communication a range of directions

I spent my first lesson learning greetings, the alphabet, how to offer tea and coffee, basic numbers, and number contexts such as time, money, age, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc., and questions such as who, what, where, why, how. Kathleen followed up after each session by emailing me with a copy of the notes from our session along with a video clip so that I could practice.

The rest of the 10 sessions went as follows:

Week 2 – We discussed the news, election, political parties, colours, numbers
Week 3 – Days of the week, today, tomorrow etc, and general weather topics such as sun, rain, cloud, hot, cold etc. We then moved on to directions, and different types of transport.
Week 4 – We practised, as I had my first assessment the following week!
Week 5 – First Assessment
Week 6 – Family, background, home, describing people, ages, jobs
Week 7 – Hobbies, dancing, holidays and my 40 things.
Week 8 – Second Assessment
Week 9 – Job role, insurance, directions,
Week 10 – Final Assessment.

The assessments took place by setting up a video camera and then having a conversation around a set topic. Kathleen then sent off the videos for external verification.

A few weeks later, I received confirmation that I had passed! Whilst not the greatest mark, I achieved 60% so I was fairly OK with that – had to remind myself that’s a 2:1 in degree terms!

The certificate arrived today and I have promised myself that I will keep practising and I hope to tackle level 2 at some point!

20170907_180200 — Got my certificate! #proudface

I really enjoyed learning BSL, and it is such a great skill to have. There are so many people who can be isolated from the hearing world and I am keen to do my part in including them. Anyone can learn, and it doesn’t have to be a classroom environment. You could probably get a few of you together and share the cost too!

For more information:

21st “thing” achieved: 15. Join the WI

It’s not just Jam and Jerusalem

Since the late 1880’s, it has been recognised that women wanted a place to go where they could socialise, learn new things and support their local communities. In 1915 the UK’s first Women’s Institute was born. Originally its aim was to revitalise rural communities and aid in the production of food during the First World War. Over the years the institute has flourished and developed into the WI as we know it today – providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, to take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities.

Image result for womens institute — Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-did-the-womens-institute-do-during-the-second-world-war

Until recently, my personal view of the WI has been limited to the usual stereotypes – old ladies sternly judging each others’ Victoria sponges and home-made jams; over-zealous middle-aged busybodies staunchly singing “Jerusalem” and looking down their noses at anyone that doesn’t join in; and village fetes crammed with home-made knick-knacks in aid of some obscure charity. TV programmes such as Housewife, 49 and Jam & Jerusalem fortified that view. Then came Calendar Girls which showed a different, more fun side (although still not for the young!)

Image result for calendar girls film mirren — Source: ALLSTAR•CINETEXT•BUENA VISTA

At a Vintage fair last year, I met a couple of ladies from the local WI in Guildford. These ladies, whilst still serving the obligatory Victoria Sponge, were young – under 30 – and their descriptions of craft nights, Puds & Fizz evenings, and film/theatre outings sounded like fun! I love craft, sewing, knitting and baking and I love learning new things – so I decided then and there to give it a go.

Of course, fast forward a year and I hadn’t done a thing about it. I had mentally filed it under “I’ll get round to that someday”, which sits somewhere between “Sounds like a great idea” and “I’ve always wanted to try that” – all of which are mottos I am trying to eliminate in my 40th year! So onto the list it went, and I began my research.

What a wide variety of options! You can get involved in all sorts of “Modern” WI groups – especially in London – including a Gothic group making corsets and going on bat hunts; a group of 25-50 years olds who meet up in the pub; hard-hitting campaigners and all sorts of other specialist groups. In the end I plumped for the WI that I had originally met – the Guildford Spike WI.

It meets once a month on a Thursday evening from 7:30 until around 9 ish. The first time I attended was as a guest – I just wanted to see how it all worked. After being warmly welcomed at the door, I was then invited to join the ladies in a room set up for a presentation. I learned that each month a guest comes along and gives a talk on something interesting – this particular month was a lady who had left a successful corporate career in the City to follow her dreams of becoming a photographer.

20170202_202827 — First WI meeting – Presentation by photographer

It was really interesting and sparked a lot of thought amongst the group about the work/life balance or money & success vs happiness conundrum. The second time I attended (and joined up!) the talk was by a lady who was born in Germany and just escaped the Holocaust. She talked of her experiences growing up in Munich, the escape across Europe, the difficulty in finding education in war-torn London when she spoke no English, and her experiences in later life when revisiting Germany. It was fascinating and I felt privileged to hear this personal account of such an inconceivable experience.

20170803_202559 — Second WI meeting – Talk from a Holocaust escapee

The talk is followed by a break, which I found to be a bit like a networking event. People milled around with cups of tea/coffee and chatted in small groups. This could be daunting for some, but I was pleased that a few people came over to chat, and I met all sorts – solicitors, bankers, housewives, small business owners, retirees, accountants, and all sorts of other professions. People told their story of how they came to be members – some that had founded the group when they recognised a mutual desire to have a regular space to meet and socialise, others who moved to the area and wanted to make friends, others who wanted to find something new to learn. The group I joined is a varied age group with women from their late 20’s/early 30’s, up to ladies in their 60’s and 70’s.

I also learned about the various clubs and break-away groups within the club. There is a supper club, book club, craft & chatter group, coffee afternoons, puds & fizz group, walking group, gardening group, cinema club, and theatre trips. Days out are organised to spas, stately homes, theatres, restaurants, craft fairs and various other events. I was mightily disappointed to find out that the Craft group meet on a Tuesday which is my dancing night, but it’s only once a month so maybe I can skive off dancing occasionally to go. I signed up to a trip to visit a knitting and stitching exhibition in October and I’m really looking forward to it!

Spike gallery collage — Taken from the Guildford Spike WI gallery – typical group activities

Signing up to the WI doesn’t cost that much – £40 for a year, which works out to about 3 quid a meeting – not including the extra curricular stuff – and it’s a great place to meet like-minded people and learn something new.

I particularly like the monthly talks, which inspire, give me a different perspective, or challenge my world view. All of which are a good thing! The other groups are great, not all are in the evenings though so some I’ll not be able to take part in, but if you don’t have a 9-5 job you have a wealth of options!

I would say it is worth you taking a look around at the social groups in your area. If you’re a woman, why not give your local WI a try? Or another group? It’s amazing how enriching it can be to try something new and open up to new opportunities to learn something new. You might find inspiration for a new hobby, a new career or maybe just gain a slightly different insight into the people around you.

For more information:

20th “thing” achieved: 7. Visit every Ceroc venue in Surrey

Variety is the spice of life

I was introduced to Ceroc almost 10 years ago, by a friend at work. At the time I was a little skeptical about it as I’d been dancing Ballroom for a while and I regarded with disdain the lack of discipline, footwork or technique that I had become accustomed to.

However, when I tried it, I suddenly saw the appeal! Ceroc is a form of partner dancing which combines a fusion of different dance styles with an easy, fun attitude and a focus on accessibility and enjoyment rather than prescribed musicality, steps and technique. I fell in love with the freedom afforded by the diversity of styles and music, which meant every dance is different and I love the culture of swapping partners so you get lots of variety and avoid the scenario of being left out or having no-one to dance with.

83445410_10158496683749610_2003137579662180352_n — A typical night at Ceroc Worplesdon

I started dancing at the Stoke pub in Guildford on Monday nights. The venue eventually closed and shifted to Worplesdon on Tuesdays, and I moved with it. Over the years I have been demo (helping the teacher demonstrate the moves), Taxi (a kind of helper for beginners) and Taxi Manager (looking after the Taxi team). However I have never really tried any other venues as I felt comfortable in my own environment. Also as dance evenings can run until 11pm or later I didn’t want to travel too far!

Ceroc Surrey has the following venues:

Worplesdon – Tuesdays
Surbiton – Wednesdays
Mytchett – Wednesdays
West Byfleet – Thursdays
Ewell – Tuesdays
There is also a sister venue in Shalford on Sundays

There are some parts of a Ceroc evening that follow the same formula, no matter where in the world you go; it starts with a 30-40 minute beginners class, which teaches set moves in a prescribed way. The theory is that you can drop in to any class and still be able to pick up the dance.

50067391_10155892201822805_2183334319840296960_o — Beginners Class at Ceroc Worplesdon

There is then a short break followed by a 30-minute Intermediate class, which is aimed at those who have mastered the basics and are looking to improve further. During this time the beginners have a review/practice session with the Taxis.

78949859_10162785597645416_9203506395771568128_n — Intermediate class in Mytchett

Finally the evening finishes with a 1.5-2 hour “freestyle” where the DJ plays music and people just dance!

19105996_10155813324056874_5059825553378903941_n — Ceroc freestyle

The one thing that I noticed is that apart from different locations or evenings which might be more or less convenient for people, there might be a particular venue which appeals to different people. It’s almost like each venue has its own personality! The teacher is different, the DJs have slightly different tastes or styles, the Taxi team differs, and the regular attendees also differ. Although you do get a lot of cross-over between the venues as many people frequent several venues each week!

14918857_1448130815216964_5360190999682717062_o — Fancy Dress at Ceroc Ewell

Some venues are incredibly social, almost like a little family or social group; some are very nurturing and particularly suit beginners; others have more advanced dancers and appeal to improvers. Some focus on fun things such as dressing up or silly themes, others offer advanced classes or play a wider variety of music. Some venues can be quite “young” with an average age in the 20-30’s, whereas others may be more popular with older dancers. Some venues will offer tea, coffee and cake during the evening, whereas others decamp down to the pub after closing!

14632844_10154761213392033_638925373299251984_n — Hallowe’en cakes at Ceroc Shalford

I’d definitely say it is worth trying out all the venues in your local area to find the one (or three) that best fits your style and personality. For me, there’s something about each venue I like – my only issue is finding time to go to them all!

For more information:

19th “thing” achieved: 32. Visit the Ballet

Tutus and Tights

When I was a little girl I had one of those jewellery boxes with the clockwork ballerina in it. That was my only frame of reference for ballet. I had never really wanted to be a ballerina and I hadn’t ever seen a ballet on TV or anywhere else for that matter.

In fact, I think my biggest exposure to ballet was comedy parodies like the Dawn French/Darcy Bussell mirror dance or the Morecambe and Wise sketch. Bits of famous tunes taken out of context and used in adverts like Mini Cheddars.

Since learning other forms of dance I’ve become more and more fascinated by this elusive art form, Ballet. The men seem to be made of pure muscle and the women have feet of steel (and waists the size of my arm). I get the technical difficulty but I wanted to understand the beauty and emotion of a full performance.

The Royal Opera House was staging a series of ballets by Mariinsky Ballet company, and Swan Lake was one of them. I booked tickets for me and Natalie, and we got Balcony seats for £90 each which I think was pretty good going! We arrived and drank in the majestic surroundings of the Royal Opera House, and eagerly awaited the performance.

20170802_192406 — Beautiful surroundings

It was absolutely amazing! The set and costumes were fantastic, the orchestra was flawless, and the dancing… wow, the dancing! Choreographed to take up a whole stage my eyes were darting everywhere trying to take in the whole spectacle. The principals were outstanding, and the Jester (played by Yaroslav Baibordin) stole the show with his boundless energy, I really felt like he lifted the whole performance in the first half (although perhaps a little irrelevant to the storyline).

4509 4 — ‘A wonder’: Xander Parish, Viktoria Tereshkina and members of the Mariinsky corps de ballet in Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Observer

This video gives you a great taste of the performance.

That’s not to say that the two stars weren’t good. I mean, they were phenomenal! The Prince (played by Kimin Kim) didn’t really do much in the first half but when he did his big solo in the third Act my jaw literally dropped. He leaped and seemed suspended in mid-air for ages before landing. Odette (played by Ekaterina Osmolkima) could spin like a top and executed some unbelievable moves.

swan-lake-3 — Parish and Viktoria Tereshkina in ‘Swan Lake’ with the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House (Jennie Walton)

The set pieces however, were the bits that really blew me away. It felt like the stage was full of hundreds of ballerinas in some of the lake scenes- there was probably 30 or so – and I now finally get the Dance of the Cygnets and how it’s supposed to look. Every single dancer was spot on, moving in total unison, so their pieces made them look like a single unit instead of many individuals. Truly amazing to watch.

mariinsky-articleLarge_0_0 5 — © Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters

14786470212_c692ee9a02_b — Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov in Swan Lake © Photo by Natasha Razina 2014

What a fantastic experience. My only gripe is that the music relied on acoustics to carry the sound rather than microphones and speakers, and although it certainly wan’t quiet – I heard every note – I did feel a little detached as I missed that feeling of complete immersion that comes with being enveloped by the music to convey the emotion and energy of the scenes. Having said that, I was in the cheap seats so can’t really grumble!

I’ll definitely be going to the ballet again and I would encourage you to give it a go, just once, to see what it’s like. You may well find a new passion you never knew you had!

For more information:

17th “thing” achieved: 10. Visit 2 new dance venues outside of Surrey

Moving out of my comfort zone

I’m a creature of habit. there, I said it. When I was younger I craved new experiences, was always happy to go to new places and see new things – but over the years I have become more introverted, set in my ways and reluctant to break my cosy routine.

Dancing’s a great example of this – I dance many different styles and genres, and could pretty much go anywhere in the country and find somewhere to dance. But the idea of travelling too far (and having to get home after); rocking up at a venue where I don’t know anyone and they don’t know me; not knowing how the classes work or the etiquette for a particular venue – these things all make me feel like giving up before I’ve even set foot out of the door!

Quite a few of my 40 things are centred around pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and this is another of those things – so I decided I would challenge myself to visit two new dance venues that I’ve never been to before.

1.–West Coast Swing – San Francisco.

I love West Coast Swing. It’s such a beautiful, smooth dance and has a great connection between lead & follow (for non dancers – usually a guy will “lead” – i.e. indicate what move is required, and a lady will “follow” or execute the move). Most West Coast Swing (WCS) dancers focus on the nuances of the music as much as the beat, making it an incredibly fun experience.

As the name suggests, the dance originated on the West Coast of America, so when visiting California, it would have been crazy not to have experienced a proper WCS dance on the actual West Coast! A friend of ours from the UK, Richard, had previously moved to San Francisco so when Natalie and I were on holiday, we made contact and asked about dance venues. Richard introduced us to Mission City Swing – a class run by a fantastic instructor, Eric.

Upon arrival we weren’t sure what to do, there was nobody to greet us so we just sort of wandered in and milled around. When some regulars turned up they explained we could pay etc in the break between the first and second class. We entered the room and saw people were shuffling backwards and forwards in some sort of warm up. After a while, we just shrugged and started copying the other attendees – drilling the basic rhythm and movement. Luckily we’d both done some WCS before otherwise it would have been very intimidating for a complete newbie!

It turned out that we’d arrived part way through a progressive series of lessons so we were trying to catch up on 3 weeks’ worth of instruction. I believe that the expectation was that newbies would wait for the next 4-week series, although they were happy to welcome us!

1956920_269258443242476_78308607_o — A typical evening at Mission City Swing (Photo courtesy of Mission City Swing facebook page)

When the class started, the instructor was amazing – really clear explanations, technically demanding but fun too. After we’d met a few of the dancers during the class they were much more willing to chat to us and we found they were a really friendly group that were open and welcoming, and we got lots of dances despite being completely new faces.

I’d say that it was definitely worth going and a wonderful experience to take home with us.

2. Ceroc – Fleet, Hampshire

One of my favourite dance styles is Ceroc . It is an international dance club which is really versatile, easily accessible and fairly formulaic so all venues operate roughly the same. They are centered around welcoming new people and there is a culture of always changing partners so you don’t get left on the side like a wallflower. A perfect way to expand my dancing horizons and see new places without a major culture shock!

I dance Ceroc a lot but tend to stick to my “home” venue. It’s on a regular night, I know everyone, it’s comfortable. But in the interest of trying new venues, I decided to branch out a little. Fleet’s not far from me and I have lots of friends that go there already. In fact, I’ve been promising to give it a try for almost 4 years!

With no more excuses I decided to finally take the plunge, and without the safety net of my best mate to hold my hand. It may sound silly to those who know me, but even a venue where I probably know lots of people can be intimidating when going for the first time; I’m not as outgoing as you’d probably assume!

Anyway, I arrived and was greeted warmly at the door, the lady there gave me a run-down of the layout of the venue (classes, where to get water, drinks for sale, toilets) and I joined in with a brilliant class and got stuck into dancing. Quite a few people I knew were there and a lot more who didn’t know me soon approached me for a dance. I definitely felt like the new toy, as it seemed like everyone wanted a go! At one point I had 3 people queueing for a dance, it made me feel very special!

20157870_10154667318907805_7804794844505004516_o — Proof I was there! Ceroc Plus – Fleet

I am glad that I decided to expand my dancing horizons. I don’t want to be stuck in a rut and there are so many positive experiences to be had by just casting your net of experience further afield. I’ll definitely be going back to Fleet and I’ve promised myself I’ll be brave enough to try some other dance venues too.

This experience also served as a great lesson to me about how it feels for others when they come to a new place for the first time – be it work, dance club, social group, or even joining a group of people in the pub. Just because someone appears to be experienced, seems outgoing, or looks like they know what they are doing, doesn’t make a new place any less intimidating. It hammered home the importance of a friendly welcome, clear explanations of what to expect/where to go/what to do, and including them in your conversations. I’ll definitely be making an effort for all new faces that come to my regular haunts, and I encourage you to do the same!

For more information,

If you’re ever in San Francisco, DEFINITELY check out Mission City Swing
If you want to try Ceroc, here are some links;
- More info about Ceroc, and find a venue near you
- Ceroc Surrey
- Ceroc Plus (Fleet)