A weekly class teaching cool, smooth and funky 40s and 50s Jive EVERY Wednesday at the Warren
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| The Bluejays at the Warren in July 2016 |
8.00pm Beginners Lesson
8.45pm Practice/social dance
9.00pm Improvers Lesson
9.45pm Practice/social dance
10.15pm London Stroll with five minute lesson followed by social/practice jive 'til 11pm
Just £7 on the door - this is a drop-in class. No need to pay for a course, just turn up, pay at the door and join in. Every week is suitable for all levels, including absolute beginner.
This cool & smooth version jive are suitable for music like Rock n Roll, Swing, RnB and more. There's no need to dress up in authentic 40s/50s clothes for a Wednesday night class. Just wear something cool which lets you move freely.
Because of the lesson format, absolute beginners can start any week. There is no course to join and, because we move partners regularly, you do not need to come with a partner.
N.B. we actively discourage beginners from staying as fixed couples as we know from experience that this makes learning difficult, verging on impossible and can lead to arguments! We are teaching a social dance, and it's best learned socially where you mix with dancers of all abilities - if you want to learn as a fixed couple we can recommend a DVD so you can progress your dancing at home.
Our plans for the future are to hold weekend 40s/50s jive events on a regular basis at the Warren. Friday and/or Saturday nights plus the odd vintage tea dance on a Sunday afternoon. These events attract experienced 40s/50s jivers and we expect a lot of them to dress up in clothes and uniforms from the era(s) - some of them arrive in vintage cars too! We'll add these events to the diary as they are booked.
Why 40s/50s Jive? During July 2016 we've had two Rock n Roll events. The Elvis convention and a night with a fabulous Rock n Roll band, the Bluejays. After attending these two events many Modern Jivers have asked us to teach the 40s/50s Jive so they can dance to these faster songs. Even better, there's a fair amount of crossover and you can do Modern Jive to the slower Rock n Roll, swing and RnB songs.
Here's the Bluejays playing a song which is suitable for most kinds of jive.
Notes for Modern Jivers. Apart from the difference in music and footwork timing, the other big difference between Modern Jive and 40s/50s jive is live music.
Modern Jive was developed in the '80s/90s to dance in clubs and at parties to modern, recorded, music. And that is still the case today: it's very rare to have a live band at a Modern Jive event and there are many Modern Jivers who will stay away for a dance if there's a live band.
It's very different for the vintage jive scene - in the 40s and 50s EVERY dance had a live band - nowadays, although there is the odd "Record Hop" and "Vintage Tea Dance" with recorded music, most dances will still have a band - which means there's plenty of bands out there who can come and play for us. And, because most of these bands are semi-professional, with "normal" day jobs, they don't charge a massive fee - meaning that the ticket price isn't too expensive.
