Features

Every Tuesday night, some hundred keen dancers meet in the James Finnegan Hall in Eston to meet, dance and learn more about Ceroc, an offshoot to jive dancing.

They may not all be here in the name of health, some are here just for the pure enjoyment of Ceroc dancing!

As the investigative BBC Tees reporter I am, I went along to the dance evening with all intentions of participating and really getting into the Ceroc feeling.

Three years ago, Mike Walker, who was running a Ceroc night in Newcastle as joint franchise, wanted to start a new club somewhere else.

At the time, there wasn't much on for people interested in social dancing that wasn't Ballroom dancing or Salsa. 

The Middlesbrough Ceroc club seems to have filled a gap and now gets between 80 to 100 enthusiastic dancers to their Tuesday night dance.

Jackie from Ingleby Barwick has come to the Tuesday night dance for three months.

“I had never danced before I started going here. The people here are so friendly and helpful.

"It really encourages beginners, you feel it’s easy and you pick it up quickly. You can dance the first night you come here!”

“The one thing I would change is probably getting name badges on people. You get introduced, but then you forget.

"It’s not that I’m rude, there are just so many names to remember! Other than that I wouldn’t change a thing.”

The Ceroc franchise

Ceroc dancing was born in the 1980s in London when founder James Cronin put together some jive-based moves to modern, upbeat music and then made sure he had the copyright on the dance instructions. 

Every Ceroc event, wherever you go follows a set running order, with a beginner’s class, followed by an intermediate class.

High-standard teaching

Phil Motley has been teaching Ceroc dancing in Middlesbrough since the start three years ago. Ha had been dancing Ballroom and Latin for some fifteen years and got hooked to Ceroc seven years later.

Ceroc teachers have to work to a very high standard, if you want to become a teacher you have to pass an initial audition to even get a chance to learn how to teach.  Phil, who’s a qualified Ceroc teacher, stresses the importance of the Ceroc style.

“It’s principally making sure people enjoy the class that you have to be enthusiastic and be teaching the class correctly. You can tell from how some people dance if they have been taught well.”

After everyone I spoke to having raved about Ceroc, my participation was needed. Not the best of dancers, I am not the one to refuse a dance floor frolic.

For this first class we learnt the "first move pushspin", the "backpass", the "octopus" and the "side to side shoulders".

Any experienced Ceroc dancer will know what they entail, to me, it at first looked like a lot of steps, back and in, turns, spins and hands all over the place. But as we were walked through them by Phil and Alex, they started to make sense.

My nervousness disappeared quite quickly and even though I did do spins and turns in the wrong directions, I still made it to the end without knocking anyone down.

Sure, I did step on one man’s foot, but he was very nice and said it was his fault. It was clearly my foot ON his but he was very gentlemanly about it.

Ceroc is a very friendly way of learning new skills, and thanks to the other dancers and the so called Taxi Dancers (a bit like dance floor teaching assistants) for the night, Marie and Michael, us beginners learnt these new moves correctly and quickly.

And as the Ceroc etiquette that you shouldn't refuse a dance invitation, I had no choice but to get up on the dance floor to put my new skills to the test. New time I will put the "ladies can ask the men for a dance" etiquette rule, and practice my moves even more!

If you want to have a look at what moves people pull, have a look in the picture galley. You'll find the link in the top right hand corner.

Over to you...

If you want to learn how to Ceroc, either visit the Ceroc Middlesbrough site (link to right hand corner) or pop along to the Ceroc evening at James Finnegan Memorial Hall on Fabian Road every Tuesday at 7.30pm until 10.45pm.