7.5.09

I was overwhelmed by the passion and kindness shown by members of the Lindy Jazz Family last Monday.  To those wonderful people who gave up your Bank Holiday to offer feedback on the weekly classes whilst sharing lots of red wine, G&T, Dave's Insanity Sauce, Gillian's Vanilla Chocolate Cake, Andy's Apple Crumble, lots of laughter and of course, new ideas, we'd like to say a 'Big Thank You' . We’ll be mixing all your ideas together, stir them all around and cook it for a bit to produce little tasty changes that will continue to feed your dancing appetite. Details are posted on the Lindy Jazz Family page and will be updated regularly, so do continue to help us to spice things up by telling us what you think.  Some details are here and we'll keep on adding more as we read through your amazing stuff. Thanks, everyone!

SUMMARY

Basically you'd like more moves, more techniques, more blues, more jumps, faster music, more social dancing, more tea & coffee, more guest teachers, and more  leaders.  OK, more ideas, anyone . . .  Here is a summary of you all said at the party on 4th May.  The main focus of the discussion was about CLASSES. At a different time, we'll discuss other stuff, like workshops.

ABOUT CLASSES

• Some of you find the 7.30 pm start too slow for Mondays, some of you find it hard to get to the Three Tuns for 7.00 pm
• We'll have free tea/coffee from 7.00 pm and start at 7.15 pm
• We'll be bringing back Improver classes (approx 8.45-9.00 pm) 3 times a month
• Blues & Musicality will feature once a month
• You'd like to know what to do in jams, so there'll be a jam session coming up soon
• More jam stuff in December workshop also

ABOUT TEACHERS

• You like the current lessons that are consistent and offer progression
• Guest  teachers will feature every so often eg Clare & Glenn are teaching on 8th, 9th May
• There will be more guest teachers for special workshops
• If you are a teacher and you read this, please contact us, we'd love to invite you to teach!

ABOUT SOCIAL DANCING

• Many of you would like more social dancing time in between classes
• We'll finish classes more promptly too give you more social dancing time
• We'll be looking for a new venue for weekend social dancing and we plan to give you FREE social dance nights!
• We'll organise evenings out to band nights where we can dance

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL LEVEL

• Some people think the level is just right and that more technical stuff is available at the workshops anyway
• Some of you want more challenging stuff, others want it less challenging
• Some of you feel that the transition between Beginners to Intermediate is very good, some of you feel that the Intermediate is too challenging
• For Beginners, we will introduce more moves but still keep it simple
• For Intermediate, we will teach 2 'familiar' moves plus 1 'new' move each week and continue to make our explanantions of technique as clear and simple as possible, breaking it all down in fun and easy stages. We will continue to focus on lead, follow and connection
• Some of you like faster moves, some of you want to jump more!
• We will continue to encourage you to dance to fast music and add jumps!
• More technical stuff will be available via workshops and private lessons to help you learn faster
• We will look out for the 'brain melt' effect and judge the mood of each evening accordingly

ABOUT ENJOYMENT

• You like the free tea/coffee on Mondays. Hot drinks are available from the bar on Tuesdays for £1 only. It's a bar venue so  . . .
• You like the frienly, relaxed atmosphere
• You do not like being told by your leader/follower how to dance. We know it's hard, but we're all in it together so let's encourage one another with . . . well. . . encouraging comments. The more encouarged people feel, the more likely they'll come back

ABOUT VENUES

• Some of you feel the Blackswan has a great atmopshere, some of you don't like bumping into the pillars
• Some of you like the space in the Three Tuns, some of you feel it's better as a tea dance venue rather than an evening one
• Some of you think venues having a bar provide a more relaxed socialising atmosphre especially in between classes, some of you prefer a community hall with bottles of water

ABOUT WORKSHOPS

• Svetlana & Harry has agreed to come to Durham teach Balboa on a regular basis in 2010

Watch this space, adding more soon . . .  .