This is our Story, how & when we started to Modern Jive & our honest feelings when we arrived at our 1st class night! Then how we started our 1st ever Dance Competition & Weekender. Grab a coffee & enjoy the read:
Keith’s Story - How I started MJ:
We speak to you at our venues, we email you every week, but we very rarely get a chance to talk properly, so if you'd like to ask us a question, please ask Keith via: keith@revolutiondance.co.uk
But to kick off with, how did we start dancing & what was it like?
So let's go back to 1996 Aug:
In 1996 Keith met a young lady who introduced him to Modern Jive, which was at the Bowden Rooms. Upon entering the room he says; I went immediately to the bar as all I could see was around 40 dancers throwing each other around & looking amazing! I did love to dance, but that was 80's & 90's Disco, never Partner Dance!
The first class started and there was suddenly around 100 people in 4 rows. Now as you will all be aware, it started with 1 of 4 beginner moves, slowly introducing the next move & practicing to music. By the end of the class I had learnt 4 moves & already forgotten 2 of them! Marc Almond the teacher & owner then said, Right it's now freestyle time. I thought fantastic, back to my 80's, 90's disco dancing, but to my horror, everyone carried on Partner Dancing & worse than that, girls were actually coming across and asking me to if I would like to dance!!!
My answer in my head went, Of course not, I've just learnt 4 moves, forgotten 2 of them, have absolutely no experience & now you're asking me to get through a 4 minute track!!! NOoooooo Thank You!
That night I went away shell shocked & had decided I was never going back!
However the next morning when I woke up, the previous nights dancing was the 1st thing I thought of & I think partly because I loved sport & had a competitive streak, I decided I would go back the week after & I'm so glad I did π
Fact: When I started dancing, in the whole of the Northwest there was only 1 Class a Week & 1 Freestyle a month, after around 6 months though there were 2 Classes a Week & 2 Freestyles a Month. WOW we were getting spoilt π
I have to thank Marc Almond for this introduction to dance as it was Marc who brought Modern Jive to the Northwest, launching this amazing dance, which has survived the test of time & hopefully will soon be seen again as soon as restrictions are lifted.
Janes Story - How I Started Modern Jive:
Well a certain young man (it was a long time ago!) I was dating, told me all about an amazing new dance he had been learning & asked me to join him at the classes! What?! Me?! I loved throwing some serious shapes of my own on the dance floor, getting into the ‘zone!’ I didn’t want anyone telling me how to dance!
But he was SO enthusiastic, and cute! I was finally persuaded! So after a few tricky weeks of awkwardness & a lot of stepping on each others toes. We began to have a lot of fun, made a lot of new friends, went to lot’s of dance parties & discovered the ‘Salsa Strop! hence moving couples around during classes π’
Plus you shouldn’t really drink & jive! (as spinning makes you dizzy enough!)
We entered competitions & took a crazy chance on running the first Modern Jive Championships in the North West with a couple of close dance pals after dancing for only 3 years!
Guest taught for dance companies, charities, restaurants & bars around the UK & in some fabulous locations abroad!
Then 6 months after having our daughter May 2006, we were running our own dance company Revolution Dance', sharing our joint enthusiasm & dance moves, presently via classes video-ed in our front room, Covid friendly!
Our venues, events, weekenders & holidays are a huge part of our lives where we share our passion & get to make new memories with some amazing people each year!
Our daughter has grown up dancing with her Daddy & has developed a wonderful ability to interact socially with people of all ages through the dance events she has shared with our lovely dance family over her 15 years growing up.
We have had so many exciting opportunities, met & worked with many fabulously talented people from Strictly stars to awe inspiring performers & musicians. Had some astonishing experiences we would never have dreamt possible, and adventures which have made us laugh, cry & just so very glad we discovered the wonders of Modern Jive!
So I guess I’m glad I eventually said “Oh, go on then!” & took the plunge to step outside my comfort zone, try something new & opened up a whole new world with the one I love! Keeeeeeep Dancing! Love Janey x
Next Week Keith will open up about how their 1st Company came about Chance 2 Dance, now known as the World Modern Jive Championships, Blackpool.
Part 3 - Our 1st MJ Venture - Starting the Blackpool Championships:
So after dancing Modern jive from late 1996 to early 1998, we found ourselves driving back from a weekender, which as always was down south, we were chatting about the LeJive Competition that had been cancelled, which we had won earlier that year 1998, our 2nd ever competition & the 1st Team Competition we had entered as a Northwest Team! So you can imagine we were gutted not to be able to defend our Team Crown in 1999. At this point there were only 3 competitions in the UK and around 6 Weekenders each year. All down South & 1 in Scotland.
So our thoughts & conversation went like this: We were gutted re the competition & wanted to create something for the North of England to be proud of & that wouldn’t involve 4 to 7 hours of driving! also in the dance world at this time, no one outside of the North, thought Northerners could dance, we wanted to show them we could! In the car was Tony, Angie, Janey & myself Keith. ‘So if we keep having to travel miles for a weekender & the LeJive Competition is no more, why don’t we start our own weekender or competition?’
Nobody could think of a reason not to! There wasn’t any Competitions or Weekenders in the North, so why not, and this time let’s combine the two, a weekender & competition!
To cut a long story short, we had about a year to set this up, we looked at venues such as Manchester Town Hall etc, but decided on the Dance Mecca of the World, the Winter Gardens & Tower Ballroom, Blackpool! We borrowed £500 off my parents for the deposit π. Now don’t forget at this point, technology was only just breaking through! So you couldn’t build your own website without coding, so we paid for our shinny new website, www.chancetwodance.co.uk created email addresses & hatched a plan.
I might add we were super enthusiastic, but didn’t, teach or perform, we just lived in this magical Northwestern Dance Bubble. So we had no database or way in which to advertise!
We spent the next couple of months contacting venue owners & teachers from all over the UK to explain what we had set up & that there was going to be this amazing dance weekend & competition from the 3rd - 5th March 2001, asking if we could advertise at their venues? Every company we asked said yes!!!
So that was it, we travelled to local venues most nights of the week & further afield at weekends, I think our record was travelling for over 15 hours (Round journey, to spend 3 hours at 1 venue!) It was tough, but we were loving it.
The way we got into venues was to offer them free cabaret, which also gave their dancers a look at what competition dancing could be, fun & entertaining. The 4 of us performed a team cabaret to a mash up of music from the film Moulin Rouge. In return we could hand out leaflets & chat to dancers.
By the time we got to Blackpool, we had arranged 3 Nights, Friday was a get to know everyone, practice & social dance night with a Silver Service Fish Chips & Mushy Peas dinner (Welcome to the Northwest) with dancing till around 1am. Saturday was the Competition, with a live band & Dancing in the evening & Sunday was Chilling with Cream Teas and a dance at the Tower Ballroom.
On the Friday when we greeted our 1st guests we were £3,000 down!!! So was heavily reliant on drop ins over the weekend, yes we were panicking! The band we hired turned up on Saturday & told us they had split up, but the lead singer had pulled together a group of musicians so the show would go ahead! Whilst all the balloons we had filled the night before had deflated & so we had to rush out Sat am to get more helium! Not the best start!
We had an amazing team of helpers, lots of help from other organisers from around the UK and between us all we put on an amazing weekender, at one point I looked down onto the dance floor around 8pm on Sat night & it brought tears too my eyes, seeing a full dance floor with so many happy people. We’d done it, we’d brought recognition to the North & Happiness to so many & this was only the start!
Oh yes & if you are still wondering we made £500 over the full weekend π Not bad between 4 of us for a full years work. It was never about the money π
Click here to read Part 4 - The birth of Revolution Dance
