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Dance Classes

 

 

Tuesday nights

Leicester Hall, cnr of Ramsgate & Findlay Streets, Ellerslie.

Improvers                 7pm

Intermediate             8:15pm

 

 

 

Thursday nights

Tamaki Ex-Services Hall, cnr Polygon & Turua Streets, St Heliers.

Beginner                    8pm

Intermediate             9:15pm

 

Gavin & Simone

Simone and Gavin met at Ceroc 8 years ago and have both been teaching advanced class for the past 6. They placed 2^nd in the Advanced A Waiwera Infinity Water Champs in 2003.  Simone has a language teaching background and Gavin works in the food industry and coaches Women’s soccer.  Both of them believe that anyone can learn Ceroc and they aim to create a fun, relaxed learning environment.

Angela Metford

I’ve always been a keen night clubber back in the day.  After moving to Auckland and working from home I found Ceroc to be the perfect excuse to get me out of the house.  Meeting awesome people was a bonus, not to mention the great exercise!  I love the fact you can just turn up and don’t need a partner to be able to join in.

 

I started August 2005 and after 1 month and 4 lessons, I entered my first Ceroc Competition.  Placing 3rd in Beginner Freestyle and 1st in DWAS (Dance With A Stranger) I was hooked.  I then competed early 2007 coming 2nd in Advanced B and then later in 2007 I placed 1st in New Zealand Ceroc National Champs.  Other competitions since then have been the East & South Competition 2008 placing 3rd in Advanced A, the Kapi-Hutt Competition 2009 placing 1st in Advanced A and the East & South Competition 2009 placing 3rd.  Along with my dance partner Anton we performed our first ever showcase piece placing 1st – Go us!

 

Of all the different dance styles out there I personally find Ceroc to be the most adaptive to all genres of music and the best place to let your personality shine.  With becoming a teacher it will be a great journey to be able to help others to find their own style and let their personalities shine too!

Meet The Teachers!

Chris Craig

A keen dancer most of my life I didn’t encounter Ceroc until about 1996. As a versatile partner dance I found it fun and social. It wasn’t until I met Tricia that I became a teacher and started competing. My passion is for lively expressive dance with the ‘strictly’ removed (if you get my drift). Competition has brought its rewards but none more satisfying than the friendships and challenges of a team routine!

 

As teachers we enjoy making our classes fun and challenging. The focus in our classes is on understanding what makes a move work and exploring the key elements of Ceroc dancing.

Tricia Best

I first learnt Ceroc while at Auckland University in 1994. I founded the Auckland University Ceroc club the following year, to foster student’s participation and enjoyment of Ceroc outside of regular classes. It was successful at increasing the numbers participating and raising Ceroc’s profile on campus.

I trained to be a teacher in 2000 and have enjoyed being involved with Ceroc in various ways over the years, (student, competitor, judge, Ceroc Demo Crew member) but the most enjoyable and satisfying has been as a teacher.

 

As teachers we enjoy making our classes fun and challenging. The focus in our classes is on understanding what makes a move work and exploring the key elements of Ceroc dancing.

Colette Teunissen

Maybe dancing is in my genes with a dance instructor as a mother (although a completely different style!) yet I still had to beg my parents (including petitions from my friends) to start Latin and Ballroom lessons at the age of 14.

 

Years later (just a few…) after the odd salsa lesson here and there, I arrived in New Zealand. Some friends invited me along to Ceroc and I haven’t stopped going since.

 

In 2008 my dance partner and I entered our first Intermediate Freestyle competition in Kapi-Hutt and to my big surprise we got 1^st place. This was followed by a 3^rd place in Christchurch a month later where I also received 3^rd place in DWAS. In 2009 these achievements were followed by a 1^st place win in Advanced B Freestyle and a 3^rd place trophy with my first challenging team routine for Cityside at the New Zealand Ceroc National Champs. The year finished with another 1^st place win for Advanced B Freestyle at the 2009 East & South Champs.

 

Now it is time to share my passion and the skills I have learnt from those diligent, patient teachers with others. Ceroc is fun and very social. If you can walk you can start Ceroc (even if you think you have got two left feet), with a bit of commitment you can get quite good at it too! It is a tad addictive but hey there are worse things to get addicted to. Above all it’s just heaps of fun!

Russell Berg

My introduction to dance came when I was sitting in a box of an office with no air-conditioning and a drab grey colour on the wall. I needed to do something absolutely random so I flicked through the yellow pages and started calling dance studios. I chose the first class I ever went to based on the class being that night – I had very little idea what I was actually going to. Turns out I didn’t have two left feet and it was a Ballroom class which was the start of an 18 month journey through Latin and Ballroom.

 

Fully addicted and dancing 3 – 4 nights a week I was also travelling a lot for work. I often suffered withdrawal symptoms if I didn’t get my dance fix and that’s how I found a Ceroc studio which had a Sunday class. The first time I went I had no idea what Ceroc was (and to be honest it could almost have been ballet – I just wanted to dance). Ceroc very quickly grew on me. While I admired Latin and Ballroom there were some features of Ceroc which for me was the reason I loved dancing. I could dance to any music, I could dance almost anywhere (except the shower) and it was social.

 

Since starting Ceroc I have entered several competitions placing in team events and individual events over the last two years. My proudest moments were winning the Advanced B NZ Nationals in May 2009 and then the East and South Auckland champs in September 2009. I have also found an interest in choreography after working with the Cityside Beginners team who placed 3^rd at the 2009 East and South Auckland champs.

 

There is also life outside of dancing (although I have been questioned on this in the past) and some of the other stuff I love to do includes running, tramping and travelling. My pet projects at the moment are training for half marathons (hooked after my first one last year) and planning my trip to Cambodia and Vietnam for later this year.

Steve Lafferty

I first discovered Ceroc whilst at a tourism tradeshow in Christchurch in 2005. Dave Dobbyn was performing and most people were swaying idly to the music. But there were two girls who were having a blast, doing all these crazy moves and laughing their heads off. I made a tentative enquiry as to “what the heck” they were doing and before I knew it I was being hurled around the dance-floor. In a strange twist of fate, both girls became my dance partners, one of them being Linda, my current competition partner. We have had a lot of fun competing and teaching together with some measure of success. I have achieved, with Linda and without, 1sts in Advanced A, Advanced Open, Showcase, DWAS, Ceroc X, 45-Plus and Battle of the Sexes at various regional competitions. My competition philosophy is that I have already won, by just being out there. Any trophies that come my way are an added bonus to knowing that my partner and I danced the best we could and enjoyed ourselves. Reaching the finals of Advanced A at Nationals in 2009 was a stand-out moment. Stepping out onto the floor, on our own, in front of hundreds of spectators and a row of judges sitting in a line like vultures waiting for some carnage on the dance-floor, was something I never thought I would do prior to taking up Ceroc.

 

My early experiences were less auspicious and I thought I was the only one not getting the moves. I accidentally moved up to intermediate after four classes. But, surprisingly, I survived and have loved the journey Ceroc has taken me on, ever since. It has opened my eyes to the arts and to a wide range of new friends. Part of my job has involved attending evening functions and I am convinced I have more fun there than anyone else, because I’m out on the dance-floor spinning some poor unsuspecting lady around, all night.

 

The three key fundamentals of Ceroc for me are; fun, timing and respect for my partner.

 

Teaching Ceroc gives me a real buzz as I can see the life-changing effect it can have on people. I have taught many sports, including windsurfing, scuba diving, skiing, kayaking, volleyball and swimming but none give more benefit to my students than Ceroc, in terms of enjoyment, fitness, self-expression and social interaction.

 

I look forward to meeting you all on Tuesday nights in Ellerslie.

Anton Dorreen

 

I have been teaching Ceroc Classes since 2001 in Auckland City, North Shore, Tauranga, Tamahere and Auckland’s Central Suburbs. Alongside regular Ceroc classes I have taught many workshops around New Zealand and Australia as well as some award winning team routines and am happy to be part of the crew at Cityside!

 

Although I only compete for fun, I have been fortunate enough to take home a trophy or two  including most recently 1st place in the 2011 east & South Champs Advanced A Category, 1st place in the 2011 Waikato Champs Advanced A category with my dance partner Angela Metford. I also managed a couple of Battle of the Sexes trophies with Gotham Bhatia as well as a couple of DWAS Trophies!

 

I believe that good dancing technique can be learned while having fun and that is what drew me into Ceroc in the first place—come to one of my classes and I will show you what I mean