ballroom dancing

 Friday, January 1st, 2010 Dance workshops while cruising back through the East Caribbean

Last night we had a raucous and fun-filled New Year's Eve party. Despite  only a couple of hours sleep I was as energetic as usual when I woke up - though I was really craving coffee.  i think Mike got to bed about the time I usually wake up at home so I didn't think he would make it to the workshop at 10 am.  When our coffee and breakfast did not arrive at the expected time I called to find out where it was. Apparently some yoyos had taken the room service card off our door - it later turned up outside the door of an empty cabin further up the corridor.

Jeoffrey however worked his magic with the kitchen staff and a tray of coffees arrived quickly. We poured cups of coffee, expresso and cappucino down our throats - and "presto- we were dancing fools". That's a great quickstep number by the way -  "Dancing Fool"  by Manilow - the version I have is really nice but a very quick quickstep!

By the time we had to assemble for the workshops we were all ready to go. Surprisingly considering last night was a wild party, almost everyone turned up for the workshops. And they concentrated.

Here are some of the guys learning their parts.

Wendy had scheduled Robert to teach a tango workshop first. He showed us the sequence, dancing it  with Wendy.

Starting in promenade position it was a walk to a ronde, fallaway to two pivots and then - tango close.  Huh! I think I actually used correct terminology. I also wrote down the timing because that makes it easier for me to think about it.

So it is

SQQS(ronde with right foot)
QQS& (thats the fallaway- step pivot)
S& (that's the next step pivot)
QQS

 Since my introduction earlier this year to the delights of cruise ship ballroom dancing with great dance hosts and delightful fellow dance enthusiasts (West Coast Ballroom Dancing and Wine Tasting Cruise) I have traveled to New York for theatre and fine dining (New York, New York), dance-cruised from New York to New Brunswick (Labour Weekend Getaway), from Honolulu to Tahiti (South Pacific Ballroom Dance Cruise) and most recently from Beijing to Bangkok (South-East Asia Ballroom Dance Cruise).

Now as I write, I am sitting in the Conte di Savoia 1932 lounge of the Costa Fortuna cruise ship, presently at port in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The Costa ships are modelled on the Italian steam ships that once plied the Atlantic Ocean between Italy and the Americas. The derivation of the names for the lounges and bars on the Fortuna is a homage to these older liners. So the Savoia lounge is named for the steamship Conte di Savoia that was built in Trieste and made her maiden voyage to new York in November 1932.

The Fortuna was built in 2003 and has a passenger capacity of around 3470. The ship is 890 feet long and  cruises at 20  knots with maximum speed of 22 knots. Most importantly, she has  beautiful wood  dance floors of which the Savoia floor is the best. 

 Looking out the windows, at green hills shrouded in the mist of a fine but steady rain, I feel right at home. It was pouring in Vancouver the day I left to fly to Toronto. There I spent two nights with my daughter before flying down to Fort Lauderdale to embark on a 7 night cruise in the Eastern Caribbean with the Dancers at Sea group.

For the last few years I have spent New Year's Eve quietly, with a small group of friends or family, enjoying  food,  wine and conversation. But this year,  in my new incarnation as an "at-sea dancer" I am closing out the year and the decade, at sea with a New Year's Eve dance party on board ship. So as well as my daughter and my older son who are accompanying me on this trip, I will be partying with about 40 old and new friends.

 I heard that Costa Fortuna has a great dance floor, and is a real party ship, so I  plan to dance myself out of my comfort zone and party the year away.   Here is how my plan is going so far.

Saturday, November 14 Hong Kong

The Diamond Princess picked up the local pilot around 5:30 in the morning and was docked in the Contaiiner Terminal by about 7:30. Although it was warm and humid it was still grey outside.

The consensus among those of us who had planned several excursions together was that in Hong Kong we could manage fine without taking an organized excursion. I remembered feeling quite comfortable travelling around when Bob and I had visitedHong Kong years ago, and again when I spent a few days there on my way back from Shanghai.

So Bernie, Jean, Joan, Raoul and I met in the atrium at around 9:15 and by 9:30 we were on the bus shuttle heading from the Pier into Kowloon - about a forty minute drive.

From our drop-off point we found our way to Nathan Street and at a HSBC bank we drew out cash and changed it for Hong Kong dollars. Then we wandered off to the street market where I acquired a great back pack with a detachable smaller back pack,  with wheels for about 19 dollars (Canadian not Hong Kong dollars). The HK dollar is about 6.8 against the US dollar.

I am really bad at bargaining - I always feel bad about beating them down even though I realize the original prices are reallymarked up but Raoul helped by encouraging me to "walk away" and so I got it for considerably less than the marked price. Amanda is going to have to work with me on my acting skills though before I try much more in the way of bargaining.

We were amused by a bakery display. When we took pictures a woman came running out and shouting- no pictures! but here they are.

We then walked down Nathan Street in the general direction of the Ocean Terminal where we wanted to catch the Star Ferry across to the Hong Kong side of the harbour. It costs 2.5 HKD (about 1 dollar fifty) to buy a token for a one way trip across to HK.

The ship docks in the port of Shanghai but the distance from the pier to the city may vary from a half to a one hour drive depending on the size of the ship and where it has to dock. The Diamond Princess is a big cruise ship and has to dock quite far out. The city spans the Huangpu river, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

As a quick refresher about the origins of the city I read the information provided through the website. Here is a quick summary - Before the First Opium War of 1840-42 Shanghai was a small walled city of about 300,000 inhabitants but according to the Treaty of Nanking that ended the war, Western merchants were granted the right to lease land and trade on the West bank of the Hangpu. This built the city into one of the major trading centers in the East and over time the city divided into the International Settlement, dominated by Britain, the French Concession, the Chinese city and the Chinese suburb of Zhabei north of the main part of the city. The merchants built the Bund, an area with a large stone river walk along the central water front, with big elegant buildings, banks, consulates and trading houses lining the river. I have this great memory of strolling along the waterfront but apparently the walkway is being reconstructed and is closed at the present time, so I could not see it again..

After dinner on our first night of sailing, tired though everyone was, we were determined not to miss even one evening of dancing so we headed off to the Wheelhouse Lounge to dance for an hour or so and then we had an early night. Dancing would start in earnest the next day with the first of our dance workshops in the morning, and then a full evening of dance in the evening.


Saturday, November 7 - Of Foxtrot, rhumba and dance parties

Dance-wise this first full day at sea kicked off, so to speak, with two dance workshops. We met at 9 am in the Wheelhouse lounge where all our workshops will take place. The floor is slightly larger than the one on the Pacific Princess and alright for a group lesson with a small group.

In this group there are no beginners. In fact all the women are quite good dancers and the age range I suspect is much narrower than on previous cruises I have been on. So in our group we have 9 fit, active, dance-crazy women guests, Bernie, Carol (who is not yet on board),Helene, Kim, Joan, Jean, Linda, Marcie and me, one couple, Julia and Harry, and the hosts, Brian, Craig, Greg and Raoul.

I have noticed that sometimes when there are couples in the group the men dont dance with any of the other women while the wives dance with the hosts, which alters the one-to-three ratio but Julia and Harry are just great. They are a delightful couple, fit right in to the group and Harry cheerfully dances with all of us. Unusually, in this small group, four of the 16, me, Helene, Julia and Harry, are Canadians. We joked that we were almost ready for a Canadian takeover.  

Anyway I digress from the workshops. Greg ran the first hour teaching an foxtrot sequence. Everyone picked it up really quickly. Then Brian took the second hour to introduce a rhumba sequence that gave us an opportunity to work on cuban hip motion, rhumba walks and spiral turns. Both workshops went  really well. In this small group it was easy for people to rotate in and out and we all had a turn to practice.

We all love our dance hosts. They have really strong leads, are a pleasure to talk to and are like energizer bunnies - they just keep going, dance after dance. I guess it makes their job easier when they have dancers that they don't have to drag around the floor. In fact of the group, I think I have probably been dancing for the least amount of time, and because most of my training has been in the International Standard and Latin, I have only  learned the basics of some of the dances in the past few months- since May in fact - so I think I am doing pretty well considering.

But because these guys are so easy to follow I can usually do most of the patterns they try and the rhythms are pretty simple so I feel quite comfortable now with dances like the hustle and night club 2 step and I am definitely finding it easier to follow more complicated moves. Just gotta remember to count "don't hop, two, three," for the syncopated hustle and it feels much smoother and easier. I am still not mad about salsa- need to go to some salsa dances back in Vancouver to get better at it and I still have to get my Argentine Tango lessons with Carlos back on track. But first I have to be back in Vancouver long enough to get back into my regular dance and fitness routine.

Although I find I am having a lot of fun doing these American style social dances, I guess realistically it is mainly because of the chance to dance with so many excellent partners. I still love the discipline and formality - if that's the right word to describe it - of the International style. I hope to be able to do my gold level routines in Standard and Latin sometime next year but although I really love my dance lessons,  without a regular dance partner I just dont get the opportunity to practice - or just to dance for enjoyment.

It is three in the morning in Beijing, the morning after I arrived. And I am wide awake, writing! So my smugness at how I planned to avoid jet lag was unwarranted - my body defied my planning. Air Canada 29 leaves Vancouver at 12:40 pm and arrives the next day in Beijing around 4 pm. You fly almost 11 hours and move ahead 16 time zones. That meant that a couple of hours into the flight after we had been served a nice lunch and most people in the executive class cabin had reclined their seats and gone to sleep, it was really only about three or four in the afternoon Vancouver time. Although I tried to shut my eyes and doze for a bit in the latter half of the flight, I really did not sleep. By the time we arived in Beijing at 4 in the afternoon GMt + 8 hours for my chrono-biological clock it was only midnight. So I decided I would stay awake till around 9 Beijing time, sleep till 6 the next morning, and wake refreshed and in sync with the new time zone. Didn't work.

Wednesday, November 4th, Beijing

It is a sign of the times that accompanying the immigration form that was handed out on the plane to be filled in before landing, was a health form questioning the presence of flu symptoms and exposure to the flu virus. As we made our way past successive booths of immigration, health and customs people, all the airport staff were wearing masks. I wonder how effective that is.

Beijing Airport is quite stunning. I think parts of it, especially the new International terminal were built in time for the Olympics four years ago. It is absolutely huge, all shining chrome and glass and very clean. The inner airport train that leaves every 3 minutes to take you to the baggage claim area seems to go for a very long time. I wonder what the actual distance is?

I had arranged to meet Raoul, one of the dance hosts whom I originally met on the  West Coast Ballroom Dance Cruise, at the Hotel Reception desk after customs and immigtration so we could share a cab to the hotel where both of us were staying. As it turned out when I talked to him to check flight times before leaving for the airport, another DAS guest Bernie was on his flight from Chicago to Beijing, and her room mate Joan would be coming in from San Francisco, so I will get to meet two of the other guests before we board the ship.

I had also connected by phone the evening before with my cabin-mate, Carol, who I previously met briefly on the  Labcur Weekend Get-away Cruise, but she will only be arriving in Beijing on the day of the cruise. The baggage area is also huge and everythiing is very clearly signposted. I saw my suitcase coming and managed to wrestle it off the carousel. While I was gathering my breath to heave it on to my baggage cart, an arm reached out and before I knew it, my bag was on the cart with my duffel bag on top of it. Another gallant stranger in a random act of kindness.- see London and Languedoc Travelblogue. I smiled and thanked him.

The first thing on my mind on my return to Vancouver from the South Pacific Dance Cruise: Hawaii to Polynesia was getting my visa to visit China. Beijing is where I will embark on the Diamond Princess for 16 dance- filled nights and days while cruising from  China to Thailand.  And I only had two weeks to get ready.

"Another dance cruise?"  you may ask - "you are almost turning this into a profession".  And rather than blush and confess that I am now a confirmed dance cruise addict, I will loftily refer you to the explanation for this new tendency towards globetrotting on moving dance floors. It can all simply  be blamed on last year's New Year resolution to develop  spontaneity.  Well that is my story and I am sticking to it for the rest of the year.

But back to the visa. I had my passport photo ready and my plan was to go Monday morning to the Chinese consulate visa application office and apply. I figured that would give me a few days lee-way if it took longer than I expected.


My friend Susan told me "you have to go early"  but I figured if it opened at 9 I would let the lineups dissipate and get there a lttle later. So Monday morning I took my time and strolled into the Visa office just after 10. The place was absolutely jam packed with people, occupying every seat on the rows of benches and also lining up outside. I asked the man at the desk where one gets a number and he just laughed at me.

"We've given out all the numbers for the day"  he says.

So I asked him what time do you have to be there to get a number. "Well" he says,"when I get there at 7 in the morning there is already a line-up. Ok so Susan was right- why did I doubt her?

South-East Asia Ballroom Dance Cruise 2009

Index Page

This is a 16 night cruise within a 21 night trip.  We start in Beijing and the north and sail south to end in Bangkok. The area and the itinerary are shown in the map above, from the Princess Cruise Lline web site.

• Raring to Go - Visas, travel  research, numbers... and shoes
• Of Beijing, Great Walls, Great Smog and Great Congestion.     
• Dancing through the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea
• Shanghai and more dancing at sea
• A non-visit to Okinawa , Japan
• Taipei (Taiwan),  formal night  and more dancing at sea
• Two days in Hong Kong and  still more dance cruising
• Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
• All at Sea and Formal Night
• Formal Night: A Collage of pictures
• Singapore and cruising

A dream vacation, ballroom dancing , sometimes rock-and-rolling, my way across the Pacific Ocean with my favorite group of dancers and dance hosts on the Pacific Princess.  

South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009 Part I. The Hawaiian Islands

 South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009 Part II. Dancing At Sea

What better way is there for a newbie ballroom dance addict to spend the Labor Day Weekend than dancing the nights away in the largest ballroom afloat with Dancers at Sea? As the smiling faces in the picture taken on the Black and White Formal night photograph attest to, there were many great minds that thought alike on this question.

A mere three months ago the only idea I had of dancing on cruise ships was the little bit  I had read about dance hosts  that were hired on some of the transatlantic crossing  ocean liners. I imagined a few men in jackets or tuxedos being mobbed by hordes of women that wanted to dance with them. Certainly I had no idea that  there was an organization that organized groups of dancers to travel together, with professional teachers and hosts at a guaranteed ratio of 1 host for every 3 single guests.

Intrigued by the concept I ventured out for my first dance cruise - a 7 night  West Coast Ballroom Dancing Cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver, my home town. I had such fun that when I heard about a four night cruise from New York to Saint John and back, I couldn't resist signing up. For starters it was an excuse to visit my son in New York  (New York, New York: Part I), get him to join me  on the cruise, and then spend time seeing some theatre before returning to Vancouver - (New York, New York, Part II and Part III.) 

 Before I decided to take the cruise I  did my homework, reading up on the ship from within the Cunard website.  The Cunard line call the Queen Mary 2, the "grandest liner ever built."  The ship can carry 2592 guests in "elegant accommodation". We booked a cabin with a small balcony. I thought that was pretty elegant since on my first cruise I only had a porthole.

Some other information from the Cunard site told me that in January 2004 the Queen Mary 2 took  her maiden voyage from Southamptom, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her crew complement is listed as 1253, almost a 1:2 ratio of staff to guests. At  1132 feet in length the QM2 is only 117 feet shorter than the height of the Empire State Building. 

But what is most important to me are the dance floors. I found mention of the G32 disco- "contemporary music with a DJ and  live band,"  and then reading further, the  Queen's Ballroom is declared by Cunard to be the "largest ballroom ever to sail the seas."  And from the picture it certainly seemed that way.

The night before we were due to take the cruise I managed to get a ticket to see Burn The Floor. This incredibly energetic ballroom and Latin dance spectacular got me so fired up I could not wait to get on board and dance for hours each night.

On Friday, September 4th, 2009, we left  downtown Manhattan around 2 pm by cab to go to the cruise-ship terminal at Brooklyn. The boarding procedure went like clockwork. These people are obviously used to getting 2500 people off and another 2500 on to the ship within a few hours but it is actually still quite amazing when one thinks of the logistics involved.

In spite of a line-up it took us less than half an hour to get through the immigration and boarding procedures, and find our way to our cabin. The cabin was small and compact but well laid out and it was great to be able to go out onto the small balcony and let fresh air into the cabin.

We knew that our cases would take a while to reach us so we set off to explore the ship and our surroundings. We found the spa where both of us hoped to have at least one massage. We also checked out the Golden Lion Pub  where we were to meet for the 5:30 "get to know your fellow dancers."