Tutor/Facilitator Gregory Woodford
When
Date: on/from Fri 30 Oct 2026 to end year
Frequency: Weekly
Class time: 1:30-3:00
Delivered F2F
Where
South Melbourne Community Centre, Hall 1
Other information
Improve your fitness! Learn to concentrate! Come and learn to dance and have fun too! If you can tap your fingers to a tune, then you can learn to dance. This course is in term parcels. Each term I will focus on a different style of couple dancing.
Sadly, there is usually a majority of followers and a lack of leaders so to be considerate to the many ladies with a reluctance to dance with other ladies in an embrace, I emphasise cha-cha-cha, rumba and rock and roll because these dances can be very symmetric between the leader and follower movements and are often done with just holding hands rather than in an embrace.
If we have time, we’ll also look at modern slow waltz and perhaps foxtrot. In each dance style, we’ll cover freestyle dancing techniques. For information, freestyle is where you walk onto the floor with your partner and the music and have no idea what you’re going to do except to dance with the music. To allow a broader perspective, the class includes a look at some popular line dances and if time, maybe a sequence dance or two. Line dancing and Sequence dancing/New Vogue is where the dancer or the couple dances a set of organised movements which are repeated until the music stops.
This course is about social dancing as done in the real world. We are not doing competition-style dancing. Overall, the class is designed to learn stuff that’s useful socially as well as being enjoyable. Much of the dancing is with couples. While I respect that some couples may not want to change partners, and that’s fine, everyone else will change dancing partners through the class. Honestly, if you don’t, you don’t learn to dance as well. If you can convince a dance partner to come with you, that’s fantastic otherwise we’ll just have to adjust to the gender ratio that the class ends up with and everyone will need to accept that. That may mean that some followers will end up trying out the leader role (which eventually will make you a better dancer!)
I expect all attendees to be courteous and respectful to everyone else in the class. The class is about dancing; debate on non-dancing topics, while always interesting, is reserved for outside class times. Let’s just turn up and get on with learning to dance.
As we are using Council property for our classes, we have to abide with all Council rules. If you have any issue with this, please discuss it with the tutor before joining in the classes. Our dancing is quite physical and requires a minimum standard of fitness and mobility. If you are uncertain about your abilities, then again, please discuss it with the tutor before joining in the classes..
REQUIREMENT: No prior dance experience is required but it’s always welcomed. Students must be mobile and active. If you come, wear shoes that you can twist/swivel in with your feet while wearing them – that way you won’t twist your ankle while dancing!
TUTOR: Over the last 20 years or so, Greg has done over six thousand hours of dancing. “So,” he says: “I can more or less step to the beat.”