Learn To Dance

Once again John Sergeant was saved by the public vote and continues to assault our eyes on BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing. Even the other contestants apparently shunned him when they were saying their goodbyes to Cherie Lunghi according to Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent for The Times Online.

I have been reading hundreds of viewers comments posted all over the internet today and one of the arguments that keeps being posted by those who would have John stay is “it’s an entertainment show” well yeah!! we know and guess what the category of entertainment this show falls under is? Yep, it’s DANCE!, the clue people is in the title “Strictly Come Dancing”. I have always been thoroughly entertained by the act of dancing myself and by watching others dance.

So come on you people, it has gone on long enough, quit voting for John Sergeant.  There are people who have now left Strictly who although they probably would not have made it to the final and would have eventually gone, found to their surprise that they loved dancing – those of you who dance know what I mean, once you start you do get the “bug”.  Andrew Castle being one for instance, he said the week after leaving how he was surprised at how much he missed it – he for instance may have stayed on one more week and learnt one more dance and improved on his dance skills as well – John is showing no signs of improvement and yes I know what the judges said of his performane at the weekend but don’t be fooled by that they were simply trying a different way to prevent good dancers being in the bottom two!

For me this is a disgrace, dance is such a wonderful and fun form of exercise for any age, seeing people of Cherie’s age up there has given many older people the confidence to go out and find a dance class, it is such a shame to see her voted out before her time.

Whilst I am on the subject of Cherie, I also read how many people believe the wrong person went in that it should have been Lisa – well I have to disagree on that, Lisa is competent in both Ballroom and Latin (which you need if you are to have a chance of the final) whereas Cherie is great in Ballroom but not as good in Latin and there is that little thing of Cherie having dance experience – however, it really should not have been either of them going, for sure, one of them should have been in the dance off but against John Sergeant! grrrr can you tell, I am still so annoyed about all this.

I would love to hear what your views are on this so please come and tell me using the comment section and lets get a discussion going and it’s ok to disagree with me, your comment will still be posted (provided of course you keep it clean).

Oh and before I get asked, “well did you vote” you bet I did! I voted several times for 3 of the dance couples, Lisa, Rachel and Christine but it didn’t stop Lisa being in the bottom two did it..

There are many reasons why learning to dance is a good idea but I wanted to highlight 5 reasons why you should seriously consider learning to dance: Health, confidence, social, love and sex.

• Health: I bet you guessed that one right off didn’t you, well done you.  Your health and wellness is one of the best reasons you could have, perhaps to help you lose weight or keep the weight off that you lost through dieting.  But also, dance is fantastic for stamina.  I also found that it improved my metabolism enormously, so much so that I pretty much could eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted and never put weight back on.  By the way, I didn’t start serious dancing until I was 43 (five years ago) and I had the usual middle age weight problems when I started.  I also found that in fact my appetite went down so that I was actually eating smaller portions but more often, which they say is a good way to eat.

• Confidence: Are you lacking in confidence at work, school, social situations or just any aspect of your life? Well dancing will help you hugely with that, you just gotta take that first step (dance pun intended).

• Social: Are you sometimes lonely? wish you had a wider circle of friends? just want to get out more often but your friends are always busy?  When you join a dance class you will, over time (normally fairly quickly in my own experience) start to easily make friends with the other people attending the class perhaps just because you already have that one interest in common with each other, if you want it to, this can lead onto friendships and social meetings outside of the dance class.

• Love: Are you about to get married but you know that even your basic dance skills are non-existent (or you think they are)? do you always say, “I can’t dance, I have two left feet”? and up until now it was not important to you? Yes guys, I am speaking mainly to you.. I bet your worried about that “wedding first dance” or indeed I bet you would love to give your future spouse a wonderful surprise of a fantastic and memorable first dance at your reception. Well if any of that applies to you, get googling, there are a ton of Wedding Dance Classes or even DVD’s out there (I will feature some on this blog so check back).  If you are really nervous though then I would recommend attending a class OR if you can afford it, a one-to-one session or sessions with a qualified teacher because standing there in your living room watching a DVD is more likely to make you feel worse and not better whereas an actual lesson with a real person who knows what they are doing and how to calm your nerves is worth it’s weight in gold or DVDs “LOL”

• Sex: Yep sex and again guys this one is mainly aimed at you.  Do you know how utterly sexy and hot it is to most women to see a man confident enough to get up and dance, better still to dance close with them?  Dancing close with your partner is so absolutely sensuous and sometimes erotic (even if it is only in the mind at the time of the dance) and that feeling can last for a very long time after said dancing session – so what do you think you could do with your wife/girlfriend/partner when they are in that mood?  Yep, dancing is a great way to rekindle that waining desire.. trust me..

I will be featuring all kinds of dance including, disco, ballroom, latin, irish, hip hop, belly, lap and pole dancing and many others so to make sure you don’t miss out on loads more useful and fun articles on learning to dance, please submit a valid email address into the “Google Feedburner” subscription box in the top right of this blog, you will need to confirm subscription by clicking the link in an email you will be sent (this is to protect you) and that’s it, you will then always be sent via email any new posts made to this blog.