Dance and Community: Christmas Class Nights and what's next

Dance and community sit at the heart of this Ceroc Inspire Dance Inspiration Podcast as Liz and Mark share what’s left of the Ceroc year and what’s coming next. From festive class nights at Derby and Ashbourne and a fun Christmas line dance challenge to January workshops and the launch of Ceroc Burton Town Hall, this episode reflects on connection celebration and looking ahead together as a dance community. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hello and welcome to Surock Inspire's Dance Inspiration Podcast. I'm Liz.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

And I'm Mark, and we're here keeping you up to date with everything that's going on in Sir Rock Inspire.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

So let's get started. Welcome. We are having that end of year feeling.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

We are, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yep. Christmas buzz starting to settle down a little bit. Big day nearly upon us in a few days' time.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

We had the big buzz last week, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

We did. So what we decided was that this episode would be about is what we've got left this year and what's coming next.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

We've got a couple of classes left, haven't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

We have. We have our derby class tomorrow night.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yes. With a beginners to start with, then a little freestyle. Then I think then we're going to do two moves, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Two step-up moves, yeah. And then a freestyle.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

A little freestyle and on to the line dance.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Dan's going to do a little line dance lesson. The reason we're doing this is because it was we thought it would be something fun over the Christmas break because we'll be having a week off in between Christmas and New Year, won't we?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

So and it's that easy for everyone to join in, on.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah. What what we'd really like you to do, if you feel that you can or you'd like to join in, is just learn the line dance as best as you can. I mean, I'm I'm rubbish at line dancing. I I've got I have got two left feet, I've got no coordination. But you know what? If I'm just dancing from side to side, it's still a line dance, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Mine's exactly the same. My coordination. Yeah, it disappears halfway through.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

But what we thought would be fun was if we all had, like, you know, a little drink over Christmas and New Year, or more than a little drink, maybe a few drinks, and then we videoed ourselves having a go at the line dance and send them all into us, and we'll we'll make um like a compilation video of us all having fun at Christmas. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah, so if you go to a Christmas party and you hear the tune come on for the line dance.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

We request it.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yeah, just jump on the dance floor, do the line dance, send us a little video just to see just to show us how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Just request it and get it done. It'll be fun. Or just do it in your living room in your Christmas PJs.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

That'd be fine, wouldn't it? That'd just be fun, or wherever you want to do it. But you know, it would be so much fun if we just ordered a little clip. I mean like a minute. Yeah. Not any more than that. It's no pressure. No you don't have to be perfect. And that in fact, the more imperfect you are, the funnier it'll be.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I'll have a go at it as well. And that will be funny.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, well, it will be if I either go. Because I literally, I literally am so uncoordinated, it's crazy. But anyway, we'll we'll definitely have a go. So that's what we're going to do on our class night tomorrow night. No pressure. Just have a laugh.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yeah, just for fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And then on Tuesday night is our very last class night of the year, isn't it? At Syrock Ashbourne.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, Christmas party.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

It's our Christmas party at Sorroc Ashbourne. We're pretty excited about that. It's uh the theme is wear your Christmas pajamas, or if you're not comfortable in them, being out in them, then wear your Christmas jumper or your Christmas t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

A nice a nice little PJ party.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, well, yeah. I'm I'm not doing PJs, but no, I'm not doing PJs. Uh but Christmas jumpers and Christmas t-shirts are a definite yes for us, I think, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, I mean it's all planned by Nick and you.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Well, yeah, mostly Nick. Nick's planned most of it to be fair. But we're just gonna have like a really fun class and we're gonna celebrate us at Christmas, a few little treats, and and just literally party like we do at Sorak Ashbourne because you know what? Those people are party animals, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

A little bit of festive music as well. Yeah, just to get us in the mood for Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah. I'm looking forward to that actually because Ashbourne really does know how to party.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

They really do. They're so much fun. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. Be a proper bang to the end of the year, won't it?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So if you're at a loose end on Tuesday, come along.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Come party with us. Honestly, it'll be great fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

If you're broke up from work and have nowhere else to go, come and come and visit us.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah, it'd be great, won't it? Yeah. And then of course there's the big day or two, isn't there, coming?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

And is that Christmas Day Boxing Day?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Yeah, and then there's that gap, isn't there, between Christmas and New Year where people say to us, Are you doing a Betwixmas event? The answer to that is no. That isn't because we don't want to. It's because there are lots of other dance events happening already, aren't there?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, I mean you've got your big Daventry one.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

You've then got some other franchise will be doing Betwixtmas.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

And some have got New Year's Eve parties as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

So there's that whole Then you've got your local independence.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

I think the thing for us is we don't want to overload the dance diary and the dancers calendar. So it's giving the dancers chase uh space to choose what they want to do, isn't it? And it just keeps everything balanced, doesn't it, for the dancers, I think.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Gives us more time to plan things as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

It does give us more time to plan what we're doing for you next year, but actually we just hope that you have a really great time in between Christmas and New Year, wherever you decide to go and dance.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

But you need to save some energy, don't you, for the 4th of June. Uh 4th of January. June? June. I'm I'm jumping ahead already.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Mm-hmm. Yeah, we've got a workshop, haven't we, on the 4th of January.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

We have.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

So it's been quite a lot of interest in this workshop. It's not one that we've done before. No. But it's the mastering the art of following. So it's for our followers. Now, I know you might think you can only book on if you're a follower, that's fine. You can only book on as a follower, but we would be arranging for you to have leads so that you can learn to do the the Master the Art of Following, basically. It's with Nick, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, gonna say you can't follow without leads, can you?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

No, absolutely not. So we will be putting the leads on to however many followers book onto that, but I think that is gonna be an amazingly fun workshop, actually. I think it will be excellent for followers that are feeling a bit like you know, could do with a little bit of coaching if you like.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Pointing in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, definitely. So that's on the 4th of January in Alistree, just for three hours, I believe. And we start classes again on the 5th.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, I thought I think the workshop will be a nice little reset before your classes start again.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah, yeah, definitely. But classes, 5th of January at Derby, 6th of January, Ashbourne are our first class nights back. Looking forward to that. See you everybody again.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Everybody refreshed, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Everybody coming to dance off those those um holiday pounds.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Nothing about holiday pounds, I've started already.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

I think we all have, yeah. It's not good, is it? No, but um, yeah, get us back on the dance floor, get us back into the swing of things, and we've got a great year ahead planned for you, haven't we?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah, see what exciting music comes out in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, and you've put that post up, haven't you? What's what tell us about that post.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

So the post I put up is basically for your top tracks that you like to dance to from 2025. The little idea behind it is tomorrow night I'll see how many of them I can actually get in so that you all get a track.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

So get them in quick.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

So if you want one and you want your favourite track, pop onto Facebook. It's on all four all four of our pages. So pop on there, put your comment in of what track you like, and I'll do my best to get as many as possible on.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yeah. We don't know what line dance track we've got yet, do we?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

No. I think that Dan's keeping that close to his chest.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Oh dear. And of course, for us this is the the big the big new launch of our our Burton class night, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, Burton, here we come.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

We are so excited about that. It's just it's it's taken us back to our history, to our start, because we actually used to do lessons at Sorrock Burton on a Wednesday.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

That was it, won't you?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

In 2010, didn't we? 2009, 2010.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

So we we started Sorrock and Derby. Then we became the venue hosts.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

No, we didn't. We went to Burton first, and then the DJ at Burton had suggested to the franchisee that we did the door at derby to help out. Because the DJ had left and the door person had left. So that was see you forgotten that.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

I had, yeah. It's that long ago, it's a blur.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

I can remember dancing at Burton that that that great big main room and the teacher on the stage, it made your neck crack like a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

It was a little bit, wasn't it, on the old standing in them long rows looking up.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, looking up, but it but it was a you know it was a great class, actually, great people, great vibe, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

It just wasn't sustainable back in the day, but now I think people are very keen to come back to Burton once it was gone.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Through lack of effort though, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:29

No, it wasn't through lack of effort, but I think people realised and missed it after it's been gone. I mean it's been gone a good while now. Yeah. It's about ten years it's been gone.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Andy died about ten years ago, and it was not long after that. The teacher, Andy, that is.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

So it has been quite a long time since it's gone. But it's coming back. So please come and support it. It is going to be so much fun to see everybody that lives in Burton coming and doing a class at the town hall again.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

It just feels like a full circle bringing it back, doesn't it, after all of this time?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Certainly does. I mean, we've got the beginner's day on the 17th, haven't we?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, we have. It's on a Saturday afternoon. Two till five.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

You can book that online, which is five pounds. So if you have got friends that have been thinking about it, get them to book and come along and see what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, and it's six pounds on the door if you want to just come to the door, or if you want to just come and dance and do the classes yourselves, you know, because you've you've missed you know, workshops and things. It's like a small beginner's workshop almost. You'd be doing a few moves, won't she? Yeah. And it's be a chance to socialise with people, tell them how great Siroc is if they haven't done it before. You know, have having some experienced dancers there to support it would be absolutely brilliant. We'd be great. If you could help us, that would be really, really cool, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

So that's that's that's the Saturday, isn't it? And then the following Wednesday, the 21st, is our opening night.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah, so when when we're opening the class there, we're not starting in the main hall, are we?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

The reason for this is the main hall is massive, and if you only have a small group of people that start, which is sometimes how new classes start, I mean you might get a load of people, but you know, we're we're sort of going on previous experiences. I think you don't want a room that's too big, you want a room that feels cozy with the people, not not too vast. So we're starting in the dove room, which is the third room that we use at Rhythm Fusion. Yeah, which is what the one where Dan was last time. The one where Dan was. So we're starting in there, and we've got a new demo, haven't we?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

We have.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Don't know who that might be.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

I haven't got a clue. Or could it be me?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yay! So Mark's going to be the demo at Burton you say. Mark, the man of of many different hats in the Sorok business.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, I thought I'd try a different hat.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, you know what it is, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

You you've done all these coloured t-shirts.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

That I want to collect them all.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Well, I've just realised I haven't had one made for you. Oh my goodness, fail, lizard's failed. I shall have to order another t-shirt. But no, so your hats now, you've got taxi, door person, venue manager, DJ, demo. No, haven't you? Flipping a lot of codes on his name in the database, I'll tell you. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so the class night at Burton, and we're really looking forward to that. We don't have a bar for the class tonight. We're gonna do complimentary drinks, aren't we, that we we provide, and like we do at Ashbourne. But we'll see how it goes. I mean, if the the class is massive, we'll have to go in the main room.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

But we'll just start, we'll start in that in that one. So when you come in, obviously you need to go round the back, so not into the main hall, but round the back into the the back for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

So you went you enter the doors, go straight forward through that double doors, follow the corridor round into the open space, and we're then to your right.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah. Yeah, so that's gonna be a fun night. We've got uh so obviously you're gonna be the same people. So Nick, you, myself, Rowena is gonna be taxiing at Burton going forward. Yeah. Um, Sally from Derby is going to come and taxi at Burton. And to start off with, Nikki and Paul are coming over from Derby just to help us out at the beginning until we get some more crew in place.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, then you've got Chris on the decks.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Chris on the decks, yeah. So Chris has been DJing at Surock Ashbourne for a while, so you may not have heard his music if you haven't been to Ashbourne, but he's turning out to be a pretty good DJ.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, he's working out quite well.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Working out very well. So he's going to be DJing at Burton and Ashbourne for a little while. Listen to just while we get we have another DJ that we're training up while we get him trained up. Well excited times, another DJ, yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

So get them staffing.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, so we you it'll be all familiar faces if you come to Burton. It'll just be like, you know, Derby or Ashbourne, but in Burton it's the same people, isn't it? We'll be there again. So it's still£11 entry, still buy your six for threes, and we are looking at doing you can buy a bulk buy of class entries in the new year, but you have to just wait for that. I'm not 100% sure when that's going to start. Yeah, we've got to figure it out. Something new for us to work out. Yeah. Another thing to learn, I think. But yeah, we are looking at doing that, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah. And then February for all them beginners that have started to lose their Christmas weight.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Before you go to February, before you go to February, let's just step back. We have got our winter warmer freestyle on the 9th of January.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Oh, I love that one because you get them, you get them little mitts out, don't you? And the little scarves.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I've got some little scarves now. I didn't have scarves before, but I've got some mini scarves now. So yeah, we've got our winter warmer freestyle at Ciroc Derby on the 9th. And we have our rhythm and smooth two-room freestyle at Burton on the 24th of Jan, don't we? So actually, busy, busy. January is really busy for Ciroc Inspire. And we really hope that you add in all these things to your diary because it's going to be so much fun, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

We're trying to kickstart the year.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Kickstart the year with a bang, I think. Absolutely. Yep. Okay, um, sorry, I cut you off there. February.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

That's all right. At least they know what's happening in January. So and then February, for all the beginners that started in January, we've got a beginner's workshop, haven't we, on the 9th of February. Yeah. So it's something to look forward to. Yeah. Beginner workshops are great because it teaches you a bit more than your class nights, and you go through all 12 moves. And Nick and myself will help you put them together into a little routine so that you are not so nervous on the dance floor when it comes to having a dance.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah, I think it I mean if we can if you could encourage, if you have encouraged people to join, and as you know, if you do encourage people to join, you get half-price entry yourself. Yeah. Um if you have encouraged people to join and they're just wavering a little bit, please encourage them to do a workshop. Mark and I did the workshop, didn't we, when we first joined Swark.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

We did.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

We were knackered at the end of it. It has to be said, broken, went home. But we had learnt so much and we felt so much more confident.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

As they say, it gives you the fundamentals.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah. And it wasn't just that, it was that you don't remember every single move that you learn at the workshop, but you do tend to remember the routines you put together. Yeah. Because you've danced them several times. So when you go to your class on the following week, then you can dance your little routine and then maybe start and add another move to it.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Starts to add that muscle memory, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah, it just gives you that little bit more confidence on the floor. So if if you have got any, if you do know anybody that's struggling, I mean, even somebody who's not been for a while and they feel like they're a beginner again like me, um, just tell them to come to the workshop. You know, there's no shame in doing a workshop if you've been dancing for years. Sorry about the cat noises.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah, you're gonna hear some purring now because the cat's decided to join in the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, the cat wants to be a guest on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, he wants he wants to talk about dancing.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yeah. So that's us for going ahead. The one other thing to mention is that this year Dan's doing competition wow moves for advanced dancers, isn't he?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

He is.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

And he said he would do part one and part two. Now, this is based on you know what Dan's like, quirky Dan. And he said he'll do part one, and if there's lots of uptake, he'll do part two. Yeah. So part two is advertised yet because it would be a follow-on to part one.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

So it's all it's up to you people.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

It is up to you if you want to come and join one of those workshops. There will there are other workshops come in. We have got other things in the pipeline that we will be letting you know about. Probably next next weekend's podcast, we'll look at maybe enlighten you about a few other things that we've got going on. We have got other workshops planned, we've got loads of freestyles planned, and some social events.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah. It'll be a normal Ciroc busy year.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

I think it will be. We're hoping to take a group to one of the weekenders. We're taking the group from Ashbourne to Daventry, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

They wanted to do the Daventry weekender. So we're going there in April. But we did say that you know, if anybody wanted to go to one of the group, we would take them. We'd all go in a group, didn't we?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, we were looking at going to remember which one it was now, but we'll it we'll let people know later on in the year, won't we?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Details to follow.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Details to follow. Yep. And always looking for crew. If anybody's interested in crewing, please shout up. That can be any of the three venues. Yeah. Anybody's interested, I'm sure we can sort out something for you to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Whether it's you want to help us set up on freestyles or you want to learn to become a taxi.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Any of them just come and speak to us.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yeah, anybody that feels like they'd like to really help beginners or be a step-up taxi. You don't have to do beginners, just you know, we've we've got it so that our step-up taxis have a choice. They can just do step-up or they could do step-up and beginners. Some of them are keen to learn to do beginners as well, and some of them would rather just stay at step-up. And it is a volunteer role, and we're more than happy for them to do what they're comfortable with, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Definitely. So, you know, we are always looking for crew. So if you do think it's something that you'd be interested, coming and jumping on the crew and helping us out. It's like you say, especially freestyles, we do need people, freestyle crew. We've kind of lost them of recent times. They've stepped into other roles and it's kind of it's just knocked it, hasn't it? Yeah, it's knocked it on the head a little bit, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

So especially when it comes to the rhythm fusion, we need we need two rumours and three rumours.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

We need help. We well, we need help more at Burton because we have to be out there in half an hour and when we finish the night, and it's if you've got more than one room moving, it's it's a it's a quick pack down. Yeah, it's pretty slick last time there, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Really slick. It's got a great crew. So yeah, that's us um for the end of the year. Um we'll be back next Sunday to have a chat about I don't know, whatever we decide to chat about.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yeah, we don't know yet.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, well we kind of do, but um, yeah, anybody who's got anything they'd like to know about us or about Soraka Inspire or anything about us really.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yeah, let us know.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

About about our business, yeah. Yeah, just let us know anything that you're interested in, is having a chat. We are having some guests on next year, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Which is exciting, but yeah. Okay, so have the most wonderful Christmas if we don't see you before, and we will catch up with you in the new year.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

So have a Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

And have the best time ever. Thanks so much for joining us on today's Sorroc Inspires Dance Inspiration Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

We hope you've enjoyed the chat as much as we have.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

And you know that you can find us at SorocDarby, Ashbourne and Burton or online at saroc.com forward slash Soroc Inspire.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

And don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for class updates and event news. And also check us out on TikTok and YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

We'll be back very soon with more stories, insights and inspiration and some special guests.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

See you on the dance floor!