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Ceroc Myths Busted: Do You Need a Partner, Rhythm, or Dance Experience?

• Liz Taylor • Season 2 • Episode 3

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Ceroc Myths Busted: Do You Need a Partner, Rhythm, or Dance Experience?

In this episode of the Ceroc Inspire Dance Inspiration Podcast, Liz and Mark tackle six of the most common Ceroc myths they’ve heard over the years. Whether you think you need a partner, perfect rhythm, or past dance experience to enjoy Ceroc, this episode will reassure you, make you smile, and maybe even convince you to give it a go.

From sweaty hugs to jelly babies, from two left feet to chart music, it’s all part of what makes Ceroc Derby and Ashbourne such a welcoming place to dance, connect, and grow in confidence.

What You'll Learn

  • Why you absolutely do not need a partner to start Ceroc
  • How we support beginners with two left feet
  • Why fitness or flexibility are not required to dance
  • How we rotate partners to build skill and connection
  • Why Ceroc is not just for couples or people who have danced before
  • The truth about age, music and inclusivity – Ceroc is for everyone

Links and Mentions


 Thinking of giving Ceroc a go?
 You don’t need a partner, rhythm or experience — just a willingness to try. Your first night is free and we’ll be there to welcome you from the moment you walk through the door.

Come and join the fun at Ceroc Derby Ashbourne or Burton
 and stay in the loop by joining our mailing list


Whether you’re new to dancing or simply love a good story about trying something new, each episode will leave you smiling

Ceroc Myths 

Hello and welcome to Ceroc Inspire's Dance Inspiration Podcast. I'm Liz. And I'm Mark and we're here keeping you up to date with everything that's going on in Ceroc Inspire.

So let's get started. So today we're going to look at six Ceroc myths that people have mentioned to us over the years and we're going to bust them aren't we Mark? We are. So do you want to go with the first one? So the first one is, do you have to bring a partner? It comes up a lot.

Peple assume that because it's a partner dance you need to arrive with someone don't they? Yeah but you don't because it may be a partner dance but you don't need a partner to dance it because there's people there. True so the thing is being on the desk and actually seeing people come in when they're new, most of our dancers do walk in solo but Ceroc is designed that we rotate partners around throughout the night which means that you'll dance with a variety of friendly faces no matter who you come with doesn't it? Yeah it's a brilliant way to meet people, build confidence without any pressure. Some people do bring a friend or bring their partner but it's not essential. 

You don't have to. Absolutely not and for nervous first timers you're never on your own we'll be there to welcome you the minute you walk through the door and the Ceroc community at Derby and Ashbourne are very welcoming aren't they? They are. You could sit anywhere can't you on any table with anyone and they'll talk to you. 

Yeah everybody gets along with everybody. Yeah absolutely so you don't actually need a partner you actually get the opportunity to learn more because you're dancing with lots of different intermediate dancers. Yeah so you get to feel the difference between how people dance and it's enjoyable it's an enjoyable night out. 

Yeah and it's an opportunity for singles to come and do something because if people think that it's a partner dance it would stop you from coming through the door in the first place but we want to bust that myth because it really is a myth. You can come and have a social occasion and be part of a community as well as learn to dance. Yeah it's for everybody. 

Absolutely. All inclusive. Everybody already knows what they're doing that's the other myth isn't it? It's one of the many myths yeah it is and it makes me smile. 

It's that classic feeling of walking into room and thinking that everybody else must be really good at this and I'm going to look silly because I've never done it before and I don't know what I'm doing and I remember feeling like that myself thinking I really want to do this but I don't think I'm going to be good enough everybody else in the room will already know what they're doing and they'll think oh no she's useless and this is a rubbish dance and things like that but actually our community are really good aren't they? Yeah. Asking beginners to dance and being very patient with them and understanding that everybody started somewhere. Nobody looks out of place. 

No. But the reality is we have beginners every single week. We do. 

Nobody judges. Everyone remembers being new. And because of that when we do have our refresher session after the beginners class when we're having intermediates in the main room a few of our intermediate dancers will actually go into the refresher session won't they and help help the beginners that are through there and we really appreciate that and that just that just shows how inclusive our community actually is. 

Yeah you're never going to be left sat at the side of the dance floor. No. We have we have many leads don't we that will go and look look for all the new faces and ask them all to dance. 

There are some that tell me that they make a point of trying to dance with every new person on the night on their first night which I think is amazing. Yeah you really won't be alone. We've got your back from the very first move. 

Yeah absolutely. Well not just us I would say the community. The whole dance community has your back. 

Yeah absolutely. I think the the one that I want to bust even though I still get stuck on it myself is that you need to be fit or flexible to dance. Definitely not. 

Well obviously not because otherwise I won't be able to dance. Ceroc isn't about being a super athletic person. It's about moving with the music and enjoying it and you know it is made to suit everybody. 

Yeah because not everybody is bendy and you see these people on YouTube or you see them on the internet you know these people doing these amazing moves where they're bent right back over. Most people don't do those. Those are people at competition level that train and train and train very hard to get to that point. 

The people that walk through the doors at Derby and Burton are not those people. Some of them haven't exercised for a really long time and that that is another thing that puts tends to put people off a little bit I think coming through the door. And speaking of that we have people who've had knee surgery. 

Oh yeah that's me. I'm not the only one though. No. 

You know because I hadn't had knee surgery it was amazing how many people came and told me that they either had knee surgery or they were going to have knee surgery and what was it like. I had people advising me about what to do with knee surgery which was amazing and so helpful and now I'm one of those people. The big part do your knee exercises. 

Do your knee exercises yeah but you know there's not just things like knee injuries. I mean that there are other injuries or conditions that people have which means that they're not particularly fit or agile or flexible or bendy or whatever you want to call it but it doesn't mean that they can't have fun on the dance floor. Most people start off stiff don't they on the dance floor. 

I mean we see dancers of all ages all fitness levels the moves can be adapted. Absolutely. You know we can we can work around whatever. 

Yeah. You know you can be as energetic as you want or you can be as slow or subtle as you want. Yeah absolutely. 

I mean if somebody comes and asks you to dance and it's quite a fast track it's perfectly fine to say look this track's really fast for me. Please would you come back and ask me again when when it's a slower track and then I'll be more than happy to dance with you. That would be me. 

I can't dance to fast tracks. I'll end up on the deck. I haven't danced properly or done any physical exercise for quite some time so that means that if I do get on the dance floor I'm going to be out of breath pretty quickly. 

So you need to be able to pace yourself and if you pace yourself you won't feel uncomfortable about going on the dance floor and asking people to dance and saying look you know I'm going to sit this next one out because I'm out of breath. The main thing is it's about enjoying yourself. Oh it so is. 

If you go into it thinking like I've got to look like I do like they do on Strictly then you're not going to enjoy it. If you just come in and think well yeah I haven't done any exercise for a really long time. I actually need to really get into this.

 I'm going to be tired. I'm going to be sweaty. By the way everybody is sweaty. 

It's not just not just new people. Everybody gets sweaty but if you go in thinking that then you're going to spoil your night. Just come through the door and think this looks so much fun. 

I'm going to do this. I don't have to be fit. I might not have been to the gym for a bit but then neither of a lot of people that come to Ceroc 

So I don't think that's you know it's not a precursor to come into Ceroc is it. That's the whole idea though isn't it. Go out enjoy yourself. 

Yeah absolutely absolutely. So the other myth that I think people do get hooked upon. It's only for couples or people who've danced before but it's not. 

It's definitely not for couples. It is not for people who've danced before. It doesn't matter if you've never danced before. 

You can come along to Ceroc and we will teach you how to dance and by the end of your night you'll have learned three dance moves and if you can dance those three dance moves you can dance. Yeah in truth most people who join Ceroc are total beginners. Yeah. 

And you don't need to bring anyone along with you. You don't need to have dance experience. No. 

You can even bring your two left feet. Yeah we do a lot of two left feet don't we. Lots of people have two left feet.

 I think I've still got two left feet after 15 years, 16 years. Yeah that's all right because you only need to step back on one foot. Exactly.

 That's your left foot. It's fine. Exactly exactly.

 So the thing that we do do as we said earlier on is we rotate partners throughout the evening. So each night and we start each night with a full beginner class that assumes that nobody has any knowledge and you'll get intermediate dancers that will get up and take that class and that's their warm-up for the night but also they're there to help the people that have come in near that night as well and to support them and our beginners class it can have between 70 to 90 people on that dance floor and you know that this so that is 45 couples isn't it if it was 90 people so you're going to go around and dance with 45 different people. Which means it's all about connection and community.

 Absolutely absolutely everybody's well it's what makes it special whoever you are wherever you come from whatever walk of life everybody is welcome through the door at Ceroc Derby and Ceroc Ashbourne. Yeah. The other thing that I've heard people say like younger people say Ceroc is old fashioned.

 It might have started decades ago. It may incorporate a few like ballroom but it's a modern dance. It's done to modern music.

 We dance to chart music. We dance to anything from Motown all the way up to the latest releases in the charts. Yeah.

 As long as it's got a beat we can dance to it. And Ceroc itself is constantly evolving isn't it. You know we send our teachers on updates every so many years and Nic has just been to do her beginners training and Dan has already said wow you know you've learned some things I actually didn't know what they've changed that or they've moved that and we went quite a long time ago from men and women to leads and follows as well didn't we to make it so because not everybody is gender specific to that that role so you know if you want to be a leader and you're a female that's fine if you want to be a follower and you're a guide that's fine.

 At Derby and Ashbourne males and females dance with each other. Everybody dances with everybody. Everybody dances with everybody so it's not it's not specific to a particular gender role either so I think you know we play the chart tracks don't we.

 We play the chart tracks and the way we teach all the moves have timing so it doesn't matter if the song's slower or a bit faster it works on the timing of the song. Absolutely. So it's sort of like pick a song that anyone can dance to and is nice and steady yeah and you'll be able to do it.

 Absolutely. I think people um some people expect something but then they come and they realise how current and exciting it actually is and how much fun they've had. You see people coming through the door looking anxious don't you and not sure what to expect but leaving with the biggest smile on their face and saying how much they loved it so.

 That's the other myth isn't it. That's the myth of I've got no rhythm I won't be able to do it. Yeah but we prove otherwise.

 Yeah. We prove otherwise. As a ladies I would say or follows I would say actually if you can be led by a lead then you can dance.

 I've found that as long as you can give yourself over to the lead allow them to lead you in the dance obviously you need to know what his signs are as to what move he's leading you into but if you can follow that then you can dance. It takes us back doesn't it to when we first started and we and we sat there and we were sort of like hiding from behind tables and trying not to let people see us because much as we wanted to do it we both felt really nervous didn't we and not confident in what we were doing. And now look at us.

 Now we've got rhythm. Yeah. Now we liked it that much as we always say we liked it that much that we bought it so we're now franchisees.

 Yeah. And of course we're doing these as well our own little podcasts. A podcast is so much fun it just gives people the opportunity to to hear what's going on behind the scenes and to hear different aspects of that we don't necessarily get to talk to you about on the nights on the nights that we're with you like the class nights and the freestyles we can be so busy running the night that we don't always get to have that interaction that we like to have.

 You get to see all the little bits behind the scenes where we're trying to put things together. But please don't be put off by that. I love it when people come and talk to me at the front desk.

 It's like the best. I'm always busy at the front desk. So the basic to this rhythm is don't worry.

 Yeah. We can teach you rhythm. Yeah.

 So even if you haven't got any rhythm come along. Absolutely. We'll give you a bag full of rhythm.

 Absolutely. So rock is genuinely one of the easiest partner dancers to learn. You don't need a dance background.

 You just need to be willing to give it a shot. And what else comes with rhythm? Your confidence. Absolutely.

 As soon as you've got that first three moves nailed all of a sudden your confidence is straight up there and you're thinking I can do this. I can do this. Yeah.

 And you feel so good when you leave. You're like I can actually dance. I actually dance a whole track with somebody and another one and another one.

 And I didn't look out of place. No. It looked great.

 And before you know it you've been coming six weeks and you dance fit and you've actually got all 12 beginners moves and you can actually go out there and be led or lead and have an absolutely fabulous night. And you know what that does for us? That makes us so happy when people come in in that nervous state. I've got no rhythm.

I've got two left feet. Yeah. I can't do this.

 I haven't brought a partner. The next minute at the end of the night there they go out the door floating on that nice little cloud because they've managed it. They're happy and they want to come and continue dancing forever.

 Do you remember that lady that came stood outside for 15 minutes and didn't want to come in and she finally braved it and she came in. Yeah. Her name was Jane and or is Jane and she went on to the lesson and she did the lesson.

 She did the refresher and she loved it so much that when she came to tell me about it at the end of the night of the death she was actually got tears. I'm going to say that smile was literally from ear to ear with tears. And although I don't want to make people cry obviously there were tears of happiness and it was so lovely that we've made that change in her life because Sirach itself it isn't just about coming to learn to dance it's about actually giving people a community.

 People that maybe don't have much of a social life and don't see people very often. And the other thing that we always do at the end of the night if it's wanted is offer hugs don't we? Of course. We offer hugs to people because again not everybody gets to hug anybody so if anybody wants a hug at the end of the night please come over.

 Mark, myself, Dan, Nic, anybody will be more than happy to give you a hug at the end of the night before you go home. And just to ease you into the night as well don't forget the jelly babies. You can have a hug when you walk in as well.

 Yeah. You can have a hug, pick up a jelly baby and off you go. There are some jelly babies.

 I do get into trouble if I don't bring jelly babies don't I? I get told off if I don't bring jelly babies and if I bring something else it's like what's this? These aren't jelly babies. They're not jelly babies. It's what we've come for, the jelly babies.

 That's right. Well they come for the sugar they say, it keeps them going. Yeah.

 Anyway that's six of the Ceroc myths that we picked out to bust today. We hope you've enjoyed listening to those. If you know of any other Ceroc myths or you've heard of any other myths please let us know either message us or leave a comment below or come and talk to us on the class nights, the freestyle nights and we'll make a big effort to do another podcast where we can bust some more myths.

 Thanks so much for joining us on today's Ceroc Inspires Dance Inspiration podcast. We hope you've enjoyed the chat as much as we have and you know that you can find us at Ceroc Derby Ashbourne and Burton or online at Ceroc.com forward slash Ceroc Inspire 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. We'll be back very soon with more stories insights and inspiration and some special guests.

 See you on the dance floor

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Mark Emmans-Taylor

Host