Tango in Torquay... One: And We're Off

18th January 2011

Tango In Torquay One | Tango In Torquay Two | Tango In Torquay Three | Tango In Torquay Four

Introduction

It's been a while since I've done any weekender reviews, so I thought I'd do one for the RockBottoms Tango weekender, 14-17 Jan 2011.

"Rockbottoms" is a group who organise weekenders, primarily for the Modern Jive (MJ) market. By MJ standards, these are small-scale events (200 - 300 people). By AT standards, these are quite large-scale.

(If you're interested, here's my review from 2009 for comparison purposes)

Torquay

The weekender was in Torquay, in deepest darkest Devon.

Getting there

It's a bit of a schlep from London - it's about 4 hours' drive, and that's without any major traffic problems and only one brief stop. The instructions on the Rockbottoms site are pretty good, however.

The venue

The Derwent hotel is part of a hotel complex (TLH). It's a great improvement on the standard of accommodation at most Modern Jive weekenders, in that there's food, facilities, and the dancing is all indoors. It's very pleasant to be able to simply walk to your room after dancing - barefoot if needed :)

It's also pretty good value for money - £175 per person, half board, is not vastly more than the average Pontins price in self-catering grotty chalets. Parking was available in hotel car parks, but these filled-up pretty quick on Friday afternoon - although there is street parking nearby, it's much nicer having your car locally available.

The Classes

The class schedule was quite busy - nearly 30 classes over the weekend.

The classes are mainly Tango, but there are a few Modern Jives ones there as well. The AT classes are at three levels: beginner (up to 1 year), intermediate (1 - 2.5 years) and advanced ("good"). Levels of classes are always problematic, but it's best to have some levels, and some accompanying definitions, than none at all.

The teachers

The teacher rosta is a good selection:

I'll review the individual classes in the next entry.

~ David Bailey, 18th January 2011