November 2018
One of my friends in BALADS helped me to research which French universities in the south had ballroom and Latin dance classes. Aix-Marseille was the only one with an official-looking club, so I selected this university for my year abroad.
March 2019
I sent a long message to the AUC Danse Sportive email, explaining my ability level and the circuit I’m used to dancing in. A reply was received two weeks later: we start again in September.
August 2019
AUC posts on their Facebook page about the details of their taster class; naturally I sent them a similarly long message explaining it all over again. I was told I need to bring a partner to the taster class. Stress ensues. I joined every partner search Facebook group in the dance world and advertised with no success. It would be a pain to have brought my dance shoes and dresses down to France to no avail.
9th September
I posted an advertisement in the Aix-Marseille student page and receive a private message response in five minutes! But no, the person who I hoped would solve all my worries is clearly not a dancer and was only trying to chat me up.
Later that evening I’m reminded by the lovely Irish girl on my corridor that the sport signups opened that morning. Feeling fairly certain that AUC isn’t affiliated with SUAPS (the university sports league), I double checked anyway, discover that ‘danse à deux’ is listed and there is only one space left! Feeling frustrated by my login details not working properly, I tried again on my laptop, this time with success, and sign up to a class.
14th September
Feeling nervous and trying not to expect too much, I turned up to the AUC taster class on Saturday afternoon. The class members arrived, and it became clear that they were all mostly retired couples dancing together who compete in one of the Senior categories. I told them that my partner is regrettably living in England at the moment, but I wanted to come and try the class anyway. The teacher, a French Senior I ten dance champion, set the music for each ballroom dance for ten minutes or so. He worked around the couples, giving each of them pointers every so often, while I practised my novice routines from last year, trying to force them back into my head. Eric went through a bit of technique with me, notably for waltz, Viennese, and tango. It was very strange altering my style to dancing solo. Although I really enjoyed the class and thought that Eric was a fantastic teacher from whom I could learn a lot, I don’t know how much I’d get out of it from coming without a partner.
16th September
With the help of the student university Facebook page, I managed to locate where the dance class was held and turned up promptly on time. The dance room is very large – approximately the same length as the Underground at Birmingham where some classes are held, but much wider than it. As an added bonus, every wall is a mirror. Our teacher spent most of the lesson teaching the basics of a cha cha routine which she worked everyone into putting together in a pair. Although I was frustrated that it didn’t seem to cater to non-beginners, I placed myself directly in front of a mirror and worked on my technique for the basic steps. I found it a little off-putting that our teacher had incorrect timing and told everyone to cha cha on the 2+3 of a song instead of 4+1 at times. She knows what the rhythm should be, but just can’t seem to find where the bar begins in the song. Towards the end she began teaching some basic samba steps, so I’m not sure whether they do ballroom as well as Latin or not.
The upside of this class is that I’m signed up to it as a bonus. I didn’t realise this when I did so, but it means that if I take part in shows and demonstrations, attend regularly and work hard, it can boost my university marks this semester. There is going to be an extra class after the main one for those who want to do the shows to learn choreography and practice. Even if it means I can’t compete this year after all, it’s still a fun way to keep dance going!
A plus,
Zoe x
An Aixpat-en-Provence 