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Paul F
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Ceroc & WCS
Hi Everyone,
Its Paul Farrell here.
For those of you who dont know me, Im the teacher who has recently been hired by Ceroc to do the WCS courses in London.
I have been reading this forum now and again for a while now and have been um'ing and ah'ing whether to sign up or not and then I thought, why not!
The main reason for my joining, aside from my obvious interest in WCS, is in an attempt to dismiss the conjecture and conclusions a small band of WCS 'owners' are making over the fact that Ceroc are supporting WCS in London.
I ask you to read this with an open mind.
Before agreeing to help Ceroc with WCS courses I questioned a number of people on their view of Ceroc running WCS sessions. I questioned current organisers, both Ceroc and independant, as well as a number of fellow dancers and current teachers both in the UK and the USA. I wanted to solicit feedback from as many people as possible in order to go into any decision as informed as I could be.
I wanted to examine the pro's and con's of any decision from both a personal viewpoint and one from the view of WCS. I wanted to base any decision on what is best for WCS in the UK. Ultimately, any decisions I make are what I believe is best for the dance style that I love.
Collating all of the responses I got from the different sources resulted in one, and only one, main concern:
"THAT CEROC TAKING ON BOARD WCS WILL HARM THE CONSTRUCT AND ETHOS OF WCS AND TURN IT INTO SOME KIND OF MOVE-FEST"
This was the resounding negative that people responded with and a very understandable one from my point of view as I shared it!.
Let me cover this point first.
I have been dancing for many many years. I compete in international standard and latin as well as WCS. I have studied dance theory, dance structure and history. I have had technicalities way over and above anything WCS presents (no disrespect intended) rammed down my throat from true legends in dance (unfortunately that’s part and parcel of some dances !). Suffice it to say - I KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNIQUE IN DANCE.
When I decided to help Ceroc by teaching their courses I did it on one proviso. This was a proviso that I highlighted from day 1 of discussion and one that I was unwavering on. My insistence was that all material was dictated by myself and will adhere to all of the teachings I have had in my many years of dancing WCS. This includes extensive use of material from the WCS syllabus from the GSDTA which has been developed over many decades. Had Ceroc turned round to me at any point and said "We would like you to do it this way" I would certainly have declined any more teaching opportunities. This is still my stance to this day and will not change.
This, however, did not happen.
Ceroc explained to me that they understood my desire to maintain the laws of the land laid down by our friends across the pond. In fact, I think they were just waiting to see what I came up with during my initial course planning stages. They took a definate risk in allowing me to do this. After all, the Ceroc London guys have never, or rarely, seen me teach. They weren't to know that I study dance or that I spend the best part of my life preparing for each and every class I take. I will admit that I too was slightly cautious that the concepts and techniques I was going to focus on may well be too much for some and may scare people off. As I said though, I was insistent that this was the way to go and expressed that to the organisers.
What happened next was quite a surprise in that Ceroc actually took somewhat of a back seat. They opened up the chance to gain access to lots and lots of people who have done at least some dancing in the past, they were supplying a venue and were allowing me to construct the material. Now that this main concern that I mentioned above was no longer an issue, this sounded like a prime opportunity to really ramp up interest in WCS in London. Nobody could offer any other valid concerns to cause me to think otherwise.
At this point in time, from my point of view, there were just no barriers or outstanding negatives that I could see so I agreed and started creating my teaching plans.
Back to the current day and the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. The material we have been able to cover, as it is a course and not classes, has been at a level that would take ages to get to, if at all, in a class environment. This is just a fact of life with classes - the old teaching quote "You can only go as fast as the slowest person". People struggle to commit to a course but the reward is that everyone builds together. So far we have been able to spend over an hour of one single class purely on centering, leverage and compression. And that is in week 2! Last night we talked about music theory. Again, a subject that just doesn’t get covered in any regular dance class of any style but is crucial, especially to WCS. What I am saying is that I am not a person who teaches move after move after move. I teach basic patterns as a foundation that we build upon with sound technique. I dare say that, by week 6, we will have covered so many concepts but all of these are backed up with handouts, private website feedback sections and, soon, video correspondence.
When it comes to privacy, I am totally open with people when they ask about any events nearer them. Only last week, or the week before, a couple of ladies told me they lived in North London and asked if there was anywhere else a bit closer. I told them about Oakwood and they were grateful. Hopefully they went over there and are continuing with their WCS. I have never been instructed to restrict knoweldge that I give out and, from my point of view, that is all credit to Ceroc. They recognise that this dance is in its infancy. There is nothing to be gained in hiding opportunities for it to progress.
Why am I saying all this? I am saying all of this because I really cannot see why the 2 or 3 people, and yes its only 2 or 3, who have made negative comments about Ceroc supporting WCS have done so. They seem to assume Ceroc is intent on "dumming WCS down". Hopefully I have explained how, if anything, we risk doing the opposite!
Ultimately it is going to bring many people in. If only 30 out of the 50 people on my course carry on with WCS then thats 30 more people that either may not have got into it or would have got involved much later on. Hopefully these people will tell their friends about WCS. They will pass the message onto others and so on......
How can this be a bad thing?
At the end of the day, if I cannot maintain peoples enthusiasm and fail as a teacher or if the interest is just not there then I will step back and say "I tried my best". Thats all I can do. Neither myself or the organisers are precious over this. If it works, great. Lots more interest in WCS. If it doesn’t then fair enough. We tried. There are no plans to take over the world. We are just trying to get people involved and enthusiastic about WCS.
All I ask is that people give it a chance and support what I am trying to do........Spread the word of WCS.
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18/Jul/2007, 11:21 am
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Paul F
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Now I have heard about a possible “Fusion” of WCS with Modern Jive workshop run by someone. Although I am not particularly comfortable with this I am not going to comment further as I have no control over it.
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18/Jul/2007, 11:24 am
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davethesmooth
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Great post Paul.
I hear what you are saying & where you're coming from. I think there is a general anxiety about ceroc applying their 'winning formula' to WCS, and subsequent move-focused teaching leading to poor standards being taught. You are lucky to have been given a free rein, I suspect that others may be less fortunate and restricted by franchise-owners re. teaching methods. For me WCS is best taught in workshops where there's a smaller number and more time for technique. The mass class environment does not lend itself to this imo.
I also think that ceroc is a big fish, and has created a MASSIVE amount of resentment amongst independents and experienced dancers in the UK. They have executed some dirty tactics, Mike Ellard in particular is one of the most disliked people from where I am sitting. I've also heard that Frank Pauly of ceroc Scotland has behaved in a ruthless way towards independents in Scotland. We can't change what has happened and I think that will influence the future relationships between ceroc and WCS communities.
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18/Jul/2007, 11:31 am
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Paul F
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Thanks for the reply.
I totally agree with what you say. I too have heard about some, lets say, not so nice tactics in the past but we are going back years now. As I am not really involved with any kind of organisation these days I am lucky in that I dont really get to hear about the bad things.
From my, probably blinkered, view I just see a willing bunch of people who are eager to learn. As long as the infrastructure is there and I am not aware of any harm coming to any other operator as a result of my actions then I just want to teach and pass on my knowledge.
Things may be different if I knew of these goings on with respect to my lessons. I would NOT be happy.
Agree too about the 'mass lesson' idea. That is why I was adamant that these courses had an upper limit of people attending them so I could spend time dancing with each person.
I guess I will never change the opinion of people to Ceroc as a company but I just want to try and convince people that I am doing what Im doing purely to spread the word to a wide demographic.
Thanks again for the post. It means a lot to me to hear peoples opinion.
Last edited by Paul F, 18/Jul/2007, 12:14 pm
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18/Jul/2007, 12:09 pm
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rosieR
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Good to hear from you Paul, you are a lovely dancer btw!
have to agree re ceroc, I rarely support their events these days. Maybe that's unnecessary, but I don't like the way they operate.
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X Rosie X
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19/Jul/2007, 11:44 am
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Paul F
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Thanks Rosie.
It sounds like if I knew about the bad things the big C have done I would probably think differently.
The trouble is I havnt really been party to any goings on so cant really formulate a negative opinion.
Time will tell! As long as they dont try and interfere with my teaching I will stay happy - for now.
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19/Jul/2007, 5:27 pm
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AllanAJ
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Give it time.
Whilst you are enjoying working within a structured organisation that has a good attendance record, and you don't need to worry about advertising/promotion, everything is nice and easy I guess.
Eventually you may wish to start your own independent, or branch out & work for other organisations, especially once you become more well-known. This is when you will experience hassle and restrictions.
Last edited by AllanAJ, 20/Jul/2007, 5:56 pm
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20/Jul/2007, 5:56 pm
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linzbrown
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Good post Paul.... 
I work as an independent, it can be hard to keep things going, and the politics certainly don't help. But the more competition presented, the harder we try and higher we jump! 
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7/Aug/2007, 1:02 pm
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rosieR
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Good, keep up the good work. I go out of my way to support independent MJ/WCS/other organisations as they seem to offer a better product (for my needs).
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X Rosie X
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7/Aug/2007, 7:09 pm
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Corporal Whip
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Re: Ceroc & WCS
Hi Paul, I see listed on the C*r*c London site diary a workshop
'West Coast Jive'
What's that all about?
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8/Aug/2007, 11:15 am
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