Jive4All is delighted to invite you to join us for both our Birthday and Festive Parties this year. Clear your diary, invite your friends and get ready to PAAARTY 😀
Jive4All’s 5th Birthday Party Monday November 13th
UV/Neon themed – bring your whitest whites and most neon clothing
Beginners class as usual 745
815 til close pure party freestyle with DJ David Hyam
Jive4all Festive Celebrations
Monday 18th December
Theme to be decided….
Please let us what you’d like:
The usual, Tinsel & Tartan, freestyle & ceilidh dance mix
Or is there another theme and night format you’d prefer?
As always, what really matters to us is your presence and that you are comfortable. So if themes are not your thing please wear whatever you’re happiest in and join us regardless.
Jive4All will be holding it’s annual festive celebration on Monday 19th December 2023 in our usual venue (Castle Street Methodist Church, Cambridge) at our usual time (1945 – 2045). The plan and theme for the evening hasn’t been revealed yet but make sure you’ve marked the date in your calendar and watch this space for more news closer to the time.
Monday 16th December is Jive4All’s last class night of 2019 and we’re making it a special one with a fun Christmas Ceilidh!
Instead of our usual beginners and intermediate Modern Jive classes, our teacher Radley will lead a fun Ceilidh session starting at 7.15pm followed by a special group performance at 8pm. At 8.30pm we’ll have a Modern Jive freestyle running until 9.45pm after which we’ll head to The Waterman pub for a drink or two.
All are welcome to join us at Chesterton Community College for a night of jigs, reels and revelry. Our hardworking door people are taking a break and joining the fun, so we’ll have an honesty box on the door to help cover our costs.
Our theme for the night is tartan and tinsel, so if you’re feeling festive you’re strongly encouraged to wear either or both!
Jive4All turns one year old this month. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’re having a UV party and everyone is invited!
Two dancers at a Jive4All freestyle. Photo by David Norton
A small group of friends in the Cambridge Modern Jive scene had a dream, and one year on we’re ecstatic that Jive4All is a reality! We always felt that in this part of the world, the Modern Jive scene is very gendered, with men expected to lead and women follow, and non-binary people being left out of consideration altogether. If you are LGBTQ+ and/or want the freedom to decide for yourself whether to lead or follow, this is really offputting – lots of other dance scenes have degendering movements, so we wanted to do our bit to make Modern Jive more inclusive. Thus Jive4All was born and Modern Jive now has a degendered home in Cambridge!
Jive4All class in full swing. Photo by David Norton
Jive4All is inclusive by name and by nature. As our head of dance Radley Edwards says, “…dance is a wonderful gift. A gift I feel very strongly should be accessible to all regardless of your gender, age, height, sexuality, race or preference to put the jam or cream first on your scone!”
At Jive4All, all mention of gender has been removed from dance roles and the names of dance moves. Its up to every individual to decide if they will lead, follow, or both. In fact, we actively encourage trying the role you are less familiar with – it’s fun, and makes you a better dancer!
Jive4All members relax after a busk at the Big Weekend, Cambridge, summer 2019. Photo by Claire McGuinness
Jive4All is especially welcoming to new dancers, with more experienced dancers making efforts to get to know and to dance with new people. Everyone is welcome to join a pub social after each class night.
We encourage people to go to dance weekenders, help support us on busks – and recently we’ve started running a regular joint freestyle with another local dance club, ‘Illumination plus Jive4All’ in the beautiful Storey’s Field Centre.
Illumination plus Jive4All two room freestyle, Storey’s Field Centre, Cambridge. Photo by Claire McGuinness
We don’t think we fixed it for everyone yet though: we still have work to do on being more inclusive to those with disabilities, both visible and invisible. We plan to consult with disability groups and welcome suggestions from people with disabilities who would like to dance on how to better include them.
Teacher Radley demonstrates a move during class with demo Becky. Photo by David Norton.
As Treasurer Becky says: “Through dancing I’ve made so many friends and I’ve found a community where I feel I belong. Dancing is just so joyful, plus it’s exercise without realising you’re doing exercise – the best kind!”
We’re proud of how far we have come in the last year, and look hopefully forward towards many more years to come. If you love our message and want to get involved, we need you! Jive4All is a not-for-profit run by a committee of volunteers, with many more volunteers making up the full team without whom we couldn’t exist. We’d love more people to be involved, please get in touch through our Facebook page, Instagram account or email us on info@jive4all.dance.
In celebration of our first birthday, we’re holding a UV party on 11th November at Chesterton Community College in the atrium. This will kick off at 7.15pm with a fun class suitable for all levels and then an extended freestyle with UV lights, so wear bright white or neon coloured clothing and/or facepaint to glow!
Blog post written by Jive4All’s Marketing and Advertising Officer Claire McGuinness and Chair Ian Manning.
If you’d like to write a blog post for us, please get in touch at info@jive4all.dance.
This coming Monday is a bank holiday, and we’re celebrating with a special fun ‘Tango-ish’ class – Modern Jive with a Tango twist. Following the class we’ll have an extended freestyle of almost two hours to practice your new moves.
Our teacher Radley Edwards is taking Modern Jive and shaking it up with some Tango-inspired moves to spice up your dancing in those slower freestyle tracks. Next time a Tango-style track comes on, you’ll be taking to the floor in style, confident in your suave new moves.
The fun class, suitable for most levels, will run from 7.15 until almost 8pm, then we’ll have a longer-than-usual freestyle until 9.45. Everyone is welcome to join us at The Clarendon Arms after for a drink and a chat.
