dancing

Summer Party 2012

Last weekend was the company’s summer party. The theme was Full Moon Party, and it was held at the Radisson Blue Hotel here in Dublin. Luckily, the weather was perfect – despite not being overly warm, the day was in the 70’s F, which meant for Ireland, it did feel like summer. It gave us an opportunity to get our summer clothes out, don some black light paint / makeup, eat some grilled meat and salads, and dance to the DJ. (I racked up 20,000 steps for the Everest Challenge!)

Here’s a few photos from the event which were taken by me and some by Colin and a few by others. Thanks to them for sharing, and to the company for the fab party!

EyesBlue Eyes & black light paint – me doing the summer beach girl look

Helene & Anne-Laure Helene & Anne-Laure posing for the Paparazzi

Vision in Pink - JacquiJacqui – a vision in pink

Bird in Blacklight paintThe bird I painted on Jacqui’s back in black light paint

Me & HeleneThe last bits of summer sun on the rooftop of the Radisson – Helene & Me

SummerParty1Hanging with my girls – Eve, Jacqui, me, Aoife

flash mob danceThey’re sexy and they know it.. Dancing

outside for some airOutside for some air, after lots of dancing

SummerParty2Back inside the dancing continues – and yes, we wear our sunglasses at night!

SummerParty3Almost time to go, but one last group photo…

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Mardi Gras for Charity

Voodoo Mardi Gras for Charity Poster

Last Saturday, March 5, I worked with Fibbers on Ormond Quay to put together a New Orleans Style Voodoo Mardi Gras Party. The goal was to have some fun, and raise some money for Our Lady’s Children’s hospital (Crumlin) here in Dublin. For my friends in the US, they are essentially the equivalent of Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake, or Eggleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta.

The Bar Servers

Jason, (Above center) the bar manager of Fibbers put together a great night – he organized the raffle, he got a fabulous band called T-bone, and printed off the poster and flyers for the event.

Mardi Gras Queen

Meanwhile, I did the poster (top) out of a bunch of creative commons images and some of my own from Mardi Gras, made the No Sew Voodoo dolls, and created the bar decorations including a pair of huge poster sized theater masks in frames, decorations to hang from the ceiling (about 20 violet music notes on yellow and green curved backgrounds), and purchased a bunch of masks that were supposed to arrive in time to decorate and sell with the price of admission. It was a lot of work, but in the end, it was worth it – we raised about 500 Euros – despite the hiccups. (The 80 masks and about half the beads didn’t come in time for the party, so we wound up raising all of the money solely through the raffle. Also, not all of the decorations got hung up because there wasn’t enough time in between the underage gig and our fund-raising event.)

Most of the pictures are up here in my Mardi Gras set.

I do have some video of the band to upload if I can get my video media maker working again, but it’s a bit dark, so it may not work. Otherwise, by the time I got home and to bed (nearly 4am Sunday morning) I was completely wrecked. Apparently, so was my Mardi Gras dog.

Tuckered Out

Here’s hoping your Mardi Gras was as successful and fun as mine!

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Ceroc Dancing

Since late last year, I’ve been taking some dance classes in a style called Ceroc.  It’s been a great opportunity to meet a few people, learn to dance, and have a fun evening out that’s not sitting at home!

As can only be expected, the dance class is mostly women, but we have a good few men in the class who are learning as well.  I’m surprised at the ages of the different classes – I’ve seen people from about 20 all the way up to their 60’s learning to dance.  I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s because of shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “Strictly Come Dancing” that some people are in the class – but I have to say whatever the reason, its been fun to dance with multiple partners – and even more so, to have partners that actually WANT to dance and are enjoying themselves too.

So, you ask me, what is Ceroc?

Well, it’s a male led dance that is a combination of modern swing, jive, salsa, and merengue.  It also has steps from the Tango and Rhumba, but not necessarily all the complex footwork.  It’s fairly easy to learn – and in a single class, you learn enough moves for most guys to actually “look” like you know what you’re doing on the dance floor. 🙂 Oh – and the best part? It can be danced to almost any type of music you want. There’s over 250 steps by the time you make it through the highest level advanced levels – with the beginners learning about 18 or so in the first 6 weeks. They’re done in any combination (as led by the man) and it’s always a treat to see the different styles of the people on the floor – in combination.

I don’t have any videos or pictures of myself dancing (I’ll see what I can do), but I can give you a few samples, thanks to youtube. The one at the top of the page is an intro to one of the mid-level classes, and the one below is as well. The bottom one is a guy teaching some modern jive – but he also teaches ceroc – and you get an idea of how the steps are introduced.

Now, anyone want to dance?

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