ballroomdancertoo
Well-Known Member
Has anyone been on those cruise ships for ballroom dancing? Are there really dancers who work on the ship to be partners to ladies or gentlemen.
ballroom dance cruise
- Thread starter ballroomdancertoo
- Start date
tanya_the_dancer
Well-Known Member
I've been on a dance cruise last year. It was a very small group out of the whole ship and they did have hosts to dance with the group members. The lady who organized that said that she gets hosts based on the group, so for our group there were 3 male hosts and 1 female.
DennisBeach
New Member
Some cruiselines have dancehosts. They are expected to dance equally with all the ladies or gentleman desiring a host to dance with them. You would have to check with the cruise line to see if a sailing has dance hosts.
We go on cruises with ballroom dancing being one of the main reasons for cruising. Since we are a couple, we pick the line with the most dance space and dance music. Which currently is Costa cruiseline. Costa does not have a dance hosts program. So you would need your own partner to dance on their ships. They do have by far the most dance music and biggest/best dance floors.
This summer DH and I took a cruise that included dance hosts, though it wasn't a dance cruise. (Only the first post is related to the cruise.)
http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=18712
This January we are planning to go on a short cruise with two studios - ours and a related one. I believe there may be about 80 dancers on the cruise. The difference from a dance cruise is that it is being organized by the studios, not by the cruise line, so we will start out with some built-in relationships.
I've always been intrigued by the dance cruises -- I'm also interested in hearing the details if anyone else has any experience with them.... Tanya, how much did you dance? How much teaching (if any) was included? What were the other dancers like (age, dance experience, etc.)? Was it an established group, or was it a bunch of people who didn't know each other before the cruise?
http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=18712
This January we are planning to go on a short cruise with two studios - ours and a related one. I believe there may be about 80 dancers on the cruise. The difference from a dance cruise is that it is being organized by the studios, not by the cruise line, so we will start out with some built-in relationships.
I've always been intrigued by the dance cruises -- I'm also interested in hearing the details if anyone else has any experience with them.... Tanya, how much did you dance? How much teaching (if any) was included? What were the other dancers like (age, dance experience, etc.)? Was it an established group, or was it a bunch of people who didn't know each other before the cruise?
fascination
Site Moderator
these things vary in quality...I have heard of top notch coaches attending and giving workshops ...and I have been on a ship that was offering a dance cruise at the same time and from what I saw of it it was very fun for the participants but a bit lacking in quality...
This is the first I've heard of female dance hosts. A male friend of mine who's retired does several stints a year as a dance host on cruises and has a great time. I've often bemoaned that that option wouldn't be available for me when I retire. What cruise lines have female hosts?
The format for dance host, has changed somewhat over the past few yrs.
Initially , the host would be paid $ 100 per day all found.
It now, is quite commonf for the " hosts" to pay the cruise line, a fixed daily rate ( includes all ) which is well below the cruise cost .
There is ample time for teaching during the day, and class as well as private, are made available .
If Prof. couples are booked- they have to perform nitely shows and also may teach-- they are not required to " host " ,and are paid for their services .One has to audition for Prof. bookings .
A cabaret type show , is required, for the Pro,s to entertain the guests .
Colin Hillary (runs comp. in S.Carol. ) has been a booking agent for many yrs .
Initially , the host would be paid $ 100 per day all found.
It now, is quite commonf for the " hosts" to pay the cruise line, a fixed daily rate ( includes all ) which is well below the cruise cost .
There is ample time for teaching during the day, and class as well as private, are made available .
If Prof. couples are booked- they have to perform nitely shows and also may teach-- they are not required to " host " ,and are paid for their services .One has to audition for Prof. bookings .
A cabaret type show , is required, for the Pro,s to entertain the guests .
Colin Hillary (runs comp. in S.Carol. ) has been a booking agent for many yrs .
elisedance
Active Member
I heard that at least on some lines, the hosts (I assume these are not pros but trained amateur dancers) are not allowed to have any relationships with the passengers - even friendly ones - and have a status be treated rather like very junior ship staff.
Also what impact does this have on one's amateur status? Presumably this would make you a pro?
Also what impact does this have on one's amateur status? Presumably this would make you a pro?
tanya_the_dancer
Well-Known Member
The group was very small. I think the average age of people in the group was 45. There were 3 couples and 3 single ladies. Nobody knew each other before the cruise, we booked it through a company which does dance cruises, I think it is called dancingvacations or something like that, but I don't remember. The organizer said it was her smallest group, she usually gets about 30 people. They did not have any group classes, but they gave everyone 2 hours of private lessons. I felt they were not particularly useful for me personally, but my husband liked them.
tanya_the_dancer
Well-Known Member
The dancingvacations company we used for our cruise hires its own hosts and decides how many it needs based on the makeup of their group. The organizer told us that one year she had a surplus of single men who bought the cruise, so she had to hire a couple of female hosts. But typically she has a surplus of single ladies.
There's one called "working vacations", which has had an ad on nycdc (nyc dance connections) site for the longest time. Evidently it has sold those operations to another company:
http://compassspeakers.com/gentleman_host.html
Plenty more info about dance hosts on that link.
My favorite part is besides the obvious reason to get "disembarked" (i.e. fraternizing with passengers), they are allowed to kick you off the boat at the next port and you'll need to find your own way home if you get injured and can't dance...
http://compassspeakers.com/gentleman_host.html
Plenty more info about dance hosts on that link.
My favorite part is besides the obvious reason to get "disembarked" (i.e. fraternizing with passengers), they are allowed to kick you off the boat at the next port and you'll need to find your own way home if you get injured and can't dance...
ballroomdancertoo
Well-Known Member
i wonder if this dance cruises can be expanded to other venues, like ???? would be a good business opportunity???