Dance Fieldwork Diary (February 13, 2013)

I attended my second Glambop Fitness Charle-swing class tonight for the express purpose of filming and interviewing Naomi & Sara after class.  It was a freezing cold night  and I had forgotten to bring my trainers so I did the class in my boots. Sara had come to tonight's class especially to speak with me afterwards; a bit of a hike for her as she lives in Canary Wharf.  There were only two other students in the class apart from myself and Sara.  Naomi put us through our paces as vigorously as she had done at the last class I attended.  It was a good way to get warm on a cold London night.

The thoughts I had during this class was that with it being such a fast paced class with no explanation or break down of the moves by Naomi, the average person might have trouble picking up the choreography; especially  if they had no dance training.  Naomi teaches by doing the exercises as they were meant and leaving the class to follow. I think a more methodical approach to teaching the exercises might mean a better outcome all round.

After the 45 minute class ended, I asked Naomi and Sara to pick one exercise from their Charle-swing repertoire that was strongly derived from the Charleston for me to film.  I had decided to film only one exercise as prior to class starting, Naomi had mentioned that Sara had come a long way to be at class that night and they were both tired.  I understood the subtext so resolved to keep filming to a minimum.  They launched straight away into a routine which obviously had many hallmarks of the Charleston.  As I filmed them, I started smiling as did they. The Charleston is infectious in this way:

                                    Charle-swing routine demonstrated by Sara & Naomi

Prior to the interview beginning, Naomi asked me what questions I would be asking so she could be prepared.  I  showed her my list of questions but assured them both that I was more interested to have a conversation with them about the development of Charle-swing and for them to feel free to ask me questions as well.   I sensed they were anxious about the footage I had just filmed so reassured them that the footage would only be seen by Ann and my classmates.  As it was a cold night and the girls preferred to do the interview in the studio, I said I would keep it brief.

As the interview progressed, Naomi did most of the talking with Sara answering occasionally.  They seemed slightly uncomfortable about being interviewed, perhaps concerned as to what was going to happen with the information.  Or  maybe they were just cold and tired.  I had a strong sense that they were worried about their Charle-swing concept being co-opted by others.

After the 'official' interview had finished, I turned the recorder off and we continued to chat.  They both were much more relaxed and wanted to get my feedback about their concept and business idea. My feedback to them was to copyright Charle-swing straight away.  I suggested Dance UK as a starting point of how to do this. They then told me that they were concerned about others stealing their idea but because they both worked full-time, they had little time to build up the business.  My response was that if they wanted it to work, they would have to find a way to build it up regardless.  I said to imagine how they would feel if someone else did it before them, especially since they (they told me this) had worked so hard to develop the whole choreography and idea.  I said that they could get in touch with me any time if they needed any help and we all left the studio much warmer than when we had walked in.