VIDEO: Catrin’s Up For The Challenge – Danceaholics modern jive

IF someone had said to me that within two months of starting work at the Herald and Gazette I would be jiving with a 91-year-old man to the tune of Lady Gaga, I would have laughed.

But that is exactly what I did when I was challenged to take part in a session at Danceaholics, a modern jive dance society for all abilities and ages held at the Shoreham Centre in Pond Road every Wednesday.

I thought, perhaps, I had been let off lightly as far as my challenge was concerned – I have been attending ballet and jazz dance classes since I was four – but I couldn’t help but be nervous when Danceaholics co-founder Ian Partington told me that by the end of the night I would be performing a two-minute freestyle jive in front of the entire class.

With a pair of dance shoes in hand, I turned up at the Shoreham Centre to find the hall decked out with disco lighting and a PA system, as well as seating and refreshments. Although there was a slightly nostalgic vibe of a school disco to the hall, there was none of the teenage awkwardness as around 50 members of all ages chatted amongst themselves.