About Us

About Us

Fevah Modern Jive is run by Deb and Matt. We've been involved with Modern Jive since 1995 and with extensive overseas experience especially in the UK where Modern Jive originated in the 1980's.

"Our passion is sharing the joy and benefits of dancing.

We want you to feel welcome & comfortable and have a great time." 🙂

Most people who walk through our doors have never danced before and we specialise in helping people like you. We make learning fun, enjoyable and achievable - take your time, there's no rush, enjoy the journey.

What Is Modern Jive?

Modern Jive is a social partner dance that is renowned for being very user-friendly.

"Modern Jive is the English language of dance. It shamelessly 'borrows' from other dance forms to make something more flexible and more fun than previously existed." - Michael

"The best weight management system while having the most fun and the only exercise I am willing to do for hours and hours." - Anita

"...It takes the best pieces of multiple dance forms chucks it through a blender and what comes out is a dance [called Modern Jive]" - Darryl

"AWESOME!!!!" - Stephen

"It's whatever you choose it to be." - Rob

"I wish I'd done this when I was younger!" - lots of people!

More about Modern Jive

What We Do

We've been running Modern Jive classes and events here in Christchurch since 2005 and turned a small club into a thriving dance community. Over the years we've found a variety of ways to develop our passion for serving the dance community both here in Christchurch and beyond.

Fevah Modern Jive

Fun, social partner dance classes and events. We are one of the most popular partner dance clubs in Australasia running four class nights a week in Christchurch. We also have monthly dance parties and socials.

Classes range in size from 40 to 100 with a wide range of ages represented.

OMJ

Think Ōtautahi Modern Jive (or OMG but with the G replaced with J for jive) - this is a group within Fevah for dancers keen to keep up with latest music releases as well as dancing to classic hits.

Dancers of all ages are welcome with the night being particulary popular for those in the 18 - 35 range.

Christchurch Modern Jive Championships

The ChCh Champs is one of the most popular Modern Jive competitions in Australasia with over 150 competitors regularly attending.

The action is spread over three days with a variety of categories to suit all levels.

Refresh Dance Weekend

Our Refresh weekender is a mix of workshops, a few competition categories and socials but with a refreshing twist.

Winter Weekender

The Winter Weekender is hosted by our Wednesday (OMJ) crew and is New Zealand's only Winter dance weekend featuring social events, workshops, snow sports and of course a huge dance party.

Wedding Dance with Deb

Deb has taught over 500 wedding couples over the years and has also taught entire wedding groups. She has considerable experience in being able to handle large groups of people and getting them organised and dancing in a short space of time.

With many years experience she is in high demand especially during the wedding season.

Modern Jive Points Index

The Modern Jive Points Index (MJPI) is a system to track the progress of competitors in Modern Jive dance competitions.

The MJPI is used extensively in New Zealand and Australia. It also uses a scoring system (developed by us) which is used at most Modern Jive competitions in New Zealand and has also been used at the Ceroc Pan-Asia Championships.

A Little More About Us

Deb has a strong Dancesport background and competed extensively in Australia before moving to New Zealand (via the UK where she met Matt, well actually we met in Barcelona but that's another story). Her background is preservation and conservation and became and leading authority on digital preservation whilst at the National Library of Australia. Deb loves anything ✨ sparkly ✨

Matt is/was an electronics engineer with a strong maths and software background. When it came to dancing he had no sense of rhythm and was a very slow learner which helps him empathise with the struggling beginners. Matt likes to keep active and is a recent convert to trail running since 2018 and has run a number of trail marathons over the last few years 🏃

Our Team

We have an amazing team of teachers, door staff, helpers, DJ's, setup and packdown crew and more who work with us to make our classes and events as safe, enjoyable and rewarding as we can.

Our crew