Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Dale Jaycee Jones - sadly passed away

Dale Jaycee Jones sadly passed away on Wednesday evening 2nd June.

This is the report that appeared in the South Wales Echo

"A 23 year old from Caerphilly died at the scene of an accident on the A46 near Chippenham in South Gloucestershire. The collision happened at about 11:15pm yesterday. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said the collsion involved a blue Vauxhall Frontera which was travelling north along the A46 towards the M4. This vehicle appears to have left the road and collided with a lorry that was parked in a layby.

Dale was well known and liked on the Salsa scene in Wales and the South West, winning the first Welsh Salsa Competition and teaching regularly in Cardiff. He was a friend and and colleague to many of us and will be greatly missed.

At this moment we have no details of the funeral as soon as we do we will do our best to let as many people know as possible.

On Thursday 10th June at the Toad we will arrange a collection for flowers and/or a donation to a charity of the families choice. If you would like to contribute and can’t make it on Thursday then please give your donation to any of the teachers in Cardiff and I’m sure it will get to us.

If anybody has any other suggestions then please let us know.

Regards

Andy Witt
On behalf of the Salsa dancers and teachers in Cardiff

We have put up a webpage in honour of my dearest friend.....and all messages left in the guestbook will be forwarded to the family
http://tammikahopkins1.tripod.com/Dale-Jaycee.html

I origionally met Dale a few years ago shortly after I moved to Cardiff. The first time I saw him dance was... with another bloke!!! The funniest thing was, they were so good, I wanted him to lead me next!

We never really crossed paths again until a year or so later when my boss Mike recruited him as the second teacher with me in Bar Life. It was there that we became very good friends.

I discovered Dale was true gentleman with an incredible gift for music, song and dance. He also possessed that very rare quality - charisma. More so infact than any other teacher I've come across.

I can recount many stories of Dale (JC) some of which, I'm sure, he'd like me to keep secret ;-) but one I would like to share was one he told me over an evening when he was playing in St David's Hall (he was a percussionist. The story went something like this...

"I had just completed my first percussion solo of the concert and had a two / three minute breather before my next solo. During that time, for a practicle joke, one the other musicians sabbotaged my xylophone beaters - the solo coming up... was the xylophone. I didn't realise until I was literally just about to start my piece, so in a panic I grabbed the first two long thin things that came to hand.... You can only imagine the conductor's face when he watched me hammer out my xylophone solo with a pair of DRUMSTICKS!!! All I could do was shrug my shoulders, grin and carry on playing!"

Maybe you had to be there, but with the addition of his actions, facial expressions and mime, (ever the performer)we were crying with laughter! :'-)

I will sorely miss my friend and teaching colleague, Dale "Jaycee" Jones, but my memories of him will carry on forever. Rest In Peace mate.

Paul Gordon-Smith

I read with great shock about Dale's passing. He was a terrific and natural dancer, and always in demand on the dancefloor. More than that, despite the fact that Arancha and I didn't see him regularly, he would always stop and say hello in the various places that we bumped into him over the years.

We'll both remember him as a friendly and charming young man, and our thoughts go out to those of you who knew him best and who will miss him the most.

Ian and Arancha.

Lisa and Carmen
Dale has been our friend for the past five years since we started salsa, he had a remarkable ear for music, and tought me how to break it down and actualy listen to the music then dance, this was where I was going wrong for long time, but he always gave good advice and was always right as he was very gifted in his dance and music........ salsa will never be the same without him there, as he was my favorite dance partner and over the years Carmen and I built up a true close friendship with Dale and I know he felt the same to!!!! To say we will miss him is such an understatment words can't describe how we are feeling,we are going to remeber all the good times, and the fun, and his dry sense of humour, with much love and happiness, our thoughts are with his family at this so sad time... we will think of you always our gorgeous Dale

I passed by this site on the offchance looking for a dance class. I knew Dale a few years ago but we sadly lost touch. We met when we were both playing for the orchestra in a musical and shared a brief relationship.

I am absolutely devastated at hearing the news of his death. I only found out by reading it here. Dale was a wonderful person. Full of life and knowledge, he always made me smile and his memory will remain with me always.

Miss you Dale
Xx

Kyleigh_hill@yahoo.co.uk