FROM: DORIS VOLZ
This was from the www.linedancefun.com website
The dance with the MOST energy seen at Windy City 2007: Swing! Sweet Pussycat (Matt Oakley)
The eleven dances that were played multiple times a night in open dance w/Louie and the all request dance party in Jill's ballroom all 3 evenings: Show Me Wot U Got & Ain't Got No Money; Cry To Me; ZJozzy's Funk; Charanga; Do It; Hick Chicks; Guardian Angel; Simplemente; Cherry Poppin' split w/Candyman; and Hideaway Cha. The new hits and classic oldies of the choreographers teaching at the event were played each evening. Most of the teaches were also given floor time on Saturday nite in the main ballroom.
Dances filling the floor before being taught: To Love Somebody; Doors of Life, Phloor Philla; Nacho Daddy; Do It; Hick Chicks; Ain't Got No Money; Fuego; Pucker Up and Blue Finger Lou.
Friday night dancing was still strong at 3AM and Saturday was strong even at 4AM in both ballrooms. Larger Than Life and Doctor, Doctor were the last dances I did after 3:30 and Maurice performing a flawless Under Your Spell was the last dance I recognized at 3:40ish ...Dancers came to DANCE!
FROM: JILL BABINEC
WINDY CITY THANKS:
What a wonderful turnout again this year. We had a blast dancing and hamming it up in ballroom 1 both Friday and Saturday night. Although the ballroom was a bit warmer than last year, that didn't seem to stop us. I want to thank all those dancers and instructors that joined me and danced their tootsies off. We ROCKED the ROOM. It's like a family in there and I love to get to mingle with ya'll.
Thanks to Junior and Don for delivering the couch for my posse (hehe). Have to look out for them !!
The choreography competition was held in my room and let me say that there was some stiff competition. All the dances were great. Congrats to both Will Craig (Clothes Off) and Scott Shrank (More Than Life) for going head to head in the finals.
A finally a big thanks to Mark, Glenn, and Eve for such an organized event and allowing me to join you again.
Can't wait till next year !!!
Jill Babinec
NOTE FROM ME: Jill and Louie both did a great job as DJ this past weekend. We did everything from God Blessed Texas to Fuego!!
FROM: SANDY ALBANO , Orlando, FL USA email: flutterby02@embarqmail.com; website: www.spreadyourwingsanddance.com
Before this year, I had not been to Chicago for the Windy City event although I heard from so many friends how wonderful it was. They were right! Even though we decided to go pretty much at the last minute, everyone was so very helpful and accomodating. A tremendous variety of dances of all levels and styles were presented and there had to be something for everybody who was there! We were amazed at how many instructors from all over the US and the UK were there to teach. Lots of floor space and a nice hotel too. Great job, Eve, Mark & Glenn! We loved it! I could not believe how many friends I ran into there, and how many new ones I made!
We held the first Mid-West regional meeting of the BNS and inducted several new members. We are proud to announce that Carol Craven is now an official card-carrying member and will be recognized world-wide by the official "handshake". Congrats also to the rest of you inductees--you know who you are!! Thanks to our "officers", Bryan, Junior & John, who called the meetings to order and provided toasts and songs! Rachael just might get elected to the board pretty soon, too. The Southwest Florida chapter expects to meet in Tampa.
Some of the dances taught we had seen on our recent trip to the UK. Scott Blevins taught his POISON PARADISE which started out under a couple of other names, but this one seems to fit nicely. Not too hard, and a classic Scott sound to the music. Guyton also presented the Double Dutch Bus song for his GET ON THE BUS. This is a nifty, novelty piece of music that is really fun. Scott also imported Dan McInerney's dance LET'S GET SAVED from the UK where is it spreading like wild fire. Neville taught his AIN'T GOT NO MONEY. This is a 32 count dance that just about everyone can do to "The Way I Are". We also got a second chance at FUEGO and our first shot at GYRATE. Rachael taught both of these with her amazing style and skill, and we had a fun and entertaining experience in both of these classes. She also revived FADED which I was happy to see as I miss it the first time around and I really enjoyed the dance.
We liked several other dances that we learned and will probably schedule to teach in class. We met Robert Lindsay from Scotland who has the most amazing shoes in the entire world--we think they were made by elves! He taught his peppy dance called FIRECRACKER. It goes to a Helena Paparizou song, "You Set My Heart on Fire". Bryan McWherter did a great job teaching Patrick Fleming's WORLD ON A STRING to a nice Michael Buble track. Frank Cooper taught a dance called WILL YOU STILL BELIEVE by Liz Bogan and Ed White that we liked, but at the end of that teach, we got a bonus! Frank has a new dance that he just finished over the weekend and he shared it with us. We loved the dance which goes to a very upbeat Michael Buble track, "Baby, I'm Comin Home". I think Frank was calling it NO PLACE LIKE HOME, but he has not finished the stepsheet. We are waiting anxiously for that to arrive in our emails. Keep an eye on that one!
One of my personal favorites from the weekend was presented by Barry & DariAnne Amato. They have written a nice cha-cha called DREAMIN to a really great song "Tell Me What You Dream" by Restless Heart. WeI will be teaching both DREAMIN and FIRECRACKER at our class this week. In addition we will be doing reviews on some of the the classic dances we saw in Chicago that we expect to see again in Tampa in a couple of weeks.
Central Florida Dancers: Mark your calendars for the monthly Workshop and Social to be held on October 27 and 28 respectively. This month our weekend will fall just before the great big event in Tampa so I expect that we will have a lot of folks making requests for dances that they will want to brush up on for the event. Do come out and join us. Look on my website for more details.
More Later!
"Spread Your Wings...and Dance!"
www.spreadyourwingsanddance.com
FROM: SCOTT SCHRANK
Well this event certainly had a lot packed into it - but before I get into that, Carol, I am sorry that your luggage got lost, The Airline lost mine on the way there. I had to make three added trips to the airport to see if it was on the next flight in. Mine was lost on a non-stop flight.
Since I was wrapped up in the Choreography Competition, I did not get the chance to do many of the offered dances. One I did select was Bryan McWherter's "Phloor Philla". It was good to see an older dance redone at the event. Sometimes we all need a little refresher. Again, I know there will be dozens of reviews about all the dances, so mine isn't needed.
The Choreography Competition at this event is run very well. I like the fact that you are given time to not only show you dance, but to teach it as well. In most cases, this is the only way others see our dances, so thank you Mark, Glen & Eve. I also want to commend all the judges who give of their time to not only review the dances in the competition, but learn them as well. Some of these dances were quite complex. It was also great to see the number of folks who did come in to learn our dances during the competition. It means a lot to us to see other faces besides the judges in the room. I was very rewarding to see that my dance "More Than Life" was so well received. The music was recorded by Dan Gardner, a friend of mine here in Atlanta. He has one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard. He won a contest on the Today Show several years ago, and the prize was the recording contract to do this song. I was very honored to write the dance for it. If you are coming to Vegas next month for the Dance Explosion, I will be teaching it at Doug & Jackie's event.
Here's hoping to see more of you next year at this great event,
Scott Schrank
www.scottschrank.com
NOTE FROM ME: And you should definitely take a look at Scott's dance. I am glad I wasn't a judge for that one. I would have voted for both of them to be first. LOL
FROM: GRAHAM & KATHY
This was our first major line dance event in the US and if your going to start you may as well start with one of the biggest and best. The weekend was held at the Crowne Plaza hotel near O’Hare int airport in Chicago (well not so much in as near Chicago but more of that later)
We were already in the US on holiday so flew in from Tucson and arrived in Chicago at 5.00pm on Thursday, (the event started at 7.00pm) after a quick pick up by the courtesy bus we arrived, got our rooms sorted and registered for the event all went very smoothly. After a quick meal in the hotel restaurant we joined the dancing, which went on until 12.00. Only the main ballroom was open for the first night with DJ “Wildman” Louie providing the music. Have to say there were not that many dances that we knew most being a little too funky for us. (the main room stayed funky for most of the weekend)
We met up with so many people that we have been speaking to via the web and masses more who came up to mention our site and the videos, it really was great to get so much positive feedback all weekend. Special mentions must go out to Carol from World Dance Newsletter, Carolyn from Tucson and her crowd, great to meet you at last and Gerard Murphy who is way younger than we expected and Kaz & Maz I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures. Speaking of which the main comment I got during the weekend was – “you look so much taller than you do in the video’s” most thought I would be 5ft 6inch,(for those that don’t know us I’m 6’- 4’’)
Anyway on to the dance reviews, for those that have never been there are 5 ballrooms and classes are held every hour in every ballroom from 9.00am until 7.00pm most sessions have 1 dance some have 2. So an awful lot of dances are taught.
We learnt so many we lost track but here are the ones we really liked. They are only short reviews as if I did full ones I would be writing all night.
Poison Paradise -- Scott Blevins -- a really cool funky 32 counter with no tags to Toxic by Mark Ronson
Don’t mind messin’ -- Barry Amato -- very easy 32 count low int dance that we loved, we got in the class by mistake not realising it was going to be an easy dance but it was really cool with an easy tag on walls 2,5 & 9. Music was Don’t mind messin’ by Big Blue Hearts.
Do It -- Gerard Murphy -- We had heard quite a lot about this dance before we came and so stepped into the class with high hopes and we weren’t disappointed. Its another 32 counter done to a beautiful track by Natalie Cole and just has 1 re-start. Well recommended.
Everything’s Right -- Doug & Jackie Miranda -- We missed the teach of this because we went to the wrong room and as they all started at the same time by the time we realised we were in the wrong place it was too late LOL looked a great little dance and filled the floor every time it came on.
Shades -- John Robinson -- 64 count dance that was danced to “Futures so bright I got to ware shades” a hilarious teach by John who had the floor in fits of laughter from start to finish. The dance is 64 counts with no tags to this track but after we had learnt it we got to dance it to the original track “Truth hurts” by The Valadiers and it then has 3 re-starts. I liked this music a lot better as you could see from the words of the song why all the steps fit so well but John said this was no longer available so they had to change. A shame.
No doubt about it –Neville & Julie – typical cool Nev & Julie dance. Only 32 counts with no tags ect. We taught this at class last night and most loved it (we knew they would) so I’ll not go on here.
Isle of Paradise – Audrey Watson (taught by Christopher Petre) again one that we missed as it clashed with another session we took but we will be looking at this soon, music is by Blue Lagoon and it looked really great and again filled the floors when put on.
Best for Last time
Doors of Life – Michael Barr – Yes its been out a while but as the music is not available in the UK we had left it out. We now have the music from Michael and will be teaching this next week. It is a beautiful flowing waltz danced to music of the same name by Mariya Takeuchi. We did cheat slightly on this as we learnt it the previous Monday at Carols class in Tucson (where we taught them Guardian Angel) but nothing can prepare you for dancing this with Michael who is one of my all time dancing Idols (since Younger men {many years ago})
We did learn lots more, some we loved and some we were not so keen on but the ones above were our favourites. The way the weekend was held was non stop teaching in the day time and then social dancing at night (virtually no social dancing between slots) so it was very different to the way UK line dance weekends work. The evenings were split between “Wild-man” Louie in the main room (mainly funky / hip hop type dances) and a request room with a superb DJ “Jill” (sorry not got a last name) who kept the floor packed all night in fact as the nights wore on the room just got fuller and fuller. (she can also dance great as well)
Saturday evening is the Gala dinner and show, eating first in one room then transferring to the main ballroom for the entertainment. Lots of good dancing with Brian B****** (I’ve no idea how to spell it) and Rachael McEnaney (don’t think that’s right either LOL) but the best was saved for last. A Toy story section compared by Doug Miranda ( this guy can ad lib like a professional) featuring Guyton Mundy as Spider Man, Joey Warren as GI-Joe (action man to us in the UK) and Barry & Dari-Ann Amato as Ken & Barbie – this was fit to be on a stage in New York, it really was that brilliant I only wish I had my camcorder with me.
Sunday we took a break from dancing and went into Chicago, we have flown in here many times but never got out of the airport so this was a must. Here is the transport bit I mentioned at the top (hope you were taking notice LOL) If you are going to this event and think “I’ll nip into Chicago between dances” then be warned you have no chance. The train station is a 15 min walk away and the train takes around 50 mins (get off at Washington Station). Chicago is quite spread out and you will do a lot of walking between attractions. Go but expect it to take all day – it will.
Bad points – well there have to be some but to be honest apart from having to come home the only one I have is that the Breakfast in the hotel was DISGUSTING and to top it off it was flat cold as well. The serving staff could not have cared less it was just like eating airport food. This was on Friday and if you think it was just us, on Sat / Sun / Mon the breakfast area was virtually empty. The evening restaurant food was fine if a little expensive. That’s all I have to complain about, the event was very well run, everyone was made welcome and if we are available again I would defiantly go back.
Graham & Kathy
http://www.indout96.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
FROM: SUSAN WEBB Dancerlady@hughes.net
Thanks to Mark , Glen, and Eve for another wonderful line dance event in Chicago. Everything went very smoothly and was well organized with some great instructors who taught some really good dances. The only criticism I have was that the dance rooms were too warm. I suppose the unseasonably hot Chicago weather had something to do with that. Jill and Louie kept everyone dancing in the open dance rooms. I especially liked that Jill announced the next 3 dances that she would be playing so if there was something I wanted to dance I could stay or, If I didn't want to dance them, I could go back into Louie's room. The two rooms were side by side so I could easily go back and forth from one to the other. On Friday I took 6 classes. I took Scott Blevins' new dance, Poison Paradise, which I really liked. I also took Fuego by Amy Spenser and Shane Sparks which Rachel McEnaney taught. I had taken this dance from Joey Warren while in WV in September but took it again to get a refresher on it since I had not danced it for several weeks. I love this funky little dance that is not too hard but very fast with some quick arm movements and especially enjoyed practicing hip shakes with Michelle Jackson that night! I took Woohoo Yeehoo from Michelle and love this funky dance of hers that is not too hard. I took Rachel's Give It Back and Faded which are both nice dances. Then I took Junior Willis' and Hot Pepper's wonderful NC2, Too Little Too Late--love this dance! Then lastly I took Guyton Mundy's Get On The Bus which is a fairly easy fun dance too that has hopscotch and some arm movements in it. I really hated I missed Christopher Petre teach of Audrey Watson's Isles of Paradise--I saw it danced during open dance during the week-end, and it is a really pretty dance! Hope it will be taught in Tampa. On Saturday, I took the Professional Team Competition dances Sexy Oreo and Meet Me On The Playground. Both teams did a wonderful job of choreographing a dance on such short notice and both turned out really nice. I also took Let's Get Saved by Dan McInerney taught by Scott Blevins which was another of my favorites of the week-end. It was so funny when he did his review that night, we all wanted him to face the way he taught it to us from the side wall instead of the front wall--he thought we were "nuts" but I think a lot of other dancers can relate to this, right? Two dances were taught at the same time that I wanted to take, Joey Warren's Gimme More and Adam Berman's Gyrate taught by Rachel McEnaney so I took Gyrate since there is no step sheet for that one. WOW--it will take a lot of practice on those arm movements to be able to do them that fast! Sunday I took two classes--Doors Of Life by Michael Barr which is a beautiful waltz I loved. It has some syncopated vines and some ball change turns but he also gave options to make those parts easier. I took Strict Machine and Wind Your Body Up by Christopher Petre. I especially liked Wind Up Your Body which is an easy but funky dance that you can add a lot of styling to make it really fun. Two dances I did not take because I already knew them were W.T.F. by Bryan McWherter and Ain't Got No Money by Neville Fitzgerald which are both danced to the same music. I would have loved to have taken Supermodelz by Kathy Hunyadi but it never worked out for me to take it. The first and second place winners for the choreography competition really had good dances. I already knew Clothes Off by Will Craig and really want to learn Scott Schrank's More Than Life now after seeing it danced.
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