FROM: MARILYN MCNEAL, MIDNIGHT RODEO
We had a great group of Florida dancers in attendance at Worlds! There
were ballrooms with competitions going all week, open dance in the lobby
day and night, and several workshops all going on at the same time,
that some of us only saw each other at the evening dances!! Lots of
fun, great music and entertainment for all. DJs Louie, James and Big
Dave kept us all dancing and worked hard to keep the mix going for everyone
to be on the floor a lot of the time. The request lists were pages long
and they did a great job of filling those requests. What a week it’s
been!
LINE DANCE: How to decide the best dances? Impossible, there were so
many, from instructors with varied styles and music used. There will
be lots of reports written, so read them all for full coverage. We all
have our favorites and two of mine were Made For U by Todd Lescarbeau
and Stitched Up by Donna Shea, which I’ll be teaching at the Orlando
Dance Challenge in February. Ray and I took several couples classes,
so other reports will indicate the line dancers’ choices, but
Still Dirty, So Empty, Boo Bo Bounce, All Together, Cry to Me are just
a few I liked a lot.
UCWDC COUPLES COMPETITION: We hope you got to see some of it, especially
the Masters and Swing. Incredible dancers, outstanding performances……the
best in the world. Congratulations to all the winners in all categories,
and also to Stacy for participating in te Bomshel Stomp competition!
OPREYLAND HOTEL: One of the most beautiful complexes in the world, with
the heart of Nashville right outside the door. Thanks again Barry, for
the invitation to teach. Ray and I personally had a wonderful time,
with present day friends and visiting with several dancers we haven't
seen in a very long time.
JOHN ROBINSON AND BILL MCGEE WILL BE AT MIDNIGHT RODEO THIS SATURDAY
for our Winter Workshop. Walk-ins welcome that day if you have not already
registered. Flyer on our website www.rhythm-in-my-soles.com or call
me at (352) 804-1546 if you need information. If you’re in Ocala
Friday night, open dance will include plenty of line, mixed with couples.
Saturday workshop opens at 9:30, John starts the day at 10AM. Saturday
night entry included in registration fee as well as a GREAT lunch for
you! Come dance with us all day and night this Saturday, January 13
at Midnight Rodeo, Ocala, Florida.
LOCAL DANCERS: All day classes scheduled as usual! Line dance at Rodeo
from 7-10PM on Thursday night.I’ve got some great new dances to
show you!
FROM: Adrienne Danzig, N.Y.
We all had a fabulous time in Nashville, the instruction, the dancing,
the culture of country music in the area, and of course, the Wild Horse
Saloon.
Thanks to Ellen, all of us got a chance to experience the Grand Ole
Opry plus many other adventures that Ellen was kind enough to arrange.
FROM: Shari shariloechler@hotmail.com
Wow! what a great event. The lobby dancing was the best idea--What a
great place to socialize with old friends-make new friends and hang
out with the instructors. It was truly one of the highlites of many
linedancers. My favorite dances were--Alone Together by Alison and Peter,
Boo Boo Bounce by Scott, Swing Sweet Pussy Cat taught by Scott, So Free
Cha Max, One by Junior, Madhouse to the Max by Doug and Jackie, Roller
Coaster by Mark C., Angel by Guyton and Still Diirty by Rachael. There
were lots of other good dances --aren't we lucky that we as dancers
have so many wonderful instructors to choose from--I think the more
instructors we learn from the better dancer we become. I thnk we make
to much out of which instructor has the best dance--They all bring something
special to dance. We also have some great DJ"s. Thank You for all
your efforts. The event directors did a bang up job.
FROM: jessicalutz23@hotmail.com
I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this event and wasn't quite sure I would
given it was a UCDWC and they don't have a great history with the line
dancers. They had a "lobby dance floor" out there that provided
open dancing most of the day mixed with some easier 30 minute teaches.
These usually are the types of dances I tend to teach to my students
because they aren't over taxing on the brain.
As usual, the instructors were too numerous to mention, but I had a
lot of favorites. I read a few previous "daily" reports and
I can't say that I fully agree with some of the dances I saw listed
as crowd pleasers as some of these seemed to have a limited number of
dancers that might just be requesting the same dance over. One reason
I am thankful for actually being at events like this, is that I could
witness a more broad spectrum of dances being taught and done over just
the usual ones reported on with the usual choreographer names.
Guyton Mundy has a great new dance called ANGEL and while I enjoyed
doing
this dance, I also had to sit this one out a few times and watch the
folks on the dance floor. One of the things I look at is How Many People
Can Really Do This Dance??? Many attempt and manage not to bump into
others, but as I looked on the floor, only 20 to 30% really could grasp
the moves and the concept of this dance. And as many times as this was
played, the floor looked very scattered with people going every which
way and doing a lot of variations that weren't always pretty. It's hard
for me to recommend and teach a dance like this to my dancers, but that
might not be the case for your class. I enjoyed Doug & Jackie Miranda's
latest MADHOUSE TO THE MAX and see that it is doing well on the dance
survey, so I took the class. I wasn't disappointed as the phrasing is
fantastic! However, I was disappointed that as many people know this
dance, it was never played (or perhaps only played when I left the room).
Maybe it was just a coincidence that I just missed this dance and heard
dances like Angel, Smack Dat, Southern Comfort and Little Star played
every other hour.
BOO BOO BOUNCE is Scott Blevins latest and the music is starting to
grow on me. People also looked good doing it so I will need to check
this one out. Again, this one was played a lot and that wouldn't be
so bad except a lot of other dances that I believe had well attended
workshops fell by the wayside when it came to Open Dance. ONE by Junior
Willis is one that I could catch off the floor. Louie was actually helping
the dancers by calling out the moves while it was being danced. A nice
easy teach with good music.
ROLLERCOASTER by Mark Consenza looked really good and I stopped to get
a
private of this from someone who took the class after I saw this done
during open dance. The music is also wonderful -it has a funky sound,
but is still pop enough that my class won't be too turned off by it.
Mark is another one of those under the radar people that doesn't get
a lot of mention on the various reports, but deserves more. I very much
enjoyed his B SQUARED dance. WALK LIKE A MAN by his friend Glen Pospieszny
was also a fun social dance. The program listed it as Intermediate /
Advanced and perhaps that was Glen's fault, but this was a very easy
dance with great classic music that you can sing along with. Another
dance that I think will be overlooked by the other reporters because
Glen is not a household name.
ALONE TOGETHER by Peter & Alison is an updated version of that Tiffany
song
I Think Were Alone Now. It's very fast but once you got the steps down,
I found it to be loads of fun. I am going to teach this one as quickly
as I can. It's always a joy to see these too and I never leave their
classes feeling like I didn't have a great time. I also love HOLDING
BACK THE OCEAN from them. BE MY BABY with Max Perry is a blast but I
never got to dance it after I learned it. Max also gets very little
recognition from the various event reporters out there. Why is that
anyways?
HELLUVA POLKA by Kathy Hunyadi was not taught there, but I thought I'd
make mention of this because the DJ Dave didn't seem to ever hear of
it when he called some other dance to the same song. Kathy had a great
dance to that song that many people knew and as usual has been overlooked
by most folks that have written up these event reports in the past.
COMING OUT (Robinson) was the Windy City Event dance and for a good
reason! Other dances that were popular but called very little besides
some of the dances mentioned above were CHAMPAIGN ON ICE (Dornstedt),
Less Complicated (Robert Delong), MY GREEK #1 (Rask), COME INTO MY WORLD
(Metelnick & Biggs) and GALLERY (Junior Willis). Other dances taught
that I liked that were danced a lot were WITH YOU FOREVER (Marshall),
RUDE BOX (Fowler), ROCK THIS PARTY (Ward) and BREAK FREE CHA (Blevins).
And while open dance was most fun when DJ Louie was in control as he
seemed
to mix it up a lot. There were too many overplayed dances and I was
sitting a lot during non-Louie times. The same people seem to dominate
and overrequest certain dances and I think DJ Louie is a bit more savy
in recognizing this and not allowing for the heavy rotation. I hope
next year he is utilized more for the Line Dancers because he was sorely
missed on some nights. Also, I felt sorry for all of the hard working
instructors as none of the workshop rooms were furnished with microphones.
This forced them to scream. This should be addressed next year. Microphones
are really not a big investment now are they?
Overall, these were all World Class Instructors and this is a neat event
given the great shows etc and I look forward to next year.
FROM: Susan Webb In
North Carolina.
I really had great time at Worlds in Nashville last week. There were
quite a few dances taught that I had already taken at other events and
really like and enjoyed dancing in open dancing such as Break Free Cha,
Together Forever and I Scream by Scott Blevins, Madhouse To The Max
by Doug and Jackie Miranda, Bomshel Stomp by Jamie Marshall and Karen
Hedges, My Greek No. 1 by Maria Rask, So Fine Cha by Max Perry, Smack
Dat and Crooked Letter Y by Guyton Mundy and Cryin' Doves by Mundy,
Warren and McEnaney, This Time by Joey Warren and Gallery by Junior
Willis. My most favorite new dances taken during the event were Still
Dirty by Rachel McEnaney and Paul McAdam, So eMpTy by M.T. Groove, Boo
Boo's Bounce by Scott Blevins, Love Stoned by Mundy, Warren, Holland
and Olsen, Last Minute by Rachel McEnaney and Joey Warren, Unbelievable
and Cry To Me by Paul McAdam, and Bad Girl Getaway by Kathy Brown. There
was teaching going on in the Line Dance Lobby along with the open dancing
and am sure I missed some good dances taught there. I missed a couple
of classes I wanted to take like Boogie Wanna Dance by Doug and Jackie
Miranda and Barry and Dari Ann Amato, and Rock This Party by Simon Ward.
James Gregory and Big Dave did a great job with the requests during
open dancing in the lobby and seemed to keep everyone satisfied with
playing what was requested. After teaches of dances in the workshop
rooms, many times the choreographer would come back down to the lobby
and have the dj play what they had just taught which was good except
that many times I had gone to take another class. At night, in the main
line dance room, I had fun dancing but would really have liked for the
dj's to have played all the dances that had been taught sometime during
the night mixed in with other requested dances. Some of the dances played
a lot during open dancing were Rio, Soul Steppin', Don't Feel Like Dancing,
Keep On Dancing, Mr. Pinstripe, East To West, Break Free Cha, Leaving
Of Liverpool, Bosa Nova, Cute Cute Cute, Simplemente, Angel, Drop The
Heat, Kowboy Krazy and many others. There was plenty to keep me busy
all day and night long with taking classes, open dancing, watching competitions,
visiting the Opryland Mills Mall and walking around and getting lost
in the beautiful Opryland Hotel. I especially enjoyed seeing my West
Virginia friends, Donnie and Gail Trail, Debbie Croy, Carmen Stinson,
Eric, Chris, and Becky Absher. I had such fun socializing and dancing
with them. Susan Webb (DANCERLADY@hughes.net)
(Reprinted from Weekly Dance Newsletter from West Va.
FROM: a Nashville instructor
I am an instructor in Middle Tennessee (Nashville area) and had the
opportunity to be at World's all week assisting Ian Forster from Great
Britain who has developed the first complete program for Absolute Beginner
line dancers. The 8 easy dance routines in this curriculum progressively
teach 30 basic line dance steps to 12 wonderful music tracks by Brushwood-the
number one country music duo in Great Britain. Ian has appointed me
the regional instructor trainer for this area so I will be glad to share
further details with anyone who is interested. I have the complete program
with the emanuals and Brushwood CDs and would be delighted to conduct
a workshop for interested instructors or prospective instuctors.
I met lots of wonderful people including instructors from around the
country, choregraphers, dee jays, dancers and prospective class members.
Surprisingly, line dancing is not as strong here in Country music headquarters
as it is in other areas and I am anxious to get some new instructors
trained and start additional beginner programs. I have five successful
classes now but I am not able to teach above lower intermediate levels
because I have blended programs with all levels of experience from absolute
beginner to more experienced dancers. I was able to participate in a
few workshops while at World's and picked up several easy routines that
I will be using in my winter classes. They are all either beginner or
easy intermediate and I was able to pick them up fairly easily.
STITCHED UP / DONNA SHEA-I really liked the style and rhythm of this
because the music is a little different and the dance is easy and fun.
YOUR BACK YARD/ KARLA CARTER-this was taught by Dancin' Dean and I picked
it up immediately and remembered the steps and liked the music. I will
definitely be teaching it.
WHERE YOU LIVE/ JUDY MCDONALD-this had a little "showmanship"
and it seemed that everyone enjoyed it-the music is by a Canadian artist
and might be a little hard to get
DISCO ROUND/ KATHY HUNYADI-I believe this was my favorite because it
is easy and has that fun disco feel.
MY GREEK NO 1/ ELENA PAPARIZOU-I really liked this one because of the
fun way it was taught by Dancin' Dean and I like the music. It has tags
and restarts but goes well with the music.
I GOT RHYTHM /HOT PEPPER- this one was okay and done to several different
tracks-I will likely teach it
FOOLISH HEART / ROBBIE MCGOWAN HICKIE-another good one that I would
like to teach if I can get the music, I had some class members in this
workshop and they liked it
I SEE, I SEE / JOHN ROBINSON-another "performance" type routine
but fun
BABY BLUES/ TINA ARGYLE-liked this one
AMOUR EN PROVENCE/ KATHY HUNYADI & FRENCH KISSES /KATHY HUNYADI-the
first dance is just basic, easy beginner steps and the second is basically
a companion dance with some modification to steps to make it a little
more challenging and fun.
I may be contacted at vinedanceqn@yahoo.com
Thanks, Phyllis Petty
Back
To Top
