Gary/Joey Workshop 5-20-17

Day-Long Workshop with Joey Warren and Gary O'Reilly - Saturday, May 20, 2017

Sandy Albano and Diane Petoskey put together an awesome weekend of dance for us! We danced until we could do no more on Friday night at the Women's Club of Castleberry - starting at 7 and ending after midnight to an all-request playlist that kept everyone on the floor all night long!

Saturday, we started at 9:30 am with the first teach at 10. We had three teaches from Joey and three from Gary. One improver and two intermediate/advanced from each. With open dancing from the request list in between them all. If anyone did not get enough dancing.... well - I guess for some of us there's just NEVER enough dancing... But I did go home with a full brain and very tired, happy feet!

Joey's teaches included:

Thinkin' & Drivin' - 32 count, 2 wall, tag (3 times) and restart. One of the favorites of our group.

Straight To The Castle - which is just an AWESOME dance.

Slow Burn 17 - Maddison Glover's improver dance that was fun to learn.

Gary's teaches included:

A Friend Like You - his improver dance that really got us moving (it's got some pep to it!)

Slowly, Gently, Softly - this was THE favorite (Castle not included) of the day! 32 count, 2 wall, intermediate "samba" to the Justin Bieber featured song of Despacito. If you haven't seen this one yet, keep your eyes open for it!

You Better Believe - Gary did this one with Maggie Gallagher. 32 count, 4 wall advanced night club to a track by the same name by Train. Very nice dance with lots of turns. One that I'll have to look at again to make the walls come out right!

And then, if you're in the mood to shop - Gary has a couple of shirts (A Life Of Linedance!) and Joey has his new shirts out - still in the Joey Zone but now it's with the soundwave of Straight To The Castle in colors of coral or royal blue or baseball shirt style. Very nice! I came away with a shirt from both guys!

Many thanks to Diane and Sandy for putting this together and kudos to Gary and Joey for a great day of teaches! Well done!

Dance Xperience New Orleans 2017

Xperience New Orleans 2017

What an amazing trip! We went a day early so we were able to spend two days touring and exploring the New Orleans area. Day 1 was downtown... Cafe du Monde (beignets, of course!) and riding the Hop On/Hop Off bus getting the tour and stopping off at the Garden District and Lafayette Cemetery. In the evening we went to Lafayette Square for the concert in the park and then strolled the downtown area.

On Day 2 we went to the Whitney Plantation. Such stories and history! If given the opportunity, I would highly recommend it!

But, enough of the touristy stuff! Time for the DANCE stuff!

I skipped a total of three classes. 2 because I'm lucky enough to live in Florida and get to attend Rachael's workshops on a regular basis so I didn't

have to take Let It Out and She Used To Be Mine. The other, unfortunately, was Fred's waltz offered as the very last teach of the very last day. Sorry, Fred! Just COULD NOT do one more step or think about one more move! (But, I did record it so I can "take the teach" later!)

I took every other teach offered and what a fantastic offering it was! 

Simon Ward taught Fooling Around, Lady In Red, and Time To Surrender. My absolute favorite of Simon's was the waltz! But they were ALL great dances and we're already dancing Lady In Red in a couple of the classes I attend!

Ria Vos (my first time meeting Ria!) taught Refund To My Heart, When The Music Hits, and Taking Care Of You. My absolute favorite was Taking Care Of You - and it ended up being my MOST FAVORITE of the entire event! But ALL of Ria's were great and I expect to be teaching them all!

Niels Poulsen taught Now & Later, I Am Your Man, and With The Lights On. I think I Am Your Man was my favorite of his teaches - but they were all good.

Fred Whitehouse taught Like A Cowboy (great dance for country music lovers!), The Boogie, and You're My Remedy. The Boogie was my favorite of Fred's - and was my all-event favorite until Ria taught hers! I even got air under my feet with that hitch when we danced it at night! Super fun!

Joey Warren taught Pins & Needles, Thinkin' & Drivin', and Straight To The Castle. Straight To The Castle is an super awesome dance! And I liked the other two, as well! I am really excited that Joey gets to teach the Castle dance again at his Florida workshop with Gary O'Reilly in a couple weeks - I definitely need some fine-tuning on it!!!

Rachael McEnaney-White taught Let It Out and She Used To Be Mine (which I had learned already so those were great breaks for me!) and Kissing Strangers - which, in typical Rachael style, will be another great dance! Very fun! And now, in addition to "Joey fast" to describe a dance, we have the "Simon Walk" to describe a step! Always good to add new terminology to the dance vocab!

Dave (and Kelly) kept the music going day and night and there was a nice mix of current and past favorites being played all the time!

A big shout out to Diane and Sandy for all their hard work in putting this whole thing together! There is so much work that goes into planning events like this and the work doesn't stop once we get there - it doesn't even stop when it's over! My thanks to them for all they do!

The hotel was quite nice - great rooms, good food and service, attentive housekeeping, friendly staff! And the ballroom - while FREEZING when you first go in - was kept at a great temperature for dancing! So nice to not be glistening all the time!

I began writing this on the plane on the return trip home (since it was the first opportunity I'd had to do so!), but couldn't get back to finish it until now since I went immediately to the US Open Pickleball Championships and spent my life at the pickleball courts for the last week! 

I would have to say that all in all, it was a great week away! And - I've already done my registration for 2018, so I can do it all again next year!