Rachael Workshop 10-14-17

As always, Rachael conducted a great workshop yesterday!

She taught a cute beginner dance “I Won’t Back Down”, a fun improver dance of Maddison’s “Story”, the new one “Hot Damn” that is choreographed with Scott Blevins, two classics “Domino” and “Give It Back”, and her two new ones a peppy “That Ceiling Feeling” and a rolling 8 “Should Be Loved”.

Lots of open dance and just a really fun day!

Windy City 2017

Windy City Line Dance Mania!

This was my first Chicago event - awesome! So, so, so many workshops! So, so, so little time!!! Even with “2nd Chance Sunday” I couldn’t take everything I wanted to take! I needed a “3rd Chance Monday”!!!

Valerie, Kathy, and I arrived in Chicago early Wednesday afternoon. We flew into Midway, Ubered our way to the Crowne Plaza, checked in, then took the train (the El) back downtown. We went to the top of the Willis Building (Sear’s Tower) and walked around downtown a little.

On Thursday, we again took the train downtown (rode to the end of the line by mistake - had to take the train back to downtown...), then figured out a bus, ended up at the Navy Pier, and found a boat ride/tour on the Chicago River. Absolutely beautiful weather - lucky, too since it looked like it rained almost every day of the event!

The classes I took on Friday included:

The Ghost Of You by Roy Verdonk (& Sebastian Holtland). Great tango!

No Ordinary Angel by Daniel Trepat (& the Kinsers, Zwwijgers, Yvonne Verhagen, and Scaccianoci). Can you believe just a 16-count, 2 wall rolling 8???

Perfect Picture by Fred Whitehouse (& JP Madge). It’s got some arms - but nothing real crazy.

Beautiful Wonderful by Debbie Rushton (& Jannie Tofte-Anderson). A dance I will be teaching for sure!

If You Ever by Joey Warren (& Heidi Oswald). A 32-count dance with numerous restarts that will be easy to hear (think H.O.L.Y.) once I know the music better. Awesome dance! Another keeper!

Equal Love by Simon Ward. 32-count rolling. I liked this one!

The classes I took on Saturday included:

Chameleon Heart by Debbie Rushton. I got goosebumps from this one!

Take It High by Rebecca Lee. High-powered, fast-paced, fun dance!

Team USA’s presentation and teach of Part-Time Girlfriend. 84 count waltz. Absolutely beautiful! Was my first teach coming back from Chicago!

Team International’s presentation and teach of Hurts Like A Cha Cha. Great dance and the pro choreography winner. 

Hot Damn by Scott Blevins (with Rachael McEnaney-White). A great Scott/Rachael dance!

And finally, the classes I took on Sunday included:

A repeat of Team International’s winning dance (really solidified it for me to take it again!)

Lay It Back by Shane McKeever (& Guyton Mundy and Fred Whitehouse) - what a fun, pump it up, dance! Awesome. Don’t let the 80 (yes 8-0) count tag intimidate!

And I watched Jo Thompson Szymanski’s teach of her and Rhoda Lai’s dance “Everybody’s Groovin’”. I just could not put one more dance in my head but this is a cute 32-count dance which I videotaped so I can learn it when my brain cells recover and then teach it to my classes.

There were so many other dances that I really wanted to learn but just couldn’t fit them in - Rebecca Lee’s “Party Train”, Daniel Trepat’s (& Roy Verdonk) “Final Fantasy”, Amy (Glass) Bailey’s “Most Girls”, Fred Whitehouse’s (& Niels Poulsen, Guyton Mundy, & Dee Musk) “Sexy Beaches”, Jonas Dahlgren’s (with Lodin) “Maniac”, Rona Kaye’s “In The End”, Johanna Barnes “Shoot U Down”, Amy (Glass) Bailey’s (with Darren Bailey & Rob Fowler) “Latin & Lace”, Roy Verdonk’s (with Jose Miguel Belloque Vane) “Change My Ways”, and Amy Christian’s teach of Rachel McEnaney-White’s “Think I’m Sexy.”

As I said, this was my first trip to Chicago - by no stretch of the imagination my last! We had a super time! I appreciated Mark’s attempt at getting some variety in the open/social dancing part of the event - and while I don’t think it accomplished exactly what he was after, it sure was nice to know that there was going to be a variety of dances on both Friday and Saturday nights. Very nice! If I had to complain about anything, it would be that there were soooo many good offerings and soooo little time... followed by do we really have to get up and start dancing right away at 9am??? Talk about talking out of both sides of my face! I guess we’re just meant to sleep once we get back home! I enjoyed meeting both Mark and Eve; was thrilled that Kelly Cavallaro was there to provide live feeds again; and had so much fun surprising Joey with swords for Straight To The Castle! Thank you, Hagan Ho!

Classics Workshop 9/30/17

Attended Betsy Courant’s first “Classics Workshop” in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, September 30. We had two cars of us that traveled over for the 5-hour event. Betsy taught four dances: Have Fun Go Mad, Poetry In Motion, Larger Than Life, and Swing Your Chains. Other than Have Fun Go Mad which I already knew, the other three were dances that have been on my list to learn for a long time! Thrilled to have had the chance to learn them! (So much easier when someone else teaches them!!!)

We had an excellent day!