DIGITAL DANCE WEEKEND #3

4/26/2020

Home with my feet up after another AMAZING Digital Dance Weekend (#3)! How can this just keep getting better and better??? Rachael McEnaney-White - just outstanding! You are such a special lady with incredible talent! Thank you for ALL THAT YOU DO! And, recognizing that there is so much work that goes on behind the scenes by Jessie Chan, Cody Flowers, and Shea McCafferty - you are all superheroes! Thank you for your 24-7 support to make this all happen!

On Friday I attended 4 workshops live (caught the rest later...). Stephen Paterson, Kate Sala, Fred Whitehouse, Maggie Gallagher, Niels Poulsen, and Michael Barr & Michele Burton. Many dances from this very first day will make it to my “future teach” list for my classes. (And - don’t forget to go out and purchase Ronnie Beard’s song “Faith Hope and Love” which he is donating 50% of the proceeds to the LDF!!!)

On Saturday I was able to attend 5 of the 6 workshops (I only watched Joey Warren’s as I already know that one!) - Roy Verdonk, Heather Barton, Shane McKeever, Hadisubroto Roy & Fiona Murray, and Maddison Glover. EVERY SINGLE DANCE is on my “future teach” list!!!

And then today. I started out with the longest line dance ever - dancing the Electric Slide with Rachael! Never thought you’d hear that coming from me!!! Had an easier day today as I didn’t need John Robinson’s )Jonno Liberman’s) or Scott Blevins’ teaches as I already know their dances. But I did spend time with Jo Thompson Szymanski, Rachael, and Gary O' Reilly. And, again, EVERY DANCE is on my “future teach” list.

I look forward to going back to the group page and revisiting the technique tips, lunch-time interviews, and social playlists! I just couldn’t absorb everything the first time through!!!! And I’ll need to see the show again (such TALENT!!!) as well as the group farewell (maybe I can get through it WITHOUT kleenex the next time!).

I didn’t take any selfies - just didn’t want to get caught in my “stay-at-home” look! LOL! But I was with you all and enjoyed every minute!

Remember, if you have the ability to donate to the LDF, please do - we have been fortunate to participate in line dance weekends that would normally cost us 3 times what we’ve paid in registration fees as well as travel, hotel and food costs... I’ve donated and will again!

CONGRATULATIONS to the WHOLE TEAM! Another FABULOUS weekend!!! My deepest THANKS!!!

Covid-19

These are interesting times we’re in. With “stay-at-home” orders, dance venues closed, and dance events cancelled... we’ve all had to get creative with keeping our dance lives going.

I created a Virtual Line Dance Class facebook group (private) for all the students of East Naples and the Vineyards to join in order to participate in Facebook Live dance classes. Several instructors and choreographers have done the same either with Facebook or Zoom. I’ve tried both - Facebook seems to work the best for what we’re doing. I guess if I had a more up-to-date laptop I might’ve been OK with Zoom, but there are just so many technical layers to using the program that Facebook is where I’ve stayed. Even if they do mute my videos.

I created a “public” line dance page for my beginners since so many of them were not on Facebook and were not interested in joining, either. Now they can follow a link which takes them to Facebook but the page is more like a website and they don’t have to be “on” Facebook in order to participate.

Choreographers are busy creating so many virtual dance events that we need calendars to keep it all straight! From the Digital Dance Weekends that Rachael put together; to the Streamline group (the UK instructors put together); to the Retro Line Dis-Dancing site where classics are being taught - there is no lack of dancing... anywhere on the globe!

It’s a new way of learning... and a new way of teaching... with steep learning curves on both sides of the classroom. But - we’re are learning. And we are dancing. And we are having a good time! It’s a bandaid until we can all be on the floor together again...