Rachael’s Workshop 11/3/18

Another great workshop by Rachael in Orlando (or, in this case - Castleberry!) at the new venue - The Crystal Ballroom. We had great representation from Southwest Florida (and beyond with Jill here visiting from California!) and enjoyed a fun day of dance.

Rachael taught:
Bardot Blues (with Simon Ward)
Dip To The Bass (with Christopher Gonzalez)
Electric Church (with Johanna Barnes)
Faded (with Robin Madeley)
Jessie (with Simon Ward)
Make It Sweet (Rachael)

Jessie was the absolute favorite of the day followed by Electric Church and Bardot Blues (Bardot Blues needed more work by several). Faded is a classic of Rachael’s (2003). Dip To The Bass and Make It Sweet will work very well for Thursday’s class. Even Electric Church may work for an intermediate dance teach for Thursday as well.

Our choice (my selection) of hotels for the night was less than stellar. Since it sounds like this is going to be the venue for Rachael’s future workshops as well as Sandy & Diane’s Gary/Joey weekend, we’re gonna need to explore further lodging options in the area!

Deb’s Thursday Night Class in Bonita - 10/4/18

With some of the class off to Chicago and Windy City, I led the class Thursday night.

I taught:
Sleepwalk With Me
Jukebox
Oh Ruby!
With These Eyes
Kiss Of Heaven
Beyond Beautiful

We danced:
Uphill Battle
Diggin’
Dirty Little Secret
Only Love
Where I Stood
The Last Word
I Don’t Dance
Dem Dey Go
Naked

Classics Workshop 9/29/18

Betsy had another great Classics workshop in Deerfield Beach yesterday! (And - Dawn Demerest did a social the night before in West Palm Beach that was also a lot of fun!)

The classics taught were Oh Ruby!, Jukebox, With These Eyes, and Now Or Never (which is the one I taught).

Oh Ruby! is a phrased dance by Deb Rushton that will need just a little bit more work to master but I really liked it.

Jukebox is a classic Jo Thompson Szymanski that is just a lot of fun.

With These Eyes is an awesome nightclub by Niels Poulsen & Darren Bailey that I can’t wait to do again! Gooseys!

Lots of open dance in between with a great playlist - the day did not disappoint!

DANCE XPERIENCE 2018!

Well. As I was leaving Betsy’s Classics Workshop yesterday, and Sharon and I were talking about the Xperience, I looked back through this blog and guess what? I NEVER posted ANYTHING about New Orleans 2018! How sad is that? All I have are these notes! So - it’s all that gets to be posted here. 

DANCE XPERIENCE TEACHES

A summary of the dances taught at the Xperience ........

1) N&J - Five Million Pieces

2)  Fred - Acoustic Love

3) Gary - Taking Me Back

4) Joey - Filthy

5) Guillaume - We'll Stay Young

6) Trevor - VIP

7) Shane - Come Alive

8) Gary - Funk The Preacher Man

9) Fred - Don't Stay For Me

10) Fred - Tip Toe

11) N&J - Something I Can't Have

12)  Gemma - The Wolf

Bonus 1) Justin - Hola

13) Joey - Right Here

14) Dustin - Confessions

15) Shane - Boat Stuck In A Bottle

Bonus 2) - Klara/Lina - Slip Through 

19) N&J - Til I'm Done

20) Guillaume - Leave A Light On

21) Team Xperience - Watch The Tempo

Neville Fitzgerald & Julie Harris: 

*Five Million Pieces (WCS)

*#1 Something I Can't Have (NC2)

*(draft) Til I'm Done (Cha)

Fred Whitehouse - 

*Acoustic Love (NC2)

*#1 Don't Stay For Me (WCS)

*Tip Toe (Funky/Pop)

Gary O’Reilly- 

*Taking Me Back (Cha)

*Funk The Preacher Man (Funky)

#1 Follow My Footprints (NC2)

Joey Warren - 

Filthy (OMG!)

#1 Right Here (waltz)

Guillaume Richard - 

*#1 We'll Stay Young (waltz)

Trevor Thornton - 

VIP (Pop)

Shane McKeever - 

Come Alive (OMG!)

#1 Boat Stuck In A Bottle (NC2)

Gemma Ridyard - 

*The Wolf (Funky)

*#1 The Champion (Funky)

Dustin Betts - 

*Hola

Klara Wallman/Lina - 

*Slip Through 

Team Xperience (Joey, Fred, Gemma, Shane, Guillaume) - 

#1 Watch The Tempo (Funky/Samba’y)

The #1’s

Something I Can't Have (NC2)

Don't Stay For Me (WCS)

Follow My Footprints (NC2)

Right Here (waltz)

We'll Stay Young (waltz)

Boat Stuck In A Bottle (NC2)

Watch The Tempo (Funky/Samba’y)

FITS 2018

FITS 2018

As always, just a great event! Jen did an outstanding job and the hotel was wonderful! Certainly got my fill of dancing! I really liked having repeat teaches on Sunday! Gave me a chance to either catch something I missed earlier or a second chance on something that was trickier. Yay!

I really liked EVERY class I attended. The difficult part will be figuring out which one to teach first! 😱😱😱

On Friday I attended 4 classes: Rachael’s teach of Maddison Glover’s Tell Me You Love Me (Fun!), Roy & Fiona’s Make Ya Move (Funky Fun!), Sandy’s teach of Maddy & Simon’s Lost In Love (OMG! I think this will have to be my first teach!), and ended the day with Roy & Fiona’s A Lover’s Trak (from FLOSSING to LAUNDRY! Fun!).

On Saturday I actually made it to 5 classes!!! Started with Marilyn’s teach of Darren & Fred’s Second Time Around (FUN! Definitely up there with the 1st ones to be taught!), Sandy’s teach of Niels & Shane’s Vampire City (GREAT DANCE - will have to be right up there with one of the firsts to be taught!), Shane’s teach of his & Fred’s Light A Candle (I like this one! But, a teach on it will need to wait a bit - until I transcribe my video into a “stepsheet” - of sorts!), Rachael & Linda McCormack’s Can’t Even Dance (cute!), and I ended with Roy & Fiona’s The Last Word (POWERFUL! Might just have to be one of the first ones taught!).

And on Sunday I made it to 2: a reteach of Roy & Fiona’s Make Ya Move and Rachael’s teach of Maddy’s Sober Saturday Night. I REALLY needed more work on my FLOSSING and LOVED SSN. Sober Saturday Night might be right up there with one of the firsts to be taught!

Now that I’ve gotten home and have had a chance to re-read what I’ve summarized, it appears that I have 5 dances that might just need to be taught first! LOL! I guess that’s another sign of a truly great event!

Marathon 2018

THE MARATHON 2018

Exciting, as always, to see friends from around the country at events, and the Marathon is just a GREAT event! We came in on Wednesday so we wouldn’t miss any part of it! 

The schedule was full of awesome offerings, which always makes it difficult to choose what to attend. 

THURSDAY

*Muddy Waters - Darren Bailey. I’ve wanted to learn this ever since I first saw it. Amazing dance!

*The Good Parts - Amy (Glass) Bailey. Amy always comes up with nice dances and this is no exception! 32 count, 4 wall to the Andy Grammer track of the same name.

*Tip Toe - Fred Whitehouse. First learned this at the Xperience New Orleans but it’s been so long now that I needed another teach on it. Glad I took it again - just a fun dance!

*The Wolf - Gemma Ridyard. Another dance from the Xperience and I really needed the second teach! Funky fun!

*Mood Swing - Maddison Glover (and Chris Watson & Simon Ward). Easy, country, west coast. I always enjoy learning from Maddy!

*Hasta Luego - Joey Warren (choreographed by Debbie Rushton). Easy, fun! A samba-y, latin-y dance that just made me smile.

FRIDAY

*Loving Me Speechless - Gemma Ridyard. Goose bumps! Very turny, but I really liked it!

*Not About Love - Megan Wheeler. I hadn’t taken a class from Megan before and this was a good opportunity to do just that! One of those dances that you get to get your “groove” on! 

*Naked - Scott Blevins (and Rhoda Lai). May just end up being the #1 dance of the entire event!

*Filthy - Joey Warren. I had my first teach of this at the Xperience... I had another teach at the Gary/Joey weekend. And I took it again! I finally have it well enough to fake my way through it on the open floor at night! (Which is to say, I STILL need more work on it!)

*Don’t Sweat It - Shane McKeever (& Rebecca Lee and Fred Whitehouse). Rachael taught it first... now Shane. With a little work on my own, I might be able to do the first 16 counts! LOL!

There were more dances that I was interested in taking, but did not have the brain matter nor body ability to move another inch!

SATURDAY

Had very little energy to exert on Saturday! Did take 2 teaches, sat in on @ third and video’d it for myself for later, and sat in on a fourth - ending up standing up in the back so I could actually try it!

*Grow - Shane McKeever (& Kerry Maus). This is a fun dance - don’t let the ABC throw you off!

*The Way She Moves - Gemma Ridyard (Video’d this teach for myself to learn later - I just didn’t have what was needed to do it justice! Complete disconnect between my brain and my feet!)

*Stars In The Night Sky - Shane McKeever (choreographed by Paul James Culshaw). Once I got through the first 3 counts (again - blaming the disconnect between head & feet!), the rest was very smooth. Another dance to the Greatest Showman soundtrack that is well worth checking out!

*Taps - Darren Bailey. I watched this teach... and liked it so much I had to get up and try it in the back of the room. Like it even more after dancing it. Like it A LOT!

SUNDAY

Watched the choreography competition. Congratulations to all the competitors! There were some great entries!

Watched Amy (Glass) Bailey’s teach of “So Tied Up.” Cute dance! One I’ll be excited to learn once I regain sanity from the weekend!

Final teach of the weekend was Darren Bailey’s “Schoolyard King”. A 2-wall, 64 count, no tags/restarts, dance. This dance has a fun & interesting middle that took a minute to figure out but is really cool!

Congratulations to Scott Blevins & Jean Garr - another exceptional event! Beautiful decorations, fun show, lots of vendors, helpful staff, wonderful array of instructors & choreographers. And the hotel is awesome!!!

Home safely Sunday night... class right away Monday morning. First teach? Naked by Scott & Rhoda!

Joey/Gary Weekend

Diane & Sandy held the 2nd Joey/Gary Show this past weekend (or, as they are now known, the Goey/Jerry show!!!) and it was fantastic! Great playlist for Friday night at the Women’s Club in Castleberry and the day-long workshop on Saturday from 10-5. (Even “blossoming” Rachael came to say “hi” to everyone!)

Gary taught three dances: Vanotek Cha (which we already knew - great dance!); Beautiful Flames (with Maggie G) and Cross Your Mind (developed right there on-site for the last teach of the day). Joey taught two dances: Filthy and Right Here (both from the Xperience and it was wonderful to get re-teaches on them!).

We had a respectable number of attendees from SW Florida - Valerie, Nancy, Carol, Joe, Robi, Vicki, Kathy, Annie, and me.

First teach right out of the gate today at the Sunday class in Estero: Cross Your Mind. Will teach it tomorrow as well. Will need a step sheet for Beautiful Flames... and the stepsheets for Joey’s Filthy and Right Here were just posted so I can finally take a good look at those as well.

Another great weekend of dance!!!