An afternoon with Robbie McGowan Hickie and inTouch Dance 3rd April 2016
As of today's date (Friday 29th April) the dances have still not been uploaded however as I know many of you have long been awaiting this post I have decided that I cannot wait any longer, particularly as in 2 weeks time I'm going to another Maggie Workshop.
I have been able to obtain scripts for 3 of his new unreleased dances due to a very limited number of hand outs that were available on the day and I would like to thank Sally Brown of Rebel Liners for sending me her copies to use for this article.
This isn't the first time I have seen Robbie as I remember going on a line dance weekend a few years ago (2011) to Ilfracombe and he was one of the featured choreographers there. I really enjoyed seeing him there and so I was really looking forward to seeing him again. In between the teaches we also dance some of Robbie's hit dances both new and old, but the real highlight for me was having the opportunity to dance 'Unpredictable' which he co-choreographed with Karl-Harry Winson a few years ago. I have been requesting this dance several times recently including at Karl's workshop a few months ago so it was great finally having the opportunity to dance this again and I just want to thank Keeley of In Touch dance for playing it for me. Whilst Robbie did not dance it with us, it was amazing to dance it with him in the room, particularly as its still one of my absolute favourites and one I never get to dance. Maybe you can join us next time Robbie?
So what did we learn? Here are the dances taught in the order Robbie taught them with videos and scripts (where possible).
What about tonight
As for the dance itself I think this was definitely one of my favourites. I admit I struggled with it at first but I had a moment when I clicked that some of the steps were very typical of Robbie and once I realised this I seemed to manage much better. I wasn't sure about this dance when we first did it, some of the steps did feel like steps I wasn't used to doing and it took some practice, however having watched it back a few times since uploading it it strikes me that the dance goes really well to the music. The music itself is great, really upbeat and fun to dance to and I am now at the point where the song is stuck in my head. The dance was choreographed to 'More than Friends' by Inna Feat. Daddy Yankee and from watching the video I believe this is an Intermediate, 64 count 4 wall dance.
Once the script is available I will upload it to this page but for now you can view the video I took on the day below.
Let's Make Love
Mirror Mirror (co-choreographed with Dwight Meessen)
Some classes in the area had already done 'Mirror Mirror' (some of my club had learnt this at the Maggie G. Experience weekend which you can read more about here.) but equally quite a few of us had not done the dance yet so we convinced Robbie to recap it for us and I'm so glad he did as it is actually my favourite of all the dances he taught that day. It's another very upbeat track and I particularly enjoy the chassis steps into a turn sequence in the dance which go really well to the music and the samba steps also give it a really good vibe. I also am not alone in my opinion on this one and its currently 25th in Linedancer Magazine's intermediate chart (as at today's date) and I fully expect it to go much higher as the song is catchy, well choreographed and fun to do. Its also being regularly featured on the Ranch Dance Radio show with Lorraine Brown. The dance is a 48 Count, 2 wall, Intermediate dance to Mirror by Karia ft. Elena and it only has one restart. I didn't take a video of this one as we didn't recap it later on (when I normally record these) but I like this video below. You can view the script on linedancer by clicking here.
Hello Hello (co-choreographed with Laura Sway)
Our penultimate dance was 'Hello Hello', another great dance and probably my favourite track that we danced to that day (where does Robbie find these gems?). This is definitely a dance that probably requires a bit of attitude when you're dancing it and I'm looking forward to seeing this on the dance floor in the future. The dance is a 64 count, 4 wall intermediate dance to 'Hello' by Celeste Buckingham, It has 2 restarts on walls 3 & 6 but both feel quite natural and were no problem for us. The script isn't available yet but as it was in the pack of scripts that were available you can view it here and you can watch the video below.
Skyrider
The last dance Robbie taught was 'Skyrider', a fantastic 48 count, 4 wall improver level line dance which really reminds me of his hit from last year 'Tell the world' not only because of the similar song track name - 'Take on the world-Summer Remix' by Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard but also due to the beat, the dance steps and the general rhythm of this. I think this could potentially be quite a big dance I certainly had a 'feeling' about it, and it is perfect for the summer. I only wish I had a video for it to show you. Unfortunately after the initial teach and dance, Robbie did not recap this one when he recapped the other dances so unfortunately I don't have a video for this one :-( As soon as I do I will upload it but you can view the script by clicking here and you can listen to the track by clicking below (audio only on video).
So that's it for today, I hope you enjoyed reading and if you liked the look of any of these dances in particularly please let me know in the comments below - as for the dances you should keep an eye on for me the two stand out dances were 'Mirror Mirror' and 'Skyrider' - I guess we shall just have to watch this space to see what happens with both of those.
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