I think I have just about recovered from yesterday. My feet are still quite sore, my throat is hoarse (from singing/talking I think) I'm shattered and am unable to do anything mentally taxing but other than that I'm ok because I'm still riding high on the euphoria from yesterday (and the weekend in general).
Yesterday was one of my all time best days of line dancing in my life, if not the best!
We were celebrating the 5th Anniversary of Boogie Shoes run by Jamie Barnfield in the Gloucestershire area and what was even better was that we were joined by Maggie Gallagher!
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| Photo of Jamie courtesy of Julie Rudge |
The day kicked off at 2pm rather appropriately with Maggie's 'Second Hand Heart', a former number one hit in the Linedancer Magazine chart which currently is in second place. Even at that early stage the floor was full and throughout the day I think there was rarely a time when it wasn't full which wasn't really surprising as we had over 120 dances throughout the day.
We also danced Maggie's 'Sax' which she taught here for the first time when she visited us late last year so it felt very special to have the opportunity to dance 'our dance' with Maggie in the same room where she originally taught us.
Here we are dancing it the first time she taught us (in November) and the floor was even busier this time!
Moving on to the teaches, Maggie taught 4 dances and these were as follows:
Bring on the Good Times
Maggie co-choreographed this dance with Gary O'Reilly and it's a fun little dance to a lovely upbeat country dance track which I am still humming away to almost 24 hours later. It's a 32 Count, 4 wall beginner dance to a track of the same name by Lisa McHugh. I love the steps on this one and it fits really well to the music. There are 2 restarts (or as I think Maggie put it one restart that you do twice) both on the front wall and they are really obvious in the music as you do them after the artists sings 'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday too...' on both occasions so you can hear it coming. The restarts themselves are also very easy to do so although this is a beginner dance there is no reason this should put anyone off.
If you want to view the script you can click here to view on Linedancer Magazine's website and you can view the video I took below:
Corazon Diamanté (Diamond Heart)
This dance was a collaboration between Maggie G., Gary O'Reilly & Roy Verdonk and is a fabulous dance to a hot latino track by the even hotter Enrique Iglesias called 'Duele El Corazon' (so glad I don't have to say that as I have no idea how to pronounce it.) The dance is a 48 count, 2 wall intermediate line dance with 2 restarts but as you can see from the video below neither restart threw any one off. I really loved the steps in this and the dance felt really unique with reverse samba steps which I've not done in any dance before. There's also a really good opportunity to put your own 'stamp' on this dance and I'm looking forward to seeing this one danced in the future as it has a lot of potential for putting in your own individual personality and dance experiences into.
To view the script click here to view on Linedancer Magazine's website. You can view my recording of the dance below.
Hey Boy Hey Girl
This is a 24 count, 2 wall improver dance to a track of the same name by Jive Aces feat. Rebecca Grant. It's a great track for those who love rock and roll and the dance goes really well too. There are 2 restarts (a feature of the day?) but these are not intimidating and none of our dancers had any real problems with these. It's quite unusual to have a 24 count dance, we don't get many of them but this is a good dance and its very easy to get into the rhythm of it.
To view the script click here to view on Linedancer Magazine's website. Unfortunately we only did the dance once so I didn't video it however Maggie has previously had the dance videoed when she taught it in Ireland so you can view the video previously taken below.
Stand by you
This was Maggie's final teach of the day, and was only known to a handful of people in the room which is why she decided to go ahead with the teach. I'm so glad she did, I've featured this dance before on a previous post but I've never had the opportunity to learn it despite loving the track which has also been played on several occasions on Ranch Dance Radio. The dance itself was the hardest one we did on the day without a doubt but it was also my favourite. The dance is an Advanced, 60 count, 2 wall dance choreographed to a track of the same name by Rachel Platten. There are 3 restarts which take some getting used to but as you can see in my video below this didn't seem to faze the dancers which is good. I actually think this might be a potential nominee for the advanced category of the CBA's next year - I guess we will have to wait and see.
To view the script on Linedancer magazine click here or scroll down to view the video.
So those were the teaches during the day, Jamie also recapped Boogaloo with Maggie as he's been doing that one in his class and it was really great to dance it with her as well.
Evening Social
After an hours break for dinner (and a change of clothes for the majority) the evening social then started and as well as recapping some of the dances Maggie had taught earlier in the day we did some of her older dances such as Caribbean Pearl, Gambling Man and Superheroes.
Maggie also did a demo of Gerry's Reel which you can view below which is to a proper Irish track by the Corrs and which sounds very much in the style of some of the Riverdance music. When I first heard the music a few months ago I thought it pretty much had Maggie's name written all over it so I emailed it to her. She choreographed Gerry's Reel to it and this was actually the first time I'd seen it danced in the flesh (so to speak). I also understand that her Irish Dance Troupe Celtica intend to use the track in their showcase so I really hope I get the opportunity to go and see that.
If you want to view the script click here or to view the video scroll down.
Eagle eyed viewers may also have noticed that we also had some other guests who you most likely will have heard of. You can see them dancing above (they are all so talented!) and they were Joyce Plaskett and Steve and Claire Rutter. Steve and Joyce also gave us a demo of 'Seize the moment' which was co-choreographed by Joyce and was a beautiful dance. Unfortunately my camera was throwing a wobbly at that moment so the video I took didn't come out right but you can view the dance script by clicking on the link above which also has a video.
During the day we danced 'Lipstick, Powder and Paint' and Jamie asked Steve and Claire to come to the stage to lead the dance for which they had won the Crystal Boot Award in the absolute beginner dance category - so it was brilliant to have an opportunity to dance with them as well.
I also had the opportunity to talk to Steve and Claire and I'm hoping to do a feature on them in the near future so please keep your eyes peeled for that.
I'm going to finish there and I just want to end by saying thank you to Maggie, Jamie, Johnny and Lynne for such a great event, everyone I spoke to was really enjoying themselves and the atmosphere was fantastic.
Thanks for reading - please let me know which was your favourite dance in the comments below and don't forget to use the like and share buttons below.
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