Wow it's April - can you believe it? This year is going so fast and I have so many lovely occasions to look forward to in the next few months starting with today. I am going to Woodstock, Ox. to see Robbie McGowan Hickie and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll update you on how I get on and what dances I learn later but for now here is a recap of the dances taught on the latest 2 episodes of Live Laugh Linedance!

Episode 9

I see me - Tina Argyle - (Imp)
Mamma Maria Frank Trace - (AB)
Evergreen - Karen (Hunn) Hadley - (Int)
Overloading - Gary O'Reilly (Int)
Precious Time - Pam Pike (Beg)

Episode 10

Locklin's Bar - Maggie Gallagher - (Imp)

Thinkin' Country - Simon Ward - (Beg)

Hey Hey Hallelujah - Dee Musk, Rob Fowler, Shelley Guichard & Conor McVeigh (Int)

Islands in the Stream - Karen Jones - (Int)

Darling Hold My Hand - Neville Fitzgerald & Julie Harris (Int)

Lipstick Powder and Paint - Steve and Claire Rutter - (AB)

The Real Deal - Willie Brown & Heather Brown - (Int)

That's it for today - but please keep an eye out for my next post in which I review the Robbie McGowan Hickie workshop I am attending today. I shall be posting this in the next few days.

Winning Dances

Absolute Beginner - Lipstick Powder & Paint by Stephen & Claire Rutter

Beginner - Ticket to the Blues by Niels Poulsen

Improver - The Bomp by Kim Ray

Intermediate & Dance of the Year - Uptown Funk by Rob Fowler

Advanced - Shades of Passion by Rob Fowler

Dance of the Decade - Beautiful in my Eyes by Simon Ward

Congratulations to all of the winners - I'm sure we'll be dancing the above dances for many years to come. I look forward to what line dancing has to bring over the next 12 months and look forward to seeing the 21st CBA awards (no I don't have tickets).

My next post will be a review of the Karl-Harry Winson event I attended in Abingdon.

Welcome to this weeks review of Live Laugh Line Dance (Episode 51)  the last episode of 2015 until the show returns in 2016. I'm a bit late watching this so if you also haven't watched this yet please click here to catch up on Episode 51.

Episode 51

This weeks episode was a look back at the dances being danced and the personalities who were featured on the show. The episode opened with an interview by Nikki Sharon with Rob Fowler at the Bracklesham Bay Summer Ball where he was a featured choreographer. He mentioned his current projects specifically "Legends in Line" the aim of which is to preserve the classic dances and to teach those to people who may have missed this the first time around or as Rob Fowler described it, "A tribute and a celebration of all the dances that we've danced on the dance floor for 20 years." It sounds brilliant, and I know we are considering this as one of our options for a dance weekend next year.

The first interview was followed by the opening dance "Price of Admission" choreographed by Daniel Trepat, Darren Bailey, Magali Chabret & Rob Fowler. This dance was taught at the Bracklesham Bay Weekend and is a lovely dance to a nice country song of the same name by Bradley Walker.

Hillary Kurt Webster than interviewed Karl Harry Winson also at the Bracklesham Bay, they were discussing the various genre's of music and styles of dances that we are currently enjoying dancing too. Hills also complimented Karl on his success at the 2015 CBA's where he walked away with three awards for Male Dance Personality, UK Instructor & Dance of the Year (with Robbie McGowan Hickie) for "Alcazar". This year he has been nominated for UK Choreographer, UK instructor, Male Dance Personality, Intermediate Dance for "Your Place or mine" (with Ria Vos & Robbie Mcgowan Hickie), and Advanced Dance for "The Remix" (With Yvonne Anderson) along with "Alcazar" for Dance of the Decade so I think he has a good chance of winning in at least one category.

The next dance featured was "Pop 'n' Drop" by Dee Musk and Ria Vos (also one of my current favourite dances) and was another dance taught at the BB weekend. This dance goes so well to the music whilst being a bit of a challenge as well - good fun to dance to.

We then had a brief entertainment with OGR sound (Glenn Roger's family) before moving on to "Shut up and Dance," choreographed by the shows sponsors Alison Biggs and Peter Metelnick. This is actually my favourite pop song of 2015 and the dance looks brilliant. Unfortunately, in the region where I dance this wasn't widely danced and I don't recall it going high in the charts (it's currently 37th in the intermediate line dancer magazine charts) which is a shame, compared to "Black Magic" which is still riding high at number 4.

Nicky then interviewed  John and Jo Kinser who talked about their 30 years in line dance and reminisced about the various workshops that used to exist including workshops on technique. This has been a hot topic of discussion recently on both the line dancer magazine facebook page and also within my own class. Some of the instructors such as Rachael McEnaney-White do include tips on styling when teaching their dances but this is not widespread. I know several people in my own class are interested in doing a workshop on Styling and Technique so it would be interesting to see whether anything comes of this.

Our next dance was "Gods of Love," by Dee Musk a great track and a good one to sing along too (the track is very catchy). Dee was also a featured choreographer at the BB weekend and was interviewed by Nikki where they discussed Dee touring all over the world, from Japan to Rio and visiting Europe in between - she is very popular at the moment and has been nominated for 5 CBA's for 2016, UK Choreographer, UK Instructor, Female Dance Personality, Improver Dance (Heavenly Cha) & Dance of the Decade (Little Red Book) so I expect to see her to walk away with at least one of the awards.

The final dance this weekend was old favourite "Patient Heart" which has seen a massive surge in popularity in recent years and is regularly a floor filler at my local classes, a great sing along track this will be around for many years to come.

That's all for today - here are the scripts for the dances featured in the episode:
Price of Admission Daniel Trepat, Darren Bailey, Magali Chabret & Rob Fowler (Imp)
Pop n Drop Dee Musk & Ria Vos (int)
Shut up and Dance Alison Biggs & Peter Metelnick (int)
Gods of Love Dee Musk (Imp)
Patient Heart Michael Vera-Lobos & Lisa Foord (Int)

Several months ago, whilst channel hopping on a Thursday night, I came across something rather interesting. A tv show called Live! Laugh! Line Dance! was just starting, and being stuck at home on maternity leave with a baby who'd only just gone to bed, I sat down to watch whilst eating my hastily prepared dinner.

I have to confess I was a bit sceptical of what the content was likely to be. Line dancing in the UK is seen by many as tongue-in-cheek and rarely gets the attention and respect it deserves, but when I saw that it was produced by one of my favourite line dance personalities, Glenn Rogers, my hopes were lifted and once I'd watched my first episode, I felt it was a true and accurate picture of line dancing right across the UK (based on my own experience).

The show is now on during a Saturday afternoon on Showcase TV at 15.00 and is part of my regular weekly tv viewing, so with the start of this blog, I have decided to write a review of each week's episode.

If you've not watched it yet - stop reading and click here and check you are watching episode 44. If not click here and choose number 44.

Episode 44

This week's episode was hosted by internationally renowned choreographers Alison Biggs and Peter Metelnick (Dance Factory UK) who are also sponsors of the show.

The show opened with Karl Harry Winson's "Alcazar", a great dance which has the capacity to fill the floor wherever it is played. The video clip on the show was taken at the Bracklesham Bay Summertime Ball in August 2015, which some of my own friends attended, and if you look very closely I believe that is Karl Harry dancing in the 4th row on the left side (from the front) after he popped in on the weekend.

The next dance introduced was Kim Ray's "The Bomp" - currently no 1 in the Linedancer Magazine charts and a great track with steps that remind me slightly of Miller Magic (remember that one?). Alison and Peter also reminisced about some of Kim's previous dances, namely a dance to Pretty Woman (possibly called "Rodeo Drive"?) and also the very popular dance "It's up to you" which to this day is still one of my big favourites. I understand this was also danced at Bracklesham Bay so fingers crossed there is some video of this to come in a future episode.

"Hit the Base" was the next dance to be shown. I've not dance this yet but I think this is going to be a big hit - it's showing as 4th most viewed on Copperknob and is also one of Line Dancer Magazine's most viewed dances. It's a great dance by the fabulous Daniel Whittaker to music which has a great beat - I'm really looking forward to doing this one.

"Tell the World" has been a very popular dance in recent months for choreographer Robbie McGowan Hickie. A fun dance for Improvers which is fairly easy to grasp and with music which most of us have come across on the TV adverts for Windows 10 (I wonder if the person in charge of UK marketing for Microsoft is a line dancer?).

Moving on, our classic dance this week is the amazing "Shania's Moment" by Nathan Easey. I love this dance, it really shows line dancing at its best and I think it's a dance all line dancers must learn. It's danced everywhere and its great if you want to add your own variations as there is so much you can do with this. I hope this will be around for many years to come.

"Tuesday Blues", is a new dance and one I have to say I am not familiar with. It's choreographed by Simon Ward known for dances such as "Titanic", "Turn Me Loose," and "Outta Control". The music is Elton John's, 'I guess that's why they call it the blues" and from the video the dance looks like it fits really well to the music. I'm sure we'll probably be seeing more of this one soon, I can see its the 2nd most viewed dance on Copperknob already and its also one of the most viewed dances on Line Dancer Magazine too.

The show ended on "Hit the Road Jack" a fun little improver dance from a few years ago by Alison and Peter. This still seems very popular as I've seen it danced at classes, socials and events this year and I think its another dance that will stick around for a few years yet.

That's it for today. A full list of the dances featured on the show are listed below with links to the scripts on Copperknob (its easier to link to them than line dancer magazine)

Dances featured:(with links to Copperknob for scripts)

Alcazar - Karl Harry Winson & Robbie McGowan Hickie (Int)

The Bomp - Kim Ray (Imp)

Hit the Base - Daniel Whittaker (Int)

Tell the World - Robbie McGowan Hickie (Imp)

Shania's Moment - Nathan Easey (Imp)

Tuesday Blues - Simon Ward (High Int)

Hit the Road Jack - Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs (Imp)

What did you think of this weeks show? Please add your comments below.