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.

Welcome to this week's review of Episode 6 of Live Laugh Line Dance. I have to say I'm really enjoying the new format, particularly the addition of the new presenter Rob Fowler. One of the particularly good things about the show now is the variety of dances shown each week, with both old and new dances in the mix, and the clips shown are compilations of various clubs dancing to the tracks and it's great to see the different classes each dance in their own unique way and with their own moves.

This week's show opened to Peter and Alison's "Sinatra & Chardonnay", which is a nice little improver dance to a proper country track which is very catchy to sing along to. The dance fits well to the music, it's a 2 wall dance and the tags are very straightforward so it's not too intimidating to improver dancers.

The second dance featured was the Crystal Boot Award winning "Ticket to the Blue" by Niels Poulsen. A fantastic beginner dance, this dance is still filling floors and currently sits at 7th in Line Dancer Magazine's Top 50 Chart and from what I've seen there are no signs of this disappearing any time soon.

"Chill Factor" was the 'Guess the Dance' Feature, I danced this myself at a social last night and I have to say it is still one of the best dances out there (Yes I'm biased as I've already declared this as my favourite). There is just something about he dance and the music that it doesn't matter if you aren't feeling great or have been having a bad day - this dance will leave you with a smile on your face by the end and gets your adrenaline pumping.

The next dance was by a lesser known choreographer, Gary Samms. His record on Line Dancer indicates he is a newer choreographer on the scene but despite this he seems to have some great talent, with a great little dance to a fantastic track that really makes me want to get up and dance. I definitely think he is a dancer to watch out for in the future and I also applaud LLL for giving lesser known choreographers the opportunity to showcase their talents.

Our final track was "Making History", which is Craig Bennett's last choreography before he retires. Its a great track and dance for him to end on - A way to go out on top and this dance is still very popular in our class. A great way for Craig to go out on top.

That's it for this week - here are the scripts from line dancer for you to view


Sinatra & Chardonnay - Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs (Imp)
Ticket to the Blues - Niels Poulsen (Beg)
Chill Factor - Daniel Whittaker & Hayley Westhead (Int)
Superstar - Gary Samms (Imp)
Making History - Craig Bennett, Dee Musk & Simon Ward (Int)

Please let me know which was your favourite in the comments below and also check out the new Facebook page by clicking the link in the sidebar.

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)

So I heard the new Little Mix track 'Love me like you' and I loved it!

It was the perfect music for a Beginner level dance and I more or less choreographed this in 5 minutes whilst at my desk at work (without even having the music to hand).

Unfortunately the song name is very similar to Ellie Goulding's Love me like you do so I decided to choose a completely different name - Its a dance to "Little" mix, the song is called "Love" me like you do and it's a "cha cha" - not very original I know - But it works lol!

Billy and his Newliner's class were kind enough to have a go at this last night and their efforts are fantastic - especially as some of the dancers were absolute beginners on their first week - I think you'll agree some of them did very well!

I've uploaded this to youtube and you can view the script here

Links to Copperknob & Linedancer will be updated as and when these are available.

Let me know what you think

I came across a lovely track the other day when listening to one of my partner's new CD's. He is a mobile DJ and is always receiving new CD's with the latest music on and every now and then I get to hear a track which perhaps hasn't really hit the mainstream yet.

That's how I came to hear the song 'Boomerang' by Emin and featuring Nile Rogers. The minute I heard the track I knew it was perfect for a line dance and with the phrasing of the music I knew it would make a great 32 count dance.

I put the music on and pretty much danced the first 24 counts right there and then before adding on the end. The only down side is that with the phrasing of the music you either need to have 2 restarts or a tag. I was going to go for restarts - it seemed to work ok but then I realised my first restart meant restarting the dance on the front wall and that wasn't going to work for me.

A 16 count tag is also quite big by line dance standards but then I remembered one of my favourite classic dance's "Patient Heart" also had a similar length tag in so I knew I could make it work. I put together something simple and that was it - all done. I had written a 32 count, 4 wall improver dance.

My next problem was getting the dance videoed - I'm not a fan of videoing dances in people's houses, I think it looks better on a dance floor and gives more of an accurate idea of how much floor space is needed for the dance. I am not a line dance instructor, I don't have my own class, or my own hall but on Thursday I was asked to cover my friend's class. It was the perfect opportunity to get my dance videoed and here is the finished product, "Like a Boomerang":

Click here to view the script.

Or click the relevant website below to view the script at each
Line Dancer Magazine
Copperknob

Thank you

This weeks episode review comes slightly late so apologies for that.

Eagle eyed reviewers may have noted that there was no episode 45 review and this was due to the episode broadcast being a recap episode and so I have decided to carry on with episode 46.

As usual if you haven't yet watched this, stop reading now and click here to watch this weeks episode.

Episode 46 Review

This week our usual presenters Hills and Nikki were back and the episode kicked off with "Lay Low" by Darren Bailey choreographed to the track of the same name by Josh Turner. This is a lovely improver dance which I particularly like.

The next dance was "New Shade of Blue" choreographed by Yvonne Anderson to the track of the same name by Southern Pacific. This easy improver dance looks lovely to dance to with only 2 restarts and the laid back style of the dance and relaxed speed makes this look like a great dance to do.

"Superheroes" was this weeks offering by Maggie Gallagher (for a review of her recent event at Woodstock click here) This advanced dance to The Script is looking like a good candidate for the advanced dance of the year at the 2016 Crystal Boot Awards.

Back to Bracklesham Bay next and the dance "Walk with me" by Rob Fowler a 48 count 2 wall dance to Would you go with me by Josh Turner. (The second of his to feature, must be Josh Turner week!) Love the upbeatness of this track and whilst I haven't done this it looks like a great dance and there don't appear to be any restarts/ tags in this which in my book is even better.

Robbie McGowan Hickie's offering this week was "Crazy For You" a 64 Count Intermediate dance on 2 walls. The music for this is very 50s/60s inspired with 'shoopy' style music, and the dance really seems to incorporate this.

Trivia time! I've learnt something new - "Simplemente" by Kate Sala was originally called 'Heaven Sent' - Our Classic dance for episode 45, this dance was originally choreographed in 2005 and I remember the music for this one so I think I may have done it at some point. I still love this music and I think this would be a great blast from the past - particularly as there are not many latino inspired dances around just at the moment.

This weeks party dance was the partner dance "Tempted" performed by Glenn Rogers and Natalie from Calico. A fun little dance perfect for socials and live music act events, we don't see enough of this dance. I still love the track as much as the first time I heard it this really is another classic dance!

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 (It's easier to link to them than line dancer magazine)

Dances featured:

Lay Low - Darren Bailey (Imp)
New Shade of Blue - Yvonne Anderson (Imp)
Superheroes - Maggie G (Adv)
Walk with me - Rob Fowler (Int)
Crazy for you - Robbie McGowan Hickie (Int)
Simplemente - Kate Sala (Int)
Tempted - John & Janette Sandham (beg)

WHEN DID YOU FIRST START LINE DANCING?

I started line dancing in early 2002 with my Mum when I was 15. Initially we attended a beginner class for an hour once a week in Gloucester but within a year or so we started  staying on for the intermediate class. I was hooked!

WHAT WERE THE FIRST DANCES YOU LEARNED?

Back then dances were either considered Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, and whilst I can't remember what my first advanced dance was I remember learning Cowgirl Twist in my first beginner class and when we first stayed on for the intermediate class we learned She Bangs!

HOW OFTEN DO YOU DANCE?

Right now? Once a week. A few years ago when I was really hooked I would dance 2-3 times a week on average, but now that I have a partner (aka Line Dance widow) and a young baby, I only dance once a week. I would dance more often if I could but I'm also working part time now and at the moment once a week is the best I can do. (unless you count dancing in my living room lol).

WHAT STYLES OF MUSIC DO YOU LIKE TO DANCE TO?

Anything with a good beat, I like anything from Country to Pop. I do like something I can sing along too (even if I don't know the language)

WHAT EXPERIENCE DO YOU HAVE WITH TEACHING & CHOREOGRAPHY?

I have covered classes for teachers who are not available/sick. I occasionally help out a friend by teaching the odd dance in his class. I have also run charity socials - in 2012 I did a charity line dance for Children in Need. My partner runs a mobile disco so between us we have all the equipment we need.

On the choreography front, I started writing dances in 2006 and one of my dances was published in line dancer magazine in 2008. I also have competed in the LineDancer Magazine Choreography Competition in 2009 and 2010 with some success. (I was a finalist in 2009).I have not been choreographing much in recent years as I met my partner in 2011 and line dancing has been less of a priority until recently when I have started going regularly again.

WHAT'S YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE DANCE?

Chill Factor - fantastic dance. I've never seen anything like it and there is nothing else like it around. It is completely unique and that's why I love it.

What is your favourite dance? Please tell me by commenting below.