Just a quick recap post today I'm afraid, as my little boy is refusing to nap for any more than half an hour/ hour at the most meaning that I'm barely getting chores done let alone trying to write blog posts - the fun of being a parent to a 16 month old...

Here are the dancers featured on each show with the corresponding script links on Linedancer Magazine's website:

Episode 7 

Strip it down - Rachael McEnaney-White (Int)
Peaches & Cream - Peter Metelnick & Alison Biggs (Beg)
Buy Me a Rose - Rob Fowler (Imp)
Pop 'n Drop - Dee Musk & Ria Vos (Int)
Way Way Back - Guillaume Richard (Int)
Jukebox - Jo Thompson Szymanski (Int)

Episode 8

Eternal Secret - Ria Vos (Int)
Feeling kinda lonely - Margaret Swift (AB)
Swamp Thang - Max Perry (Beg)
Gold Watch - Kate Sala (Int)
Amazing Faith - Rob Fowler (Int)

That's all for now. Please keep an eye out for my next post on the Maggie G Experience weekend in Southport - I wasn't there but I know a lot of people who were there and have details of the dances taught.

Watch this space...

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.

Episode 50's review is very late so sorry about that but it has been a very busy couple of days, with the start of the festive period and various festive activities on my schedule.

I actually watched this weeks episode over a week ago but it has taken until now to sit down and write up this weeks episode so if you haven't seen it yet please click here and select episode 50 to watch the show,

Episode 50

This weeks episode opened with an old favourite of mine which I have not danced in years. The dance was "Drip Droppin' "by Kate Sala, which has also featured on the show before. I remember when this dance came out a few years ago it was one of several dances to Alexandra Burke songs which were popular back then. Do you remember dancing "Playing with fire" or "Broken Heels" ? I'm ashamed to admit that I don't think I could do any of these now :-(

The next dance seen was "Is it over?" by Fred Whitehouse & Niels Poulsen to a track by Wynona Judd, this looks like a great dance beautiful to watch so I'll keep my eyes peeled for this one as I've not come across this yet.

"Dream lover" was the next dance we saw. Choreographed by Daniel Whittaker, this dance is great for Improvers and goes really well to the music. (I particularly like the touch steps in the dance). The music is good fun to sing along to as well as long as you remember to keep on dancing!

We've seen "Alcazar" quite a few times recently by Robbie McGowan-Hickie & Karl-Harry Winson, Karl Harry Winson is very popular at the moment with several of his dances in the linedancer magazine charts and no fewer than 6 nominations in the CBA Awards for 2016. My favourite of his is currently "Get up get down" but I don't think this has featured on the show yet, possibly a suggestion for a future episode.

"Please me" is an interesting dance with a "Bridge" which you don't see in line dancing very often, I've not done this one but one of my classes has just taught this on a weekend away so I'm sure I'll get the opportunity soon. "Please me" is a Dee Musk & Kate Sala dance. Dee Musk is someone who we've been seeing a lot of recently of on Live Laugh Line Dance and her dances have been doing very well lately. I'm looking forward to learning this one.

The floorfiller, "Uptown Funk" was next which is still a great dance to dance to - It's been around for a year now as we were dancing this after I had my little boy, and this little dance has also received a CBS nomination in the Intermediate category. I still enjoy doing this and hope it's around for a bit longer. That is something I've noticed with the majority of today's selection. Few of these are very recent which is a shame with so many great dances around at the moment.

The final dance of the evening was "Wave on wave" - our blast from the past of the week. We've seen this one on the show before but it is an absolute classic and still one I enjoy doing (if I can remember it!)

That's it for today's review - I'll upload a review for the latest episode 51 later this week, for now here are the scripts from this weeks episode. Enjoy!

Drip Droppin - Kate Sala (Adv)
Is it over? - Fred Whitehouse & Niels Poulsen (Int)
Dream Lover - Daniel Whittaker (Imp)
Alcazar - Robbie McGowan Hickie & Karl Harry Winson (Int)
Please me - Dee Musk & Kate Sala (Int)
Uptown Funk - Rob Fowler (Int)
Wave on Wave - Alan Birchall (Imp)

Wow I can't believe we're over half way through November already and I find myself sitting here writing this weeks blog entry with proper November weather going on outside and the threat of snow forecast for the weekend.

After last weeks disappointing episode of live laugh line dance! I am really hoping this week is much better so let's see shall we?

Episode 49

We open this week with "Ticket to the blues" by Niels Poulsen - which is currently number 4 in the Linedancer magazine charts. This excellent beginner dance has slowly been winding its way up the charts and is rightly very popular. I do find this slightly difficult to do as I did Yvonne Anderson's dance "Eruption" to the same music a few years ago and I still remember some of the steps from that dance and have to be careful that I don't go into them when I'm dancing.

The second track of the show was "Cecilia" by Willie Brown & Heather Barton - such a great dance and both have recently been nominated for a cba for this dance and very well deserved. I actually met Willie a few years ago at the Linedancer Magazine choreography competition of 2008 where we competed against each other and he is a really lovely chap so I hope to cross paths with him again soon. I'm also really enjoying his and Heathers dance "The real deal" so hope to see more of this soon.

"Your loving arms" came next by Vikki Morris and it was great to finally put a face to a name. This is a beautiful dance and has been very popular locally although unfortunately I don't know this one. My favourite of hers is "Troublemaker" a dance that I still enjoy doing now but I think I'll have to learn this one. 

We then had two offerings from Alison Biggs and Peter Metelnick "Waiting tables" and "Let's go stumblin'" - I haven't actually come across either of these but I have to admit that I really like the look of "Let's go stumblin'". The music is a nice country rock and roll style dance and the dance goes really well - a possible future hit? We'll see.

This weeks episode finished on and old favourite of mine "Closer", It is so nice to see this as we don't  really see it enough - a real classic - Can't believe it's 13 years old - Wow!. Next social I go to, I know what I'll be requesting.

Scripts:

Ticket to the blues Niels Poulsen (Beg)
Cecilia Heather Barton & Willie Brown (Imp)
Your Loving Arms Vikki Morris (Int)
Waiting Tables Alison Biggs & Peter Metelnick (Int)
Let's go stumblin' Alison Biggs & Peter Metelnick (Beg)
Closer Mary Kelly (Imp)

I just want to end here by saying that this week's episode was a return to form and I enjoyed watching it. The show has a long way to go to become really great but I think it's back on the right track.

What do you think? Please comment below.

Welcome to this weeks review of Live Laugh Line Dance! - If you haven't watched Episode 48 the please click here to watch  Episode 48, otherwise please keep reading.

Episode 48

Before I discuss this week's episode I just want to say that I usually really enjoy watching Live! Laugh! Linedance! It's great to see what other clubs are doing across the country and beyond, to see the great line dance personalities on our screen, and the latest dances with the odd classic thrown in which makes you go 'ooh I used to do that etc.' But I have to say I was very disappointed with this weeks episode.

Classics

This was the theme of this weeks show, but all of the video clips shown have been broadcast in previous episodes and this was just a mismatch of old clips. The classics shown were: (Scripts linked in title)

Vertical Expressions - Vera Fisher & Teresa Lawrence (Int)

Shania's moment - Nathan Easey (Int)

Red hot salsa - Christina Browne (Beg) (to the longest track ever I swear)

Lamtarra Rhumba - Tony Chapman (Int)

Swamp Thang - Max Perry (Int)

Just a Memory - John Dean & Maggie Gallagher (Int)

Scotia Samba - Liz Clark & Bev Clarke (Int)

Now, before anyone gets on their high horse to defend the classics, I love all of the dance's above and I actually think a classics episode is a brilliant idea, but it would have been nice to see some of the other classic dances we do like Into the Arena & Shakatak (You can probably think of many others) and new clips - not clips recycled from previous episodes - Just a Memory was from Christmas last year (either that or someone has had a very early Christmas social this year), 

The other issue is that we only had a 'recap' show a few weeks ago, which yet again was a compilation show of previously shown clips. I could even understand if these episodes were broadcast over Christmas or the Summer holidays, perhaps if the crew wasn't available but to have this show now at a time when there are a lot of line dance weekends going on, the crystal boot nominations have been announced and dancing is very popular with the return of Strictly - it just seems silly to me, particularly with new video's being uploaded on file sharing websites like youtube and facebook week on week.

If it was to be a compilation show, why not all the CBA nominees so we can be reminded as to what we're voting for with voting details for each one 'a la' tv talent shows. Why not a current chart playlist (although how you'd work that out at the moment I wouldn't have a clue!), a compilation of up and coming choreographers or even a classic episode showing different footage and more dances rather than wasting 5 minutes of screen time on Red Hot Salsa!

I miss the line dance chat and interviews - yes Nicki Sharon spoke to Alison Biggs about the up and coming live laugh line dance! party's but they've been promoting those for a while now and I want to know more about what is going on on the line dance scene in general not just when they are filming next.

I know they filmed at Bracklesham bay and I'm sure there has been filming since then so where is the rest of the footage from this as we've seen next to nothing.

Come on Live Laugh Line Dance! You can do better than this!

Do you agree with me? Please comment below whatever your opinion

Welcome to this weeks review of Live Laugh Line Dance! - If you haven't watched Episode 47 - I don't want to spoil the fun for you so please, stop reading, click here and watch the current week (47 at time of writing) episode.

Episode 47

This weeks episode was hosted by the lovely Hillary Kurt Webster as Nikki Sharon was at a line dance event. Hillary always comes across as a really fun, but down to earth character so I do hope I get a chance to meet her at some point.

Episode 47 kicked off with "The Bomp" a favourite of the Live! Laugh! Linedance! team as it has appeared several times on the show and is still very popular on both Linedancer and Copperknob. This recording was made at the Bracklesham Bay weekend and it features Kim Ray dancing in the 2nd Row (dressed in red) It has also been nominated as the Improver dance of the year at the Crystal Boot Awards - (nominations for the CBA's will be discussed separately in a further post).

Alison and Peter then introduced "Knee Deep", an improver dance of theirs from 5 years ago (has it really been that long?), I haven't danced this one in a while but I remember it being a lovely little dance, to a great track by the Zac Brown Band - a good one to sing along to and also one of the first revivals of the "walking around in a circle" steps which is very popular right now and found in a lot of dances.

"Goodbye California" was this week's entry from Rob Fowler, - this is new to me but I really love the music and the dance seems to go really well.

Next up we had a short piece from Nikki who was (very appropriately) dressed up for what appeared to be a halloween outfit for a themed night on her weekend away. In the piece she encouraged dancers to go on line dance weekends away with their clubs (which I very much encourage) - for those who haven't been I can promise you that once you've been on one weekend you will definitely want to go on another.

Ria Vos, is a very popular name in line dancing at the moment. Recently she has written some lovely dances of which I count "No man's land," this is a beautiful dance but unfortunately the video was not that impressive. Well to be frank it was a bit of a mess... dancers going all over the place, very few people knowing what they were doing... but at least they looked like they were having fun :-D I'd also like to give a special mention to the lady in the pink top at the front - whilst all hell was breaking loose around her she kept going (and to me that's what line dancing is all about.)

The next dance was "Wasn't expecting that," by Richard Palmer and Lorna Dennis. I've heard this song on a number of occasions, it's beautiful and emotional and incredibly sad at the end (if you ever watch the artist music video please have a box of tissues to hand). 

The Classic dance this week was Kathy Hunyadi's "The One for Me" which I have never come across before however it's a fun little dance to a lovely track by the Rascal Flatts (one of my favourite country bands) and I hope it pops up again in the future.

In honour of the Halloween theme of last weeks episode the music over the credits in this weeks episode were replaced with "The 'Rogers' Mash" Glenn Rogers own take on the famous 'Monster Mash'. It was a fun one to listen to and I laughed a few times, it makes a nice change from the usual music on the end credits.

That's all I have time for today. Scripts for all dances featured in this weeks episode are featured below. I also have no affiliation to the TV Show whatsoever. Please feel free to add any comments below on your thoughts for this week's episode.

The Bomp Kim Ray (Imp)

Knee Deep Alison Biggs & Peter Metelnick (Imp)

Goodbye California Rob Fowler (Int)

No Man's Land Ria Vos (Int)

Wasn't Expecting That Richard Palmer & Lorna Dennis (Imp)

The One for Me Kathy Hunyadi (Imp)