2011-09-16 Class numbers fall due to Holidays but those that come along still want to learn new dances, so those that return after long breaks will need extra help to learn all that they have missed.
Some of my dancers, and myself, went over to the Annual Fundraiser outdoor Line Dance held on Lord Street in Southport, naturally it rained! I had driven over early to have a look round, I slipped on some moss growing on a mud patch on the beach, trying to save myself, I wrenched my knee. I still danced though, however it is still sore weeks later! 2011-05-13 Last week I had a call from a very nice lady who needed a Country Music D.J./ Line Dance Instructor for her Western themed party, well that's me, so I agreed to go along and play some 'Cool Country Sounds' and teach a few dances, out doors on a patio!
When I arrived, the whole house had 'Gone Country', with a Saloon in the kitchen, a 'Honky Tonk' piano player in the hall, a Bull Ride set up in the garden and a huge awning dressed up with lights and festooned with those little pointy USA flags that come on a long string. I didn't really need my Flags and Bunting, but used them anyway to dress up my music table and cover some of the straw bales for extra seating. The guests started to arrive, they had really made an effort, there were Poncho'd Gunslingers, rope wielding Cowboys, Native American Braves and Squaws, Mexicans in huge Sombreros, Saloon Girls and Ranchers wives, one lady turned up straight from 'The Little Big Horn' with an arrow through her head. A Western Film was being show on a screen and a camp fire waited to be lit, the food laid on was amazing in it's variety and amount, no 'Cowboy Chow' of tinned beans here! I was made as welcome as any guest, 'fed and watered', the Bull Ride was well used, quite a sight to see! After everyone had eaten, I taught some simple dances to a very enthusiastic bunch, then played 'The Good Stuff' on till 'A Quarter after 1' am, some of the guests knew their Country and made requests for tracks. I got home at 2 am, tired but happy! Happy to do more of these! 2011-05-03 Here we are in May, it is my 16 year Anniversary of teaching at Beesley Green Community Centre on the 13th, many of my dancers have been with me from the start, unfortunately we are all getting older, some have dropped out due to health problems, getting 'new blood' into an Intermediate/ Advanced class is difficult, those that attend the Beginner/ Improver level class think they'll be 'in the way', not true, 'they won't know all the dances', true but then, no-one does, including me!
We have had 2 weeks of Bank Holidays, like most women around the Country I was glued to the set, watching every move, admiring the dress, seeing the love and happiness of a genuine Royal couple, out they came onto the balcony, smiling turning towards each other for 'that kiss', and, my blooming phone rang! Yes ladies, it was a man, it could only be, couldn't it? I missed the Kiss!!! Arrrg! 2011-02-24 A lady wrote into a Linedance publcation to defend teaching Zumba, to be fair to her she made a good fist of it! This lady teaches a type of Zumba called 'Zumba Gold', it is actualy aimed at the more mature amongst us, so to be fair, I thought I would put that info on here, so if you want to have a go, look for someone who is advertising not just 'Zumba but 'Zumba Gold'! Apparently such instructors have a health questionaire that would be pupils have to fill in before they are allowed to participate!
. 2011-01-11 It's a New Year, Christmas pudding and Chocs have left their mark, so you and your pals decide to start going out to do something to get a little fitter. What better way than to Linedance off those extra inches? Linedancing is fun, it's sociable and you don't have to pour yourself into a lycra body suit to do it! When you find a class, perhaps through your local Newspaper or Yellow Pages, you would be forgiven for thinking that the person taking the class would be qualified as a Linedance Instructor? Not always the case I'm afraid, there are Cowboys in every profession, especialy so in this form of dance, people who have gone along to some lessons, thought, "I can do this, make some easy cash" Dance instructors these days normaly carry £5 Million's worth of insurance to cover possible injury claims made by their dancers. An unqualified person will not have the ability to get such Insurance. Unless a Dance Instructor has Qualifications and is a fully paid up Member of a Professional Dance Organisation, such as D&G Org for Western Dance, BWDA, IDTA, NTA for Western Dance etc the premiums for such a person would cost about as much as a family saloon car per year, that's if any insurance company would touch them, which I doubt! So think before you go along, does this teacher show qualifications? That is letters after his/her name, in a Studio expect to see Certificates on the wall. In a hired hall, such as Church or Community Centre, Posters advertising the class should have the Instructors FULL name and those all important letters proudly on show! If the poster says something like 'Linedance with Jo / Jolene, ask yourself why, the Butcher who sells you your meat, the pub you pop into for a pint, display who is offering the service ? I worked for 3 and 1/2 years to gain all my Qualifications, travelled the country to workshops, went through several examinations, paid all the fees to do so. I am happy to point anyone in the right direction if they wish to follow in my 'Bootsteps' and gain Qualifications in American Line Dance. I love my Profession, I hate Cowboy's, they dishonour my profession and put people in danger! If you are injured because an un-qualified person tells you to do something that is dangerous or just not suitable for you at your level of fitness or expertise, or even just slip or trip in their class, you are not insured, if anyone asks you to sign a 'waiver'/ 'at your own risk form', DON'T, you are paying them with your hard earned money, you are entitled to protection! If you are injured and have to take the teacher to a claims solicitor and you find that he/she is living in a council flat, driving an old banger, where do you go from there? Well, luckily, you actualy would have a claim against the Hall Hirer! Yes, the Church or whoever hired the Hall out to that person, they have a 'Duty of Care' to check that any person offering any type of exercize class or similar gathering is qualified to do so and is fully insured with a high rate of Public Liability Insurance. So, werever you live, please find a Qualified Instructor, and as they say on Crimewatch, don't have nightmares! Sleep well, dance safely! 2011-01-10 Today was the first day that I set off to Ashton-In-Makerfield, not merely to cover Ray's class, but to take it over, permanently!
I arrived in good time having driven a little over 16 miles from home, no extremes of weather to battle through, traffic on the East Lancs moving well. The 2 ladies who do the bar turned up with big smiles and 'Happy New Years', they certainly seemed glad to see me! I set up my 'new' second hand equiptment, I bought Ray's from him as it saves me lugging my heavier stuff between venues! 17 ladies turned up, 3 were new to the Brian Boru but had Linedanced elsewhere. We started off with some Classics to warm up then we got down to a bit of Irish for a faster beat and funny words, (The Little Shirt Me' Mother Made For Me) followed by 'A little bit 'a' Reggae' with Under The Sun Everyone worked hard and seemed to enjoy themselves, we'll see, if they come back next week, they liked it!!:¬} So, after 'downsizing' to 2 classes a few years ago, with Ashton I am now back up to 3! On arriving home, Badger, my cat was limping, unable to put his right back paw to the floor, a quick call to the vet and I'm back in the car driving him to the Veternary Hospital in Wardley, he had been bitten on one toe, it looked nasty, 2 injections and £68 later we are home, he's looking for treats and I'm looking forward to a quiet evening with the square eyed monster in the corner! After I've tweeked my website that is! 2011-01-10 BEND IT LIKE BEN! FOR A WORLD RECORD AND A NEW CHARITY!! On Friday 7th Jan 2011, just one week into a new year, I left my house and went out into a heavy snow fall.
After clearing the snow from my car drove down to Beesley Green Community Centre to meet up with would be World Record breaker Ben Hammond . Some of my lovely dancers braved the snow to be there, we had to start off without Ben, he was on his way from his 1st appointment of the day, over the other side of snowy Manchester. Ben was on a tight schedule, dashing to 3 different venues during the day, he turned up soaking wet on his fold upbike, we got straight down to some dancing. Ben really did well, his enthusiasm was quite catching, my dancers were very interested in what he had to tell them about Burma and the Charity he is setting up to help the children of Burma get an education, something we take for granted in this country. A lovely gentleman, 'Eddie from the Salford Advertiser was there to record the occaision for posterity :-} he was very patient, took loads of photo's. Ben then had to get straight to his next venue, a college near Manchester's famous 'Curry Mile' so we piled all his gear and his fold up onto the back seat of my car and I took him there with time to spare! 2010-12-07 Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all of my dancers and all who visit my website! In some parts of the country folk have had a difficult time getting around, no doubt many Linedance venues will have been unable to open in the worse affected areas. Most puzzling for me, one of my classes last week had 99% turnout, the other 25% turnout! Was the weather diffferent on each of these days? No, not at all. No actual snow fell till an hour and a half after the almost empty class had finished, the roads were clear, well gritted and traffic was flowing around the region. Here in Salford, we rarely get the extremes of weather that happen in, say, Scotland and Northumberland. It seems to me as if people see the snowdrifts and stranded motorists on the News, think that's going to happen to them, batten down the hatches and stay home! I came to this conclusion some time ago, when parts of the country were inundated by flash floods, most of you will recall the horror stories, flooded farms, lives in danger, police warnings? In Cumbria! However several of my dancers didn't turn up for their class. The following week one lady expained that having seen the floods on TV she thought she would take the Police's advice and stay home, after all, her journey wasn't really necessary, was it? I pointed out that the floods were 60/ 70 miles away from our area our venue at the time being at the top of a hill, (Station Road, Swinton) if we had had flooding, the people living in Worsley would be about a mile under water! She could'nt see it! :¬} 2010-11-26 Over the years I have experienced differing attitudes when attending other dance instructors venues, most are very happy to have another teacher and her dancers visit, it's more entry fees after all, but mainly it's good to see what dances others are doing, networking is good for both teachers.
On more than one occasion I have made a new friend ending up covering classes for holidays, swapping step sheets, discussing difficulties of new routines/ timing. Sadly there is also the teacher who shows hostility, most likely caused by fear? I have recently come across a teacher who shunned me in front of her dancers, they tried to cover it up but I could see that they were rather taken aback by the way I was treated, I went along, just to dance, same as everyone else, being aware of good manners 'teacher to teacher', I introduced myself as a teacher. That unfortunately seemed to be like a red rag to a bull! When I tried to speak to this person, I was ignored. I did try to be friendly, went along a few times but to no avail, I can only think that I was seen as some sort of threat? My pals and I now travel a bit further and have been welcomed with open arms at another venue. 2010-11-26 Yesterday, Thursday 25th Nov, I drove into Manchester's Oxford Road to the BBC Radio building. I had an appointment with a cheerful young man called Daryl Morris, he has a show on Sunday's from 2-6pm. A segment of his show is about 'hidden' things in and around the region. I was there to be interviewed about my Linedance classes in particular and Linedancing in general. The interview went smoothly, no re-takes required, rather unlike TV, which I am more used to. Some of the questions asked seemed a little strange with an emphasis on the age of Linedancers. I could only answer for my own class members of course. My pupils tend to be more mature because I choose to teach daytime classes. I did point out that dancers of all ages attend Linedance evening events and classes but that most younger folk are working in the daytime. I hope to be able to download the interview onto my website as Daryl has promised to send an e-mail link of the broadcast. It is quite short, about 6 minutes long, hope you all will listen in to Linedancing on the Radio! | Author
Kerris, retirement age but still teaching American Linedance. Have 1 house, 1 car,1 cat, 1 brother that is my best pal too!
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