Around 100 guests attended an evening packed with good food and great dancing at the Pia Bella Hotel, Girne on Friday, 18^th December where Steve & Denise Bisson hosted the inaugural Phoenix Line Dance Club Christmas Party.

Club members and guests; including some from the Famagusta section of Phoenix LDC, and guests from Turkey, joined in the Christmas spirit with a flair that Santa would have been proud of.

Travelling from Turkey to attend the party were, Özgür (Oscar the Cowboy) & Mürüvvet Takaç, together with members of Özgür’s Country Club, Ankara. Their line dancing was spectacular and a pleasure to watch, even Özgür & Mürüvvet`s baby daughter of 7 months, Belinay joined in!

A surprise gift, presented by Phoenix members as a token of thanks to Steve & Denise for their hard work in making the club the success it is, was received with a joyful tear in their eye.

The dancing and merrymaking went on until around mid-night and the party was brought to a close with a special performance by Santa’s Special Helpers with the line up being quite unique. It was all in good fun and the participants enjoyed it as much as the audience did.

It was a highly entertaining evening and a must-be date for your 2010 calendar.

Check out the photo album and video section!!!

Howdy Folks and welcome to my blog where you’ll be able to read and reply to many pages of topics in a variety of categories.

Categories dealing with Cooking; Music; Movies; Rodeos; Drawing; Writing; Painting; Computers; Photography; Videography; Woodwork; Sewing; Every Day Life; Road Trips; Camping; Spirituality, plus about Unitarian Universalists, of which I am currently a part of.

For those of you that are beginning to think I am a teenage girl from the boonies…this should cement that opinion.

I love this song for some reason.  The only things missing from the Thunderdome-like scene is Tina Turner and Mel Gibson…

I have just opened my birthday present from my sister. As usual it proved to be spectacularly disappointing. Not to sound ungrateful but a magic-eye book is more suitable for a 12-year old than someone who has just turned 24. Not only that, but i have a rather bad astigmatism in my left eye and people with such a condition are unable to make these puzzles work. With birthday presents like this, you can guarantee I am dreading Christmas.

Without fail, every single sodding year, I get pyjamas for Christmas. Pyjamas that I have no intention, ever, of wearing. At least not in this lifetime. Pyjamas made of foul, cheap, synthetic, silky material in garish colours or pyjamas with prints more suited to the night attire of a, somewhat psychotic, eight-year old (Red Reindeer that even Pablo Picasso wouldn’t admit to drawing) and the very worst type; pyjamas in the colours I detest the most, pink and purple (frequently I get those from my mother). This means that every year, at the first opportunity, I have the pleasure of visiting my local Oxfam shop. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ungrateful. I’d just rather that the money was given to charity, and helped to benefit those less fortunate than myself, than spent on something that I will never use in a million years. That’s why I donate it, often still in its packaging, to the local Charity shop.

Looking through my own selection of carefully considered Yule-tide gifts (Dad – signed Vettriano book, Gran – brooch, Grandad – goat, no I’m not throwing insults about: it’s an ethical gift.), I contemplate the potentially hideous presents that will lie under the tree for me this year, I started to wonder; what is the worst present anybody has ever received for Christmas? I was set on a quest to find the worst.

First stop was a visit to one of the message boards I frequent – my most trusted source for the, sometimes ridiculous, views and opinions of the general public. Signing in - “What is the worst Christmas present you’ve ever received?” I typed. I took the precaution of disallowing any novelty clothing, selection boxes and anything else with a Christmas theme, as everybody has received at least one such offending item in their life. The whole exercise proved disastrous as it just provoked a debate over the true meaning of Christmas and the ethics of donating Christmas presents to charity. Should a well-intentioned gift be given away? Is it caring or callous to do so? Should it become a “boomerang” gift, to be forever passed between members of the same family only to end up back where it started?

After trawling through hundreds of posts without finding anything of use, I decided to give up on that idea but where else could I find some truly horrendous gift ideas? Got it! Internet shopping sites – home to the weird and wonderful. A quick google brought up www.prezzybox.com where, if you so wish, you can buy a Ducti Wallet, a wallet made entirely from silver Duct tape! The offerings at alt-gifts.com included some, rather rude, cat and dog towel holders (use your imagination) and a water powered calculator, no batteries, no electricity, just add water! If none of those ideas were to your taste, then a candy bra and thong set, vibrating soap (don’t ask!) and an Easter Island tissue dispenser (tissues are pulled through the nasal orifice) were available at iwantoneofthose.com. I wondered how many people, if any, would be pleased to unwrap any of these gifts, especially in front of Granny; and how much of a death wish the person who bought them had.

After several hours on endless home shopping sites, I started to get a bit bored and started randomly typing friends’ nicknames into Google. One in particular, Anti-Barbie, yielded the ultimate bad taste, but not the most crap, gift: Barbie poo. Bright pink and sitting in all its glory, it was a bizarre sight to behold. Some how I also came across a survey, organized through Tickbox.net, it asked respondents to name the worst Christmas present they’d received. Answers included: a bag of Bombay Mix, a hole punch, a tape of line dancing music, a packet of condoms, a bottle of Tipp-ex, a tartan wig, a worm farm, a bag of onions, an Easter egg and garden gnome.

Despite all this searching, I still had not found my ultimate crap gift. It was time to bite the bullet; I would have to ask actual people. Scary prospect, so I decided to ask friends in the first instance. Christine, an Aries, was given a pair of god-awful pants with a star sign print on them. Unfortunately the print was Taurus. Blair, the ultimate hell raising second cousin of the devil himself, aged 15 received a Power Ranger toy, much to his unamusement. Donna was the not so proud recipient of some Dolce and Gabanna perfume, which I know from experience smells like something your grandmother would wear. “Except my grandmother wouldn’t as I offered mine to her and even she said it was rank”.

Bad as all these presents were, I still had not found anything I felt was a truly thoughtless gift. Still I had still to talk to people at work. In the event I actually only got to ask one colleague (Christmas time is a bit hectic in the hotel trade) but with that one answer I struck gold. This gentleman used to be a soldier in Her Majesty’s Army during which time he passed an Army driving test. This was unfortunately forgotten by his father who later bought him a set of driving lessons as a Christmas present.

People say that it’s the thought that counts when giving presents; and I totally agree – the thought should count. If people put more thought into what they bought others for Christmas, then fewer people would dread the ritual of pretending to look pleased after receiving the heinous abomination that is their gift. Wish it was Christmas every day? Not with gifts like those I don’t.

Llega el principio de la semana y con el la clase de Line Dancing. Ven a perfeccionar tus pasos de este baile típico americano con nosotros.

No te lo pierdas !!

Más info 966 400 400

The Star has discovered dancing. You can’t think where he’s picked this up from. You don’t have a habit of leaping round the living room when a really good song comes on the radio at all.

Anyway, the Star will bop around in his high chair while listening to his portable radio. But it’s when he’s got a bit more space and Papa is listening to Planet Rock that he really likes to go for it.

He spins!

He hops up and down!

He runs on the spot!

He shakes his head from side to side.

And he’s got this one move where he waves one hand above his head and does a sort galloping movement that makes him look as though he’s in some dance off with a cowboy.

It’s all most peculiar and he has about as much sense of rhythm as B, but really very, very cute.

Lexington
Grab your hat and boots and head out to Austin City Saloon in Woodhill, Lexington’s original country bar and home of John Michael Montgomery. Long time southern rocker and country crooner Larry Redmon has his own place (Redmon’s) downstairs at the corner of Main and Cheapside. New on the scene: the Silver Spur Saloon for a foot-stompin’ good time. If you are looking for a line dancing, bull-riding kind of place, check out Cadillac Ranch on Palumbo Drive. Kenny Whalen and the Travelers play regularly at Music Land in Paris….smoke and alcohol free. For more information, visit the Lexington Destination Guide.

Just in case you ever wondered why Apple has always enjoyed that “cool kid” aura compared to Microsoft, well, here’s why.

Microsoft employees assault customers (with a dance)

Spontaneity doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Neither is it welcomed by everyone.

So please imagine how those who visited the new Microsoft store in Mission Viejo, Calif., a few days back must have felt when store employees suddenly decided to drop their trousers, wave their Zunes in the air, and sing a couple of Maria Callas’ greatest hits.

No, it really wasn’t quite like that. However, I feel sure that one or two people might have preferred the trouser-dropping and Zune-waving over the spectacle that actually occurred.

As the Black Eyed Peas were forced to propel some of their entirely commercial stimulation down the sound system, the employees performed their own version of the line dance for the one-legged. Because I am consumer-focused at every moment of my waking day, I found myself concentrating more on the reactions of the customers than on the techniques Spike Jonze might have used to make this an MTV VMA winner.

As the employees line up for this troubling, tourettesy Texas One-Step, one already feels a strange squeezing sensation on behalf of some of the customers.

Around the 1.15 mark, a little girl, her hair ponytailed with a yellow scrunchy, makes as if her vicinity has not been invaded by dancing, clapping, or stray employee sweat. She sits. She stares into her screen. The adults make fools of themselves.

Yes, this is the Microsoft store version of “The Ice Storm.”

Two minutes of constricting visual constipation are temporarily saved by three ladies who rush in from the mall to join in. These women, their purses held in place by a determined gravity, begin to show the employees just why Fergie’s tunes are precursors to a fiery personal life.

Look, I’m lying. But they are definitely better than the tall, blond string bean of a chap whose twisted movements are rather too similar those of certain people who bought Vista and couldn’t make it work.

I want to like this microcosmic flash mob of dance. I really do. However, once the balding chap holding the Brookstone bag joins the shifting knee-lifting, I find myself searching again for the little ponytailed girl staring into a very fine PC. She has not turned her neck one degree to observe these escapees from reality. She seems to have decided that this is not Miley Cyrus, this is not even Cyrus Vance, ergo this is not happening.

But it did happen, spontaneously, in Mission Viejo. That’s the place where the mission is old, right?

See also:
Hey, Microsoft: Please Stop Trying So Hard
Microsoft Dances Its Way Into Shoppers’ Hearts
Lines Of Code? No, Line Dancing, Microsoft Style
I never want to visit a Microsoft Store after seeing this
Microsoft Reduces Store Employees to Dancing Fools
Microsoft Store Employees Cruelly Forced To Dance For The Internet
Microsoft Retail Store Employees Break Out Into Dance And It’s Really Creepy

Of course, this latest Microsoft dancing debacle doesn’t hold a creepiness candle to the all time cringe classic.

/pass the knitting needles, my eyes and ears hurt

I thought this was a great, FUN video.  Mixing music and good animation.  For you SL’ers you will identify with some of the dance moves…I am not sure what a POSEBALL is?   

Great JOB Lowe Runo!

This week we had some hints and tips for dancing to Pugliese. Now my views on Pugliese are well known, I don’t like dancing to the later tunes although I do enjoy listening to them. That said we were dancing to the early stuff and the strong rhythms and changes of pace gave us an enjoyable interlude.

One of the things we were doing was a very slow cross. Dave was asked to demonstrate with Sharon, it looked good. ( I reckon they had been practicing) However somebody noticed that Dave’s forward step moved out slightly, he said it was because he had big feet. Now you know what they say about men with big feet? Yes, they wear big shoes. Still it gave us some ammunition for some ribald comments later in The Coracle.

When these ribald comments arrived I did notice a wry grin on Alison’s face, is there truth in the rumours I wonder? The talk as usual revolved around tango, and the music. A comment by Dave I think deserves more exploration “The music is not an optional extra” The porteños dance because they love the music, and when I see people dance here to non tango, I wonder; how can you say you love tango without a love for the music? If it is a desire to become like something from Strictly, then this is not the place for you. Sex on the dance floor? Well I have news, in all my years I have only met one woman who was looking for a boy friend. There have been one or two romances, of course, but these are the exceptions. Those women who come alone usually have a husband or partner at home, and are just out for the social buzz. I seem to be popular with the ladies here (something new for me) I think that they are secure in the knowledge that I am very married, and look for nothing other that a good dance. The growing popularity of Line Dancing proves my point, there is no opportunity to get together there, so it ends up predominantly women, salsa likewise, you are together barely long enough to exchange names. Tango is the only dance where you socialise with a partner long enough and in an environment where you can get to know each other. So we meet and dance, enjoy each others company and the closeness of our bodies, safe in the knowledge that we will leave separately and that the relationship is just on the floor, nothing more..

 But what about the music? I hear you ask (go on ask me). It has to be enjoyed, women often close their eyes, not just so that they can follow better, but to better enjoy the music, I believe. If a man does not feel the music, does not move with it and just enjoy, then the woman cannot possibly respond well. Again as we danced to Pugliese great pauses happen and a lady with whom I was dancing (herself not much more than a beginner) commented that she loved the way I slowed down with the music. Come on men, this is not rocket science, to move with the music, to feel what the composer was saying, this is dancing. Dancing is not throwing her in the air, doing great big voleos or ganchos, trying to impress with your huge repertoire will just frustrate her, let her know that you feel the music, now that will impress.. It has taken me years to come to this conclusion. Years when teachers taught me moves, years when I learned kicks and flicks, and years when women probably hated dancing with me. Years wasted in not understanding why we dance, love is on the dance floor, for three minutes you love the woman you are with, but she will never know unless you also love the music you are dancing to as well.

Seems my post about the Shrewsbury Tango Rent a Mob has been taken too seriously. We had a very robust debate about the name. It looks like people do not like the Mob Idea. We had various suggestions as to what it should be called, and I thought it was just a joke, Is the world ready? I ask myself.

It had to happen one day, work and dancing just do not mix. Some times when I am not working there is not a venue anywhere where we can dance, this Saturday our friend Steve was performing at Llay British legion, another great artist Bill Dennis was performing at Ewloe, hard choice, but they were trumped by a milonga at Pant, Three venues where we could go. So where did we end up? I came home from work and fell asleep, not waking until quarter to nine. By the time I would have showered, changed, and driven there, it would have been time to come home. So for the first time I failed totally on a Saturday night. Viv did not wake me because she said that I needed it, she was right, of course, but I still missed the dancing, the music and all the three-minute romances.

I hope to make it up Monday night.

Have you ever tried line dancing?

It’s fun, but it’s a real work out, and I’m enjoying this video from 2008 the World’s Longest Line Dance.

Join in the fun, as I post some good ole Country Music!

alan jackson blue jean cowboy

alan_jackson country boy

Alan Jackson Red Guitar

More scary pictures for you to drool over – click on the page, “More Halloween Photos”

Phoenix Line Dance Club held their Halloween Party at the Green Valley Restaurant, Alsancak on Saturday, 31^st October. More than 70 people joined in a brew of good fun, food and dancing. Count Dracula and the Blonde Witch, better known as Steve and Denise Bisson, charmed the party goers through a unique potion of line dancing and rock and roll.

Special guests to arrive were a mix of characters that Vincent Price and Boris Karloff would consider friends of the family. Thunder and lightning provided by Mother Nature added to the spooky atmosphere.

The hard part of the night was deciding who should be the recipients of best outfit worn by male and female. Everyone who took part in dressing for the occasion was worthy of first prize though if a psychiatrist had been present he would have had them all locked up. However, the vote was cast and in first place for ladies The Headless woman, in the guise of Carol Dovey, took the honours with a stunning appearance, although she seemed quite a lot taller than when we last saw her! Runner up was Lilian White dressed as a witch Macbeth would have been proud of to stir the cauldron but she must do something about the hump on her back due to her having problems with broomstick take off. The first prize for men was awarded to Bob Rigg as Frankenstein’s Monster and, hot off the press, he is suing his plastic surgeon for gross negligence. We wish you luck Bob!! Runner up was The Joker alias Mick Bone.  His smile just grew bigger by the hour and he is now seeing the same surgeon as Bob!! Whoops!!

A great night was had by all and the next theme night is eagerly awaited and we hope by then everyone has managed to remove their make-up!

This first theme night of the newly formed Phoenix Line Dance Club was a great success and without doubt many more will follow.

Author: Mel Dale with pictures by Sue Rigg, Steve Bisson, Rene Walsh & many others.

Otra semana que empieza y con ella la tradicional clase de Line Dancing. Te esperamos a eso de las 20h para que aprendas los mejores pasos de este baile genuinamente americano.

Más info en el tel: 966 400 400

No te pierdas las clases de Line Dancing en el Bar de Bellavista. No dejes de perfeccionar tus pasos de este peculiar baile americano !!!

Más info en el telefono 966 400 400

Cheat Sheets  Updated 12/3/09, added attachment, Cheat Sheet template.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In line dancing, there are some dances that are specifically choreographed to a song and can really only be done to that song (e.g., Men In Black). There are other dances, that have the same name as the song they were orignally danced to, but they have steps that can be done to other songs with similar beats. Then, there are variations to line dances, depending on where you learned them, whether it’s across town or from another state.

I have written a cheat sheet for a few of the dances I teach. It is not all the instructions to the dances, but it is meant to supplement my lesson, to help you remember the groupings of steps to the dance. I have found this way easy for me to learn, enabling me to get a better picture of the dance and better able to memorize the steps. I hope this helps you.

I am open for constructive feedback and questions. Remember to “Dance For Joy!”
Sincerely, Nancy  : )
P.S… BELOW DIDN’T COPY THE WAY I WANTED IT TO, BUT THIS IS ALL STILL NEW FOR ME. I’LL GET THERE.

Line Dance Short Hand / Call Outs–written by Nancy Corbige 3/19/08 (edited 5/8/08) also reference www.kickit.to

(These are not meant to be full instructions; these are just to help jog your memory from the lesson and kind of the call outs I use.)

Electric Slide                                                                                      Suggested Songs to Dance To

4 counts to the right              (a.k.a. “grapevine”)                           (most any song)

4 counts to the left                                                                             “Electric Slide” – classic song

4 counts back                                                                                      “Forget Me Nots” – Patrice Rushen

Step forward with left, tap with right                                                            “Good Times” – Chic

Step back with right, tap with left                                                      “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” – Brooks & Dunn

Step forward with left turning ¼ turn, tap right.                                Most Earth, Wind and Fire

(start over)

Watermelon Crawl

Right toe, right heal, back back forward   (a.k.a. “coaster step”)       “Watermelon Crawl” – Tracy Byrd

Left toe, right heal, back back forward                                              “Here For The Party” – Gretchen Wilson

Right step forward, kick left                                                            “Why Haven’t I Heard From You?” – Reba McIntire

Right step back, tap back left  (2x)

Grapevine right, then left

¼ turn and slide – hold 4 counts

Slide back – hold 4 counts

[Step in place 4 counts] [brackets means you can add variety]

Right step forward, pivot ½ turn

Right step forward, pivot ½ turn (completes a 360)

(start over)

Latin Line

Left forward, left back (2x)                                                                “Let’s Get Loud” – Jennifer Lopez

[Left step to the side, right step to the side] (2x)

Left step forward, pivot ½ turn

Cha cha cha

Right step forward, pivot ½ turn

Cha cha cha

4 counts tap/shuffle left foot

4 counts tap/shuffle right foot

Left step forward – jazz square – finish with right ¼ turn

Complete another jazz square

(start over)

Men in Black

Right left right, left right left (2x) (like a hop)                                   “Men In Black” – Will Smith

Cross right over left and ½ turn

Right kick ball change, kick and turn right ¼, right kick ball change, step clap clap

Bounce forward twice, bounce backward twice

Walk right, left, right, left

Slide right, slide left, slide right, slide left

(start over)

Nancy Corbige, Line Dance Instructor, 847-212-0237, ncorbige@hotmail.com
Even shorter: actually things I call (sort of):     (memory joggers)

Electric Slide

Right 2 3 tap                                                                           GRAPEVINE

Left 2 3 tap                                                                             BACKWARD

Back 2 3 tap                                                                           STEP TAPS W/ ¼ TURN

Forward, tap

Back, tap

Turn, tap

Watermelon Crawl

Toe heal 1 2 3                                                                          TOE/HEALS

Toe heal 1 2 3                                                                          STEP KICK/TAP/CLAP

Step kick step tap                                                                    GRAPEVINE

Step kick step tap                                                                    TURN/SLIDE

Gravevine                                                                                STEP IN PLACE

¼ turn and slide forward                                                        PIVOTS

Slide back

1 2 3 4

Step pivot, step pivot, start over

Latin Line

(left foot) Step forward, and back, and forward, and back   FORWARD/BACK

Point left, point right, point left, point right                           SIDE TO SIDE

(left foot) Step pivot cha cha cha                                           PIVOTS

(right foot) Step pivot cha cha cha                                         CHA CHAS

1 2 3 4                                                                                     SHUFFLES

1 2 3 4                                                                                     JAZZ SQUARES

2 jazz squares

(start over)

Men in Black

4 hops                                                                                      HOPS

½ turn                                                                                      TURN

Kick ball change, ¼ turn, kick ball change                             KICK BALL CHANGE

Stomp, clap twice                                                                   STOMP

Bounce forward, bounce back                                                            BOUNCES

Walk 4 counts                                                                         WALKS

4 slides                                                                                    SLIDES

(start over)

Nancy Corbige - ”Dance For Joy” – Line Dance Instructor, 847-212-0237, ncorbige@hotmail.com

Llega el lunes y con el otra noche de Line Dancing. Otra gran oportunidad para aprender a bailar como un autentico vaquero del oeste.

Comprueba tus dotes con nosotros. Informate en el 966 400 400.

The team performed their first display at the 8th International Olive Festival, Zeytinlik, Northern Cyprus on the 8th October 2009. Videos of some of the dances performed in the village square are available on YouTube. 

A Line Dancing class for beginners is being held on Wednesday nights at the Holderness Grange Retirement Village on Drapers Lane, Hedon, HU12 8BG.

The class costs £3 per person and starts at 7:00pm.

Ring Paul on 07915 263439 to book and for details.

If you have a community event to publicise then please complete the simple online form and we will do our best to promote this on the Hedon Blog.

Hello everyone! 

Email me for more information and for the dates I’ll be teaching line dance ncorbige@hotmail.com or call me for more information 847-212-0237.
Come on out! It will be a blast!
Nancy  : )

Vuelven los niños al cole y vuelven los mayores a las clases de Line Dancing a Bellavista. Desde este lunes 5 de octubre a partir de las 19h30 hasta las 21h30 y por tan sólo 5 euros podras aprender a bailar como un auténtico Cow-Boy .

El año pasado ya fue un éxito y esta temporada esperamos tener más alumnos dispuestos a bailar y pasarlo bien.

Te esperamos !!!