Crossover and Open House

[billeyler]

Snuck in a nap after I left work early yesterday, so was moderately refreshed for the Monday night dancing.

Workshopped the last couple of calls in C1 again for that class and presented them all with certificates of completion. I hate to say graduation, since none of the new folk would make it through a C1 dance at normal speed at this point.

The Crossover for Class 61 was VERY festive, considering it was open house #1 for Class 62, too. I was able to do a few mixers for the 10 or so visitors we had, and we were still able to do about 20 minutes for the ceremonies for the Basic class. As we usually do, it was a three tiered event, one themed tip by the regular club, one themed tip by the crossover class, and my own special.

I don't know WHERE they keep coming up with these ideas...I know they all peruse carefully that dangle book that the engravers have published for years.

For the club tip, the theme was "Pie Dangle." Jack and his assistant gave all the Basic dancers a basket with three 'strawberries' in it that that the ladies had to wear on their head, and the gents had to wear a pie plate, all attached with elastic. Everytime I did a call where they came together as partners, the lady had to transfer a 'strawberry' into the pie plate. Once all the berries were transferred (if one fell out, it had to be retrieved), the lady was supposed to put a white hanky (pie crust) over the top WITHOUT USING HANDS! The first to do that, the tip ended. It was a very funny scene. My song "Burgers and Fries and Cherry Pies" wasn't on my laptop (????), so I improvised by using the "Crawdad Song" and changing the lyrics to "You got the Strawberries, I got the Crust, Baby" yada yada yada.

For the Basic tip, the theme was given to me as "Andrew Sisters," so I pulled out "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" for it...but I have NO idea how what they did applied to that. The Basic class put all kinds of bandages, tourniquets, head bandages, splints, crutches, and walkers on the club members, and they had to dance like that. ALSO very funny to watch!

Then for my bit, I did my tried and true "We are Siamese If You Please" schtick, with them coupled up 16 to a square. They had a blast with that one, especially with swinging the partner.

At one point, we had enough for six squares if everyone had danced, but we just danced five squares a couple of times. It's amazing to me to see the whole hall filled with happy dancers.

We squeezed in one full MS, one full Plus, and an hot hash Advanced tip with all that going on, and by 9:30, after 3 1/2 hours of festivities and calling, I was about to pass out.

BUT STILL, Lee begged me to learn a new line dance, so we spent another 20 minutes working through "Crossing the Border" done to Marc Anthony's "I've Got You" and I'll teach that to the crowd at the Ranch on Thursday along with reviewing "Dance Ranch Romp"

What a day, what a day...

Comments

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

I like dance success stories!!

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

The Bunch has definitely been on an upswing this year. Having nearly 50 people in the hall at one time really pings the energy level up.

Monday night was more along the lines of controlled chaos, what with me doing C1, Beginners, Basic, Mainstream, Plus and Advanced all in a mix and muddle! :-)

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! I never got the 'entertaining' while calling gene, so I stick to challenge.

On another note, I'll be teaching "Crossing The Border" at some point at the (NY) Ranch.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I was really tickled when a read your blog that you're teaching C/W, too! Although I've been teaching it peripherally to the Wilde Bunch as part of the social thing, it wasn't until last July that the management at the Ranch asked me if I'd start a program there.

The energy of the c/w dancers is just great, with 25-40 dancers per night on Thursdays. The Saturday night c/w at the Ranch has gone from virtually no one, to the floor being full nearly every dance. The management there is really happy for the extra bucks in the till.

I've added about 20 new line dances to my rep since then, and am virtually being forced to learn new ones weekly from the couple of very experienced dancers that have come from other parts of the country.

One of those dancers knows you and Patrick and just saw you at the fest there recently...his name is Dave, moved from NY to Santa Fe a couple of years ago.

I've been using the Sundancesaloon.org website for my source of cue sheets. Does the Big Apple Ranch have a website with the line dances popular there, too?

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

You can go to the BAR and I believe they have a page with many of our line dances. I usually visit www.kickit.to when I need line dance info. It's one of the larger sites I believe.

I need to write up the choreo for a dance I recently made up and will be testing out next month at the Ranch. I'll show you at convention if you're interested.

Was this Dave a Prairie Dog? Dave is such a common name.

I just read about Dale and you too have accounting blood.
Who knew there were so many similarities between us?

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

That's one of the interesting things about LJ-land...for all the years I've know you, I thought we had virtually NOTHING in common. :-)