View Poll Results: Time to come out of the closet!

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  • I've done some line dancing

    14 51.85%
  • I haven't done any line dancing and don't want to.

    6 22.22%
  • I'd like to try it.

    4 14.81%
  • Yee Ha!!

    4 14.81%
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Thread: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

  1. #21
    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by Freudian Hips View Post
    Thanks, Pal :smilies:

    Hums 9 to 5 happily to herself
    You don't need to attempt to look co-ordinated, you always are just naturally.

    (Well, almost always! )
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

  2. #22
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    (Well, almost always! )
    you like living on the edge.
    I've danced with, enjoyed and will always say "always"

  3. #23
    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by dep View Post
    you like living on the edge.
    I like dancing on the edge too.
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    I’m a linedancer and have just started ceroc…

    I have to say that on my admittedly very limited experience, there is a lot more variety of music and steps in linedance, particularly in the newline scene, than there is in ceroc. I normally linedance to all sorts – rap, hip hop, soul, R & B, Irish, Latin, pop, vintage, lindy, rock & roll, and even occasionally a bit of country (did I leave anything out? My mistake then…). Practically every track of music at my local ceroc has a linedance written to it.

    Linedance borrows from every dance genre going, so one track you might be dancing smoothly to a nightclub 2 step, then using more of a body popping style to a funky track. The more you get into linedancing the more you find you need to start looking for the technique that belongs to those dance styles. The sheer variety means it never gets boring, obviously you don’t need a partner, and having a good dance depends on you, not on the quality of your partner or your connection. I’m not going to do the pros and cons of linedancing versus ceroc because I really enjoy both, and I’m so new to ceroc that I wouldn’t presume.

    All I would say is that linedancing has a terrible image in the media, and although you can find old-style country and western type classes this isn’t representative of linedancing as a whole. The majority of classes (“mainline”) are beginner/intermediate-ish and dance to a reasonable variety of music, usually with great enthusiasm and not huge amounts of technique. The “newline” scene is younger and funkier and the dancing is more technically challenging – and it is often disapproved of by mainliners!

    Basically, the only reliable definition of linedancing that practically everyone in the genre agrees on is that it is a pre-choreographed sequence of steps – it normally (but not always) is danced without a partner, and normally (but not always) rotates the sequence to face different directions in the course of the routine. But the actual execution of that sequence depends on the dancer’s ability to interpret the steps as written, and of course, depending on the context, they might put in their own variations anyway.

    By the way, it’s not uncommon to see the odd WCS or ceroc dance taking place on the fringes of a newline social – I took to ceroc because of seeing it at socials, and might well branch into WCS at some point for the same reason.

    It’s all fun, innit?

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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    I like dancing on the edge too.
    does that earn SF points?

  6. #26
    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by dep View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    I like dancing on the edge too.
    does that earn SF points?
    You'd have to ask the edge. But Bono doesn't mind.
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

  7. #27
    Registered User frodo's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    All I would say is that linedancing has a terrible image in the media, and although you can find old-style country and western type classes this isn’t representative of linedancing as a whole. The majority of classes (“mainline”) are beginner/intermediate-ish and dance to a reasonable variety of music, usually with great enthusiasm and not huge amounts of technique. The “newline” scene is younger and funkier and the dancing is more technically challenging – and it is often disapproved of by mainliners!
    Very interesting to know.

    So are newline dancing venues relatively common or rare ?

    Do you know how you would go about finding one ?

    "Newline" or "New line" seems to confuse search engines a bit.

  8. #28
    Registered User frodo's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    _____
    Quote Originally Posted by Moondancer View Post
    I have to say that on my admittedly very limited experience, there is a lot more variety of music and steps in linedance, particularly in the newline scene, than there is in ceroc. I normally linedance to all sorts – rap, hip hop, soul, R & B, Irish, Latin, pop, vintage, lindy, rock & roll, and even occasionally a bit of country (did I leave anything out? My mistake then…). Practically every track of music at my local ceroc has a linedance written to it.

    Linedance borrows from every dance genre going, so one track you might be dancing smoothly to a nightclub 2 step, then using more of a body popping style to a funky track. The more you get into linedancing the more you find you need to start looking for the technique that belongs to those dance styles. The sheer variety means it never gets boring
    Nice to see that clearly explained. One the things that is definitely attractive to me about line dancing is the variety of music.

  9. #29
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Have to say - after doing James'Line Dance class in Feb at SP - I would really like to do some more.

    Interestingly have always felt unco-ordinated messing about with it before, but since doing WCS seem to have developed new co-ordination skills (coincidence??!!)

    Would be interested to find classes in the area but definitely more interested in "new line" as opposed to cowboy hats and yee-haas (it's a shame it has this sterotype attached to it!)

    Yes please let us know where we can find out more....

  10. #30
    Registered User Mary's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by Moondancer View Post
    I’m a linedancer and have just started ceroc…

    I have to say that on my admittedly very limited experience, there is a lot more variety of music and steps in linedance, particularly in the newline scene, than there is in ceroc. I normally linedance to all sorts – rap, hip hop, soul, R & B, Irish, Latin, pop, vintage, lindy, rock & roll, and even occasionally a bit of country (did I leave anything out? My mistake then…). Practically every track of music at my local ceroc has a linedance written to it.

    Linedance borrows from every dance genre going, so one track you might be dancing smoothly to a nightclub 2 step, then using more of a body popping style to a funky track. The more you get into linedancing the more you find you need to start looking for the technique that belongs to those dance styles. The sheer variety means it never gets boring, obviously you don’t need a partner, and having a good dance depends on you, not on the quality of your partner or your connection. I’m not going to do the pros and cons of linedancing versus ceroc because I really enjoy both, and I’m so new to ceroc that I wouldn’t presume.

    All I would say is that linedancing has a terrible image in the media, and although you can find old-style country and western type classes this isn’t representative of linedancing as a whole. The majority of classes (“mainline”) are beginner/intermediate-ish and dance to a reasonable variety of music, usually with great enthusiasm and not huge amounts of technique. The “newline” scene is younger and funkier and the dancing is more technically challenging – and it is often disapproved of by mainliners!

    Basically, the only reliable definition of linedancing that practically everyone in the genre agrees on is that it is a pre-choreographed sequence of steps – it normally (but not always) is danced without a partner, and normally (but not always) rotates the sequence to face different directions in the course of the routine. But the actual execution of that sequence depends on the dancer’s ability to interpret the steps as written, and of course, depending on the context, they might put in their own variations anyway.

    By the way, it’s not uncommon to see the odd WCS or ceroc dance taking place on the fringes of a newline social – I took to ceroc because of seeing it at socials, and might well branch into WCS at some point for the same reason.

    It’s all fun, innit?


    I have been to couple of times to local line dance classes and it was your typical image that most people here have of the genre. However, having seen it done at the top level and thought 'wow' that's amazing.

    I have since had the pleasure of trying some line dancing with Paul Warden as warm up classes and that was just cool, as well as being a bit tricksy in parts. For me one of the most valuable things (as well as lots of other stuff) it can teach me is how to become more familiar with phrasing and being able to improvise within the phrasing without losing the shape of the choreographed routine. I think this may be one of the key reasons why there is such a crossover between line dancing and WCS - they hear the phrasing so intuitively they don't have to think to achieve great musicality and shaping.

    I would like to do more line dancing but it seems that most classes is that awful stuff that has given it such bad rep.

    M

  11. #31
    Registered User jive-vee's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    I'd definitely like to give line dancing another go after having "attempted" Rob Glover's classes at Southport - unfortunately Bath only seems to offer the mainline classes and not the funkier stuff that I'd like to learn.

  12. #32
    Registered User ~*~Saligal~*~'s Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    When I hear/read the words "line dancing" I hear the song "Achy Breaky Heart" and it makes me cringe! (line dancing starts about 1:20 in)
    The closest I got to line dancing was learning something to "Nutbush city limits" when I was 10 at school - cos they made us! . Sadly some people still do this one and "The Timewarp" at weddings (they were all banned from mine!).
    Do step classes constitute line dancing?

  13. #33

    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Ah ya gotta love it.

    Im a former world line dancing champion, European couples champ and have many other country titles and if it wasnt for that i wouldnt be teaching wcs, dancing it and loving every minute of it today!!

    Yee ha i say!!

    p.s. i have 12 pairs of line dancing boots, 4 stetsons, country costumes and gold buckle....beware....its addictive!

  14. #34
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Thanks for the interest, guys. Sorry, but I can feel a mega-long post coming on!

    Looking at the Linedancer Magazine for Feb (which is mainline intermediate-orientated) the top ten dances are to music by Helena Paparizou, Gareth Gates, Bella Perez, Cubaila, Ashley Tisdale, Enrique Iglesias, Mark Medlock & Dieter Bohlen, Timbaland, Sweetbox, and Tracy Byrd. So frankly, if you went to a class that seemed very yeeha, then it’s VERY yeeha, if you follow my drift, because the norm these days even in mainline is to play a variety of music.

    In theory, newline describes an ‘anything goes’ openness to dances and music. On the whole, mainliners can’t newline, though newliners can mainline, so the label "newline" is to avoid mainliners thinking they will have a good time somewhere then turning up and finding they don’t recognise any dances and have to sit out the whole time. Newline venues are comparatively rare, partly because newline incorporates the hardest linedances, and also because some of the music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea - we dance to a few really explicit rap/hip hop tracks! Newliners mostly find they need to travel a bit, depending where they are, but feel it’s worth it.

    I don’t know that I’d recommend anyone try to start with newline if they haven’t linedanced before. There’s been vague talk in the newline community that there ought to be beginner newline classes, but I don’t think there are any at present. To cope with newline you would need to know linedance steps and their names, be able to manage with tags and restarts, and be up to a reasonable teach speed.

    Linedancers have a mental “back catalogue” of dances they know, and then a further set of dances that they could pick up again within a wall or so. Depending on their ability, they could pick up still more dances by watching and having a go. Beginners lack the back catalogue, but the more dances you know, the easier it is to learn new ones and pick up others from the floor. Trying to jump start to advanced dances from beginner level might be challenging*/tough*/impossible* (*delete as applicable). On the other hand, I haven't MJ'd for more than about 5 minutes, so I can't really judge how easily MJers would transfer.

    However, one of the good things about linedancing is that with no partner issues and pre-choreographed routines, you can practise at home or teach yourself from stepsheets, although they don’t give the whole story, only the basic steps, the timing and the music used. Big Dave (who invented the term newline and is close to the centre of the newline universe) has a website (www.bigdavegastap.com) which is one of the best sources of stepsheets for newline, and he also does some mainline. Some choreographers specialise in newline-type dances, some of which cross over to mainline, some don't. If you're interested, you can check out the dances of people like Guyton Mundy, Scott Blevins, Neville Fitzgerald, and MT Groove, to name but a few. Or if you want a challenge, try teaching yourself a funky dance like "Gyrate", "Fuego" or "Throw It On Me" from a stepsheet.

    Most average intermediate mainline clubs teach roughly the same core of popular dances, depending on class taste and ability, and how up-to-date the teacher is, but you do have to bear in mind that teachers vary from excellent to useless, and the top bods often don’t bother to advertise their classes. Beginner classes are really teaching the steps more than anything else, so beginner dances could be anything (the word ‘grim’ springs to mind) and sometimes just consist of routines the teacher has made up to give the class practice. When you get the hang of the steps, it’s normal to move on to learning a few “classics” that never die (and turn up at mainline socials all the time), then you can start getting onto the interesting stuff…and you might choose to migrate to newline.

    You have to have good timing, and it’s blooming obvious if a linedancer is out of step with the rest of the room (how to be popular - not!) Lots of linedances have tags and restarts to hit the phrasing of a track, and they start at a specific place in the music. [Sorry, but it drives me crackers the way cerocers say “5,6,7,8” then start in the middle of a musical phrase, but I suppose it’s what you get used to!] I’ve noticed in ceroc that there are plenty of “intermediate” dancers who know lots of moves but aren’t…how can I put it?…very good dancers. Linedancing has a fair few of them too – people who know lots of dances, but lack styling and technique. But hey, they have a great time, it doesn’t affect anyone else, and anyway, who am I to criticise? (As far as ceroc dancers like that are concerned, I think it requires a different thread to discuss them!)

    If I were looking for a class, I would ask what dances the teacher had taught recently, which would give a rough idea of the ability and taste of the dancers. If anyone is seriously looking for a class, feel free to email me and for what it’s worth I would be happy to give my personal opinion about the dances a teacher says they have been doing. If it’s an area I’ve got a useful contact in, then I can tap into that knowledge too.

    Linedance has a brilliant social scene and dancers are a friendly bunch. As a fairly up-to-date mainliner, I know that I could turn up at any linedance club in the world, on my own, be made welcome, and do lots of dancing. As a newliner, I could go anywhere and have a similarly great time and there’s a good chance I would recognise the odd face too (smaller pond).

    If you fancy giving linedancing a try then look carefully and make sure you find the sort of class you want, or be prepared to bear with a less suitable class until you are ready to move on. Don’t just assume if your local class doesn’t float your boat that they are all like that, because there is an amazing variety of classes out there if you look in the right places.

  15. #35
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by ~*~Saligal~*~ View Post
    When I hear/read the words "line dancing" I hear the song "Achy Breaky Heart" and it makes me cringe!
    Safe to say that line dancing does not have monopoly on that one - I've heard that track far more times at modern jive venues than anywhere else... although (thankfully) not recently.

    While I'm not a fan of the whole line dancing concept, and I'm not big on strolls and the like, I very much see their value. Did anyone else notice how, in both series' of Strictly Dance Fever, line dancers were pretty well represented, and were present in both finals? (Danny and Jodie series one, Darren series two) - they tended to be very good, and very versatile. I don't think that was coincidence.

  16. #36
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by Moondancer View Post
    Thanks for the interest, guys. Sorry, but I can feel a mega-long post coming on!

    Looking at the Linedancer Magazine for Feb (which is mainline intermediate-orientated) the top ten dances are to music by Helena Paparizou, Gareth Gates, Bella Perez, Cubaila, Ashley Tisdale, Enrique Iglesias, Mark Medlock & Dieter Bohlen, Timbaland, Sweetbox, and Tracy Byrd. So frankly, if you went to a class that seemed very yeeha, then it’s VERY yeeha, if you follow my drift, because the norm these days even in mainline is to play a variety of music.

    Big Dave (who invented the term newline and is close to the centre of the newline universe) has a website (www.bigdavegastap.com) which is one of the best sources of stepsheets for newline, and he also does some mainline. Some choreographers specialise in newline-type dances, some of which cross over to mainline, some don't. If you're interested, you can check out the dances of people like Guyton Mundy, Scott Blevins, Neville Fitzgerald, and MT Groove, to name but a few. Or if you want a challenge, try teaching yourself a funky dance like "Gyrate", "Fuego" or "Throw It On Me" from a stepsheet.
    The linedance scene doesn't seem to have changed much since I left it about 6 years ago, having done it for about 5 years. I left because I couldn't stand the introduction of so much "Pop" music which seemed to be an attempt to attract younger dancers to what was then a predominately older crowd. Fowler & Co, (Masters in Line) was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for me and Big Dave, before he was known, didn't help either by suddenly becoming an unelected authority in Linedance. By the way, he couldn't dance to save his pants then, has anything changed ?

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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Claire and James were linedancers in Strictly Dance Fever as well, and I think there was a third couple but they weren't allowed to call themselves linedancers (oh, media manipulation again).

    Sorry, I'm probably being thick here, but what's a stroll?

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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Mainline, newline, tags, restarts, walls... that's some jargon you liners (?) have got there!

    Quote Originally Posted by Moondancer View Post
    Sorry, but it drives me crackers the way cerocers say “5,6,7,8” then start in the middle of a musical phrase, but I suppose it’s what you get used to!


    You're not alone. I've only ever heard really top teachers wait until the last two bars of a phrase before counting the 5,6,7,8. Although to be fair it doesn't really matter, it's not as if the moves themselves are designed to fit the music

    I've never seen much line dancing so I can't imagine what a dance night out would look like. I have visions of everyone doing a synchronised dance, but for themselves, not as a performance (a context in which I'm used to seeing synchronised dancing). It sounds very odd but I'd like to experience it one day.

    Dan


  19. #39
    Dickie Davies' love-child Cruella's Avatar
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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Quote Originally Posted by Moondancer View Post
    Sorry, I'm probably being thick here, but what's a stroll?
    I used to go to a Rock and Roll club with some other MJers when I lived up north. (there were no MJ freestyles then). There were often strolls put on and we had great fun trying to piick them up. They tended to be fairly simple so easy to follow. From the little I've seen of line dancing and strolling i'd say that strolls were just simple line dances.

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    Re: L.D.A (Line Dancers Anonymous)

    Big Dave doesn't claim to be a good dancer, quite the opposite, and in my opinion he isn't. However, he teaches newline dances successfully - he's teaching the steps, not the styling. In my opinion, his events are brilliant fun, he books the top newline choreographers and teachers in the world and he is one of the best DJs - he's still there at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning playing his dancers' requests. He works hard to keep his dancers happy, and I'm one of his satisfied customers.

    I really can't agree that the scene hasn't changed in the last six years. It depends where you are looking, really. If you looked for that "predominately older crowd" you would still be able to find them, but if you looked elsewhere you would see that linedancing has also moved on, or perhaps the term should be "expanded". As I was trying to explain, there's a huge variety of linedancing out there now, and the internet makes it easier to find what suits the individual.

    Six years ago, the big discussion point in linedancing was indeed between pop or country, but that issue died a death several years ago, especially after various surveys like that of the Linedancer magazine showed that the majority of linedancers enjoyed a variety of music. These days most linedancers accept that there is room for more than country - those who want pure country go to a country and western type class, others don't, and where's the problem? The other main reason that the whole country issue wimped out is that even the country fans couldn't agree on what was acceptable - new country, old country, cross-over pop chart country...it seems that once you move beyond "ma dog died, ma woman left me, ma horse fell in the bayou, pass me ma daddy's ole gun" then it becomes more difficult to define exactly what is and isn't country, so personal opinion started to divided the country fans....while the rest of the linedance world looked on in amazement and suggested that maybe country fans should stop getting their knickers in a twist because it might actually be more important to enjoy the music than fuss about how to categorise it!

    I take the view that there is room for everyone's tastes, and no-one should dictate to another what they should and shouldn't dance to. Debate is healthy, but I think people should be free to find a class that suits them, not get off on sabotaging other kinds of classes. As far as trying to attract any kind of crowd or age group, I don't know any teachers who consciously try to market theire classes that way. Most teachers run their classes the way they like them, and the way their existing punters like them. And although you obviously don't go for Rob Fowler and Masters In Line, it is an undeniable fact that he is one of the most popular figures in the mainline linedance world.

    The issue of the day now is newline versus mainline, because there are some fairly intolerant bods out there who don't agree with letting people dance the way they want, so they fiddle with the definition of linedancing to try to exclude anything they don't like or can't do. I suppose it's a similar tolerance issue to the pop vs country, just different subject matter. Sad...if people don't like a particular kind of dancing, no-one is holding a gun to their heads to make them do it.

    ..There's a linedance slogan I like: "Live and let dance"

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