APRIL 2023 NEWSLETTER
Welcome to our fourth newsletter for 2023,
Information below on:
Phone Etiquette in Class
2023 Socials
Wanted ... Tissue Boxes
Class Changes
Live Stream Class
Our Terminology and its Future
Square Dance Convention
Durrant Dance Shoes
See you on the dance floor,
Thanks,
Liz & Peter Heath and the Instructor Team
Phone Etiquette In Class
Unfortunately, I need to remind a few people to please silence their phones in class. As soon as a phone goes off, multiple people suddenly realise that they forgot to turn theirs off, and run for the handbags. It is not only the original culprit that disrupts the class.
We understand that some people are waiting for,or at least anticipating,urgent calls due to a family health crisis or something. In those rare cases, please keep your phone on vibrate and on your person so you can deal with the call with minimal disruption to the class.
If you must answer a call, DO NOT START THE CONVERSATION until you have removed yourself from the room and away from the entrance to the room. Carefully walk around the dance floor, exit the room, distance yourself from the door and then talk quietly. We do not need to (or want to) hear your personal calls, as important to you as they may be.
Remember that the entrance to the hall may be invisible to the dancers, but it is often an echo chamber, and we may hear everything you say.
Most people use their line dance class as a relief from the pressures and challenges of the outside world, if you don't, then maybe you should. It is rare that there is anything urgent enough that it can't be avoided for a couple of hours of "you time".
2023 Socials
These are the dates for this years socials:
Sunday 30 th April - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
Sunday 28 th May - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
Sunday 9 th July - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
Sunday 20 th Aug - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
Sunday 12 th November - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
Sunday 10 th December - 1.30 pm-5.00 pm
We also have our 30 th Birthday Social at Goodwood on Saturday 23 rd September (Liz is already setting up the decorations). The theme is going to be "Spring" (no not "boing", try flowers). This theme is for the Birthday social, not the others as some people seemed to have interpreted. More information will be coming soon, including cost and food options.
REMEMBER AT THE REGULAR SOCIALS... Meals are available from Ivy's Kitchen from Noon. Good food at very reasonable prices. Please support Ivy so she continues to offer the meals at our socials. There are also frozen meals that you can take home with you for later at about $ 8 each.
WANTED - Tissue Boxes - UPDATED
Liz is in need of about 80 unsquashed, standard size, tissue boxes. Colour is not important and as long as they are a medium/large size, they would be appreciated. It is for a construction project LOL. We are still in need of about 50 more thanks.
CLASS CHANGES
There have been a few changes since last newsletter.
Narelle's Thursday Night class at Elizabeth East will be closed after Easter. There is insufficient consistent attending dancers to pay for the ever increasing rent. An alternative class is Wednesday Nights at Ingle Farm. Thanks Narelle for your tireless persistence.
Johnathon's Thursday Morning class at Colonel Light Gardens is running from 10am-11.30am.
LIVE STREAM CLASS
Zoom classes are now available and all the known glitches have been ironed out and the annual license has been paid.
If you are interested in participating, please let me know, and I can set it up with you. First class is free as a trial, then there is a single class or monthly cost to access the class.
So, if you are not able to get to class for a period of time due to Covid-19, or transportation or whatever, you now have a second option to keep in touch.
The best way to take advantage is to organise a free Zoom account using your email address. Then find a way to send the video and audio from your phone or tablet to your television or a large screen computer. It will work on a phone, but if you hold the phone while dancing, it is very, very disorienting and difficult to see, as some found out during lockdown.
Our Terminology and its Future
Ever since I started teaching line dancing 30 Years ago, I have been aware of the inconsistencies of line dance terminology domestically and Internationally. For this reason, I immediately started translating the dance choreography into a set of terminology that made sense at the time, based on my experience of many other dance forms. Everything was on paper, and tracking stuff from dance to dance was next to impossible.
Each time I came across a combination of steps, or a suggested term on a sheet, I would evaluate it based on my experience, and adopt the new term if it made sense, or adapted an existing term to accommodate the new combination, or in some instances would make up a term that I would use to describe a collection of steps because I thought one was needed.
Sometimes a collection of steps would come along again Years later, and not remembering my original translation, I would re-translate the steps based on the newer knowledge, and the translation then may be different from the previous attempt.
Over 10 Years ago we started using electronic dance sheets and e-Readers to display them for the instructors to teach from. This saved forests of trees worth of paper and reduced the amount of paper being carted around by the instructors. We are the only people in the World successfully making this transition.
I then embarked on writing a computer program to achieve two goals:
To make the dance sheets more consistent in content and terminology
To automatically evaluate the difficulty of dance choreography to avoid personal bias and inconsistent level dances being taught in often inappropriate classes.
Both of these things are ongoing, and though proving to be way more challenging than I had anticipated, much progress has been made. What I am trying to do would take a team of software engineers years,and I am trying to squeeze it into my meager spare time.
My intention is to consolidate what I have learnt in this process into a book that may eventually become the terminology "bible" for future generations of line dance instructors world wide. In the preparation process, I need to consolidate and clearly define some terminology that has been used by us for many Years. I won't do this all at once, but you may notice some gradual changes in the coming Months. I hope to explain them in this segment as we progress through the process.
Many of these things will be foreign and irrelevant to dancers that are at the easy end of the difficulty spectrum, so you may want to look away now LOL,
Here is the first one...
The following semi-related terms are part of our current language.
Break, Cuban Break, New Yorker, Hand to Hand, Forward Mambo, Back Mambo, Forward Rumba, Forward Nightclub, Double Cuban Break, Turning New Yorkers etc etc.
Depending on Rhythm (Rumba, Nightclub, Cha etc) these terms were not consistent in their use.
I am going to merge these terms into 3 families, where each is given a rhythm to specify timing.
Break: Rock in the specified direction, Recover, Close (on the spot). ie Forward Break, Front Break etc. Assumed timing is Rumba, so Forward Break timing would be 123H. Other rhythms would be Mambo Forward Break, Nightclub Forward Break, Forward Break Cha etc.
New Yorker: Rock in Front, Recover, Step to the Side. Assumed timing is Rumba, so New Yorker timing would be 123H. Other rhythms would be Mambo New Yorker, Nightclub New Yorker, New Yorker Cha etc.
Hand To Hand: Rock Behind, Recover, Step to the Side. Assumed timing is Rumba, so Hand To Hand timing would be 123H. Other rhythms would be Mambo Hand To Hand, Nightclub Hand To Hand, Hand To Hand Cha etc.
As a side effect of this change, the term Double Cuban Break wasn't found to be compatible. I have created 2 variations of an existing term to make this issue easier to handle. These terms are:
Front Rocking Chair: Rock Across, Recover, Rock Side, Recover
Behind Rocking Chair: Rock Behind, Recover, Rock Side, Recover
Thus a Double Cuban Break becomes: Quick Front Rocking Chair, Mambo New Yorker
It will take a while for the instructors sheets to reflect these changes, but at least you will be aware of the reasons when you hear the changes in the future.
SQUARE DANCE CONVENTION
On the weekend of the 22 nd and 23 rd of April, the 63 rd National Square Dance Convention is being held here in Adelaide. It comes to Adelaide every seven or so Years. It is being held at the Parafield Gardens Recreation Centre on Kings Rd. Spectators are free of charge and there will be over 400 dancers from all over Australia, as well as potentially some overseas dancers as well.
If you have some spare time over that weekend, go and check it out. Liz and I will be there, as Liz has recently graduated from a square dance beginners class.
Details are available at: https://www.adelaide2023.com/
Dancing actually commences on the Thursday night and goes through to the Monday Night.
DURRANT DANCE SHOES
If anyone is in need of specialist and snazzy dance shoes, then here is your opportunity. The owner of the business will be here in Adelaide to sell off their stock before closing the business for good. Liz and I both bought some over Xmas (for use for square dancing) when we visited their outlet in Melbourne. These shoes have soft leather soles and lots of sparkles, so would not be suitable for everyday wear, but look lovely on a ballroom dance floor.
You can get info on them at their web site www.durrantdanceshoes.com.au or come and see them at 3 different places this month:
Gardens Rec Centre, Kings Rd, Parafield Gardens - April 20 th 2.00 pm-8.30 pm
Gardens Rec Centre, Kings Rd, Parafield Gardens - April 21 st 5.30 pm-9.30 pm
Gardens Rec Centre, Kings Rd, Parafield Gardens - April 22 nd Noon-8.00 pm
Chandelier Ballroom, Cassie St, Collinswood - April 23 rd 1.30 pm-6.00 pm
Destiny Dancesport, 12 Young St, Parkside - April 24 th 2.30 pm-6.30 pm
