Mask but not least, the SaddleBrooke Line Dance Club and amazing Dance Committee.
Dorothy Wood
The SaddleBrooke Line Dance Committee (SBLDC) is chartered to find fun, new, fresh dances for our club. The “DC,” co-chaired by Krisse Arthur and Dorothy Wood, comprises of eight members including: Diana Carbone, Donna DePesa, Terri Gage, Charli Jackson, Shirley Miller, and Claudia Rigg. As old hands (sorry, gals!), they have each been line dancing for an average of 10 years. This experience gives them a seasoned perspective from which to evaluate dances and to ensure that our club achieves a fun mix of dances from graceful waltzes to funky hip hop.
What is the process for bringing a new dance to the club?
Gee, thanks for masking! Typically, a DC member will peruse the internet to identify a fun and popular dance. After acquiring the music, she will privately give it the ol’ living room test. Often a dance may look easy on YouTube but can be awkward or “out of phrase” with the music. If no problems unmask themselves, she will then bring the dance to the workshop floor where fellow DC members will assist and provide suggestions to develop effective teaching tactics and cue words. The DC’s biggest challenge is to translate the choreographer’s complicated or confusing mumbo-jumbo into familiar words that our club members can relate to. Over the years, we have developed a dance vernacular and solid teaching model using “demo-cue-count-repeat” that keeps our instructions clean and consistent.
With over 80(!) active dances within our club, there eventually comes a point where a dance must be retired to allow room and “mental bandwidth” for new dances to be learned. Choosing which dances to archive is another function of the DC.
As a result of the actions and efforts of the DC, the SBLDC is, without a doubt, the best-organized, best-instructed opportunity for line dancing within SaddleBrooke. Just mask our happy members!
Special note: As you can imagine, we are very happy to be on the dance floor under our current safe and healthy conditions. We are all wearing face masks and keeping our social distance. This has translated into fewer and smaller group dance sessions. We look forward to the day we can again welcome new members—when we have more space and more time in which we can provide an appropriate level of instruction. In the interim, if you are interested in the SBLDC, check out our website at www.sbldc.weebly.com or contact Diana Carbone by email at [email protected].