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Smile Soul Line Dance

Sep30

I have been line dancing two years, and have many favorites! Here is my favorite line dance from August 2017.

The most important thing you should do while dancing this line dance is:

Smile

Choreographer: Troy Jones of Dance Without Drama

Description: 32 Count, 4 Wall, Intermediate Soul Line Dance

Music: “Smile” by Leven Kali

Intro: 64

STEP RIGHT SIDE, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, HOLD, TURN 1/4 LEFT, 1/4 LEFT, 1/2 LEFT

1-4 Step right side, cross left over, step right side, touch left together

5-8 Turn 1/4 left and step left forward, turn 1/2 left and step right back, turn 1/4 left and step left side, touch right together

JAZZY LADY, FULL TURN LEFT

1-2 Step right forward, step left forward

3&4 Triple in place right-left-right

5-6 Turn 1/2 left and step left forward, turn 1/2 left and step right back

7&8 Triple in place left-right-left

TOE TOUCH RIGHT, TOE TOUCH LEFT, SAILOR RIGHT, SAILOR LEFT

1-2 Touch right forward, step right together

3-4 Touch left forward, step left together

5&6 Right sailor step

7&8 Left sailor step

TOE TOUCH RIGHT, TOE TOUCH LEFT, SAILOR RIGHT, SAILOR 1/4 LEFT

1-2 Touch right forward, step right together

3-4 Touch left forward, step left together

5&6 Right sailor step

7&8 Left sailor step turning 1/4 left

REPEAT

What a Shock aka Freaks on the Floor Line Dance

May9

Dance: What a Shock (aka in Soul Line Dance – Freaks on the Floor)
Choreographer: Larry Bass
Song: Freak on YouTube
Artist: Cheri Dennis
Step Sheet: What A Shock from Copperknob Line Dance Sheets

I am so intrigued as to why my brain can latch onto some steps immediately, even some that appear difficult, but other steps have me baffled and confused. Notice that I did not say discouraged! 🙂 I have been line dancing seven months now, and I have faith that I WILL pick up the steps! I do have to admit this is the most difficult dance I have ever tried to learn.

The first time I saw What a Shock was at The Line Dance Party’s quarterly line dance party in mid-April. Another group of local line dancers – Shades of Distinction – performed the dance and the next week our instructor taught the dance. He taught the dance for three weeks in a row, and I was just not getting it.

It doesn’t help that I haven’t been practicing on the weekends. I notice a dramatic improvement when I make a point to practice. My instructor sends out a link to a video so we can practice the line dance, but I needed a bit more concentration on the steps. I started searching on YouTube and found the video which is first on this blog post.

I managed to figure out how to make the video loop and just kept practicing over and over and over… like, for 45 minutes. Yes. It took that long for me to get the first few steps memorized! I just feel like if I had tried to rely on learning only while at class, I never would have learned this dance.

But now I feel like the dance is in my brain and I’ll keep practicing to make sure it stays.

So a little background for this dance. It was originally a country and western line dance, the first video is actually the choreographer, Larry Bass, demonstrating the steps! I think that’s pretty cool!

However, as happens fairly often (I’m told) it was converted to a soul line dance at some point in time, and the song used is by Cheri Dennis, and is called Freak. There is just one tiny problem… I could only find this song on YouTube. I could not find it on iTunes, nor on Amazon. So, if you are wanting to do this dance, you’ll need to use the music found on YouTube.

After my intensive practice, I was able to follow along with Linda Simms in the following video. I am not 100% yet, but much better having practiced. At least now I don’t feel like my right foot turned to a left foot again (two left feet).

Look how much fun Linda and the ladies are having dancing this line dance!

Ooh Ahh Line Dance

Mar23

The instructional above is taught by Hassan.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Dance: Ooh Aah
Choreographer: Bernadette Bernette
Song: Beautiful Surprise
Artist: Tamia
Step Sheet: NA

Another favorite. I had never heard this song before, and fell in love with it.

I find the dance named both Ooh Aah and Ooh Ahh. I’m not sure which is correct (two a’s or two h’s?). I’m trying to connect with Ms. Bernette, the choreographer to find out. Also, maybe she has step sheets! 🙂 UPDATE: I connected with Ms. Bernette and she confirmed that the dance is spelled with two h’s “Ooh Ahh”.  Also, no step sheets.

Two parts that especially stand out for me in this line dance. First was the set of steps “right left right left right” where you do sort of a stomp. In the instructional video above, you can see it at 20 seconds in.

The next set of steps that confounded me, which I finally got and totally love, is the sailor step in which we do a 1/2 turn. This part is taught at 2:16 in the video above.

This is one of the dances that I could do every week and never get tired of it. A lot of the dances are like this for me.

The video below is a good one for practicing Ooh Ahh. The video is produced by The Soul Steppers.

Floatin Line Dance

Mar18

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Instructional above is from Steph’s Line Dancing in San Antonio, Texas

Dance: Floatin’
Wall: 2
Level: Low Intermediate
Choreographer: Unknown
Song: Floatin’ (Available free with Amazon PRIME)
Artist: Charlie Wilson with Justin Timberlake & will.i.am
Step Sheets: None

This dance has been the source of a lot of laughter. Our instructor taught us this dance the typical way first, the way that Steph and her class are dancing in the video above. It is supposed to be danced in two lines. Things went crazy when our class formed two lines. 🙂 Some of us were facing the wrong direction, some of us were stepping backwards into the person behind us, who was stepping backwards toward that person. We were all busting up laughing. It was the first time I had seen the ladies in my class mess up so it was an eye opening moment for me, to see that they weren’t perfect like I thought they were. 🙂

It was even funnier that the side our instructor was in, that line was on track. It made me (several of us) realize how dependent we are on following our instructor’s feet! It was the first time I recognized that.

But we eventually got it. I like the challenge of this dance, and I like the song a lot as well. I decided to call it low intermediate because it does take some extra practice and brain power to master.

The video below is a nice representation of how the dance is done with two lines formed. Thank you to the Elusive Ladies from Houston Texas.

Player Line Dance

Mar8

Dance: Player Line Dance
Choreographer: Terrance TJ Estell
Song: Hey Lover
Artist: Charlie Wilson

The instructional above is by Linda Simms “The Who Dat Teacher” from Let’s Mess It Up Line Dancing. Use the instructional to learn the steps, and then use the video at the bottom of this post to practice along with the group.

I have now learned another aspect of line dancing. When to start the steps! I wondered how does my instructor know when to start the dance? He always verbalizes a count down of 5, 6, 7, 8 and then we start, but it never occurred to me that he was counting prior to that! Some of our class members had mentioned that it was hard to know when to start the dance at another place they go to dance, and he has now started to teach us how to count the beats to know when to start the dance steps.

Player is another of my favorites, and I just love the song. I do recall that this dance was hard for me to get. That might have had something to do with the fact that my brain was still learning how to catch onto dance steps because after five months of weekly classes I am finding that I am picking up the steps much quicker, and am able to remember a series of steps. Seriously, in the beginning our instructor would show us three sets of steps and then “Let’s start over from the top” and I’d be “What were the first steps?!” But I can clearly the first steps I was able to learn for Player, it was the very simple first three steps and putting up my arms and going “Whoo!”

I can’t find step sheets for Player and I wish I could somehow cram all the steps into my head immediately so that I wouldn’t have to study so hard to figure the step sheets out because I would like to write the steps and share them as I publish each blog post. The biggest issue is the time that it takes. And it is like doing homework, which kind of takes the fun out of posting about the dances. I realize it is a learning curve and with time I will recognize the steps more easily and can transcribe them quickly, but in the meantime, there is that “time” issue again. 🙂 I want to share the dances with you, but at the same time, would I rather spend my time sorting out step sheets, or practicing line dancing? The latter!

The last part of this dance I am actually still trying to get into my head. For one thing, I am still confused about which way we are heading when we do the vine, but I see from closely watching the videos that we are going counter clockwise. And the vine, then feet together, then apart, then start over. It’s very fast footwork, at least for my feet, but I love the challenge.

At a recent line dance party we did this dance and I was one of the few who knew it (for the most part), and could dance along while others stood by watching. I am always so thrilled with my accomplishments, especially since in the beginning I was not sure if I was going to be able to get it!

The video below is Linda Simms’ class.