DV

"Line Dance Heaven exists..."

I read 2 different line dance magazines published in Australia to learn the names of the popular dances being done in OZ and to keep up with what the choreographers are saying in the featured articles and the opinions the dancers are expressing in the letters to the editors.

Get In Line is the Queensland (Terry Hogan's home state) Line Dancing Magazine - Jeanette Cram, Editor

Country Goss is Australia's National Country Dance and Music News Publication - Gary Talbot, Managing Editor. This publication also prints World Dance News...(on the same page in the 98' Winter Edition...there was a story about dancin' in Paris, France right next to an article about dancin' in Lincoln, Illinois at one of my favorite little midwestern dance halls....Thunderfoot Junction!)

I also read Linedancermagazine, a line dance magazine published in the UK for the same reason...to keep informed of the popular dances being done on their dance floors and to read what other instructors and dancers are saying about their line dance community. This publication also prints World Dance News.

From reading my own email that comes to my site, from reading the opinions expressed in these overseas publications and from just being an active member of the San Francisco Bay Area Country Western Dance Community...I feel entitled to my opinion.

A great many of our instructors, including Michael, Neil, Evelyn, Hedy and Charlotte - attend workshops and festivals here in the States and Overseas to teach their own dances and to bring back to their classes the latest dances. They not only publish their dance schedules every month...but they allow each other to put their schedules out on the "information" table at lessons and socials!!
At lessons and at socials...we can dress country or not.
The dancers request the dances on a hand written request list that the DJ's use throughout the social.
Most generally the dance floor is called "split"...which means that the DJ calls a beginner & an intermediate dance for the same music...and we line dancers don't mind sharing our music with the couples who want to do their pattern dances or 2 steppin' round the perimeter of the dance floor.
Dance lessons are available every night; Dance socials happen every weekend!
I knew my line dance community was too much fun... but now I can say for a fact... Line Dance Heaven exists here in the San Francisco Bay Area!

"Too Many New Dances?..."

In social dances throughout the San Francisco Bay Area the dancers request their favorite dances on a hand written request list that the DJ's use throughout the social. A great many of our instructors, including Michael, Neil, Evelyn, Hedy and Charlotte - attend workshops and festivals here in the States and Overseas to teach their own dances and bring back new ones to teach to us. The red talicized dances were choreographed by Californians.

November 1997 (request list dances)

Classic dances included: All Shook Up, Alley Cat, Amalgamotion, Chocolate City Hustle, Heart Break Hotel, Hot Tamales, Midnight Waltz, Mustang Sally, and Tush Push

Current dances included: A Waltz In Time, Attitude, Baby I'm Ready, Backroads, Cannibal Stomp, Dancin' With You, Dreamin' (Down Under), Electric Real, Fallsview Rock, Fat Sally Lee, Hey Bruce, Home On The Range, Hurricane (T & G), Lazy 8 Waltz, Lonesome Blues, Love Letters, MMM-Bop, No Thanks, I'll Walk, One Toke Over The Line, Ooh! Ahh!, Over The Dam, Pencil Thin Mustache, Roaring 20's Boogie, Rock Around The Clock, Shipwrecked, Silk & Satin, Sugar Push Twist, Swing Time Boogie, Take A Look, Uno, Dos, Tres (13MWZ), What's The Hurry, Whiskey Brush, and Younger Men.

November 1998 (request list dances)

Classic dances included: Ain't Goin' Nowhere, Along For The Ride, Alley Cat, Amalgamotion, Arlene, Baby Likes To Rocket, Bocephus, Cha Cha Lengua, Cowboy, Cruisin', Fireman, Horsin' Around, Midnight Waltz, Mustang Sally, Stampede, Tush Push, Walkin' Wazi, and Zydeco Lady

Current dances included: A Waltz In Time, Alane, Along For The Ride, All-Right-A, Angie, Attitude, Black Coffee, Black Dresses, Brown-Eyed Girl, Chevy, Coastin', Cowgirl Twist, Cripple Creek, Cuban Heels, Dancin' With You, Dangerous, Desert Sands Cha Cha, Dizzy, Get Over It, Got To Be Funky, Hey Bruce, Hot Pepper, How Does It Start?, how Sweet It is, Huey Lewie, Hurricane (T&G), Jambalaya, Kung Fu Fighting, Lazy 8 Waltz, Lonesome Blues, Looking Glass, Love Letters, Madly Off In All Directions, Mama's Lil' Baby, MIB, MMM-Bop, My Boogie...Shoes, My Home, Peace Train, Pencil Thin Mustache, Picture Perfect, Ribbon of Highway, Razor Sharp, Rednex Stomp, Roadhouse Inn, Roll Of The Dice, Running Bear, Rum & Coca Cola, San Antone Rose, Senorita Sway, Silk & Satin, SOS, Southern Streamline, Sunset Dreamin', Still The One, Still The Same, Sweet Temptation, Switchblade USA, T-Bone Shuffle, Titanic, That's My Hat, Uno, Dos, Tres (MWWZ), Walzing Matilda, and Younger Men.

Classic Dances in common for both years: Alley Cat, Amalgamotion, Midnight Waltz, Mustang Sally, and Tush Push.

Current Dances in common for both years: A Waltz In Time, Attitude, Dancin' With You, Hey Bruce, Hurricane (T&G), Lazy 8 Waltz, Lonesome Blues, Love Letters, MMM-Bop, Pencil Thin Mustache, Silk & Satin, Uno, Dos, Tres (13MWZ) and Younger Men.

...and so the question really is "which of the 1998 current dances now showing up on request lists would you have wanted to NOT learn?...I say we give thanks to the choreographers with such creative minds...give thanks to our instructors who bring us the dances and... above all....give thanks to the DJ's for buying all the new CD's so that we can enjoy dancin' a new dance to the preferred music.

Website IS a Hobby

My website is first of all my hobby.... the scanner, the computer, and all the software (except Microsoft Frontpage) I use to create this website was already in our home office. I created a website to share my step sheets with all the dancers on the Internet. I taught myself how to use Adobe Acrobat by reading the manuel. I already was a desk top publisher and familar with Adobe Pagemaker which auto makes the .pdf files for me...but Acrobat secures the files so others can not alter my .pdf files....only printing the step sheets is allowed.

Other websites have my permission to link their sites to my dance .pdf files. The tag at the bottom of my .pdf files read: "Step sheet courtesy of LineDanceFun on the Internet at www.linedancefun.com" was specifically placed on each file to identify it as being made by ME and coming from this website. I am the person who creates this site and the opinions expressed are mine.

I have permission from the choreographers to have their signed sheets on my site. If I really love the dance, I personally ask them to mail me an original, signed copy so I can get a quality scanned copy on the website.

If I have been taught the dance, and have the sheet...it can go on my site.

If a dance is being done on all the dance floors I dance here in the San Francisco Bay Area...it will be on my site, if possible.

Some dance sheets given at lessons are copies from other publications. These sheets can not go on my site. I do check Don's website before I add a new dance and that is why readers will find the following notation after some dance descriptions...You can find this dance on Don Deyne's Information Super Dance Floor.

Doris Volz - Who I Be

Who am I exactly?

What do you do for a job?
How long have you been dancing?
How many dances have you choreographed?
What are your interests?
What involvement do you have with line dancing?
Do you travel a lot line dancing?
How did you originally get involved with line dancing?

Doris moved with her husband to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980....she left behind a dream job...the 3 -11 shift in the CCU Thursdays and Fridays at St. Paul Hospital Dallas, Texas. I loved being an R.N., but chose to be a "stay-at-home" Mom after my daughter turned 3.

My daughter is away at college now and lucky for me I found line dancing just in time to ease the "empty nest syndrome" feeling that everyone said I would be going through. August 1, 1995....I started intermediate dancing and found the classes that I now take. I am out dancing 5 or 6 nights a week, either taking lessons or going to dances. I created one beginner cha cha for us to do at a local country western bar, just because the band played so many cha cha's during the evening.

I love my computer; I am self taught in using all the html and graphics software I use to create my LineDanceFun website. I scan original, signed line dance step description sheets and create .pdf files which make it possible for other dancers to download my collection over the Internet. I have also created video clips that readers can download from my site and view a dance being taught one time through. My goal as webmaster of www.linedancefun.com is to work to promote and preserve the San Francisco Bay Area line dance history.

www.linedancefun.com was first published on the Internet July 18, 1996. The Domain Name was registered on October 14, 1996. The counter registered 100,000+ hits on June 28, 1998.

Do you travel a lot line dancing?....

I attended the following workshops/festivals in 1998 to take lessons from my favorite choreographers/instructors... my festival reports will be archived here on this page.

June 27 Sal Gonzalez's Workshop - Reedley, CA

July 27 - August 9 New Zealand/Australia Tour

September 11-13 Pismo Western Days - Pismo Beach, CA

September 26 Golden Gate Classic - Union City, CA

October 2- 4 1998 Tarheel Festival - Rocky Mount, NC

November 20 - 21 Desert Sands Festival - Las Vegas, NV