September was a relatively quiet month, with plenty of work going on behind the scenes for the choreography competition in Hamilton later in the month. Unfortunately, I didn't end up at to the competition, as I had to make an impromptu trip to Wellington for pre-departure meetings ahead of leaving New Zealand for Rarotonga.
A massive shout-out to our awesome Clive Bootscootin' dancers who competed in the choreography competition! I’m super-duper proud of everyone and their results:
🤠 Nathan Berry took out the Beginner division with Keep Your Boots On Baby.
🏆 Sahmara Buscke and Emily Mardon won the Improver division with Hickest Woman, plus Judges’ Choice!
🔥 Tee won the Intermediate division with Damn in Me, taking home Best Overall.
🥈 Bex and Vic Camp placed second in the Intermediate division with Our Rhythm.
🏆 Sahmara and Emily also won the Advanced division with Poor Carl.
What an incredible set of results! So much creativity, hard work and talent in our Clive Bootscootin' crew. It’s pretty special seeing our dancers putting themselves out there and getting recognition for their choreography. Boots on and bring on the next one!
Late September saw another impromptu road trip, this time to Masterton for the Tararua Line Dancers Spring Social. And what a great time we had! I met a bunch of new line dancers, caught up with friends from the Wellington region, and even had an impromptu outing for one of my own dances, Say La V.
This dance came about after I heard the song on the radio earlier in the month. You know how it goes. A song catches your attention, you listen to it again, and before you know it, you're counting beats and imagining steps!
It is so much fun! I've loved seeing our Absolute Beginners pick it up so quickly, even with two quarter-turn Montereys to get them started, and three restarts... Watching dancers who are still relatively new to line dancing confidently tackle something new is one of my favourite things about teaching.
And apparently, one new dance wasn't enough for September!
One night, while listening to my favourite 90s country music playlist, Try to Think About Elvis by Patty Loveless popped up. Naturally, I got inspired again and ended up choreographing another dance.
This one's fast, fun and has some traditional Elvis-style pointing thrown in for good measure. Because why wouldn't you add a little Elvis flair when the music calls for it?
Then... Girl From Louisiana popped up on my playlist, and I absolutely loved it! It gave me the perfect opportunity to have a go at creating higher level dance, but keeping ti simple so I could still teach it to my beginners.
And that rock out... that step took me straight back to about two years ago, when Bex and I decided we were going to make how-to videos explaining line dance steps. What could possibly go wrong? 😂
Let's just say I had absolutely no idea what I was doing back then, and the whole thing turned into such a crack-up that the videos never eventuated. If you fancy a laugh, head over to my Facebook page and see for yourself!
There's something I really enjoy about these spontaneous moments of creativity. Sometimes you can spend hours working through a dance, carefully piecing everything together, while other times a song comes on and the ideas just start flowing.
And... speaking of Say La V, I discovered that the music was created using AI, which brings us to one of the hot topics at the moment: is AI-generated music real music?
I'm firmly in the camp that creativity is creativity, and a human is still driving the AI. There's plenty to debate about how these tools are used, but for me, the fun is in what happens when a song inspires someone to create something new.
And of course, Joe Nichols (singer of Say La V) has plenty of other good old country music classics too. There's room for both!
Reflection
September reminded me that not everything has to go to plan for good things to happen.
Sometimes a change of direction gives you the time and space you didn't realise you needed. Sometimes a spontaneous road trip leads to new friendships, familiar faces and unexpected opportunities to dance. And sometimes all it takes is a song on the radio to spark a whole new creative idea.
I'm learning to enjoy the process rather than get too caught up in the end result. Whether I'm creating choreography, teaching my beginners or heading off to a social, it's the joy of people together through music and movement that keeps me coming back for more.
With Rarotonga getting closer and plenty still to do before we leave, I'm making the most of every opportunity to dance, create and connect.
And if the radio keeps giving me songs like these, I suspect there are a few more dances still to come!
🎶 Song of the Month
