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Lazy Boots Western Dancers Spring Fever Festival 2007 (27th - 29th Apr 2007)
On Friday 27th, 108 happy souls made their way through the lovely spring sunshine to St Audries Bay for our fourth Spring Fever Western Dance weekend. With the fine weather and good road conditions everyone arrived safely without problems or mishaps on the way. Most headed straight to the Sundowners Bar for a snack and a drink (or several in the case of one small group!!), whilst others took a stroll in the sunshine. One or two had to be reminded that the swings were provided for the under 12s!!! Stuart started the music in the ballroom mid afternoon and a good number came in to brush up on their dances in preparation for the evening dance. After a super dinner, we all headed into the ballroom for the first dance night, with live music from Hombre. What a really good night with country favourites old and new from this duo of Bob Rudge and Chris Bendle. A great start to the weekend. Saturday morning brought the first of the instruction sessions from Terry & Caroline French, our regular instructors at Lazy Boots festivals. The first dance taught was a partner dance called 'Now I Know', choreographed by Ann Williams to the track of the same name by Lari White. Regulars will be interested to note that the demo from Terry & Caroline was faultless (well done Terry!! - Caroline must have been coaching him). The second instruction was a line dance from Jeff Mills, who, with his wife Thelma, were our guest instructors for the weekend. Jeff taught 'Nothing But Tail Lights' an easy intermediate level line dance to the track 'Nothing But Tail Lights' by Trace Adkins. Many people already knew the partner dance to this track so the line dance addition ensured a full floor when it was played later in the day. After a short break for lunch we had 2 excellent sets of country music from local lads Spur. These 2 young entertainers, Mark & James, have been on the scene for only about 18 - 20 months but are already an accomplished act. Their set comprises songs from artists such as Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney from the modern era and classics from Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams (their grans must have told them about these!!). The boys are being mentored by Kalibre and the influence is clear, a very polished and professional performance and such potential. Many present had never seen Spur before but everyone was hugely impressed and it was only after 4 encores that the boys were allowed to finish. Watch out for these 2 on the circuit. After Spur had gone there was more dance instruction, Jeff & Thelma taught their partner dance 'Never Too Late' to the Vince Gill track 'What You Give Away' and Terry taught a singalong line dance 'But I Do' to Charley Pride's version of the old hit by Emil Ford (it was interesting how many people actually knew the words!!). There was a short period of recaps of dances taught, interspersed with some social dancing and then it was time for a break to get ready for dinner and the evening entertainment. The band on Saturday evening should have been Wrangler but with only a couple of weeks to go they had to pull out, but fortunately we were able to get a fabulous replacement - Red Rock County from Sheffield. This trio was excellent, real live music, no backing tracks and a real drummer. A few people near the front found the drummer a bit loud to start with, but that was sorted and we had 3 great sets of country music. Great dancing and great fun, the band again were cajoled into several encores before they were allowed to start packing up (they were heading all the way back to Sheffield for a gig in Leeds the next night!!). Another band to watch out for when they venture down from the North-East!! The dancing went on until about 2am before everyone tottered off to bed after a very busy, but enjoyable day. On Sunday morning the last teaching sessions were held, Jeff & Thelma taught their Night Club 2 Step Partner Dance - 'PD 2 Night' choreographed to Alan Jackson's 'A Woman's Love'. Jeff has designed the dance to give partner dancers an introduction to the couples' free-style format of Night Club 2 Step and for many it was their first experience of this new rhythm pattern. However, by the end of the session, it had been mastered and was very well received by all. Terry finished off the dance instruction for the weekend with the line dance 'Storms Never Last' to the track of the same name by Dr Hook. A fairly short little dance with a couple of tricky bits in it - but again - no mistakes from Terry!! Once again there was time to recap the dances from Saturday before the weekend finished with 'Best Of Friends'. After a super roast lunch in the restaurant it was time to say Goodbyes and head for home. Next year's event will be on 25th - 27th Apr 2008, the booking form will be available on line shortly, but already there are very few places left due to the majority of people re-booking this weekend.
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