Move It

I had a fabulous day at Move It on Saturday. I met so many people and did some great dance classes.

I started the day with a Dirty Dancing class. The class was taken by Richard Marcel, who has worked on Strictly Dance Fever. He said that when the film was released, he had to learn all of the choreography in order to promote the film in the UK.

We had to partner up with the person next to us, and being the taller one I offered to lead. We started off with a short jazz routine to Yes, then a mambo to Johnny's Mambo and finished with a '60s section to Do You Love Me?. I actually put some of Anton's leading tips into practice during the mambo and was very pleased with myself.

After that I went downstairs to watch the showcase featuring Darren & Lilia. I met a whole bunch of lovely ladies. Over the course of the day I met Aimee, Nina, Katy, Catherine, Marie, Laura and lots of others. I'm sure I've forgotten someone. Feel free to abuse me on MySpace if I forgot you...

The showcase was excellent. Darren & Lilia did two routines.





Here are a couple of clips of their dances...





After the showcase, I went for a wander. I visited the LTS stand to say hello to Nick, Angela and Shaun. When I was there I bumped into Sarah and her mum, and we decided to wander around together.

After a short while we got to the Dance Amo stand. Dance Amo are a shoe manufacturer. At the stand we found Matthew & Nicole and Ian & Camilla. I was really chuffed to see Ian & Camilla, as I hadn't expected them to be there. I had a little chat with Ian.

After a while I turned around and saw Sarah and Mary standing away watching. I apologised, and they decided to leave me to it. I took the opportunity to grab Matt and Nicole for photos. I decided to leave Ian alone this time, after I promised I wouldn't ask him to pose for any more after the Christmas special.





After a while, I decided to wander around again. I passed Darren & Lilia who were rushing to get the the IDTA stand. I nabbed Darren for a photo on the way, as I've never had one taken with him before. Check out the pole dancer in the background!



It was then time to run off for my tap class. Normally I wouldn't have taken tap, and I knew it would be very basic. But the class was being taught by Dougie Mills of Tap Dogs. Tap Dogs have been a big inspiration of mine for many years, and I've seen them perform live a couple of times. I had to do the class. The steps were very basic, but quite rhythmic, and I appreciated being taught by Dougie.

Dougie's class overran slightly, which meant I arrived late to Matthew & Nicole's ballroom class. I ran in, changed my shoes and was ready to dance. Everyone was already coupled up, so I formed a threesome with Marie and Catherine. We did the tango, which I love. Matt is a fantastic teacher, and the pace of the class was perfect. I wish Matt did group classes. I'd be there in a shot!

As I left the class, I ran into Sarah again. I stayed with her to watch the ballet showcase. She and her mum left after that, and I had a while to kill until my last class, so I took the time to track down Pearl.

Pearl Howie is a filmmaker, and director of Everything To Dance For which I have mentioned here on several other occasions. I knew she was going to be at Move It, so I sent her a message and found out where she was. It was great to finally meet her. I quizzed her about the project a bit. She told me how Brendan was mobbed by young girls on the Friday. We chatted about dancing in general for ages, and then we watched the Poptastic showcase, which was mostly street jazz. After that, it was time to head off and go to my final class of the day - flamenco.

Marie and I both did the flamenco class. I found the steps OK, but I have no idea what my arms were doing. It was a total mess. And I was so tired I don't think I was concentrating all that well!
After the class I quickly ran downstairs, said my goodbyes to Shaun, Nick and Angela, picked up my copy of Everything To Dance For (no, Pearl, I haven't watched it yet!), took out a Dance Today subscription and wearily headed for the door!

I can't wait for next year!