LTGTR 2011

Toronto, Canada

October is here and there's a chill in the air.

But it's time for some fun so dancers don't care!

Time to kick up our heels with our friends on the floor

Ready for laughter, for play, learnin' and more.

We're a very unique bunch who can all count to eight,

We can vine, kick ball change & bump hips with the greats.

So what if we turn left when we mean to turn right,

After all variations are the choreographers' delight!

Le's chill together while we walk in the rain,

Touch our toes in wonderland with a cheerful refrain.

We'll roll in the deep while we fly to the moon

With a little moonlight madness and a chica boom boom.

Let us Roll The Good Times together once again,

With friendships and a passion on which we can depend.

We have a whole new year to enjoy dancin' together,

Warm hearts and hot footin' whatever the weather!

This was the philosophy that kept LTGTR 2011 full of laughter, fun and lively dancers this year. Fred, Eddie and I want to thank everyone who came and joined us for the 9th year of our event; we couldn’t do it without you. We also want to thank our helpers who are always there to set-up the day before, then to greet dancers as they come in, fill the water jugs, put out the chips and cookies and the myriad of things that have to be done to ensure that an event runs smoothly. We are very fortunate in our friends.

Special thanks as always to Dale McNeil who spends all year creating amazing baskets for the Gift Auction that raises money for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. This year the auction raised $400 and the 50/50 sent one happy dancer home with $113 in her pocket with the other half going to the Canadian Cancer Society. A second happy dancer won a Certificate for Dancin’ For Miracles 2012 thanks to Valarie Keller.

For the past eight years at LTGTR Fred and I have taught along with the many talented instructors that Ontario has to offer. This year we were very fortunate to have Michele Carver from Guelph along to teach with us. Michele has instructed for over 15 years and teaches three nights a week from New Beginner to Advanced level. She also holds and DJs a monthly dance and has a monthly Review Workshop. You can check out Michele’s website here for all her dance information. Michele taught the challenge of the day ‘Domino’ written by Rachael McEnaney. This was a fast paced dance with a few tricky steps but Michele was very patient and did an excellent job of instruction and everyone stayed on the floor including the beginners. The dance went over very well and the floor was full when Michele led it during the evening dance.

This year there was a change and for the first time we brought up an instructor from over the border; Rosie Multari from New Jersey to be exact! Over the past few years I have worked a number of times with Rosie, in particular at the Tim Gillis LD Weekends. She is the very competent Co-Event Director who also organizes the entertainment which leaves the audience in fits of laughter!! In fact Rosie was so much fun that I reckoned the Ontario dancers would like her as much as I did. In addition Rosie has an extensive Line Dance resume which you can check out here, As you can imagine, I was delighted when she agreed to join us.

Rosie took on the mantel of teaching dances that everyone could do including two of her own dances ‘Marry You’ and ‘This Life’ (Rosie included the tag for Will Craig's hit '2 Nite' so 'This Life' could be danced as a floor split) plus ‘Mi Papito’ by Forty Arroyo and ‘’Witchcraft’ by Lynne Martino. The dancers loved her style of teaching (and her accent I might add!) and there was much merriment. “She is like a comedienne”, one dancer told me! You have a new fan club up here now for sure Rosie!

Rosie was accompanied on the trip by her husband Bruno, as well as friend and fellow instructor/accomplished choreographer Lynne Martino. And to our surprise also accompanying her was famous ballroom dancer Pablo who seemed to enjoy dragging delightful ladies up onto the dance floor. If you are interested in taking lessons you should check out his dance school 'Pablo's International School of Social Etiquette & Dance' (Also known as P.I.S.S.E.D!) Unexpectedly however his girlfriend Sally Sweet turned up which put rather a damper on his social interactions! Suffice to say there were lots of chuckles in the house!! If you want to check out the routine again, have a look through the 'I Love Lucy' shows!!!

All through the day and evening Rosie, Lynne and Bruno were up on the dance floor enjoying themselves with us and lots of dancers came over to tell me how friendly they thought our guests were and what a pleasure it was to have them here in Toronto. If you’d like to join them at one of the Tim Gillis Weekends check out the website here.

It is a tradition for Fred and me to write a dance for this event and this year we came up with ‘La Voix (The Voice)’. If you like a bit of opera with your dancing this will appeal to you! I also premiered a new dance that I had written with Kim Ray titled ‘Still Water Runs Deep’. In addition I did a quick run through of ‘Broken Heated Avenue’ which is written to a song of the same name by a local group ‘Second Floor View’.

By dinner time dancers were ready to put their feet up for a bit! The Legion ladies had been busy in the kitchen all day preparing our meal and it was excellent. Lots of queries as to the salad dressing and the roast beef was so tender you could have cut it with a blunt knife!! Ice Cream and fresh berries for dessert.

A little while was spent pulling out the winning tickets for the gift baskets and certifying our instructors and then it was time to dance again! Fred did a terrific job as DJ keeping the floor full while at the same time making sure everyone got at least a few of their requests with Eddie taking up the slack when needed.

We want to thank you all again for supporting our events, dancin’ on our own is no fun, and the dancers who come always bring good humour and lots of smiles with them as well as dancin’ feet.

Don’t forget to join us next Spring when we present Maggie Gallagher here in Canada for the first time.