There really wasn’t much of a difference in the seasons in Hawai’i. Maybe a little more rain in the Winter, but the temperature was always nice. The changes were very subtle. Actually, the weather could be quite boring at times!

The warehouse where we danced, and took our line dance instructions, was open on one side to the outdoors. It was nice that way, especially if there was a gentle rain falling. We danced up in Kealakekua, just below Captain Cook, and Mamalahoa Highway ran right outside our warehouse. We could listen to the cars going by, their tires hissing in the rain. When we were finished dancing, a sliding panel was rolled over the open side. Fond memories!

Now, I think line dancing is more something you would start in the Fall, when it starts to be a little cooler. Line dancing instructions can be vigorous for someone just beginning! It’s better to have the weather a little cooler for comfort.

Autumn is always a time of new beginnings for me. School starts. The holidays loom ahead. And before you know it, the New Year arrives with more new beginnings.

If the Boot Fits!

The days are shorter in the Fall, and it gets dark much earlier. Evening activities are now planned for indoors. It’s a nice scene at a line dancing class, everyone arriving, taking off their jackets, chatting with each other. The teacher puts on a little music to set the atmosphere.

People sit around the edges of the dance floor putting on their boots, talking about their day. Then, they form a line and, voila, the strains of Shania Twain’s “Don’t Be Stupid” fill the room and everybody starts moving! Line dancin’ fun has begun.

For our classes in Hawai’i, we would warm up with a couple of easy line dances everyone already knew, and then the class would begin. Every week a new dance. We would go over each pattern of steps, without music, until we had that set down pat. When we had worked through all the steps, we would walk through the whole dance, again, without music.

Then, we would go through the steps with an appropriate song that was slower than the actual song we would be using for the dance. This always led to a lot of laughs, as we thought we had the steps down, but once we started doing them to actual music, we could become quite befuddled!

After a time, we would get all the steps in the right order and do them to the actual music. This was always a time of great pride and satisfaction! Another line dance under our belts! Hurrah!!

So, I guess if I had to pick a time to start line dancing lessons, I would say in the Fall.

Then again, in the Summer, a lot of City Recreation Departments offer free line dancing instructions. And, in the Spring, we can’t wait to start going places again in comfort! That leaves Winter! When the weather is gloomy, it’s nice to go out and meet with friends and have some great line dancin’ fun!

I guess line dancing is GREAT all year! What do you think?

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance DVDs and videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

When Should You Begin Line Dance Instructions? is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

We already know that line dancing, as a physical exercise, is good for our bodies. It’s also good for our brains because it raises the level of serotonin, which makes us feel good. People who run or jog call this a “runner’s high.”

And that’s great, but it doesn’t halt the loss of sharpness of our minds or increase our intelligence.

Some Studies. . .

A study done a few years ago, funded by the National Institute on Aging, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, set out to determine if there were specific activities, physical and/or mental, that would halt the loss of our “mental acuity” – mental sharpness – and/or possibly improve it.

They studied a variety of physical and mental activities and, of all the physical activities they included in their study, they found that the only one that helped reduce the risk of losing our mental sharpness was frequent dancing. Playing golf, riding a bicycle, running, jogging – none of these made the cut. But frequent dancing reduced the risk of deteriorating mental sharpness by a whopping 76%. It does this, in part, by rewiring the neural pathways in our brains that we have lost over time.

But what’s important to us, and addresses the question above, is that studies since then have shown that, not only does dancing reverse the loss of these neural pathways, it actually creates new pathways. So, even if you’re young and haven’t begin to have “brain fade”, you will benefit by getting more connections in your brain, which will not only give you reserves for later, but make you smarter now.

But There’s More. . .

But there’s more to improving your mental sharpness by line dancing than just getting out on the dance floor and mindlessly repeating the same old steps over and over. Further studies indicated that we must THINK. Thinking, problem solving, and split-second decision-making are some of the brain activities you need to do to improve, and/or repair, your brain.

When you are line dancing, you can do this the following ways:

• Dance with “style.” Add new steps, be creative, be spontaneous!
• Constantly learn new line dances and line dance steps. Challenge yourself.
• Teach line dance instructions to others. Pay attention to what your students are doing. Observe what’s easy for them and what’s hard. Change things to fit the moment. Stay flexible so you can make quick decisions based upon what’s going on.

Try These Ways to Increase YOUR Intelligence:

Here are some other ways to increase your intelligence, both temporary and permanent:

• Someone told me when I was very young that the best way to keep your brain from getting old was to always be learning something new. This has been proven over and over since then by many different studies. Take classes in subjects that interest you and challenge you. Never stop learning.
• Meditate, either the traditional way or with one of the new
  CD meditation programs. Either way, your neural pathways will begin to rewire themselves. This not only makes your brain sharper, you’ll find that you handle stressful situations much better.
• photo credit: Larry Page
• Listen to good classical music, such as Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven. This can temporarily improve your IQ.
• Exercise, as mentioned before. This increases the oxygen supply to your brain enabling you to think more clearly. Deep breathing does the same thing.
• Read more. Learn to speed read. Work crossword puzzles or other word games several times a week. Do anything that makes you think!

So, to answer the question, “Can Line Dancing Make YOU Smarter?” The answer is definitely “YES” as long as you engage your mind in your line dancing as well as your body!

Learn how Scooter Lee and Jo Thompson are helping Seniors become healthier with their non-profit organization, Dancing for the Dream here: Scooter Lee Loves Senior Citizens!

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

Can Taking Line Dance Instructions Make YOU Smarter? is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

There are several ways to learn how to line dance. You can learn by yourself at home or in a group. I’ve seen classes taught on the grass in a park, on a sandy beach (not easy) and in someone’s garage (the cement is hard on the feet!).

Kahala Mall, Honolulu

I remember going to a Mall in Hawaii with my daughter, Nicolette and, as we passed a store playing one of the songs we line danced to, she started doing the dance right there in the Mall! I was embarrassed, but she wouldn’t stop.

Several people began to watch her and clapped along with the music. After the music finished, three women came up to her and asked her if she could come to their house and teach them how to do the line dance steps.

She thanked them kindly and gave them the information on the location of where we received our line dance instructions – the address, phone number, and days of the classes. We were really pleased to see them at the next class.

Here’s Where to Look:

Here are some easy ways and places to get line dance instructions, in case you don’t run into my daughter at the Mall giving a free dance:

• Check in Google or your local phone book for a list of classes in your area;
• Check the bulletin boards at the Malls, your Church, or the Supermarket, to see if someone has put up a poster about a line dance class;
• Go to a book or music store and buy a line dance video and DVDs to use at home;
• Do a Google search for line dance step sheets, books, and line dance videos online, such as on YouTube;
• Do you have a friend who loves to line dance? They would probably be happy to teach you and drag you to a class with them;
• If you go to a class, always check to see if they have line dance step sheets that you can take home to practice;
• If you see someone who is line dancing at a club, ask them where they learned.   Line dancers seem to always want to share their passion for line dancing.
• Check the bulletin boards for performances, usually at a park or shopping mall. In Hawaii, the line dance team my instructor had put together (the dancers who didn’t run into each other) would give performances at the big resorts on the Big Island. I’ve even seen line dancers perform at Native American PowWows. Now that was fun!!

Whatever way you decided to learn how to line dance, just relax and have a good time. It’s really a lot of fun!

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

The Easiest Places to Find Line Dance Instructions is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

Here are the line dance instructions:

Waltz Across Texas
Choreographed by Lois & John Nielson
Description:48 count, 1 wall, waltz line dance

CROSS, TOGETHER, TOGETHER, WALTZ FORWARD, WALTZ BACK
1-3 Step left across right, step together right, step together left
4-6 Step right across left, step together left, step together right

1-3 Step forward left, together right, together left
4-6 Step forward right, together left, together right

1-3 Step back left, together right, together left
4-6 Step back right, together left, together right

3-STEP TURN, CROSS, SIDE, BEHIND, ROCK
1 Face ¼ turn left and step left
2 Pivot ¼ turn left and step right
3 Pivot ½ turn left and side step left
4-6 Step right across left, side step left, step right behind left

1-3 Rock slightly back left, rock forward right, rock slightly back left
4 Face ¼ turn right and step right
5 Pivot ¼ turn right and step left
6 Pivot ½ turn right and side step right

1-3 Step left across right, side step right, step left behind right
4-5 Rock slightly forward right, rock back left
6 Rock slightly forward right

WALTZ FORWARD WITH ½ TURN LEFT
1 Step forward left (begin ½ turn left)
2-3 Step right across left (finish turn), step together left
4-5 Step back right, step together left
6 Step together right

1 Step forward left (begin ½ turn left)
2-3 Step right across left (finish turn), step together left
4-5 Step back right, step together left
6 Step together right

REPEAT

OK, I decided to include also an instructional video showing how to do the dance, “Waltz Across Texas.” It’s performed to a different song, but the instructions are pretty clear. Enjoy!

Keep on having that line dancin’ fun!

Renee

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance DVDs or Videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

Waltz Across Texas with Dreamin’ My Dreams With You by Collin Raye is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

Someone then asked me to do the same thing with the dance I choregraphed back in December of 1998, “Under the Hood,” to the Billy Ray Cyrus song of the same name. So, here it is!

Click here for the step sheet: Under the Hood

I hope you give it a try and enjoy it. I’ll post more combinations like this in the future. If you could look over the step sheet page and tell me which dances you would like this way, I’ll put them in a post also.

Keep having that line dancin’ fun!

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance DVDs and videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

Line Dance Steps & Music – Under the Hood is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

Here is the STEP SHEET for Country Walkin’ and here is the YouTube Video for “Lord of the Dance.”  Don’t worry – you don’t have to learn to dance like the dancers in the video!

What I do is download the line dance videos to Real Player – you can use your favorite player – to which I’ve made a playlist for line dancing songs. Then I can play them whenever I want.

OK, for this song, you don’t actually start dancing until after the first 52 seconds. You can just stand there and look entranced by the beautiful flute sounds.  Also, as you dance, the song becomes faster and faster, which makes for a lot of line dancin’ fun!

Let me know how you do and if this is a good way to get line dance step sheets with the appropriate music to you. If it works out, I will do different dances from time to time. I’m in the process of putting together a FREE eBook for you with line dance terminology and about 30 line dance step sheets.

My personal line dancing instructions playlist has 14 songs and I have types up the step sheets for each one. When I want to teach or practice, or just have a good workout, I play the playlist, minimizing the video so I don’t get distracted by Billy Ray Cyrus singing “Acky Breaky Heart”, and dance ’til I drop!

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

Line Dance Instructions & RIVERDANCE! is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

The Ultimate Line Dance Reference Video teaches 49 common line-dancing components, plus four easy line dances.

Award-winning choreographer Jo Thompson teaches line dance steps like brush, kick, and stomp, and more complex moves like applejack, coaster, and sailor shuffle, presented in alphabetical order, not in order of difficulty. Close-ups of her feet, facing the same way you’re facing, make her easy to follow.

Next she shows how these steps might be combined, a few at a time. Then she teaches four easy line dances: Electric Slide, Cowboy Charleston, Rita’s Waltz, and Twist Em, all using the line dance songs of Scooter Lee.
If you’ve tried line dance instructions that seem to go too fast for you, or line dance videos that didn’t make sense, then this 90-minute video is like having a series of private lessons in your own home.

And remember – keep on having that line dancin’ fun!!

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance DVDs and videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

The BEST of the Line Dance Videos! is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!