Cool Country 2002
March 8 - 10
EVENT DIRECTORS: Doug & Jackie Miranda

Charlotte Skeeters was also listed on the flyer to attend but had to cancel at the last minute, however, her dances that she was scheduled to teach were covered by other attendees who were familiar with her dances including Lou Ann Schemmel and Oregon instructor DQ Johnson.  So a big thanks go out to them for stepping in at the last minute!

The event began promptly at 2pm on Friday after the three busloads of folks from California and one from Arizona arrived at the Riverside Hotel & Casino.  Many others  like us drove in from Las Vegas as it was a little over 100 miles south of the strip. 

All of the dances were demoed for the 90 minutes and everyone was given not only a schedule, but a second sheet that had each of the demoed dances in order by both choreographer name on one side and dance name on the other side.  The scheduled times and days were all listed on the right making it very easy for folks to check off the workshops they wanted to attend.  I've never seen this before and found it to be a great idea and something I'd recommend other event directors to consider doing as well. 

Although it could appear overwhelming to have 5 different dances to choose from each hour, all of them were repeated twice throughout the weekend, therefore, folks were able to have two choices for workshops to attend for each dance.

After viewing the demos and attending many of the workshops, I can honestly say that I've never had so many great dances to take back to Chicago with me.  Top picks from the other instructors included:

City Limits - Yvonne Anderson: Many of you are probably not familiar with Yvonne, because she resides in Scotland, however, if she continues to come out with phenomenal dances like this one, she should be a line dance household name. The music to this dance is Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits and Glen liked this dance so much that he had to buy a copy of the album at the airport before he went home just so he could continue to practice it.  This one definitely had the best buzz.

Some Girls - Yvonne Anderson: My personal favorite dance from this event. Excellent music from The Dean Brothers and styling that is unique, yet easy enough for most of the dancers to handle.  I've already committed to teaching this one in a couple of weeks when I go to the  Dubuque event.

Tiggeriffic! - Doug & Jackie Miranda: A very unique musical offering from the Disney kiddy CD that was a lot of fun and pretty aerobic.  A definite one to check out.

Hootchie Dance - Larry Bass:  None of us were totally sold on this one in the demo, however, we liked the music and the dance went very well with it.  The floor was filled with folks doing it during open dance and most of them had smiles on their faces - always a good sign.

Everlast - JP Potter: JP's latest looked to have some tricky portions in it, but by the end of the weekend folks definitely had it down.  The music is Gloria Estefan's Everlasting Love.  The tag was flawlessly in sync with the tune.  Great Job JP.

The above dances are almost sure things with our folks, however, there were a bunch of others that I found to be also be worth another look.  This event had more new quality dances than any other I can recall.  Here are others I'd recommend checking out:

Finally Friday - Bob Boesel: Bob's the energizer bunny of dancer/instructors as he just kept going and going and going throughout the entire weekend. 

Whoops - Joanne Brady:  If you are looking for an extremely easy country line dance to teach a large number of beginners, this is your dance. 

Don't Want Much - Carmel Hutchinson: I had a good time with this one.  The styling allows for a lot of variations once comfortable with this one.

Quittin' Time Boogie- Larry Bass: Fun and basic.  A good combination when introducing dances to folks who prefer beginner / intermediate dances with a lot of energy.  But it definitely had a few tricky parts to keep my interest.

Stronger Than Before - Jeannie Woolman: The music is I Will Love Again by Lara Fabian.  The demo didn't exactly sell this one, but after seeing the folks do this one during open dance, I'd give it another look.

Joanne Brady and Jeannie Woolman introduced a couple of fun dances.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend every instructor's workshop due to my schedule.  So unless I got to see any done during open dance, I really didn't have much a chance to check out any additional dances.  (But given all of the above, we will be quite busy with the new ones.)

My teaches were:

The Whistler, which had a very good showing during open dance as well as my brand new country dance Never Can Tell, done to the brand new Trini Triggs release, You Never Can Tell.  This one also looked extra special when Yvonne Anderson demoed the dance with me on Sunday.  (Thanks!) She showed me a few key variations that were very cool.  You can also check out my new video clip of my late Sunday review of this dance as well.

Uh Oh - Max Perry (taught by Lou Ann Schemmel)