A great gaggle of girls arrived at the Charlbury village hall to kick off Gemma's countryside hen weekend with a line dancing party.
We started off with a fun game of flirty cowgirl, switching partners between each dance and causing a lot of confusion but also plenty of laughter. Then we got our grapevine on, learning the Electric slide line dance, which the girls picked up in no time so we added in extra claps, turning grapevines and yee-hahs to give them more of a challenge. A quick break as it was rather warm before learning the Western Barn Dance, first just in pairs, concentrating on the tricky sequence of steps as you tap feet with your partner whilst walking, before attempting the same moves in a circle, swapping partners at the end of each repetition. This worked a treat and we danced to the end of the Shania Twain song with lots of giggles and very few mistakes. Then we cranked it up a notch, spinning each other round and round as we stripped-the-willow to 'Cotton Eye Joe' remembering to give your right elbow to your partner, your left elbow to the dancers down the line - whilst also trying to r emember if you were a man or a woman (determining which line you went down). Another quick break as it was getting rather hot by this time. Then it was time to learn a full routine to 'save a horse, ride a cowboy' incorporating our line dance and stripping the willow moves, channeling Madonna and getting our Gangnam style galloping on. We brought together the whole song complete with intro, instrumental and end pose in no time!
To finish off we added a new dance to my repertoire 'Payaso de rodeo' a Mexican marathon of a line dance which goes from slow steps to quick gallops and was a real workout. Hopefully Gemma didn't quite twig that this was part of her surprise Mexican theme which will be revealed later.
There was just time to film our favourite routine, the Western Barn dance, and lift our hen for a group photo.
The ladies certainly earnt their cold drinks at the beer festival with all that dancing!
Categories: Hen Party, Line Dancing, Dance Party