What's Been New on the Site ....
| Date | What Happened & Other Stuff |
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2009
Bit of a slimmed down summary this year as I've tended to lose track of stuff and not make too many notes. However, salient milestones have been listed along with the step sheets added to this site in 2009.
As usual, Linda supplied a couple of tasty (literally) prizes for our annual raffle to raise funds for Retinitis Pigmentosa & we also ran our 'sign a club Christmas Card' rundraiser where people have the opportunity (for a price of course) to sign a communal club Christmas Card. The winner gets the signed card.
The winners were drawn on Wednesday 16th December with Mich & Pat from our Wednesday dancers winning the chocolates and an unendorsed ticket from Monday night's crowd winning the card - when I find out who won it I'll let you know.
Anyway, to the crunch - the Card raised £21·50 and the Chocolates raised £53 giving a grand total for RP of £64·50. Well done and many thanks to all who contributed.
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With a considerable amount of soulsearching and not a small amount of sadness, we have decided, for a number of reasons, to discontinue our (fairly) regular monthly party nights. However, the good news is that we've twisted Tony's arm (Tony Saltwell of Tony's Country Steppers) and he's agreed to take over from us at St James Hall. The first one that Tony will do will be on Saturday, January 9th and will start at 7·30. We'll be there to help Tony set up on the first night and to wish him well. I hope that all of our regulars will continue to support Party Nights at St. James as, without your ongoing support, there will be no party night (exactly as we rely on your regular attendance on club nights).
Some of the photos taken on 5th December are reproduced above - just click on one of the thumbnails to view the image full size.
The RP raffle raised a total of £79 and Margaret, our long time friend and RP representative sent us a really nice letter detailing just how much the raffles at Tulsa Shuffle have managed to raise for the charity over the years. I've reproduced the letter here in .pdf format for your information, edification & delight - check it out.
The most requested dances on the night were as follows :
- It Hurts & Playing With Fire tied for first place with 5 requests each
- Galway Girl & Boyfriend Of The Year tied for third place with 4 requests each
- Joint 5th place with 3 requests each were Pot Of Gold, Go With The Flow & Amame
We had Kim Ray down for an afternoon workshop (she was so good at the last one we had too do a repeat booking) and Nicky, Cliff & Brian a.k.a. Calico (pictured in this order left to right below) down for two exceptionally good live sets in the evening (Kim also stayed for the whole evening).
So far I've received nothing but positive comments about the day so my conclusion is that everyone had a great time.
Kim taught 4 dances (scripts coming along soon) and Calico played two one hour sets that had virtually everyone up and dancing for most of the time - great stuff.
During the course of the evening, we had our customary raffle in aid of 'our charity' - Retinitis Pigmentosa - and raised a total of £128. A further £20·61 was raised from the tea/coffee voluntary donations' via the collecting box in the kitchen. For thos of you not good at adding, this gave a grand total of £148·61 for the evening. Margaret and RP send their thanks.
Many thanks to Kim (who was kind enough to leave all the scripts in electronic format thus saving me loadsa typing - thanks Kim) and to Nicky, Cliff and Brian from Calico for making this such a brilliant day.
| Left to right : Kim Ray, Nicky Napier,Cliff Weston & Brian Bennett | |||
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| Afternoon Kim Ray Workshop | |
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Just for fun a few Wednesday nights ago as my back was really painful and I was sitting a lot, I worked out our music mix for the night (which was a request night) as follows:-
- Country Music -- 65%
- Pop Music -- 24%
- Irish Music -- 6%
- Latin Music -- 4%
STRIDE FOR SIGHT 2009
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Our annual charity walk in aid of Retinitis Pigmentosa was held on Sunday, September 27th and, as usual, went from the Shorehouse in Shoebury to The Ship in Leigh Old Town where liquid fuel was consumed in abundance along with sandwiches and nibbles kindly provided by Margaret supplemented with some of Wendy's now legendary lemon drizzle (lemon dribble !!) and fruit cake. A photo of the walkers is shown below courtesy of Margaret's husband Ted (well, all the walkers bar those taking photos anyway). I don't yet know how much money in total was raised by the event, but Margaret tells me that on the day £64.03 was raised from the collecting tins alone. Not a bad start. Wendy and I are still getting sponsors and collecting cash and so far we're well in excess of £100. Watch this space for further updates and breaking news. |
Neil gets married
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I know it's not strictly line dance stuff, but our son Neil got married on Saturday 19th September to Jitlader, known informally as Yu. They got married at 10am at Braintree Registry Office.
All went very well with the wedding breakfast and evening festivities/celebrations being held at the Bull Hotel in Halstead. Just to be different for the evening buffet, we had a Thai caterer in to cook all the food fresh for every order. I have to say that the food was amazing (may just book them for my next barbeque!!).
Pictured centre photograph (left to right) Lois (our daughter), Yu and Wendy
The following step sheets were added to the Tulsa Shuffle site during 2009 (Most were taught at some stage, although some of them were 'possible maybes' and didn't quite make it to the teaching stage).
Dances have been sorted into alphabetical order.
Click the dance name for the step sheet.
2008
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On Saturday 11th October 2008, Kim Ray, who won two Linedancer Magazine Crystal Boot Awards this year as 'Rising Star' and also for Beginner Dance Of The Year with 'Lemon Tree' was at the Tulsa Shuffle Line Dance Club as our guest Choreographer & Instructor for an afternoon workshop session and also for our October 2008 Party Night the same evening. Also, adding to the evening was the one and only Outrageous Glenn Rogers, one of the top linedance musicians/entertainers in the country, who performed two excellent sets during the evening. I am currently in the throes of writing an article for the website combining a list of Kim's dances including 'Guantanamera', a new dance that Kim taught for the first time at our workshop (with stepsheets), the playlist for the day (I had so many requests that I didn't actually repeat a dance over the whole day and still had lots left at the close of play - sorry if I didn't get round to playing yours), Glenn's set listing & a few photos of the evening. Watch this space over the next few days or so (I'm getting there but so few hours in the day !!) |
The following step sheets were added to the Tulsa Shuffle site during 2008 (obviously, not all were taught at the club, but we did an awful lot of 'em !!)
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| April/May |
Vivienne Scott dropped in to our Wednesday club night at St James. It had been something like two years since her last visit, but lucky for us she made time on her family visit back to the UK from her home in Toronto to come and see us. It sure was nice to see her again and have a good old chinwag. Vivienne was kind enough to teach one of her new dances called Our First Love which was co-written with Robert Lindsay, Kim Ray & Fred Buckley. The dance went down very well indeed with our dancers. It's definitely one we'll be doing again I've FINALLY got round to posting some photos of our now not quite so recent afternoon workshop & evening social with Kate Sala. Sorry for the delay but I got there eventually.May Party Night - Great evening - well attended with loads of requests to keep me going - apologies to those whose requests I didn't have time to play (so many requests, so little time!!!). Playlist for the evening. Alan & Fiona Haywood came along for the night and Alan was kind enough to teach his latest dance 'Even If' to the UK Eurovision Song 2008 Contest entry 'Even If' by Andy Abraham. Thanks Alan - nice dance (32 count, 4 wall, Intermediate, no restarts or tags) - Step Sheet. The raffle raised £84 for Retinitis Pigmentosa, thanks from Margaret and also from Me & Wendy. Major Personal Trauma - My daughter & son-in-law have now taught my grand-children to say "Pocket Money, Grandad" - How traumatic is that? |
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| March |
Kata Sala Workshop & March Party Night
We had Kate Sala down for a Workshop on the afternoon of Saturday, March 15th and also for our monthly club party night the same evening. We were at capacity for both sessions (in fact we'd had to limit the attendance to keep it comfortable on the floor & to seat everyone) and all round it was a brilliant day thanks in no small part to Kate, who worked extremely hard throughout the entire day. Everyone thought she was brilliant. Also many congratulations to Kate on her winning the Linedancers Magazine Crystal Boot Award for Female Linedance Personality Of The Year. During the workshop Kate taught Universal Disco, Mercy, Cockadoodle and Kings & Vagabonds in that order. Cockadoodle and Kings & Vagabonds were reviewed during the evening social and Kate added a great fun contra dance called Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The evening raffle raised a total of £137 for Retinitis Pigmentosa Isle Of Wight Weekend - 2008
Finally got round to posting some words and pictures about the recent line dance weekend at the Isle Of Wight. 46 people went from the club and, thanks partly to the weather holding (sunny & dry) a really good time was had by all. We have a report online, with a picture show to follow when I get my act together and edit/process them. | |
| February |
Sorry, I seem to have lost February somewhere between the end of January & the beginning of March !!! However, I have managed to retrieve some words about the party night from archive: February Party Night
February's party night was, despite the best efforts of the 0° temperature outside, well attended. If you'd like to check out the playlist for the evening, click here. The raffle raised £81 for 'our' charity Retinitis Pigmentosa and, as it was pretty close to Valentines day we had an extra door prize of a 'Valentines Bear' (a soft cuddly thing with a red bow round its neck) which was won by Tina. | |
| January |
Party Night
Our first party night of 2008 was held on 19th January, and we were lucky enough to have Teresa & Vera come down to visit us. Lovely to see you guys again and have a chinwag about 'current stuff' etc. I think everyone enjoyed themselves & had a good time; we had a full floor for most of the night. Sorry if I didn't get round to playing your requests, I still had about 15 left at the end of the evening - so many requests, so little time ......... play list for the night. As usual, the 'starter nibbles' from Wendy were greatly appreciated (by me especially !!!). The raffle raised £90 for Retinitis Pigmentosa Announcement
RP Fundraising For 2007
Following our party night in December, we received a very nice letter from Margaret thanking Tulsa Shuffle for their fund raising efforts for 2007 in relation to the charity Retinitis Pigmentosa. All in all Tulsa Shuffle-related activities raised £1075·30 not including the annual Stride For Sight for which participating Tulsa Shuffle members and sponsors raised an addition (almost) £600. Well done Shufflers. Let's see if we can crack the £2K barrier in 2008. Sundry news items
Added another picture to the Christmas Party album. Photo courtesy of Russ Kane. |
2007
| December |
We received a letter from Margaret thanking the club for their fund raising efforts for 2007 in relation to our charity Retinitis Pigmentosa. All in all Tulsa Shuffle-related activities raised £1075·30 not including the annual Stride For Sight for which participating Tulsa Shuffle members and sponsors raised an addition (almost) £600. Well done Shufflers. Christmas Party Night Photos courtesy of Russ Kane - cheers Russ. Christmas party night Playlist. The Christmas Party Raffle in aid of Retinitis Pigmentosa this year raised a grand total of £137, all of which goes directly to the charity. Well done. Our thanks and a bouquet of flowers went to Linda for organising our away weekends for us this year and next. Thanks Linda, your hard work is much appreciated. |
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| October |
Just found out from Margaret (our RP fund raiser that the Stride For Sight held a couple of months back raised a total of £2,725 for RP, which could mean a total in excess of £3,400 once the tax concessions have been claimed. Just got back from a workshop/social hosted by Alan & Fiona Haywood featuring Peter Metelnik & Alison Biggs plus Kim Ray. Jo & John Kinser were also there and demo'd their latest dance Hey, Big Spender'. An excellent day out. Dance taught by Alan Haywood : Johnny Be Good. Dances taught by Kim Ray : She's A Lady; Rockapella. Dances taught by Peter Metelnik : To Love Somebody; Snap, Crackle & Pop. Dance taught by Alison Biggs : You're My Destiny. |
| September |
We have a new outbreak of Grandmas within the club. Linda & Phil took delivery (so to speak) of their 2nd and 3rd with twins (Grace first at 5lb 10oz followed by Riley at 6lb 1oz) courtesy of their son Matthew & daughter-in-law Carley while Janine & Mike became grandparents for the very first time when their daughter Amanda gave birth to William (7lb 10oz). Photos & more details to follow. A record number of 'Shufflers' are set to embark on what is fast becoming an annual 'safari' to the Hotel Trouville on the Isle Of Wight for a long (3 night) line dance weekend. At the last count there were, I think, about 43 people who have signed up.
Us guys will be having a similar set of shirts, but in a non-glittery style 'coz we're shy, retiring types. |
| March |
Line Dance Weekend - Sandown, Isle Of WightLine dance weekend at the Trouville Hotel, Sandown, Isle Of Wight ably hosted by Paula & Steve Pym. The photos above show Paula & Steve plus the three bands that played during the weekend. 23 Tulsa Shufflers arrived on the Friday night primed for a three night line dance break - weather wasn't too good but c'ést la vie. Same venue as last year, so the excellent quality of the accommodation, dance floor, food & service was a given. Night 1 saw us dancing to Fools Gold - excellent stuff and voted by us as the best band of the weekend. Paula ran the disco for the remainder of the evening. The morning of day 2 was given over to a tutorial session from Paula. Excellent session where Paula taught Show Me Yours (48 count, 4 wall intermediate by Maggie G) & One More Midnight (64 count 4 wall Beg/int by Maggie G) - good dances which we'd not done before. The afternoon was free time and in the evening we danced to Paula's disco and Brushwood. On Sunday morning we had the second of Paula's tutorials in which she taught Rumba Linda (64 count 2 wall beg/int by Christina Walker) & Thunder & Lightning (32 count 4 wall intermediate by Gary Lafferty). Two good dances which again we'd not met before. More free time in the afternoon and in the evening we danced to the MT Allan Duo who interspersed their music with a fair bit of 'witty banter'. Monday morning - wake up, pack, breakfast and then say our goodbye's. Good weekend, everyone who went this time around has already registered with Linda for March next year at the Trouville. Photos |
When we go to the Isle Of Wight next year, we decided that we'd like to go with a new club shirt specially commissioned for the occasion. Consequently, we invited suggestions for a logo to go on the back of T-shirts, blouses, tops & Polos. We then took a vote on the suggestions with the winner (suggested by Linda) being shown on the left. This is basically only for the ladies who are going as the shirt decorations will be done individually (by hand) in 'glitter/diamante'.2006
Throughout the year, step sheets were added for the following dances:
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| December |
Added a photo of Mick, Kate Sala, Alan & Barbara Heighway taken on our recent Linedance Weekend in Bognor Regis plus a photo of the weekend away - unfortunately we didn't manage to get any group photos. |
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| November |
For our November party night, we were pleased to welcome a visiting celebrity, choreographer Alan Haywood & his wife Fiona. Alan taught one of his dances, Spooky, which came second in a recent competition held in Chicago. The dance went down very well - thanks Alan, you and Fiona are welcome back anytime. |
| October |
We hosted a charity line dance on October 7th at St. James Church Hall, Elmsleigh Driver, Leigh-On-Sea in aid of NETCANCER - The South East Essex Neck & Head Cancer support group. We'd like to thank everyone who attended and supported our fund raising. The evening was a success with a total of £275·40 being raised. This covered the cost of 11/3 'Therabite' therapy devices for the support group. |
| June | Vivienne Scott visits the Ambleside club (story & pictures)
Posted Isle Of Wight weekend photos (check them out) |
| February |
Alan & Fiona Haywood were guests at our February party night. Photos The total charity cash raised by Tulsa Shuffle in 2005 is £1,353 for RP and £755 for Breast Cancer, which makes a grand total of £2,108. Well done and many thanks to all who contributed their time & cash |
2005
Throughout the year, step sheets were added for the following dances:
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| October | Breast Cancer charity linedance - report |
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| March | We've recently had a note from Paul Newson, the co-ordinator for 'our' primary charity Retinitis Pigmentosa to say that over the year ending December 2004, Tulsa Shuffle members through raffles, donations, sponsored events and step sheet sales, etc., have raised a total of £1,491 for the charity. Again, well done 'Shufflers' and fund raisers |
2004
Added the step sheets for the following dances : |
| June | We've finally been published! Mick's dance - I'll Take Texas - has been published in the July 2004 edition of Linedancer Magazine |
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| February | Sarah from Radio 4 visited the club at Prince Avenue School on Monday 10th Jan. to record us 'in action' and to interview some of our members after first recording an interview with me (Mick) at home. Sarah was most impressed with the dancers and the club atmosphere and, when I taught 'Sweet Little Dangerous', she was knocked out by just how quickly and how well everyone picked up the steps. The programme was transmitted on Thursday, May 15th at 11:30am on BBC Radio 4 and online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4. We received a cassette copy from the BBC and I also have the transmission on CD should anyone want to listen to it (quality not too good as it was subject to atmospherics when I recorded it 'live') |
| January | On Jan 5th we re-located our Monday night club permanently to the the Ambleside Club, Ambleside Drive, Southchurch integrating with the existing club previously run by Pearl & John, who were retiring. We wish them a long and very happy retirement. (Directions/map) |
2003
Added the step sheets for the following dances : Retinitis Pigmentosa - 'Stride For Sight' charity fund raising walk. £635 was raised on the day by Tulsa Shuffle Line Dance Club members (RP photo page). Linedancer Magazine 'Club Of The Year' Nomination - we didn't make it to the next stage, but hey!, we were in the final 22. Many thanks to everyone who has encouraged and supported us at the club (article and certificate). |