Show up early, at 7:30pm or so, to catch Charlotte’s teach of her new dance Here’s To Love (A l’amour).  Dancers of a certain age will recognize the music as a french-language cover of the classic song A Man Without Love; they’re likely to recall the 1968 version of the song sung by Engelbert Humperdinck.

All of Charlotte’s former students are entitled to a discounted admission price of $5. In addition, during the evening we’ll be playing five old favorites choreographed by Charlotte (and perhaps some others of hers as well):

• Pencil Thin Mustache
• Begin The Beguine
• Just … “Bob”
• River of Dreams
• Hasta Mañana

Below are some music and dance videos of these classics.

Pencil Thin Mustache and Just… “Bob” are done to ballads sung by Jimmy Buffett.  The song Pencil Thin Mustache contains a number of nostalgic references to the popular culture of Buffett’s childhood, including the mustache worn by the fictional character Boston Blackie.  Boston Blackie, featured in a number of movies during the 1940s, was a reformed jewel thief who was always suspected by the police, whenever a daring crime was committed, and then had to solve the crime himself in order to clear his name.

Begin the Beguine is one of my favorite dances; the song was written in 1935 by Cole Porter.  The word ‘beguine’ refers to a style of dance that originated in the Caribbean; a combination of Latin folk dance and French ballroom, it is similar to a slow rumba.  Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced to an instrumental of the song in the movie musical Broadway Melody of 1940, and in the years since it has been covered by dozens of popular singers.

River of Dreams is done to the 1993 song of the same name sung by Billy Joel.  The song was a big hit, reaching number 3 on the charts, and was nominated for the 1993 Grammy Record of the Year award.  Midway through the song, there’s a slight pause that is reflected in a tag for the dance, and there’s a funny story about this pause.  When Billy Joel performed the song at the 1993 Grammys, he paused the song at this point to protest the network’s decision to cut off Frank Sinatra’s acceptance speech.  You can see it, 3:03 minutes into this youtube video: Billy Joel’s comments about ‘advertising time’.

Hasta Mañana is Spanish for ‘see you tomorrow’ and the song was originally performed by the Swedish pop group ABBA in 1974.  Charlotte’s dance to this song has become a classic; a 32 count improver dance that is known all over the world.  Doris Volz lists it among the top dances of 2000.

• Pencil Thin Mustache done to the song Pencil Thin Mustache by Jimmy Buffett

   

• Begin The Beguine Here’s a teach video

   

• Just … “Bob” done to the song Bob Robert’s Society Band, sung by Jimmy Buffett

   

• River of Dreams

   

• Hasta Mañana

   

- Evelyn

We’ve always been delighted to count ourselves among the many friends of Amy and Friends.  They’re a wonderful group of dancers – many from the East and South Bay Areas.  Amy teaches classes almost every day of the week in Almaden and Fremont.  And it is always great fun when they come out to dance with us on Friday nights.

Current and former students are entitled to a discounted price of $5 for the evening.  The dance will start at 8pm, but Amy will be teaching a dance at 7:30.  Our DJs that evening will be Diana Ward and Tina and Frank Beare.

Amy and her students have chosen their five favorite dances, which will be played sometime during the evening:

• Shiver (Debbie McLaughlin & Joey Warren)
• Come Together 2013 (Debbie McLaughlin)
• She’s Dirty (Will Craig)
• C.O.U.N.T.R.Y. (Kerri Lessard)
• Twinkle (Rhonda Lai)

Shiver (Debbie McLaughlin & Joey Warren)

Come Together 2013 (Debbie McLaughlin)

She’s Dirty (Will Craig)

C.O.U.N.T.R.Y. (Kerri Lessard)

Twinkle (Rhonda Lai)

Kathy Chang will be hosting a Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival party at 2pm to 5pm on Sunday, February 24 in Cupertino.   The Lantern Festival is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or February 24 this year.  It is a day for celebration, watching lanterns, family reunions and eating tangyuan (delicious glutinous rice dumplings).  Here is the playlist.  Proceeds go to the YMCA.

At Boots ‘n’ Buckles, we’ll be holding our own celebration of Valentine’s Day next Friday night at Centerville.  Evelyn and Denny will be our DJs for the evening.

Hoppin’ Mad Henry Costa

For the past 10 years, Henry has been teaching line dances and couples dances at The Saddle Rack in Fremont. He’ll be teaching a lesson there this coming Thursday evening (January 24) at 7:30 in an event that includes a live concert from Ashley Buchart. These events come at the conclusion of Henry’s 15 Year Anniversary Celebration tour that took him to dance events all over, including several in Hawaii.

On Friday at Swiss Park at about 7:30pm, Henry will be teaching his latest dances Swiss Park and Dance Direction.

Later during the evening, we’ll be dancing five dances chosen by Henry and his students:

• Togetherness (Choreographed by Henry Costa)
  music: Uptown Girl by Billy Joel or Kerosene by Miranda Lambert
• Jacky Joker (Choreographed by Henry Costa)
  music: Jacky Joker by Ernie Oldfield
• EZ Swing (Choreographed by Winnie Yu)
  music: Why Don’t We Just Dance by Josh Turner
• I Run To You (Choreographed by Rachael McEnaney)
  music: I Run To You by Lady Antebellum
• Uno Dos Tres also known as 13MWZ (Choreographed by Sherry McClure)
  music: Maria (Spanglish Radio Edit) by Ricky Martin.

Dance Direction (Choreographed by Henry Costa)

Togetherness (Choreographed by Henry Costa)

Jacky Joker (Choreographed by Henry Costa)

EZ Swing (Choreographed by Winnie Yu)

I Run To You (Choreographed by Rachael McEnaney)]

Uno Dos Tres) also known as 13MWZ (Choreographed by Sherry McClure)

It is sure to be a great event this year.  Swiss Park is providing the meal – your choice of Steak Diane, Chicken Cordon Blue, Baked Salmon or Pasta Primavera.  Evelyn and Denny will be our DJ’s that evening.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

There are really only two important things to know about voting.  First, there are a lot of nominees – but only a few of them have actually indicated that they will be willing to serve on the board next year if elected.  So the current board is preparing a list of nominees who have indicated their willingness to serve, and you can use this list to help you choose who to vote for.  A vote for someone who is not on this list of volunteers could easily be a wasted vote.  Vote smart.

The second thing that is important is this: it is not too late to volunteer for next year’s board.  Even if your name is not on the ballot, and you haven’t thought about it before, we can still use help on the board next year.  It is likely that when the election is over we’ll only have about 8 or 9 board members who are willing to serve.  We’d like to have 12, just to spread the work around more evenly.  So if you are able to donate a few hours of your time each month to helping out with the club, please contact any current board member… and we’ll be more than happy to welcome you aboard.

Gary Clayton will be our DJ, and I plan to bring a hammer just to see how hard is his new, titanium knee.  Debbie’s past and present students will get a discount at the door that night, and during the early part of the evening we’ll be playing 5 dances they chose:

• Love Me or Leave Me by Frank Trace
• Springsteen by Gail Smith
• What Cha Reckon by Gaye Teather
• I Kissed You (Goodnight) by Francien Sittrop
• Time is Love by Lisa M. Johns-Grose

Love Me or Leave Me by Frank Trace

Springsteen by Gail Smith

What Cha Reckon by Gaye Teather

I Kissed You (Goodnight) by Francien Sittrop

Time is Love by Lisa M. Johns-Grose (music video)

Julia Wetzel has a new dance called Oh Girl. Does anyone remember the original song by the Chi-Lites?  And if they can, will they admit it?  It came out in 1972 and reached number one on the billboard charts.  The version used in Julia’s dance is by Paul Young and this cover was a big hit in 1990. Julia’s dance is a very smooth and flowing expression of the song.  It is brand new, and just starting to get out in the Bay Area.  Kathy Chang and Evelyn Khinoo, and Doris Volz and Carol Clark have taught it, and we had a great time dancing it last Friday night at Boots ‘n’ Buckles.  The dance is currently number 2 on CopperKnob’s list of most popular dances (as of November 4).  It is also on the playlist for the Fourth Anniversary Party on Friday, November 9 hosted by Amy ‘n’ Friends.  Below is Julia’s demo:

Sue Hsu also has a new dance, Little Boy. This one is done to the popular Paulina Rubio song Boys Will Be Boys.  It is a fun and energetic beginner dance.  Among Sue’s other dances are Under the Sun and It Hurts (both choreographed with Kathy Chang), which are currently rated number 1 and number 10, respectively, by Linedancer Magazine as the most popular dances taught in the United States for the month of October, 2012.  In the demo of Little Boy below, made by Sue in Taiwan, some of our club member might recognize Grace Lee, who dances at Boots ‘n’ Buckles when she is in town and often helps Maria Tao with demos (see above).

Kathy Chang‘s dance Will You Still Love Me was published in the October issue of Linedancer Magazine, a great honor.  In case you missed it, there’s a post about the dance here, and Linedancer magazine currently rates it at number 7 among the most popular dances being taught in the United States.  It seems at least possible that this dance will be on the playlist at the SnK Christmas Party Dance on December 9. Congratulations, Kathy!

The really important election this year is of course for the 2013 board of directors at the Boots ‘n’ Buckles Dance Club.

To keep the club going, we need volunteers who are willing to serve on the board. It doesn’t take much, only a few hours each month. But without a board, we won’t have a club. And then we won’t have a place to dance on Friday nights.

Our election process is very simple.  From now until about 9pm on November 9, club members can volunteer themselves or nominate other club members for the board.  All they have to do is speak to any of the current board members.  Email works too.   Or they can drop their nominations into an nomination box we’ll provided near the sign-in desk.

Candidates in the election must have been club member for at least 6 months as of January 1, 2013.  Club members can nominate as many candidates as they wish, and of course they can nominate themselves.  It is not a requirement, but it is a good idea to talk to the person you nominate, just to make sure they are willing to serve before you nominate them.  In prior elections there were many nominees, but few willing candidates.

After the nomination process ends on November 9, we’ll prepare the ballots.  We’ll also try to contact the nominees to make sure they’re willing to serve, and we’ll prepare a list of the nominees who have let us know they will serve if elected.  If you have been nominated, but are unable to serve, your name will still appear on the ballot, but you can let it be known that any votes for you are wasted votes.  Elections will take place at the dance on November 23 and 30.  And we hope to announce the new board sometime before or during the Christmas Dinner Dance.

If you are able to contribute a few hours each month, please volunteer to be a candidate for the 2013 board.