Mr Worldwide line dancing workshop – Pitbull songs

I’ve not done a line dance workshop for a long time, nearly a year. But I saw one pop up in my Facebook feed from Vale and White Horse line dancers about a Pitbull/Mr Worldwide workshop. 5 dances in one evening. I thought it was worth going even though it was an evening and meant the hell of the A34 across commuting time.

I think I’ve only done Shake It (Fireball) and another dance which was a song swap to Timber, so my experience of line dancing to Pitball songs is fairly limited. My knowledge was also limited to ‘oh they’re quite fast dances’.  But I was game to give it a go.

The dances being taught:

• Fuego – improver
• Add a little Flavor (Michael Faith) – Improver
• Pieces to the Puzzle (Isaac Nelson) – improver
• 3 to Tango (Raymond Sarlemijn, Roy Verdonk & José Miguel Belloque Vane) – Intermediate
• Off the Chain (Fred Whitehouse) – Intermediate

Obviously, being a bit of a step dance swot, I did check out all 5 dances beforehand so I had a vague idea, some better than others. But I’d never got up and danced any of them. Unlike some of the others at the workshop who either are amazing at picking up multiple dances at once, or knew some of them ahead of time.

The welcome I got on arrival was lovely. That’s what’s good about the line dancing community, generally everyone’s really friendly and willing to chat. I was introduced to some of the dancers, and joined their table.

There was a real mix of dance levels attending. The girls I sat with had mostly been dancing around a year, but there were a group of dancers from another line dance class who’d obviously been dancing quite a bit longer. 

The dance floor was really small though. So many village halls and community places are old school dance floors with carpeted side areas, so they can be narrow and long. There were certainly more than there probably should have been as there was a bit of carpet dancing going on. But it made for a good atmosphere.

The workshop

Carina’s a fun instructor, and likes to keep things light hearted. The aim was to teach all 5 in 1 ½ hours, then have 30 minutes to give us a chance for social dance practice of the dances learnt as well as some others.

From other dance style workshops I’ve done (mainly modern jive), we’ve had 3 hour workshops and have maybe learnt 1 dance, or set of 4-5 moves. In a class you might take 15 minutes to learn an intermediate dance step by step. So I was thinking 5 was going to be challenging in that time so be dancing them socially! Especially as Off the Chain is a phrased dance.

We learnt the dances in a mixed up order with Off the Chain in the middle, so it wouldn’t get rushed at the end. This was a good decision. We ran out of time for Pieces to the Puzzle, so for those of us who’d never danced it, there was a quick run through as it’s quite straightforward. Just fast and tiring for unfit people like me.

I don’t think the timing was bad, but for me I definitely needed some time inbetween the teaches, more than we had. That would have given me more time for the dances to sink in, rather than just having time to grab a quick drink.

After each teach, I did manage to get through the 2 run throughs of the dances ok. But when it came to afterwards in the social section, I struggled to remember which dance was which.  

I find Fuego and Pieces to the Puzzle have music and steps that feel too similar to each other. So just working out which music/dance was being played needs some practice. I did join in a couple of the other dances to give them a go. But they all definitely need more work.

I really like Add a little flavor and 3 to Tango as I like the slight latin feel to them. And I think I’m now a bit obsessed with Off the Chain. I’ve watched so many videos of it as I’ve tried to remember it and practice.

It was definitely worth the travel angst. And at a bargain £10 for 2 hours of workshop and dancing, worth the money too.

I thought it was a great idea to have a workshop with dances to a certain type of music. Although for me I did need more time to go back to them and practice as run throughs rather than straight into socials.

One thing Vale & White Horse line dancers like, is a bit of fancy dress and bigging up the theme. So there was some amazing skull cap, glasses and outfit combos for the social section. It was like Pitbull was in the room! So funny, although it’s not my thing to dress up.

I don’t know if I’ll get to dance them much, because my teacher doesn’t teach to music like Pitbull, and I’ve never heard them requested/played at socials I go to. But you never know, I’ll need to keep them up otherwise the knowledge gets lost so fast.

It looks like future workshops are going to be based around 1 more complex dance only, which I think will be more my thing. So I’ll be watching out for those. They’re definitely popular, so maybe they’ll have to find a bigger hall so more people can attend.

Have you been to any song themed workshops? How did you find them?