Wednesday, June 9, 2010

On Your Marks ... Get Set ... DANCE!

Happy, happy Wednesday! Many thanks to all of you for your patience with yesterday's technical difficulties -- I live in the country and we can only get the satellite internet here.  Most of the time it works but every so often there's too many rain droplets in the air, or an especially large cow gets in our line of sight or something, and the whole thing just clicks off :P 

Anyway, after a look at the schedule for this week I've decided I'm going to have the double-prize day later in the week rather than today -- works out a bit better for our sponsors that way! Besides, today's prize is soooooooo phenomenal it deserves 100% of your attention :) So read on to find out.....
So, look. We aren't often quoting military themed cartoons from the 80's around here, but Ol' Joe had it right when he said "Knowing is half the battle".  The consequences of not arming yourself with the  right knowledge when you get out on the studio floor are at best that you don't train as efficiently as you could, and at worst an injury that could stop you dancing for life.  Not cool -- we here at IHTD fully intend to be busting out our steps at our grandkids' weddings, and we want the same for you!

But we need your help, lovely readers, to do it!

To get an entry into the draw for today's prize, comment here and tell us your favourite dance or dance fitness resource (other than your teacher, who is obviously number 1!).  It can be about Highland, or Irish, or dance in general, sports nutrition, cross training, mental preparation, ANYTHING that helps you prepare.  Both online (websites, blogs, etc) and offline (books, magazines) resources are OK -- if its online please post the link!

Helping us out gets you an entry to win one of the BEST Highland dancing resources available:

A COMPLETE Set of Advanced Highland Training DVDs from FerlieFeet.com
10 times World Champions Deryck and Gareth Mitchelson present an invaluable resource for every dancer, competitive or not,working to improve their dancing. The dances are broken down step-by- step and then movement-by-movement with the dancers demonstrating ‘good technique’ accompanied by a technical commentary.  The complete DVD set includes:

Vol. 1 & 2: Highland: Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Truibhas and Reel
Vol. 3: Jig & Hornpipe
Vol. 4: Nationals: Includes all 8 competition dances


Don't have a dance resource for us? Just want an extra entry into the contest? Visit our sponsor's website at




and tell us your favourite product from their shop in the blog comments for this post or on Facebook to get an ADDITIONAL entry into the draw (Warning!  It's going to be hard to choose -- not only is this the home of the famous ToeandHeel GOLD ghillies but the teddy bears in Highland costume are sooooo cute :) I totally bought one for the Peanut -- shhh, don't tell her!)


And don't forget!  EVERY ENTRY into the draws for the daily prizes gets you an additional entry into the Grand Prize draw.  So lets say you're super keen and post with both a dance resource and your fave product from FerlieFeet TODAY -- this gets you FOUR entries into daily prize draw (two for each answer) and FOUR entries into the Grand Prize.  Awesome!!


I also want to remind people that are entering through Twitter please please please make sure that if you have a private account that we are following you, otherwise we can't see your tweets!


xo Ally and Nic

18 comments:

Christine said...

Aside from my amazing teachers, my favorite Irish resource on dvd is the Jean Butler Masterclass. It's a great workout to just keep me moving doing basic Irish techniques and keeping my heart rate up. My favorite non-dvd resource is the legendary Irish 'workshopper' Jane Sheehan. She has given me many great tips and techniques to help improve my dancing. My favorite non-teacher resource for Highland would of course have to be the Advanced Training DVDs. I only have one, but the breakdown of the movements is sooo helpful!

- Christine
aka whatsupcupcake

Tara said...

like you said, it is soo hard to choose just one favorite item from ferliefeet.com! I loved the stag broach with the gemstone because it looked very similar to the Gordon Crest. I also loved all the little ghille charms, and of course the Logan Bear & all the costumes! gimmie gimmmie gimmie! ;)

Tara said...

I never really thought about it but I actually have a dance resource other than my dance teacher, and it is my dancing friend, Natalie. Her mom records all of us dancing which gives me the opportunity to watch myself and make adjustments accordingly.

Unknown said...

We love our teacher and she has great comments and feedback.... But as a second choice I would have to say Dance Net is a great second... There are some really amazing people on there and everyone is so helpful... Being still fairly new to the highland world it's hard to know anything about highland and I feel the best thing to do is ask questions and Dance Net is a great place to get answers to any question out there!!
I think my 3rd choice would be checking out different school and association websites... They are a great place to gather information as well as competitions and results ....

Thanx

Twilight Orchid said...

I love both the Jean Butler Masterclass and the Irish Dance Fitness Plan dvds. They are really well done and really help to improve my dancing :)

TracyHerold said...

Aside from my killer teacher and the Bible (SOBHD Official Rules, etc.)- because I am Type-A to the core, my favorie book has been Bill Weaver's Explosiveness for Highland Dancers as it really works into the legs to give that additional life and pop. Also, some of the best advice was given by fellow dancers- of any age and abolity- usually before competing. Sometimes, a turn of phrase is all you need to make a step click

Wallace said...

For comps my daughter writes down what she wants to remember for each dance. She then reviews each set of notes right before going on the stage. This helps her to focus on a few key things.

Lily of the North said...

My favourite product on Ferlie Feet would have to be the toe and heel gold necklace. Partly because toe and heel are my favourite shoes and also because it's really nice to see highland jewelry that's nice and looks like an actual highland shoe!!

Catherine Clarke said...

My favourite resource would be DDN (www.dance.net) as I have found, met & competed against people that encourage me in my dancing and competing. I have see have had questions answered for technique, costumes and general information.

An awesome place to visit and find out helpful information!

Jess said...

This is such an amazing give-away.

The resources I always find myself going back to are the SOBHD textbooks. I haven't been dancing a lot, and so every time I do I end up having to look up part of at least one dance. (Usually something like Laddie!) I try to just trust watching youtube videos, but I never can. (Unless I get lucky and it's something that one of the Advanced Highland Technique clips covers.) Gotta break out the trust ol' textbooks. I spent a LOT of time pouring over the Highland book studying for my Member's but the National books and Jig/Hornpipe book aren't that impressed on my memory.

I've looked at ferliefeet before, but never the brooches, 'til I read Tara's comment. Holy crap! Some of them are gorgeous! I love the Celtic Weave brooch with the (faux) onyx stone. I have a super plain brooch now because I didn't want some huge yellow or pink stone, but I could deal with black!

Wallace said...

The bears at Ferliefeet.com are adorable. The dance outfits are amazing!

wallace said...

My daughter likes a book "Diet for Dancers" http://www.amazon.com/Diet-Dancers-Complete-Nutrition-Control/dp/0916622894

It's written in language that even the younger dancers can understand and implement. Very practical.

Leah said...

There are many great items at ferliefeet.com. One of the great resources is some of the other parents at our dance school... dance.net is also another great resource.

I Heart That! Dance said...

Hi Leah! It must be a specific product from our sponsor -- that's how we know you actually went to their site :)

Cath said...

My favourite living resources are my pupils, my teacher and dancers who are both more and less experienced than I. I'm a mum to two littl'uns so don't really have time for competitions just now and am a bit out-of-date!

Textbook-wise it would have to be the SOBHD books, SDTA, BATD and UKA books. I also like the SDTA book with all the questions and comparisons between the national dances.

Online we are spoilt for choice - dance.net and toeandheel.com are probably the ones I visit the most (although scottishdance.net was the trailblazer back in the nineties).

Cath said...

Hard to choose a favourite from ferlie feet, but it would probably be the hiland, national, jig and hornpipe DVDs with Pure Delight in the runners-up spot (but only cos I have it on tape already!!)

Bonnie McNeill said...

I am a dance mom and my dance resource is my daughter, her teacher and all her great dancing friends! At ferliefeet.com my favorite is the Logan's Bear. It is not only a cute bear, but also for wonderful cause.

Bridget Nyland said...

My favorite dance resource is definitely dance.net, but the Midatlantic Irish dance teacher's website is a great resource for the history of Irish dance in the US. Really interesting! You're also personally welcomed by Fedelmia Davis, so that always gave me a laugh. http://mid-atlanticregion.com/

And I absolutely adore the long-sleeved kilted teddy bear. Sucker for stuffed animals!