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Laura Sway

A bit about me.... I have now been line dancing for 25 years, where has that time gone?

I started at age 10 when my mum decided she would like to try it out, at the time I thought it was funny. she then started asking me to go for company, I was horrified !

I went with her so she didn't have to walk in alone....The teacher called me up to learn " Black coffee" haha.. I did it, reluctantly but I must say I did secretly enjoy it. Everyone in the class was so friendly and encouraging. I went the week after and was totally hooked. Since that day I haven't looked back. I truly believe through my school life it kept me in line (excuse the pun) I wasn't ever interested in nights out, house parties ... I just wanted to go line dancing. I spent my whole childhood attending ballet tap and modern dance classes, entering competitions and exams. That's when I started competitions for Line dancing which were/are amazing!! The experience was incredible But line dancing became more important to me than all those things. I then left school age 18 after all my A-levels and passed the audition to attend full time dance college (What a dream!)

It was the hardest, most challenging but best 5 years of my life. There was certainly ups and downs but I learnt and experienced so so much. I was dancing everyday 8.30 am-6pm at night and still made it to my line dance classes. Once i graduated from college... I was in 12 different shows performing street dance, tap contemporary and musical theatre, Carnival Cruise ship for 2 months, Madonna tribute backing dancer plus many pantomimes. Once I had finished all my performing I started up all my own classes teaching children ballet tap modern street Dance musical Theatre plus more . I love being able to pass on my talent and experiences to them. There is so many things I can include but in a nutshell, I have had the time of my life growing up with dance/line dancing. I have met the most amazing people, made friends I'll always have and Experienced the most memorable things good and bad Haha.

I recently had my own classes which were absolutely amazing (pre covid)!

My choreography started in 2014 , I heard a piece of music and thought I can do this. Since then I've loved doing it. I don't always write dances to make them successful, I write dances because the music inspires me and I enjoy challenging myself. My first successful dance was Brave. We had the privilege of that one being nominated at the crystal boot awards a few years ago and the experience of being included in that was something I'll never forget. Twisting was another one, Again it was nominated this year 2018 for beginner dance of the year. It was amazing to be included in the show and a privilege to be along side some of the choreographers I've always looked up to...it felt surreal but was the best feeling ever!.. Since then I have wrote many more dances... All different levels, and have been very fortunate to now be getting more and more bookings to teach on line dance weekends. I absolutely love it. I get to teach my new choreography, have fun, party, and meet up with old friends and make new ones too of course. My favourite piece of choreography is still so far,  " Friday at the Dance" with Rob Fowler. It took us a while to count the beats in that song, probably the biggest challenge yet Haha, we did have a laugh and many of times nearly give up (well me not him). But with a bit of encouragement we managed to work it out and write a dance we both loved and still are proud of now and what a privileged to choreograph a dance with a choreographer in my opinion is one of the best. Thanks Rob for the opportunity.

My list of dances is now huge, and I'm grateful for every opportunity i get. I have had so many privileges in my few years with working on dances along side so many amazing people. Lastly... Thank you all for your continuous support. With out all of you I wouldn't be doing something I love I have so much more to share with you all and look forward to seeing you all somewhere on the dance floor. Thanks again, love you all.

When lockdown begun in 2020, i simply didn't know what to do with myself . As an instructor we feel we are important in so many peoples lives. We are responsible for holding classes for people to come, be happy and see their friends. For some its all they have. This is when lockdown really hit me hard. Not being able to make these people happy anymore. I decided to keep my head busy with building websites etc. That's when Rob told me to come along and check out his online courses. I purely looked to be nosey but soon learned that although i have choreographed some dances, his tips and secrets were more than i knew. I started to learn a lot just in the couple of weeks. Originally i had planned to be nosey... Since then I'm hooked. I must say, we all sometimes feel we can all do things, maybe its because we have had that ONE hit? Well this course has made me realise there is a lot more to choreography than playing a track and putting some steps to it. I have seen a massive improvement in my new choreography. All this aside i have met the most supportive, caring, fun, friendly and loving group of people we call "Pixies" that i hope are now friends for life! Thank you I.C.E. group for everything, and especially to Rob Fowler for your amazing instructions, guidance and help but mainly for putting your trust in us with all your years of experience and secrets, 

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THE WAY YOU DANCE 

This dance was my first stamped dance after i joined I.C.E. on VTV. I was nervous putting it together but once i started posting it into the group, the support was amazing. 
This dance got to draft 5 before I received the official stamp. The music came up on my recommendations and loved it immediately. It reminded me of two of my old favourite classics "Somebody like you" & "Wanna be me". 

Thank you to Rob Fowler for helping me and guiding me through the process, Counting the music, breaking it down, finding the accents and step alteration suggestions.

 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=64633

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STAMPED DANCES

The Way You Dance

BFE

Bunga Book 

Do My Thing 

Girls On Fire

GROUP CHOREOGRAPHY 

I.C.E. Choreography by The I.C.E. Team 

BFE 

BFE was a track sent to me by Charlie Bowring. 
As soon as i heard this track i knew i want to start choreographing to it. Charlie and i decided to team up and work on this project together. We both along side Rob counted out the music, found where the accents were, as well as finding the lyrics and beats we wanted to hit. 

We both came up with many ideas and just puzzled them together. We made a fantastic team. 
This dance got to Draft 4... 
Thanks again to Rob Fowler for your feedback and advice and thanks for being a little brutal hehe 

 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=64997

BUNGA BOOK Dedicated to Louie

This music was an absolute must for me. 
I was listening in to Rob Fowlers choreography class when he played a track by Tape five called Bunga Book. 

I claimed it immediately as it sounded like "The Jungle Book". It became a very sentimental project as my friends beautiful baby boy Louie was living with "Menkes Disease" a very rare and life limiting disease. He has been known to us all since the day he was born as "King Louie" from the jungle book. This seemed like the perfect way to raise awareness for all the beautiful children living with Menkes.

 I got to draft 1 purely as i asked Rob if he would like to help choreograph this one with me as it was special reason. 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=65039

DO MY THING

Thing popped up on a playlist and as soon as it came on i jumped out of the chair and started dancing straight away. 

I laughed along with the music while i was improvising and soon realised how happy the song makes me and no idea why but i laugh all the way through. 

I improvised to Rob (which i thought was a joke) and he looked and said ... Laura, thats it, dont touch it its finished... That was it... i had a dance in 1 draft which i improvised and no tags or restarts .. woohoo 

 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=64929

 

GIRLS ON FIRE

I was looking up old music as we had started a new channel called "VTV FIRE CHANNEL" and up popped this cracker. Alicia Keyes Girls On FIRE. I nearly skipped past it as i thought there has to be a big hit to this... NOPE. 

As we kept refering to Debbies classes as "Girls On Fire" we just knew we had to it. It took a lt of discussing an counting ... With the help of Rob Fowler helping us break it down. It was a challenge but was worth it. I loved working with Debbie on this one and even had a video call session... (maybe pjs) but enjoyed every minute ... 
Thank You Debbie. 

 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=65198

 

I.C.E.

Where to start with this dance?

After a last minute cover class for Rob, Myself and Debbie decided to have a bit of a laugh and work on a group dance with out ICE crew. We cam back on the following  Friday for a live choreography session. Wow, not only was it my first live session, but we actually choreographed with 25 other people. We did say it would either be amazing or total chaos. Thankfully it was amazing. To have everyone online, live, to help with ideas, steps, accents, pixie dust etc was what really did make the dance what it was.
It was actually impressive to see how well we all bounced off each others ideas and with 2 hours the dance was done. We called Rob in to show him what we had done and he was impressed. So much so we got an immediate stamp!! 

 

https://linedancerweb.com/dance.php?id=65240

 

LEARNING TO FLY 

Learning to fly was one of those dances where i had planned to not choreograph anymore dances for a while until i heard "The Song" ... 2 days later .... boom. I showed Rob in the ICE group and asked for his opinions as thats what we all do in the group. He had the same reaction as me once he heard. 
On Fridays Rob holds a live class where he picks a track and choreographs it live for you to watch to see how he does it. He asked me to go in to that class. So we spent the 2 hours live putting it together. Its always interesting to write dances like this as sometimes we hear or count things differently. I think it may have been years of tap dancing haha. 
Regardless of that once we agreed the dance slotted together perfectly and voila!! The track is amazing ... 

 

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