Maggie G - News

I had a wonderful time at LINERAfest, the 5th International Line Dance Festival in Slovenia, a beautiful country.

This was my first time teaching in Slovenia. Thank you to Marjana and Tomas Petauer for inviting me to their event, it was lovely to meet you. Also, thank you to everyone who supported the event, dancers travelled from Slovakia, Austria and Switzerland.

It was a great day with Roy Verdonk and Daniel Trepat. We were asked to choreograph a new Improver dance together, La Fiesta Cubana, which is now available on internet sites. I also had the pleasure of teaching some local Irish dancers, who we involved in our evening show. There are photos from the event on my Facebook and some on my Photo Gallery webpage.

Among the dances I taught was my brand new High Level Beginner dance called Pushin and Shovin to a great track of the same name by Billow Wood.

I am now getting ready for my holiday week in Calpe this Sunday and very much looking forward to another great dance week in the sun.

I had an amazing time teaching in the Bavarian Forest, Germany. Special thanks to Monika & Beate for their kindness, ferrying me around and the beautiful glass lamp given to me, it is stunning. Also my thanks to our lovely DJ Frank.

We danced the Leaving of Liverpool at the top of Mount Arbar - WOW! This dance is a personal favourite of mine as I choreographed it just after having my eldest son, Sean. We also danced The Flute.

Thank you to everyone for making me so welcome and inviting me to be a part of your club's 10 year anniversary. I had a wonderful time and hope you all enjoyed it too. Also thank you to the Maggie G Austrian team, who travelled to see me and gave me a beautiful handbag, an early birthday present for later this year. This was so very kind of you and I was so happy to see you all again, thank you.

I truly am overwhelmed with everybody's kindness.

We have enjoyed a great summer, especially with the fantastic weather we have had this year.

My sister Annette's wedding to Phillip was an amazing day! Everything went smoothly, the weather was dry, which is rare in Ireland, even bursts of sunshine at time. It was wonderful to see Annette & Phillip so happy. My boys were page boys and John & I were so proud of them, my babies are so grown up!

We had a great band and disco at the evening reception, who had everyone on the dance floor. A good old sing song in the bar was still going strong at 4am, which finally ended around 5am! It was lovely to catch up with so many family and friends on such a happy occasion. The next evening there was a wedding after party at the local pub in Rossport, which was another great night continuing to catch up with family and friends.

Very early the next morning, Keeley very kindly drove me over 4 hours to teach at an event in Carlow. Gary O'Reilly had been hosting a holiday week in Ireland, which I had originally committed to teaching on. I couldn't believe that in 3 days I had my sister's wedding and I was supposed to be teaching, it's like buses everything came at once, but hey ho I would never let anyone down and thankfully I managed to get there.

It was lovely to see everyone, including friends from Switzerland, America (who I had not seen for sometime), Taiwan & Taipei along with many others.

In August I took a break to visit my family in Ireland where we had a lovely time celebrating my sister's wedding.

I had a great time in Norway with Janne, it was lovely to be back. It was also lovely to see all those who travelled from Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Germany, thank you so much for making the journey to see me. The dances I taught were If You Dare, The Thing About You, Celtic Duo, Cards on the Table, I'll Be There and a brand new one, Walk in the Night, which I have choreographed with Gary O'Reilly to the track No Sleep by Vanotek. I look forward to being in Norway again next August.

I had a lovely time with Dee Musk & Jean Webb in Southport during August. Floral Hall is a great venue. It was lovely to see everyone, including Jamie Barnfield, Guillaume Richard and Nikki from Calico. Some photos from the day are on my Facebook.

I am so thrilled to have received the International Choreographer award from the German Living Line Dance Star Awards 2018. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you at the event and am sure you all had a fantastic weekend. Also, special thanks to Daniella & Dorte at Living Line Dance, who work so hard.

It was lovely to welcome Geoff & Anne Matthews from Australia to my class again on Monday, photo attached. Geoff & Anne spent time with us when they were last in the UK and it was lovely to see them both again.

A very big thank you to DJ Jimmy for inviting me to his event in Neupetershain, Germany in July. It was an amazing event with two halls, great dances and live music.

It was lovely to see everyone in Germany again, especially Reiner from The Feather Dancers. I taught 8 of my latest dances, which everyone enjoyed.

Special thanks also to DJ Henry, who was also on the event and to Birgit Oelker for all your help and for kindly sending me the photos. All are now on my public Facebook and a selection are in the Photo Gallery.

I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying the fantastic weather, so nice to have a summer, my boys are loving it.

WOW, what an amazing Celtica 2018 Charity Show! We are so proud to have raised a fantastic amount of money for our special charities. We don't have a final total yet as we are awaiting final figures from the theatre, but we know we have raised at least £7,500!

This year the show was dedicated to a very special friend, Sinead O'Toole, who was also a massive part of Celtica. Sadly we lost Sinead to cancer, we miss her so much. I was overwhelmed at the end of Saturday night's finale when Sinead's sister from America appeared on stage with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. This was a very emotional time.

Thank you to all the children and adult dancers, who have worked so, so hard. Also my thanks to all the parents for their continued support and to everyone who helped. There are too many helpers to name, but you all know who you are.

I would also like to express my special thanks to Chris Egan from the Irish Post. He always supports our show and takes fabulous photos, which will be featured in the Irish Post newspaper in approx two week's time. Be sure to get your copy! In the meantime, there are a few photos in the Photo Gallery and more on my public Facebooks.

Finally, a very big thank you to every single member of the audience for coming to see us and supporting the show, we really appreciate it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I am so sorry I have not been able to post anything during the last couple of weeks, but every spare moment I have been rehearsing with all my Irish dancers for our extravaganza charity show.

I would like to express my special thanks to all the parents - the children have worked so hard at class and in all the rehearsals. Thank you also to all the senior and adult dancers for all their hard work and commitment.

We are so proud to be performing our 8th charity show raising money for very well deserved causes. Every dancer from the academy takes part to showcase their talents on the Belgrade Theatre stage. This show really brings the community together and everyone is welcome.

At the end of June I had a great weekend in Newcastle with Dee Musk, Jamie Barnfield, Rep Ghazali, Ria Vos & Pauline Baycroft celebrating Big Dave's special 60th birthday. It was a special weekend and wonderful to see Dave Baycroft enjoying his birthday surprises, he loved it. Friday night was a Black & White theme for his beloved Newcastle FC and on Saturday evening the theme was Star Trek as he is a massive fan. There are some lovely photos in the Photo Gallery.

For this event, I choreographed a new Intermediate dance to The Thing About You by Chloe Agnew.