This month we are interviewing Michael Lynn, choreographer, instructor, DJ, and all-round wonderful person!
 
Michael Lynn was born in Berlin, a Forces child, and says that he has been dancing all of his life, for as long as he, and his family, can remember he had been singing and dancing!  Music has been a large part of his life and he even got his first record player at the age of 2 and earnt records instead of pocket money!
 
Michael has been line dancing and teaching since 2005, prior to that he used to compete in Latin and Ballroom.  After finishing university and moving to Peterborough Michael was looking for a new dance class to join, one that he could do on his own and didn’t have the added cost of competition costumes etc….  He found an advert for James Harrington’s class, really enjoyed it, and the rest, as they say, is history!  Michael fell in love with the world of line dance, this was evident to James who after a few months asked him to jointly run the classes, which they then did until 2012 when the classes stopped.
 
Michael has choreographed many dances, his first one being only a few months into line dance, and it ended up being a phrased dance to Madonna’s Hung Up! – He definitely didn’t make it easy for himself!  Some of Michael’s most special dances are That’s How it Goes – an advanced rolling 8 choreographed in 2022 with Ria Vos.  This was the same year that he was invited to teach and DJ at Eurodance and was incredibly honoured when instead of just giving him advice Ria offered to write the dance with him to help him progress as a choreographer.  Another of Michael’s favourite dances is Midnight Conversations an advanced dance co-written with Adam Astmar and Malene Jakobsen which was premiered at Festiline in 2023, where Michael was invited to the stage to demo it with other 500 dancers watching.  Michael is proud of all his dances, even those he would prefer not to remember - in his own words - you only get where you are today by making mistakes and learning from them!
 
Currently Michael runs a fortnightly digital online class focusing on Newline dances, this is not just about difficulty (although it is an intermediate/advanced plus class), it is about choosing interesting music choices which might not be stereotypical chart toppers, it is also about pushing the boundaries of choreography too.  He also runs a weekly Thursday class, this again is an intermediate/advanced class, which whilst a small one, gives him the chance to really focus on teaching and ensuring his dancers are getting the best quality lesson they can.  Michael also runs monthly social events, again based on the Newline principles, these have a preplanned playlist, so dancers know what they are getting into! – There are also the occasional all request afternoons thrown in too!
 
Some of Michael’s favourite dance memories are his 3 Crystal Boot Nominations, one in 2018 for his intermediate dance Special Moves co-written with Lesley Kidd and Hayley Goy and two further nominations for DJ of the year for his show on Linedancer Radio.  All of these nominations and award shows have been a really special occasion for him.   In 2019 Michael won a gold medal at World Dance Masters for his dance Shallow End, this really wowed him, as he had entered 5 other dances in the choreography competitions that year and had written this one off!  It taught him not to dismiss a dance regardless of its level as they all have their place, this inspired him to enter his most recent beginner dance Shake It, Shake It, which won 3^rd place in this year’s competition.  Another Wow moment was in 2008 when his improver level dance Alesha’s Boy was no 1 in the American line dance charts for 3 months, these charts were based purely on clubs picking up the dance.  This dance springboarded Michael’s name into the line dance world and he was given an opportunity to teach in Singapore, which sadly due to personal circumstances he was not able to take up.  A personal proud moment for Michael was when he took part in the LDF challenge a few years ago, overcoming his fear of heights to do it!
 
Outside of line dance classes and choreography, Michael hosts 2 radio shows for Linedancer Radio, a fortnightly one on a Wednesday and a weekly Sunday night chill show, for which Michael spends a lot of time researching the music and dances to play and he was one of the first people to pick up and showcase the incredibly popular Texas Time.  Michael also has a business as a DJ, he hosts wedding evenings, events, award shows, christenings, celebrations of life and even a reincarnation!  He has been doing this for 10 years now and is incredibly privileged that people trust him with their important life events.  When he’s not working, which as you might have guessed is not very often – he worked 19 parties in the 6 weeks of the festive season last year!  Micheal likes to walk his dog Aero with his partner Nick and was until recently part of a male voice choir.
 
One of the future events that Michael is looking forward to is the Progressive ELD weekend with Lucy Cooper, this is the first event that he is the headline act for.  He is very excited and feels blown away by this opportunity, especially working alongside Lucy, who despite only having known her for a short time, feels like they have been firm friends for years.  They are looking forward to delivering a fun filled weekend of dance.
 
Despite considering himself to still be relatively new to the line dance scene (a self-proclaimed dance nerd) he hopes that people really enjoy his enjoy his energy on the dance floor and find him a supportive, encouraging dancer to be around.  His motto is laugher in line, embrace your mistakes as it is far better to embrace your mistakes and get a dance wrong, rather than not dance at all.

September 2023