This month we are interviewing Sarah Woodfield of Sarah's sidekicks in Monmouthshire.

Sarah has lived in and around Chepstow her whole life and is married to Simon, who despite loving country music absolutely will NOT dance! Together they have 3 children and 3 gorgeous grandchildren too.   When she is not line dancing Sarah enjoys sewing, gardening, books and food, coffee dates with friends and visiting far-spread family

Sarah started line dancing in 1995, attending a local class with her mother-in-law Ann and was hooked immediately.  In Nov 2007, she was persuaded by her best-friend Chelle to start teaching her own beginners class, giving life to the Side Kicks, which is celebrating it's 16th birthday this week!

Sarah admits it wasn't easy starting, nerves definitely kicked in and even a trip to a hypnotherapist for stage fright was needed, but an incredible 45 people turned up for her very first class.

Currently Sarah runs classes in Portskewett on a Monday and Friday consisting of 3 sessions 'From Scratch', 'The Next Step' and 'A Step Further', she holds monthly socials in Magor and has just started a regular seated line dance class for people with limited mobility.  As a long term survivor of Fibromyalgia, Sarah feels strongly that this is the embodiment of her tag line 'Line Dancing for All Abilities', the classes incorporate posture correction, breathing techniques and a lot of laughs!  Recently she has also started holding 'Scuff Ya Boots' socials where she invites other local dance classes and their instructors to get together with live music.  There are 2 more events planned in 2024, full details of these can be found on her website.

Sarah's dancers dance to most genres of music; old and new country, rock, pop, and those absolute classics which are guaranteed to have everyone singing along!  Recently she has also released her own dance No Time to Waste
 
One of the things Sarah loves most about line dancing is seeing her dancers progress from nervous to steps becoming natural movements and the progressing to years of fabulous weekends away, community displays, dance workshops and most of all a lifetime of friendships,  the sense of pride she feels in watching a room full of happy dancers moving in unison to great music, is just second to none!  Sarah is also incredibly proud of the fact that some of the Side Kicks have been dancing with her from day 1 - including Ann and Chelle!! In fact, Chelle has recently qualified as an ELDA accredited line dance teacher herself, and together they plan to take the Side Kicks from strength to strength.

In her own words 'I think I quite possibly have one of the most rewarding jobs ever!'

November 2023