ELD Association

Instructor in the Spotlight -Peter Flockhart

This month it is the turn of Peter Flockhart to tell us about his line dance journey.

I am PETER FLOCKHART and I have been teaching dance since 1990 and line dancing since 1993.  I have been a social dancer, ballroom latin and Scottish since I was a teenager (a long time ago). When I’m not teaching I like to get away either in UK or abroad.  It was on a trip to New York in 1993 where I saw line dancing for the first time at The Cactus Club - we borrowed the name and we have out lived that club!

We have always billed ourself as an open club where classes are there to get you dancing socially.  In the US you would expect to go to a bar and be taught a few dances and then be left to get on with it.  That is now how we run our club.  Beginners come along and learnt step patterns and their names during the first hour and then we follow that with a series of easy dances that people can just get up and have a go at. We have a core of attendees but a fluid customer base who might attend every other week or weeks. I teach a few improver dances but the rest of our time is taken up with our dance along, During the 90s I taught 5 days but I now only teach once a week,  although I do the odd party and occasionally teach at the BucknBull - a regular Country pop up club in London.  I like to teach the old classics as well as the new dances (if they are worth teaching) across a range of musical styles.  We aim our classes at the LGBT community but our customer base comes from all sorts of people with ages from teenagers up to 80 year olds - and they all get on like a house on fire. Our club is known for its friendliness.   I used to teach up to improver/intermediate but as we get so many visitors from across the world (we are in a zone 2 location in London) I tend to teach beginners and some improvers (mainly for our regulars) We want line dancing to be accessible and fun so newcomers are not put off by ‘performance'.  We don’t dress up except on our party nights but we have T shirts that people can buy if they want to.  In summary - We meet in the back bar of The Two Brewers in Clapham high street every Tuesday at 7pm for our class aimed at the beginner, followed by half an hour of dance along. 8.30 to 10.45 gives you a few high beginner and improvers dances and general dancing, including some couple dancing. Membership is £15 for life, then £3 up to 8.30 (or £6 for drop-ins) £6 members or £9 non-members up to 10.45.  We also run a quarterly tea dance covering the whole world of social dance.  See our website where we have 100s of dance scripts to support our classes.   https://thecactusclub.co.uk

There have been many highlights over the 31 years I have been teaching.  Becoming qualified with the UKA and IDTA in the mid 90s. Being part of a BBC film,  providing 80 dancers for ‘Big Cat' with Gillian Taylforth and Amanda Root - teaching both and ending up saying a line.  Our appearance with Dermot O’Leary in his dance marathon. Being asked to create a dance and film with James Blunt and Ward Thomas in their music video - Halfway.  Setting up a YouTube channel 2 weeks after lock down to provide free classes for our members. More recently I have appeared on Lorraine and taught Easy Hold 'Em,.

I have really enjoyed meeting the thousands of attendees of our events and classes, some of whom have become friends over 31 years of teaching.

For full details of Peter's classes please have a look as his ELD Profile


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