Come Rain or Shine!
- Written by Lynn Booker
For 52 weeks of the year over the last 6 years a group of dedicated women (and sometimes men) get together at the Retiro de Faz Fato to keep fit, raise money for charity and provide a social focus for their community.
Faz Fato is near Estorninhos in the hills above Tavira.
There are now over 20 regular members from different nationalities: Swedish, German, Dutch, English, Luxembourg and Portuguese and they participate come rain or shine. Their activity takes place in a café/restaurant in a space allowed by Fernanda, the owner. The group recovers with a welcome drink after their exertions in the summertime temperatures which sometimes reach 40 ºC. In the winter the drinks are just as welcome but are taken huddled inside the bar. The line dancers provide regular trade for Fernanda´s business and the €2 fee collected every week from each participant goes to the childrens´charity Refúgio Aboim Ascensão in Faro.
The idea began about 6 years ago when Vivien West had the idea of teaching keep fit classes. Someone else suggested line-dancing. Now the group follows the two activities, Vivienne taking the class for the first 30 minutes to go over some basic steps. Ellen Thomassen then joins them to teach new dances for the following hour. Ellen was a professional teacher and has danced jazz ballet and ballroom. When she was asked if she had line-danced before she replied with a resounding Oh no! Nothing daunted, she finds information online, learns a new dance and then teaches it to the group. She takes the two dimensional and puts it into three dimensions!
According to Wikipedia, a line-dance is a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people, all facing the same direction and without regard for gender, dance in one or more lines or rows executing the steps at the same time. Although line-dancing has its roots in folk music it is often associated with country music. There are many different types of steps: the chasse, grapevine, weave, triple, shuffle and weave to name only a few. More important than correct steps is the intention that everyone should have a good time and go away in a happy frame of mind. The group´s only regret is that so far few men have joined - line dancing is for both men and women!
To date they have learned 73 different dances ranging from the slower ballads to more lively numbers which make you want to move. They have performed at the Arte Viva Festival in São Brás as well as at private parties. Their uniform is white shorts topped by a bright red tee-shirt with the name of the group picked out in white. Each of them has a cowboy style hat but the cowboy boots aren´t obligatory!
They will be performing in Tavira as part of the initiative, Tavira Ilimitada: at the Alta de Santana on Thursday 18 August at 7.30 pm. Come along to watch and then you can give it a try!
