About Feel The Beat

Feel The Beat is central to many area's that are visited by tourists worldwide.   A visit to area's like Ironbridge, Shrewsbury, Madeley, Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock, which are steeped in local history that is linked to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution is a must.  The River Severn glides through the county on its way from Wales to the Bristol channel and Shropshires famous landmark the Wrekin stands majestic as it rises from the Shropshire plains.

Beautiful views by day and line dancing with Feel The Beat at night,
what more could you want

The formation of Feel The Beat
In the beginning if anyone had told us that we would be teaching line dancing at festivals home or abroad and making so many friends, we would never have believed them.  The forming of "Feel the Beat" has enabled us to do just that.

We remember like yesterday the first trial lessons at a recreation club in the village of St. George's in the new town of Telford, Shropshire where we live.  We are both "original inhabitants" of Shropshire and have seen the town grow right from the beginning.  Originally like a lot of our friends we were introduced to country music through the western scene, however we never found the line dancing side of it until we were on holiday at a Butlins camp, when suddenly the music and the dancing came together.  On getting home we saw adverts for local classes and joined them and when the opportunity came along to start a class of our own we jumped at the chance.

Our name came about from those early days, when to help the dancers we used to say "listen to the music and you will then feel the beat".  One of our dancers was taking the mickey and nicknamed us "Feel the Beat" which stuck and the rest is history, as the name caught on.

Our three main principles
Three important "Feel the Beat" main rules apply to our line dancing, make it fun, be approachable and very important respect your dancers.

Firstly we believe in having fun as top of the list.  At all our classes, dances and at the festivals, we are very much aware that line dancing is an enjoyable part of dancers lives.  We like our dancers to be happy, so with this in mind, we are always looking for fun dances that people can enjoy, or dances that give a "feel good factor" to the dancer.

Second being approachable is in our opinion essential, we love to meet dancers and listen to their comments.  Very often we are given lot's of useful information by dancers that enables us to keep up to date with the latest scene, and we welcome this.

Third and very important never talk down or belittle your audience, always be patient and give clear and precise instruction, be prepared to go over the more difficult parts of the dance until they have mastered the steps, and then everyone can enjoy the dance.

Qualifications
Alan & Barb Heighway are both fully insured qualified line dance instructors with registered PPL and members of the following world wide recognised organisations:

• B.W.D.A - (Best Western Dance Association) Instructors (Barb level - 1 & Alan level - 3)
• W.L.D.A - (World Line dance Association - America) Members & Alan - Qualified WLDA Judge
• C.W.D.C - Country & Western Dance Council U.K. Members