GORDON ELLIOTT

Gordon is one of the leading Line Dance Instructors in Australia. He has been involved in line dancing for over 18 years and been instructing for most of that time. He has a degree in Physical Education and Teaching and was an aerobics instructor for three years prior to starting line dancing.

He is a member of Line Dance Association of Australia and is the instructor at the Punchbowl R.S.C., West Ryde Anglican Church and the Bonnyrigg Sports Club. Each year, he conducts many line dance workshops throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia Generally, he manages to visit each state at least once each year. These workshops have proved to be of excellent value for both students and instructors allowing the dances to be taught and called at all levels showing his teaching methods and techniques.

Country Dance Travel was initiated in 1999 and since that time has conducted Line Dance Holidays each year to such places as Hawaii, Fiji, Cairns, Malaysia, Singapore, African Game Parks, Bali and many other places through out Australia. These are all hosted by Gordon and are fully escorted and organized making them easier for the traveller. They also include workshops and socials while on vacation.

In January 1997, Gordon was first invited to attend the U.C.W.D.C. World Championships held in Los Angeles, California and was asked to assist with judging the competition and run workshops for instructors and dancers. Gordon was again invited to judge and do workshops at the U.C.W.D.C. Worlds in Nashville 1998 and San Antonio 1999. His dances "You Know" & "Wildest Dream" were compulsory dances in these competitions.

Gordon has contacts with line dance clubs in the USA, Canada, the UK, Europe and New Zealand as well as most clubs within Australia enabling him to keep abreast of the current trends in Line Dancing.

He is an accomplished choreographer with such dances as "Before the Devil Knows", "Like She’s Not Yours", "It Hurts", "Hope", "I Believe In Angels", "The Outback", "Cotton Pickin’", "Latin Love", "Tell Me That You Love Me", "Please Remember", "I Still Believe", "Missing You", If My Heart Had Wings", "Wrangler Butts", "I’m Alive", "Third Rock", "No Regrets", "Old Enough" and "Dancin’ the Line" to his credits. He has also worked with others from Australia, Mark Harding and the USA, Jo Thompson, Joanne Brady to choreograph such line dances as "Ghost Rider", "Wildest Dream" and "Louisiana Hot Sauce". Gordon was also approached to write a dance for those that are mobile but confined to a wheel chair. He wrote "I Never Work On A Sunday", as a ‘wheelie’ version as well as a standard line dance.

In 2005, Gordon started a Beginners Course that he offered to all instructors interested in teaching new people to line dance. He provides all the information needed to run the course for the instructors to follow and present to their students. This was to provide a service to the instructors as well as achieve some consistency for the dancers. This service has grown to over 110 instructors across Australia now running the course. There has also been interest from overseas with instructors in New Zealand, the USA, Mexico and the UK using the same material for their class.

Apart from being an accomplished dancer himself, he is regularly asked to judge line dance competitions or is instrumental in the organisation and presentation of such competitions e.g. "Australian Line Dance Championships". Each year he also conducts the line dancing for the Gympie Muster and runs a venue for workshops and socials at Tamworth.

Gordon has appeared on several television and radio programs to promote or discuss line dancing and has been a regular contributor for several magazines writing on line dancing.

Within the line dance circles , Gordon is seen as one of the forerunners and is always used as the reference point for most questions pertaining to line dancing.