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Line Dance Connection: |
What's your name? Do you have any
dance nicknames that you're known by? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
My name is Bernadette Burnette and B-Luv and Secsy B are my line dance nicknames. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
Where are you
from and what city do you call home? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I was born and raised in Norristown (East Norriton),
PA and at this moment, Douglassville, PA is my home. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
What do you do in your
professional life? Any hobbies outside of dance? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I am a Community Health Intervention Specialist/Phlebotomist. Outside of dance I like to bowl, travel, go
to amusement parks and the movies…..the typical stuff. LOL |
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Line Dance Connection: |
So what do they call this dance craze
in your home town? Line Dancing, Hustling, Sliding, Other? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
We call it Line Dancing |
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Line Dance Connection: |
Are you affiliated with any group
or groups? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
Yes, formerly with Dave Bush
Dancers, Tri-State Elite, Platinum Soul, Double SOS (Sista
Shades Of Soul…my first group) and now with my 2nd group, Dance Az 1. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
How long have you been dancing? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I’ve been dancing 20 years |
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Line Dance Connection: |
How did you get involved in
dancing? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I first started by going to a Sunday night weekly broadcasted
oldies party with the late, great Joe “Butterball” Tamburro
and “Butterball’s Posse” where they
were doing no more than 5 line dances at the time. I befriended two of the
members, Big Bill & Gail and they taught me those dances each and every
week. I followed Butter wherever he was on a Sunday, met Dave and the original
Dave Bush Dancers shortly after, we partied every week and the rest is
history! |
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Line Dance Connection: |
After you attended your very first
class, how did you feel? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I never attended classes. I self-taught myself dances by faithfully
going to the club every Sunday and getting on the floor and trying until I
eventually got the dance. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
How did you get into choreography? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I used to go to a weekly Monday night event called “Blue Lights
In The Basement” where there was a mixture of dance…..bop, cha-cha and line
dance. This one song that I loved played every week (Evil, Earth Wind &
Fire) but of course as usual, there was a scare of men, so no cha-cha’ing for
me. So I decided to rectify that by creating a line dance called Vicious (my
2nd choreographed line dance), after all no partner was needed
LOL, and it became an instant hit and to this day is considered a Philly
classic! After that, the motivation and creativity kept coming! |
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Line Dance Connection: |
How many dances have you created
and what was the very first dance you created? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I have created 421 dances and D&B’s Groove
to Cheryl Lynn’s Got To Be Real was my 1st dance. D&B because Dorice
and I were teaching together. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
Of all your dances which one would
you say is your favorite? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I have quite a few. Although I like/love all the songs I
choreograph dances to, there are some that just move me and I get lost in the
music like I, Love-Jennifer Lopez/No Mercy, Girl They Won’t Believe-Joss
Stone/U Won’t Believe, You & I-Rick James-Double SOS and now First
Kiss-Vick Lavender/BB Clubbin’ and Heaven-Honey LaRochelle/It’s Heaven, just to name a few J |
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Line Dance Connection: |
In your own words, what makes
dancing special? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
It allows everyone, no matter what level of dance they’re on, to
be on the floor having fun together, dancing as one!! Mess up catch up…it’s
all in fun and it’s about coming together doing something we all love to do! |
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Line Dance Connection: |
If you could change one thing
about dancing, what would it be? |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
I’d like to preserve the foundation of Soul Line Dance, dancing
to R&B music. There is nothing wrong with diversity, we need it to keep
things interesting and I, myself choreograph to different genres of music
other than R&B too, but it seems that the direction of the musicality of
line dancing is going in the direction of hip hop/rap/Baltimore house and
this is not what the foundation of line dance was built on, at least in
Philly, where I evolved with. It was Dave Bush’s wish to continue the legacy
of R&B Line Dance and if it’s in God’s will, I will. |
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Line Dance Connection: |
Tell me one thing about yourself
that the dance community would find surprising. |
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Bernadette Burnette: |
That I can cook & bake from scratch J |
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