And do-si-do your partner

It's a Burlicious tradition in the last week of teaching a routine that we prepare our lovelies to dance it in an unfamiliar environment. That means getting our showgirls to turn the dance around and dance facing in different directions to the one they're used to.

Often we'll set up lines of beauties to dance in different directions at the same time. It's always a bit of a head-scratcher and brilliantly entertaining. Suddenly, a routine that the troupe knows inside out becomes a routine in which we haven't got the faintest idea which direction to step in next (note that I do not suggest that we Burlicious Three are reliably immune from this spatial confusion!).

It requires much, much more concentration to dance the thing when you're distracted by a line of showgirls facing you dancing, quite correctly, in the opposite direction to the one you're going in.

All the tell-tale signs of a bit of brain stretch were there last night - frowns of serious concentration; glassy-eyed determination not to look at another showgirl and the direction she might be going in for fear of getting confused; lost showgirls turning round to find that the rest of the class is heading towards them; and that giveaway "step, ooh no, recover and retreat" motion that looks a little bit like a small and very fast Irish jig on the spot.

 Who needs crosswords and sudoku? This stuff gives us all the mental workout we need!

Yours, with brain nicely flexed,

 Burlicious x