Dromore’s Tina loves teaching the world how to dance

FOR over a decade now, Dromore-based dance instructor Tina McGurren has been hosting jiving classes throughout the North West area in a bid to promote fitness and build confidence.

Having established ‘Modern Country Moves’ nearly 12 years ago with her son, Conor, the classes are geared towards making learning to jive easy and fun.

Following its inception, Tina’s jiving classes have gone from strength-to-strength, epitomised by her social media success with over 245k views on on of her videos.

“I started jiving very young,” Tina recounted. “I probably learned to dance when I was around five or six. I came from a family of six – three boys and three girls – so that was our past-time.

“Then around 10 years ago my son, Conor and I began teaching, and we set up Modern Country Moves’.

“I do dance classes everywhere; from Donegal to Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry and Cavan – even Spain – and I love it.”

In what came as a huge surprise, Tina described how her viral video propelled her into the spotlight.

“Randomly, we turned up to the farm of a man who attends my class and recorded a video for a bit of fun – really just to promote jiving a bit more,” explained Tina.

“So we filmed and edited the video, which took all of about 20 minutes, and when we put it up on Facebook – it just went crazy.

“I was not expecting it at all!” she exclaimed. However, I was absolutely buzzing to see the jiving video do so well; a lot of people texted me and spoke to me about it at the time which I was delighted with.”

Tina used her final words to endorse the hobby which she has invested most of her life to pursuing, encouraging others to give it a go.

“I am always talking jiving and dancing – I talk more about jiving than probably anything else,” she laughed.

“But it’s a great encouragement to get people to come out to classes and give it a go.

“Classes are for any ability – whether you can dance or can’t – and they include jiving, line dancing and quick step.”

Tina’s next workshop is set to take place in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh. The five week course will run every Wednesday from October 29 to November 26 from 7.30pm – 9pm.