With mornings and evenings so crammed with dancing you would think the free afternoons would see us all heading for the hills to clear our heads of jigs and reels, however, although the joy of the week is due to the chance to dance so much, so many of the evening dances are unfamiliar that the afternoon 'walk throughs' are a necessity for many of us and it's not surprising they are well attended. Along with the 'walk through's' other afternoon activities are available, usually of a Scottish, but not necessarily dancing, variety. We were recommended to attend the talk on Music in the RSCDS but we attended more out of loyalty than expectation of entertainment. We were surprised how many people chose to attend too, but we were all glad we did - the talk given by a former Musical Director of the society was absolutely fascinating, I wasn't just glad we'd gone I felt we'd been privileged to attend, and left with a new appreciation, bordering on awe, for these brilliant people, so necessary to dancing and so generally underappreciated. Once another huge 3 course meal was under our belts it was time to head down for the second evening dance of the week. Several unfamiliar dances had been hastily acquired in the walk through but despite our shaky knowledge we were encouraged to get up and dance by various other partners who could guide us through more confidently. The ballroom floor isn't really ideal for Scottish Dancing but even so the room is packed with set. Every dance is 'recapped' before you start which helps enormously with the inevitable blank moments that we all suffer from. After eating such a big meal you feel you can't dance a step, after the first dance you want to dance all night. The energy in the room is palpable and when, after a couple of energetic hours, the evening draws to an end it's hard for everyone to wind down... queue the Soiree; as wired as the rest of us the musicians migrate to the foyer where free coffee, tea etc is available and everyone settles down on the settees and easy chairs to the clink of tea spoons on china, to wind down and discuss the day... until the band plays a familiar ceilidh tune and the Military Two Step spontaneously erupts followed by a more sedated Pride of Erin walz and we finally drifted back to our room to give our feet some TLC before collapsing. 3 more days to go: wonderful!
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P and I have chosen different class levels -P limiting his ambition to the intermediate class which he knew he would enjoy without too much stress involved. With a certain degree of trepidation I had plumped for the high impact advanced, a level I knew I should be aiming for without truly being sure I could reach it. I shouldn't have worried though, it was a super fun morning, the teaching was so clear and the points built up so carefully there was virtually nothing I struggled with. It was wonderful, also, to dance in a class with an experienced musician providing the music - a very, very rare privilege in Cyprus. I now have 5 more dances in my repertoire but the Strathspeys Wishing Well and Up in the Air were ones I especially enjoyed so look out when I get back. The picture is of the room as we finished, I was too busy to get one earlier.
The weather is great so the walk to class in town should be lovely, breakfast was as good as we remembered from previous visits, we know we'll be working hard so it's a good reason to eat!
So now I have a couple of minutes to update before heading down to the ballroom for our first evening of dancing. We've been given a super room, attended the welcome reception and had a fabulous meal but now of course, now we don't feel much like dancing, however that's what we are here for, so dance we will. In acknowledgement of it being the first night, I.e. before any of the classes have started, the programme is relatively simple so we know at least 1\2 of it :-) the rest we have been swatting up and hopefully we will remember, but it'll be fun either way.
We are sat in the foyer of the Atholl Palace Hotel waiting for our room to be ready and for registration of the Royal Scottish Dance Society 'Winter School' to open. We arrived very early. We had spent the night at a lovely B and B and then dragged the cases up the steep slope to the hotel. We now just to wait, but there are worse places to wait, real fires warming the panelled room, real flowers on the tables, thick carpets and a generally tartany feel of Scotland. To SC dancers today's blether title will have a different meaning to most other peoples... I quite like the idea that to anglers it has a different meaning, to knitters another and to actors and sailors maybe more still. In a dancers' vocabulary it basically means taking longer than usual to travel outside of your set from one position to another - but doing it in time with the music and with awareness of everyone else you are dancing with. It's how I feel about leaving to go to Winter School - I'm not there yet, I have just over a week to go but I've starting the process of getting there already and it all has to work in a certain way to get me there - seeing Mother in the process, meeting Pete who is already in the UK and travelling to Pitlochry (hopefully, train drivers & weather allowing) before arriving at the Atholl Palace Hotel, full of anticipation for a wonderful week of dancing. Leaving here is always hard however, we are so lucky to have such a super friendly and fun group. To have people from so many different backgrounds and nationalities, not to mention different ages, enjoying themselves together is very special. This week the Monday class was much smaller than previous weeks, however it was a really useful session covering lots of formations and with lots of chatting and catching up afterwards. Tuesday was well attended and great fun too. The hard work that people - not just from the Monday class - have been putting into practicing and learning the dances, mainly by watching the videos posted on this website, is paying off - it is really pleasing to me that they are making a difference - after all it takes a bit of time to set it up, so it's great to know people are using them. In the next couple of weeks the Tuesday class will be kept going by class members who I know will have plenty of support - I thank them all - I should know that it isn't easy to do! Monday classes are suspended until I get back. While I'm at Winter School I'll try and add to this blog and give everyone an idea of what it entails - who knows maybe some of you will give it a try in a year or two - keep going and you could do it.
I've no idea what happened. A week has got away from me without me noticing it and now I've got 2 weeks to blether about. I suppose quite a lot has happened so I'm not short of blethering material. There's been more Haggis consumed ... and very nice too ... as myself and other group members sampled various other Burns' celebrations around the Paphos area. Then there's been bacon butties consumed while our Group organisers considered all that was good from the various events and what might be improved in our own (a few things) - or what definitely shouldn't be changed (quite a lot).
Now our Burn's Night is over we are starting to decide what to do next - these are a few ideas under consideration so keep an eye out for news. In the meantime we've been having some excellent turn outs for the Monday and Tuesday classes, and we've had some really great fun sessions. It has been a steep learning curve for many of the beginners but everyone appears to be enjoying the challenge and they are coming on leaps and bounds. Having said that, I'm going to drop the bar slightly for the next few weeks to allow everyone to consolidate what they know - though my ideas of 'easy' don't necessarily match everyone else's I know! P & I are ourselves studying dances as we prepare for our trip to Winter School in a couple of weeks so we do know what it's like, in fact I better get back to it now - and try and kerb my enthusiasm to introduce you all to 'set & rotate', ' set & link', 'chain progressions' and 'diamond poussettes', all at once when we haven't actually covered a reel of 4 quite yet! Well next month maybe!! ;-) Our initial attempt at hosting a Burn's Night in the Phoenix Club seems to have been a success - the hard work of the decorating team paid off, with the Club transformed for the night, and although there were some things that we'll work on to improve, if we decide to do it again, the feedback from guests so far is that it was a super night. The Club as usual provided support above and beyond all we expected, the volunteers working to provide the food, manning the bar and generally looking after us were amazing. All the traditional Burn's Night activities went seamlessly, the speakers all very different, but all entertaining and the evening ending with both singing and dancing before bringing the night to a close with Auld Lang Syne. Well done everyone. If anyone has pictures they'd like to share I'll gladly receive them - the one's I took can be found HERE or via the Past Events tab. Now onto the next thing... I hope to see you soon
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MeOriginated in Manchester, England: Worked almost 20 yrs in the United Arab Emirates: Lives in Cyprus. Teaches Scottish Country Dancing (RSCDS qualified 2015) -just the average life! Also loves Photography & Photoshop, Gardening, Music, Sewing, Design, Reading, computers, God, my husband & my cat (not necessarily in that order). Hates - crowds, hypocrisy, 'Reality' TV, corrupt politicians, cruelty and greed of any kind. Archives
April 2024
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