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 

Tuesday classes are never, ever the same session twice... last week we were lucky enough to be joined by two experienced dancers, enjoying a brief holiday over here in Paphos, they lifted the class with their dancing knowledge but also appreciated learning dances completely new to them; this week we welcomed instead 3 brand new dancers, having had their first taste of dancing just the day before at the Monday beginner's session, they were emboldened to join us. They lifted the class by their enthusiasm and willingness to join in - which turned out to be a boon because so many of our regular dancers were unable to attend due to family circumstance, illness or injury. Inevitably we had to take things a little slower, but there was so much chattering going on in the sidelines it was obvious that many people were happy with a less frantic programme. The faster dances were eventually too much for such a small group of mainly inexperienced dancers, but we had several excellent strathspeys available to keep us going without exhausting ourselves mentally or physically. The Ring of Brodgar; The Dream Catcher and The Letham Ladies finished off our evening - The Letham Ladies had been taught at the Monday class so our 'beginners' had the advantage of the rest of the class since it was a new dance for Tuesday's session - and was voted a winner despite the lack of a teaching video... maybe we'll add one ourselves once we are confident with it. Hopefully I'll see many of you on Saturday at Burns Night otherwise I'll see you next week. 

Just a quick report on our first Monday class - what a super turn out and fun afternoon. Everyone worked really hard but certainly appeared to be enjoying themselves, so hopefully they were! Don't forget, tomorrow is the last day to buy tickets for our Burns Night - contact Irene (her details are on the website's contact page) ASAP if you want to reserve one and can't get to the class, otherwise I hope to see you there. 

What an excellent night to start our new year off despite many people having to miss it. Well done to everyone who braved a chilly night and possible rain to join us. The first great surprise was to be joined by both our bar ladies despite one being just out of her sick bed and the other still recovering from a serious accident - talk about dedication to duty - but they also don't want to miss the fun of our sessions!
We were lucky enough to be joined this week by some lovely holidaying dancers. They thoroughly enjoyed the friendliness of the class and having them in the sets made it much easier for the rest of the class to learn two dances that were new to most of the rest. Well done to all who attempted Black Mountain Reel and the Aviator and even the lovely strathspey The Swan & the Tay which, despite being slower, contained the formation 'corner pass, and turn', a move unknown to most of the class. Next week I hope we'll have more people back, and I'm also looking forward to our first Monday 'beginner's class', see you then.

Our first class of 2024 is tomorrow! I am so looking forward to it and I hope everyone else is too, however, I've just been recapping the trickier programme dances and I don't know what got into me when I chose them last year - they are really great dances, don't get me wrong - but potentially a little challenging for our first night back, I'm not so worried about everyone else but whether my brain can cope so soon in the season, well, we shall see; I know the class is up for anything, and there are plenty of easier dances amongst the challenges for newer and even non-dancers to enjoy, so we can resort to just doing those if necessary! Either way I know people will enjoy themselves, and if we do find things tricky it's just providing our brains with additional exercise that can only be doing us good - not to mention additional entertainment for the non-dancers by the bar!  Don't forget to bring your money for Burn's Night tickets if you intend to join us for that, always a great night. This year it's in the familiar friendly surroundings of the Phoenix Club - but transformed from our usual dance venue into a tribute to Robbie - as usual a lot of hard work is going on in the background so the event itself should be seamless, luckily I don't have a lot to do with it and those that do, know what they are doing, so it should be good! See you tomorrow :-)