Sheesh!  It was hard work for me, heaven knows what if felt like for everyone else, 3 sets up for virtually every dance and you could hear the brain cells begging for mercy all round the room; however, everyone tackled and pretty well wrestled to the ground '3 couple rights & lefts' and pronounced ' Rose of the North' a lovely dance, which indeed it is; The Reel of the Royal Scots, was also grasped pretty well and enjoyed as I knew it would be and that poor old 'Swiss Lassie' was again attacked with mingled flair and fear but ultimately most people ended up in the right place with the right partner, and had fun doing it - even if they weren't quite sure how they got there: it can be fascinating to watch worried looks gradually relax into smiles as a dance goes on and it was very apparent with Swiss Lassie. I'm not sure I liked 'Adieu Mon Ami' much myself, but quite a few people said they'd enjoyed it - so when I've got time to properly introduce people to  'Hello-Goodbye' setting we'll give it a go again.
P.I.P. didn't fair quite so well, I thought it might be a challenge, everyone who even tried should be pleased with themselves, but the final surviving set should definitely pat themselves on the back, like many of the dances we find challenging, it's not difficult in itself - we'd nail it straight off as a Strathspey, but it's a non-stop dance at high speed with almost everyone moving at once - for many dancers these are the most exhilarating type of dances, requiring good team work, fast thinking, and precise timing to the music etc ... so I will do it again, but not for a while and not as part of such a challenging programme!
The IB weekend is only 10 days away so, although there are some of 'their' dances we haven't tackled yet, I think we have done enough to give most people a few they can dance if they go to the balls and some idea of ones they definitely shouldn't get talked into doing! Now we (or do I mean me? ;-) ) need to relax a little, next week the Tuesday programme is definitely less frantic, we'll still include useful dances for the weekend but no more brand new dances, and the only repeats from this week, ones that went well and people seemed to enjoy - in fact even I am a bit 'new-danced out' and I'm definitely looking forward to getting some old favourites back on the programme - one more week to go - I can't wait, but in the meantime .... some more stuff to note

• Next week's class is still at the Latin Parish Hall as usual
• The 'book' is open to reserve your tickets for the 'Picnic in the Park' on June 16th
• If you intend going to the evening dances on Friday 28th & Sunday 30th please let me know, especially if you want to join in the meal
• Don't forget there is a Ceilidh too on Saturday 29th. These can be great fun & often include ceilidh dancing - a bit of a relief from all the challenging stuff!
• Issues with the sound system have been noted!

see you next week Jx

This week was the first Tuesday night when I really felt spring had arrived. The windows were open all night and the temperature never dropped below pleasant. We more or less repeated the programme of 2 weeks ago and didn't we do well; in amongst the more modest triumphs dancers tackled Swiss Lassie and won - I humbly admit that I didn't expect people get through such a fast dance so well and it shows that if we raise the bar most of us can reach it - perhaps not with pointy toes, but certainly with big grins!
We are definitely on the countdown to the International Branch visit, next week's programme will again introduce a few more new challenges and I am conscious of how hard I am making people work but in the meantime we are discovering some great new dances to add to our repertoire and re-visiting many that we haven't danced for months, maybe even years. I am also being pushed into teaching / revising many formations that I haven't necessarily bothered people with in the recent past, it's always easier to stick to what we know - but we're getting to the point when we can take in a lot more than we used to. The fun everyone had at the Barn dance is partly because dancing at that level is now so easy we can really relax and enjoy it, but if we weren't challenged at the classes we wouldn't ever manage to get to that point. I've included a few of the pictures I took at the class this week, just because there were so many smiles! I hope to see everyone enjoying themselves as much again next week and in the meantime, Happy Easter to everyone - and if you eat too many Easter Eggs remember you can always work off the calories next Tuesday Jx

As usual we have to thank Irene for a brilliantly organised night, the Green Olive provided a super buffet and a super venue for our little alternative dance night. It was great to hold an event that appealed to non-dancers as well as the 'class'. Of course there were some hiccups - some out of our control, and some we are going to have to use as learning material, but hey ho, we all survived and had an excellent fun night. I attach a few pictures to this post to prove the point! Our next event is the Picnic in the Park at Elea, if it's half as much fun we'll be onto a winner.
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