Well, the winter wardrobe is being put away and the summer dance gear has been hurriedly shaken out and reinstated on the hangers. The last two weeks has seen so many other changes too; both good and bad. Sadly, several more of our regular dancers have been injured, ill or operated on...we miss them all and hope they get better soon. In the meantime however, it's been exciting to welcome even more new faces to the Monday class. Most of our new people have never danced before, but they seem to be enjoying the classes and making plans to join us regularly. Great! I've also been ringing the changes with the introduction of some lovely new dances to the Tuesday night programme- it's very easy, and very enjoyable to repeat the same, well loved, dances every week, but it's also very easy to lose the skills involved in learning - not to mention the skills of teaching. I usually keep a dance on the programme for 3 weeks before changing it for a new one -preferably a dance we haven't done recently though there's always a core of well known regulars. Over the last few weeks however, we've tackled several brand new dances (to our class) that I came across at Winter School; they've been well liked, so far, so this week we have a brand new reel to try, the Tri-Mariner. The number of videos of this dance shows how popular it is in the rest of the world so hopefully it'll be popular here too. I'm already looking forward to everyone trying it! 

What a crazy, fun night! Tuesday evening's session started out with us realising that, although several of our most regular  and experienced dancers were away, we were lucky enough to be simultaneously welcoming back several others, who we hadn't seen for ages. Although we had our lowest numbers for several weeks, and many of our dancers were seriously out of practice, it was a great atmosphere from the word go. The programme was danced right through- without a lot of style in some cases but with a great deal of laughter and mutual support. Well done to everyone who worked so hard, and I suspect several people, amazed themselves at what they could achieve. At the Monday class, the day before, we also had fewer people than the previous weeks (though the people who were missing will be returning). but it was still an excellent afternoon of dancing and we  covered 3 of the dances featured on the next days' programme - which gave the people who came to both sessions a lot more confidence to get up and try their skills - and didn't they do well!

Once more we utilized the excellent facilities of the Phoenix Club and the generous services of the volunteers who run it - not only during the evening itself but also earlier in the afternoon to show us how to set the equipment up.
It is several years since we've organised a purely social evening based around the Edinburgh Tattoo. Nearly 30 attendees eventually assembled, dancers, their friends & additional Phoenix club members who had seen the event advertised. After our 'butties and chip' supper, and a last frantic run on the bar, the lights went out and we spent an awe inspiring hour on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. The experience was enhanced by the size of the projection screen which is enormous, and excellent sound quality, giving us an almost immersive experience. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures - but that in itself shows how engrossing the film was.
Once we'd caught our breath, replenished our drinks and enjoyed a couple of trailers for the Club's upcoming Film Nights, we completed the evening with a 'jolly good sing-song'. Well done everyone who joined in to create such a fun end to the evening. We have to thank Tina for selecting the songs, preparing the lyrics and leading us all beautifully. She also treated us to a couple of solos, which was way more than we expected and truly made the evening special. ​

Well the weather is super and so is the dancing. 14 people attended the beginners session last Monday - a really excellent number. We had fun with the Byron Strathspey - covering petronella turns, teapots, reels of 3 and then Allemande for 3 couples, in a hugely steep learning curve which everyone attacked with relish. We then started to introduce reels of 4 - to be continued next week - before finishing with a quick skip round Dunnet Head by way of release from all the cerebral hard work.  
Tuesday was also well attended - although not everyone was able to dance - and even when they could it was obviously hard to break off from the socialising! It's great that the group is so friendly but getting a set together can be unexpected hard work :-) However, once up and running people really did well with their dancing - often surprising themselves at what they could achieve. I look forward as always to next week's dancing, but before that we have the Tattoo night to look forward to; it's going to be a good night, which should make up for any disappointment we may feel from not being on the telly ourselves due to the pull out of the 'Place in the Sun' team!