Club will not be dancing on Easter Monday (10 April).
The next club night is Monday 17 April – see you there.

Happy Easter!

Tutor notes:

We decided to dance on Monday even though it was a public holiday given how close the New Dancers’ Celebration is. As well as revising dances from the programme I also included a couple of dances to mark the Queen Elizabeth II holiday.

I didn’t do any teaching as such but reminded people about formations in the dances particularly circles. Firm arms are needed and elbows should be pointing down to form a W to maintain the circle. In strathspey circles your body should be straight ahead and right leg crossed over for the first step – movement is from the hips. The allemandes were a bit ragged so we will look at these again next week.

Dances we did were:

The Kingston Flyer R NDC Carmen pointed out “King” in this dance

Border Meeting R NDC (Will be a round the room dance but we had to dance it up and down the hall

Holyrood Strathspey (Royal) Revision of corners pass and turn as a bonus

Lady Home’s J NDC Grand Chain and Turn Corners and Partner

Violynne R NDC Mirror reels of 3, poussette

Balmoral Strathspey (Royal) Reels of 4, 3 couple allemande

Mrs MacLeod NDC Set to and turn corners followed by left shoulder reels of 3 on the side

Several of the videos were taken at Wellington dances!

Have a good week. We will cover as many of the remaining dances from the New Dancers’ Celebration programme next week.

Mask Up and Dance theme night

Our theme night on Monday was a great success with a fun programme and a great range of masks as everyone got into the carnival spirit, including some visitors from other clubs. The programme (theme names and actual dance names) is below. Thank you to Ann for organising such a great night and for helping us to prepare for the dances in the weeks leading up to the theme night.

A Mask for Alec – A Reel for Alec (J)
The Masked Boy – The Button Boy (R)
The Masked Man – The Gentleman (S)
The Carnival of the Animals – not a dance as such but a lot of fun to see pairs of dancers in animal masks parading round the hall 🙂
Mairi’s Masquerade – Mairi’s Wedding (R)
Best Mask in the Hall – Best Set in the Hall (J) – The prize of Best Mask in the Hall was deservedly won by Fiona for her tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.
Soiree at Solway – The Shores of Solway (S)
Cupa Dupa – The Wellingtonia Reel (R)
Masks and Faces (S)
Joie de Carnaval – Joie de Vivre (J)

Mask Up and Dance – the Carnival of the Animals!

We had the pleasure of welcoming a guest tutor to our club night on Monday – Diane Bradshaw came and shared her knowledge and enthusiasm with us and taught us 6 dances, including several from upcoming dance programmes (listed below).

The Royal Deeside Railway

Athens of the North (Tawa)

Lady Home’s Jig (New Dancers’ Celebration)

A Capital Jig (Tawa)

St. Martin’s Strathspey (New Dancers’ Celebration)

Turkey Trot