Yes – we are dancing this week on King’s Birthday – Monday 5 June 2023.

Visitors always welcome!

What a great theme night we had on Monday – “All kinds of weather”! It was great to see a good turnout, including a few visitors – and lots of people dressed either for or as all kinds of weather!

Ann took us on an exciting dance journey starting with sunshine and leading us through mist, wind, rain and rainbows! Fabulous live music from Iain Matcham and Jason Morris added to the festive atmosphere, and we finished the night with a delicious supper.

Ann was unable to teach tonight but Diane Bradshaw kindly agreed to take the club at short notice. It was nice have Diane take us again so soon, and we will be seeing her again for a couple of nights in July. Diane put us through our paces and we did several dances in preparation for next week’s theme night programme. They were unfamiliar dances, but we made good progress and they should all be good for next week.

We have the theme night next week “All Kinds of Weather”, and will have live music by Iain Matcham and Jason Morris.

Dances we did this week:

Purple Rain (J) – https://youtu.be/b2dlJ4T7-2Y
This had the casting and chasing figure to start.

Summer Wooing (R) https://youtu.be/h9Bto-g4hwA
The video for this one looks very energetic! The bit that needed more work with this dance was leading down for 3, the 2s divide and dance back up behind the 3s, finishing in the middle ready for a poussette.

Tartan Rainbow (S) https://youtu.be/MJL5zJmhq28
We got another opportunity to practise the 3 couple knot in this dance.

At the End of the Rainbow (R)
This dance is a modified version of “Cadgers in the Canongate”, having a tandem reel to start. We danced it to the music for “Cadgers”, which was a great set of tunes.

A Trip to Bavaria (R) https://youtu.be/N8vh1jptm1k
After all the work we put in learning the new dances, Diane offered us the choice of several dances to finish on, and this was the most popular choice by quite a margin! This was done well, twice so everybody got a turn as the numbers were awkward for 4 couple sets.

Another fun night last week, with lots of weather-related dances in preparation for our theme night! If anyone has any weather-themed decorations, please bring them along on 29 May. Hope you are all planning your costumes!

Ann’s
It was lovely to see you all last night, and great to see how much you had learned with Diane. I had asked her to cover a number of formations that are included in or “All Kinds of Weather” dances. So recapping and building on what you have covered in the last month we danced:

Lonely Sunday (J) – with a ladies chain – a repeat from a couple of weeks ago. https://youtu.be/nce6evLSaBQ

Gaelforce Wind (J) – with a mens chain- Men, who start diagonally opposite one another, turn with the left hand then turn right hand with the ladies on the sides (and repeat). The ladies dance ovals up and down the sidelines, turning the men on bars 3&4 and 7&8 of the formation. https://youtu.be/zrBQg6MYbks

Rainy Sunday Strathspey (S) with double figures of 8 and a 2 couple knot – we practiced long and short steps for the double figures of 8 and concentrated on covering between sets.

The Calm Before the Storm (R) – devised by Iain Boyd (Wellington) – a simple dance with a Set and Rotate.

We ended the evening with a couple of well known dances:

The Minister on the Loch (S) – practicing strathspey Pousette https://youtu.be/kJZJLlJvnaQ

and

Catch the Wind (R) https://youtu.be/GeV2hpDsqQg

We will cover a few more “weather” dances next week before our theme night.

Hope we have some good weather this week