Club night Monday 22 May 2023

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.

Club night Monday 18 May 2023

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

Club night Monday 11 May 2023

We had a fun night on Monday with a 3 piece live band (Lynne Scott, Mary MacDonald and Ann Goodbehere) filling the hall with their music. There were also a few visitors from Tawa and Lower Hutt clubs which gave a nice boost to our numbers.

Diane finished her 4 weeks teaching us, which everyone seems to have enjoyed. We have certainly covered quite a few formations over the last few weeks, so we are well placed for various upcoming dance programmes. We look forward to seeing Diane again for a couple of weeks in July. Until then Ann will be back and we will be preparing for our theme night on 29 May and annual dance on 1 July.

Tutor’s notes

The Jubilee Jig (J) https://youtu.be/2hut7QDit7M

Reel of 4 practice in strathspey time and in reel time

Betty’s Wedding (M) https://youtu.be/fS0pjPXSA9k

Poussette revision

Thornycroft (R) https://youtu.be/MK6Nl-9o_RI

All-round poussette revision (from week 2) and The Knot revision (from week 3)

The Lammermuir Hills (S) – on Ngaio’s programme on Saturday. https://youtu.be/DiKLJjV7VHI (lots of familiar faces in this video)

Set and Rotate revision

A Capital Jig (J) https://youtu.be/sWIHdHrVREM

Andrew’s Dance https://youtu.be/EYnu-kRi_s4

Club night Monday 24 April 2023

It was nice to see a good turn out this week, with people keen to get moving to beat the wintery chill. We also had the pleasure of live music with Aileen Logie playing for us – always much more fun to have live music. This was the first of 3 live music nights we have planned with Aileen this year, and we also have Iain Matcham and Jason Morris booked in for our May theme night on 29 May.

Tutor’s notes

We did the following dances and formation practice this week:

Allemande to Go 8x32R https://youtu.be/7l1P_INRMB8

Pivot exercise for the All-round Poussette
Formation practice – All-round Poussette

The Walled Garden 8x32S

Crom Allt 8x32R https://youtu.be/HEWjvHGJtdI

The Laird of Milton’s Daughter 8x32J – Ngaio’s Dance https://youtu.be/RwntgzY9P7I

The Paisley Weavers 3x32S – Ngaio’s Dance https://youtu.be/LuMsIqh2Wuo

Catch the Wind 8x32R https://youtu.be/GeV2hpDsqQg