February 2024

Monday 5th February 2024 - On a mild but windy night we danced two squares to Trudy and Simon in the Dining Hall. We are looking forward to our annual Open Mic night next week when, weather permitting, we should be dancing in the Main Hall.  David and Penny were our guest callers tonight with David giving us "From a Jack to a King" as his singing call and Penny urging us to "Thank you for the Music".  The music theme continued with the last singing call of the night with Simon giving us "The Day the Music  Died", turning his sound down so that we could be heard singing the chorus "So, bye, bye, Miss American Pie, Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry".                                                                                    

Monday 12th February 2024 - OPEN MIC NIGHT

After Simon had called the opening tip, David S was called to the stage and, following some patter, he opened two black plastic bags to reveal a balloon hat and giant microphone which he used as his accessories when he launched into his favourite singing call, "Chantilly Lace".

Penny was up next and after some patter used "Catch a Falling Star" for her singing call.

Although we had only managed two squares at the beginning of the evening, with us all dancing and Trudy joining in, we had three squares for Simon's next tip. After some patter he told us that he would require some audience participation for his next singing call so when he started singing "Hey Baby" we were ready to join in with the "Oooh!" "Aaah!"s.

During the break we enjoyed various chocolate biscuit and cake bars alongside the "Love Hearts" provided by Janet and David in view of it being Valentine's Day this week.

David H was next and after sight calling some patter he told the dancers that he would also require their participation in the singing call, "Forever and Ever, Amen". After he had opened with "You may think I'm talkin' foolish, You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free" we were ready to echo "I'm free" in the style of the late John Inman catchphrase ("Are you Being Served?").

Trudy's final patter call was followed by Julie singing the lovely, "Country Roads" with us all joining in with the chorus.

Simon told us he had a surprise for the last singing call of the night and Penny joined him on stage to reprise the duet "Fly Me to the Moon" which they had debuted last year. 

At the end of the evening Simon thanked all those who had taken part and also Trudy who had organised the "behind the scenes" side of the event.

Monday 19th February 2024 - On a dry and mild night we danced two squares to Trudy and Simon with guest tips by David and Penny.  During the evening Simon revisited "Wheel Around" and "Reverse Wheel Around". We were pleased to see our members, Bob P, Dave R and Mary who are not able to dance with us very often. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Ruth who celebrated last week while she was away.

Monday 26th February 2024       LEAP YEAR HOEDOWN

We were very pleased to welcome thirteen new dancers to our Hoedown this evening and we had four squares. Trudy and Simon soon had everyone dancing and, after the basics had been taught ("partner", "corner", "opposite", "heads/sides", "dosado" and "promenade") quickly progressed to, among others, "right and left grand", "weave the ring", "wheel around", "reverse wheel around", "star promenade" and "pair off" (from the "A" programme). Simon introduced the new dancers to couple numbering and, to much merriment, soon had couple 1 facing couple 4 and then couple 2 facing couple 1 to execute various moves including "OXO". Everyone seemed to have a good time and we hope that at least some will join us for our new teaching course which is due to start next month.

During the interval, when we enjoyed chocolate biscuit bars alongside our drinks, we sang "Happy Birthday" to our "Leapling", David C, who will be celebrating his once in four years birthday on Leap Year Day, February 29th.