We were saddened to read in this morning's EADT about the sudden closure of Kersey Mill, the popular wedding venue.  We sympathise with those affected who have lost their jobs, and suppliers who have lost money but especially with those couples who had their weddings booked and deposits paid.

It's only a drop in the ocean, but we've opened an offer today that if you are so affected, we'll provide the wedding dance tuition for free. 

Just give us a call.

From an Instructor who really, really ought to know better.  Unfortunately there were nearly 30 people observing so he can't pretend it didn't happen:-

'You put your left foot down, then slide it backwards, keeping pressure on the ball of the foot, making sure that the foot doesn't leave the room'

Strictly Final - wow, great wasn't it.  Whilst Kara won the Glitterball, how did our dancers do on the Fantasy Strictly competition ?

Winners by a single point were Tony and Maryann Vagg - see the full league on the current affairs page.

When discussing footwork of Paso Doble with a couple who ought to know better,

'So, this step is all balls then ?'

The final approaches.  Our prediction - Kara to win, Pamela second.  But watch for Artem's choreography of Kara - if it is too ambitious then expect to see that prediction reversed !

Just in time for Christmas we've launched a programme of afternoon classes in Salsa and Argentine Tango - half day Experiences concentrating solely on these dances - see Salsa and Tango Experiences page for more information.

Taken up dancing in the last couple of years ?  Wnat to go to a dance but find the idea a bit, well, intimidating ?

Our Novice Dance on 22nd January is for you then.  It will itself run from 8.00 - 10.30, with a half hour workshop from 7.30.  It will be restricted to those who fit the 'less than two years experience' category, and will have instructors on hand to assist you with any difficulties - see the 'Events' page for more details.

We've got new adult classes starting in 2011. 

We'll be at Whepstead Community Centre on Wednesdays starting 19th January, new beginners 7.30 - 8.15pm

And we'll be at West Row Village Hall on Tuesdays starting 8th February, new beginners 7.30 - 8.15pm, Improvers 8.30 - 9.15pm

That time of year again, 2011 dates are now available on the website and bookings are being taken.

Quote of the week last week, spoken by a lady who ought to know better:-

"These shoes don't do very good heel turns"

Delighted to say that at the end of October we were able to present the grand total of £3,080 to the Treehouse Appeal as a redult of our 24 hour Foxtrot Marathon.  Thank you everyone.

Great news - at close of business last night we had exactly £1,000 pledged in sponsorship for the 24 hour Marathon Foxtrot.

Incredible, thank you everyone.

I've been asked by a couple of people - 'Where have the steps gone ?'.  Great question, tricky answer.

For about two years the website has been a combination of 'front end' - i.e. facing you guys, telling you what events are coming up, allowing you to book online etc, and 'back office' - i.e. holding data on steps, classes, routines etc.

The problem with this is that the hosting software was more aimed at the former than the latter.  We could make it do the 'back office' stuff but the coding ended up being a bit Heath Robinson to make it interactive enough, which in turn made it cumbersome for us to update.  In addition, the website itself was beginning to look a bit unwieldy, and lastly the domain host we use has a limit on pages which we were bumping up against.

We've spent the first half of this year looking at alternatives, none of which gave us exactly what we wanted.

What we've therefore done is to split the site in two, having this one doing what it does best - the front end, and a link via the 'Dancers' page to the back office one.

This one has just been recoded from scratch and the back office site has been substantially written, currently being beta tested.  The steps have been migrated onto that one and we hope to have it live in the next few days.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you are stumped about something by all means send us an e-mail with your questions

Yes - we've got there, at last.

It's been three months in the planning but we've just gone live with a whole new, fully recoded website with loads of new features.

It's not perfect, and some bits are still developing, but we're really pleased with it - let us know what you think

This is a new feature that we have added to the website, the idea is to share our thoughts etc on dancing generally, we hope to reflect some humourous experiences etc, time will tell !