Johnsonville Club members Désirée, Elena, Maureen and Hilary dance ‘Farewell to Tawa’ at Tawa’s Final Night

How can you have even more fun than dancing at Johnsonville? You can dance at a second club as well!

Many of our members do just that – as club members or as visitors. Sandy, Rod and Stephen dance at Capital City Club.

Elizabeth N, Moira B, Moira S and Nancy dance at Ngaio Club as do Bruce and Fiona, who’ve recently been coming along to Johnsonville.

Johnsonville club regulars Désirée and John P, Elena, Maureen, Pat, and Robert, as well as Bob and Hilary dance at Tawa Club.

Find out more below about the advantages of dancing at two clubs from Johnsonville Club members Robert and Désirée.

Being a member of two clubs

Robert and Brenda dancing at the top of the set at the New Dancers’ Celebration 2018

Writing as a fairly new dancer with lots to learn I think it’s really good to belong to more than one club if you get the chance.

The obvious point is that you get to dance twice as much and there’s no doubt that the more you dance the more it starts to make sense, but there are lots of other advantages.

Different tutors teach in different ways and give different explanations of how things are done.

When you dance at two clubs seeing the same things from more than one perspective definitely makes them easier to understand. You get that “Oh, that’s how it works” moment when some figure has seemed very confusing the last time you tried it.

Clubs have different favourite dances so you get to learn more dances if you dance twice a week. Clubs prepare for each other’s Tartan Nights and celebrations so if you go to two clubs you get to repeat dances – they become more familiar and you become more confident doing them.

Finally, if you dance twice a week you will definitely be fitter! Lots of Johnsonville members, experienced and less experienced, dance at other clubs and it’s definitely worth doing if you can.

from Robert

Tawa Club’s Final Night

On Thursday 14 November, Tawa Scottish Country Dance Club had their final club night for the year. This was an especially final ‘final night’, as it was the last time that retiring tutor Maureen Robson was at the helm.

The programme consisted of club members’ favourites, and there was a demonstration of a new dance Maureen had devised for the occasion, called Farewell to Tawa. Watch Pat’s video below.

John P took photos during the evening – view them on the Tawa Club Facebook page

It was a busy night with six sets on the floor, a bit of a squish, but we had fun. Members from three other small clubs had been invited to join us (Ngaio, Kelburn and Linden). The reason we can’t extend the invitation to all clubs, is that the Redwood Hall is small, and six sets is about all it can cope with.

Ngaio/Johnsonville member Moira B attended, as did Ngaio members Bruce and Fiona, who have been dancing at Johnsonville lately. Several Johnsonville members – Maureen S, Hilary, Elena, Robert, Pat, Bob, John P and myself – are also members of Tawa.

I can thoroughly recommend belonging to more than one club. You get to dance more often, and so you learn more quickly. It is also very good to be exposed to different teachers, as all have their own styles.

from Désirée

Thanks for all the dancing

Aileen, Hilary, Maureen and Désirée

Tawa premiered a new dance at their penultimate club night for the year.

Called Thanks for All the Dancing, the dance is dedicated to Tawa’s tutor Maureen Robson, who is retiring from teaching Tawa after having been the club’s tutor for 38 years!

Désirée Patterson devised the dance and Hilary Ferral composed the music. Musicians on the night were Hilary and Aileen Logie. Watch Pat’s video below.

Photos: John Patterson
Videos: Pat Reesby