2018 Event Reviews

Wellington Region Hogmanay
Tartan and Final Night
Tribute Dance for Peter Elmes
Halloween Samhain
New Dancers’ Celebration
October Tartan Night
Tawa 60th Anniversary Dance
RSCDS NZ Branch 50th Anniversary Ball
Johnsonville & Island Bay Joint Annual Dance 2018
Downey Day of Dance 2018 – York
Spring into Autumn Pre-Winter Dancing and Dinner
April Tartan Night
Mid-Summer Club Ceilidh 2018

Wellington Region Hogmanay 2018

A great contingent of Johnsonville Club members saw the New Year in at the Wellington Region Hogmanay on 31 December in Lower Hutt.

A number of Johnsonville dancers played key parts during the Hogmanay including our club tutor Rod Downey. Click here for more about Hogmanay and photos from Loralee

Farewell and thanks to Peter Elmes

Our final night on 26 November was a great success with more than four sets of members. Our very welcome visitors took us up to seven sets.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a joyful celebration of Peter’s music on his last night of playing for us. See more about our final night and photos here

Held at Ngaio Town Hall on Saturday 24 November, the Wellington Region Tribute Dance for Peter Elmes to mark his retirement from playing his beloved button accordion for Scottish Country Dancing was a great success, with more than 12 sets on the floor.

A great contingent of Johnsonville dancers attended to help celebrate the pleasure Peter has given us in his many years of music-making. Click here for more about the dance and photos

This year’s Samhain evening of fun dances was filled with witch’s hats, capes and devil’s horns, spiders, cobwebs, orange and black and ghostly grey outfits. Happiness abounded!

Click here for more about this fun evening and photos

With 15 plus sets on the floor dancing to fine music from Roaring Jelly (Lynne Scott, Sharlene Penman and Richard Hardie), the Wellington Region New Dancers’ Celebration on 13 October was a great success.

Find out more here and see all the photos

Up to six sets of happy dancers took to the floor at our second Tartan Night of the year on Monday 1 October.

See more about this great evening and photos here

Tawa Club celebrated its 60th Anniversary on 15 September with a very successful dance in the Johnsonville Community Centre.

Over a hundred people attended the dance including several Johnsonville Club members.

Click here for more about the evening and photos

Three Johnsonville Club members, Loralee, Elizabeth and Kate, were thrilled to join 100 dancers from across the country at the RSCDS New Zealand Branch 50th Anniversary Ball on 20 August at Government House in Wellington.

Click here to see more about this great evening and photos from Loralee Hyde

Months of planning by Johnsonville President Kristin Downey and a joint committee of Johnsonville and Island Bay Club members brought about a superbly organised evening at our first joint Annual Dance on Saturday 11 August.

See more about this great night and photos

Johnsonville Club tutor Rod Downey is visiting the UK again this year and will teach for a day for the RSCDS York and North Humberside Branch.

Rod’s dance A Trip to York in his Johnsonville Collection was devised as a present to the York group for the Downey Day of Dance in 2017 – see Rod with the group below at the Dunnington Sports Club.

Click here for a newsletter item about Rod’s first class in York in 2012

The smiles and laughter (sometimes almost hysterical!) of Johnsonville Club members and their friends and families on Saturday 5 May at our pre-winter event, certainly proved that dancing is a shortcut to happiness!

See more about the fun we had dancing and photos here

What a night we had at our first Tartan Night of the year on Monday 16 April!  All had a lot of fun and it was great to see our new dancers doing so well. The hall was full with more than six sets on the floor, including two sets of visitors.

Check out more about the evening and see the smiles in Loralee’s photos

Mid-Summer Club Ceilidh 2018

Once again the weather gods smiled upon us on the fourth Saturday in January, giving us sunshine for our summer social at Johnsonville Bowling Club. Twenty-two Johnsonville dancers brought along eleven guests for a relaxed afternoon of bowling, followed by ceilidh fun and a delicious potluck dinner.

See more about this fun day and Loralee’s photos here

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