Edinburgh Swing Dance Society

News

New term, new discounts!

The ESDS is pleased to announce a money-saving “Class Pass” card, which can save you £5, or lets you treat someone you care about to a whole block of classes!

Simply buy the card on a Thursday night (with either cash or cheque – sorry, we can’t take cards) and then you can simply present the card for stamping on Thursdays instead of having to carry cash.

What’s the cost?

  • £45 for members
  • £55 for non members.

Any restrictions?

  • The card is valid for 10 Thursdays over 2 terms.
  • Cannot be used on band nights).
  • Not transferable
  • Not refundable.

Summer Band Night

Please join us for our end of term social dance with live music from Ali Affleck and The Bedlam Swing. Thursday, 25 July 2019 from 20:30-22:30

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thursday price increase

From the start of the next term (13th June) we are increasing our prices slightly (for only the 3rd time in 23 years!). The entire evening will still only cost £5 for members, students, and concessions (previously £4), or £6 for non-members (previously £5), so is still cracking good value!

Norma Miller (1919-2019)

Very sad to hear that Norma Miller, widely described as “The Queen of Swing, passed away on 5th May at the age of 99, having been dancing since she was discovered at 14! Many in the ESDS were fortunate to have had classes (and laughs) from her somewhere around the world, and such a character will be sadly missed. I’m sure that she and Frankie will be having a heck of a swing party! RIP. xxx

Edinburgh Swings Into Spring

In April 2019, ESDS hosted Edinburgh Swings into Spring. We had 2 days of amazing classes from visiting teachers Cat and Cam, Scottie and Arrianne, Carolene and Russell. We also had live band socials with Ali Affleck and Belam Swing as well as The Joys of Swing. Thanks to everyone who made this such a fun event!

2019 Annual General Meeting review

The ESDS 2019 AGM was held on 24 January 2019 at LifeCare Centre. Here’s a rundown of what was covered in the meeting.

What we did in 2018

Classes and workshops

We had 6 terms of our regular Thursday classes, including tasters and open practice sessions. Our Beginners classes were regularly around 80 people, topping out at 100 some weeks.

There were extended socials with live music at our band nights at the end of each term. One band night was moved to a Saturday to coincide with our teacher training weekend with David and Cátia.

We ran a selection of beginners, improvers, and intermediate/advanced workshops throughout the year.

After the summer break, we decided to experiment with our Thursday class schedule and level names based on member feedback. We are currently running our Level 3 class at the same time as Level 1, with Level 2 remaining after the social, but downstairs to allow more space.

Teachers

We have a lot of new teachers and a growing team, and in order to continue to give you the best classes we possibly can, we’ve invested a lot in teacher training and team building this year.

We had a whole weekend with David and Cátia from Portugal, and we also had voice training with Kira Emslie. Our more experienced teachers continue to be super helpful with training and advice.

We also had lots of great guest teachers:

  • Shell and Tim
  • Cee and Stig
  • Norman
  • Katie and Jamie
  • Anne and Vlad

Events and other stuff

We have updated our Code of Conduct thanks to Highland Swing and Sam from Swing Dance Sydney. The Code of Conduct is on the website and also available at the registration desk on Thursdays and at events.

We’ve invested in storage space for all the stuff we own so it’s no longer spread out across various peoples flats and cars. Some ELX equipment also lives in this space.

Katie and Paddy spearheaded a zero-waste approach to our events, and we now have reusable plastic cups for water and a selection of charity shop mugs for our tea dances.

We ran a few big events, including the David and Cátia teacher training and workshop weekend and Winter Swing Weekend. Our member and new Teaching Coordinator Lottie organised a new event, Hogmanay Hop, for New Years Eve, which was a big success. We also ran a free workshop for our volunteers at the end of the year.

Membership

We had 132 members in 2018!

Volunteers

ESDS runs on volunteer power. Our committee, all of our teachers, and everyone who takes money on the door, DJs, and refills water does everything for free because they are awesome. It takes a lot of time and energy to keep the society running, and we’re always looking for more volunteers, so speak to a committee member if you’d like to help out!

We had lots of regular volunteers this year, many of whom have transitioned to the committee for 2019.

If you want to geek out about music, our DJs in 2018 were Minna, Eva, Valerie, Paddy, Lottie, Michael, Nick, Niall, and Kate.

Treasurer’s report

Starting balance: £4302.80
End balance: £4284.65

Thursdays & workshops income: £14,840.78 (10% up on 2016)

David and Cátia Teacher Training and Advanced Workshop
Spent: £3,368.54
Income: £947.00
Subsidy: £2,747.13 (or £161 per teacher trained)

Winter Swing Weekend
Spent: £12,708.41
Income: £10,014.76
Subsidy: £2,693.65 (£30 per workshop attendee)

Hogmanay Hop
Spent: £2,016.14
Income: £1,496.00
Subsidy: £6.25 per person

Donations/charity
Serenity Cafe: £105

Other expenses
Storage unit: £787.00
Web hosting: £215.28

2019 Committee

Four of our members have stepped down this year. They include Kate Amann (Chair), Chris Woodall (Treasurer), George Young (Teaching Coordinator) and Migle Petruskeviciute (Ordinary Member). George and Migle will still be teaching, and Kate and Chris will still be around to dance. Thanks to all of them for their hard work over the past 2 years!

We gained quite a few new committee members, and some of the remaining members have taken new positions. So our committee is now:

  • Valerie McIntosh – Chair
  • Vicky McMurray – Secretary
  • Rhona Davies – Treasurer
  • Lottie Avery – Teaching Coordinator
  • Niall Davies
  • Cristina Rubio Ramon
  • Scott Inglis
  • Will George
  • Pippa Clark
  • Emma Crowther