A quiet weekend was spent with me starting to think about our September courses and planning elements for our new Latin Fusion day with BAEC in the Autumn.  The Latin Fusion course will be dances using elements of the latin dances aimed at dancing solo - much like the strolls of swing jive.  I'm planning a rumba, a cha cha and a salsa routine at the moment and am dithering about a 4th routine.  I think I'll stick to three at the moment!  I have some of the rumba one written, and about half of the cha cha finalised (thanks to one of the workshops I attended at MoveIt 2010).  I'm very excited about this new course and approaching these fun dances in a different way to the way I normally do.

In just 4 days time Russ and Matt will be running 26.2 miles as part of the London Marathon.  They will each burn just over 3,000 calories - that's the same as dancing the following continiously:

• Jive (fast) - 7 hours
• Merengue / Cha Cha / Salsa - 7.5 hours
• Jive (slow)/ Tango / Strolls - 8.5 hours
• Waltz / Foxtrot / Rumba - 15 hours

The standard social night (taking our standard set out for a playlist of a certain number of each style of track) would result in approximately 850 calories burnt (worked out for a 10 stone woman).  To put it another way the guys would have to do 4 of our socials, dancing all the tracks, back to back, to burn the same number of calories (that's 10 hours straight!).

I have been amazed so far by our members generosity - this morning we reached our original target of £200 (minus gift aid), so lets see if we can do even better. I would like to thank the 21 members who have donated so far, I know that your generous donations will make a difference to not only the charities but to Russ and Matt as they know you are right behind them with your support.

The url for online donations is: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DTNA

The ability to donate online (and increase your donation even further due to gift aid) will end on Tuesday 27th April.  Some of you have asked if you can donate cash - and of course you can! I shall bring a box with me to the Monday classes, Tuesday privates and the Friday social for you to donate cash if you wish.

The final tally will be announced just before the usual raffle at the Social on the 7th May.

Again we are hoping to theme the playlist - I have a couple of suggestions for tracks, but not as many as we need!  It's all about the relief of finishing so get in any tracks, artists or bad puns you can think of to do with relief, pain, stopping, never again, it's all over, high's, low's, end of the road.... I'm sure you can think of more!  Get you suggestions to me as soon as you can!

This has been a very exciting week,

Friday's Social went well despite the turn out being very quiet due to the half-term break.  We did a beautiful 'Smooth' inspired move in the improver quickstep class which the class seemed to love (it's always gratifying to see my figures being danced later by choice) and although it was quiet there were couples on the floor almost all night.  Many of you commented on the playlist and the great tracks picked by you so we will be theming next months playlist as well.

I need your suggestions for May's playlist - 'after the marathon' theme. Therefore I want as many tracks/artists/lyrics/bad puns as you can think of to do with:

Finishing / Ending....Congratulations...Never Again! ... It's Over...Pain...Relief...  I'm sure you can think of more!

I will also be announcing just how much you managed to raise in support of our guys at the social - 7th May.

Monday's ballroom class saw our first group get to grips with the basics of the Slow Waltz and doing beautifully.  Our second group got a shock as the men did something (for a change) in the UK Swing.  Tuesday's private lessons saw the return of old students, two new students and a long term group.  All of them were doing different things so it was great fun with lots of variety.

Wednesday brought a lovely surprise.  Last year during the Strictly Season I recommended Connie Lansberg's version of Down with Love as a great quickstep. Wednesday morning I got up to an email from Connie thanking me for recommending her.  I never get over how immediate and searchable the internet is - and it's a real thrill to have a genuine talent contacting me because of what I am doing!  Connie very sweetly gave me a copy of her fabulous version of Blue Moon (which makes a lovely unusual rumba) and I am checking out her other work as we speak!

Yesterday I finally got around to finalising the details of the much awaited Improver level classes that will run in June and July of this year.  Our internet members were invaluable in helping me decide which dances to include by taking part in a members-only online poll - and the results surprised me!  I've planned five different lessons of our most popular dances in a mix-and-match bag so you can pick the dances that appeal most to you without having to do further work in the dances you don't. We have 2 hour classes in Swing, Tango, Cha Cha, Rumba and an expansion of Social Foxtrot into American Smooth.

I know many of you are excited about these new classes and we look forward to lots of you signing up. You can sign up now HERE

Finally, Sunday 25th sees Russ and Matt running that Marathon. If you want to be involved then please see this link for full details = Marathon Plans

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend the entire weekend dancing?  Have you pondered if those dance break weekends are worth the money?  How about wanting to meet some of your favourite dance stars up close and personal?

Well Julie and Ian, two of our members, packed their suitcases for an action packed weekend stuffed full of dance, stars and fun - Julie's review is below...

Dance Weekend with Vincent & Flavia - Review by Julie

We have seen Vincent and Flavia dance live and we loved it. So when the chance came up to learn dance with them we leapt at it.  . We signed up for a Warner's Strictly Weekend Break in Hereford last weekend (9-11 April 2010).