Dear Dancers

I hope that you have had a good summer and are looking forward to the new season of dancing with the Bristol Branch. The committee have organised the usual programme of dances for the year. Also planned is the weekend away at Haytor and the Burns Supper. The dates of all the functions are listed in the Branch diary that you will get on renewal of your membership. The demonstration group, led by Barbara de Winton, will continue to rehearse as last year and there is already a repeat booking for an appearance of the group at a Burns Night Supper in Stapleton. If you are interested in joining the group please talk to Barbara.

We are pleased that the teaching of the classes is becoming a teamwork effort. Peter Wright and Barbara de Winton will teach the main class. Barbara will teach for five weeks in the middle of the winter term, for 4 weeks in the Spring term and for 4 weeks in the summer term. We have invited Cheryl Ayers to teach the Breakout group and this will commence on the 9th October. The term dates for the year are as follows:

Autumn term Sept 11th – Dec 18th inclusive.
Spring term Jan 8th – April 9th inclusive.
Summer term April 23rd – June 25th inclusive
Classes to be held in the Hall of St Monica Trust as usual.
We hope to continue to provide ‘live music’ from time to time and will always advise you of this in advance.

The membership fee will have to increase by £5 to £17 this year due to the fact that RSCDS Headquarters is raising the members contribution to head office by this amount. However, the weekly class fee will remain unchanged but the fee for non-members of the Branch will rise to £5 per class.

As usual we encourage you to talk to your friends about your enjoyment of Scottish Country Dancing. The success of the branch is dependent on us persuading others to join us either as a beginner or an experienced dancer. Hopefully we can then prove to them that dancing is fun and good for you.

Please do contact me or a member of the committee if you have any concerns or ideas that might benefit the Branch and do let us have items for inclusion in the Branch Newsletter.

I look forward to seeing you at the first class of the new season on September 11th and hope that you have a very enjoyable dancing year.

Marcus Ashman
Chairman – Bristol Branch - RSCDS