Well, 2006 Has been and gone too. Time flies when you're having fun, so they say. Apparently it also flies when you're rapper dancing. 2006 saw seen a huge influx of new people - hurrah! Rapper dancing is truly taking over the world... Well, a small part of Aberdeen anyway. Most of this year will be spent teaching dances and the like, but we're still planning on getting out and about. Well, it would be rude not to really, wouldn't it?
Well, the year started in true style! We went local - well, just up north anyway - for the Kintore Festival. There was plenty to do whilst we weren't dancing - the Morris men and ladies were out in force, as well as local bands and highland dancers etc. We attended the 'talent show' on the Tuesday night to ply our wares, and then performed and ran workshops on the Saturday. The performances went well, with an appreciative crowd (always nice!) and then the workshops were held in the church hall afterwards. They were certainly interesting - we had a set of children up, with one deciding that it was all too much, so we were treated to the sight of Ron on her knees amongst 4 children, trying to do rapper - well done Ron! We had a bit of a clogging workshop at one point too, so a success all in all. The highlight really has to have been dancing in the Kintore Arms though (pubs, as usual...) - a particularly small space, particularly bemused staff (followed by appreciation!), and suitably awe struck drinkers. And all the while, the cricket was on the radio...
Yup, we were there again! And we were all very pleased about, as we love going. Our annual fix of frozen yoghurts, craft stalls and huge beer tents was on Saturday 1st July this year. The weather was kind to us this year, which made a nice change as well. The weather had been vile on the Friday, and was none too clever on the Sunday after we had left either, but on the day, the sun did truly shine on Gaorsach Rapper and Step! The boards that we were dancing on proved to be a bit of a challenge, as deftly demonstrated by Claire falling on her bum half way through a clog dance... The musicians were grand though, incorporated it all into their flow, and we're sure that the audience barely noticed that anything was awry... Ahem. Anyway, bruised bums aside, a good day was had by all. We managed to draw some big crowds, and met some of our regular fans! When we say 'regular fans' we mean people who go to the game fair every year, and enjoy our performances. That's good enough for us though! Fingers crossed for an invitation back next year...
Those lovely people from the Aurora (Scottish Dance and Music Society) invited us to their International Festival this year. We joined them on the evening of 15th July, along with other local groups, and the guests of honour - La Saltarelle de Wavre - from Belgium for an evening of dance, song and food. Aurora and La Saltarelle de Wavre danced around Aberdeen throughout the weekend, and put on an evening of fine entertainment on the Saturday, for which we were privileged enough to get an invite. The array of costumes, and variety of the performances was wonderful to watch, we just hope that the Belgians enjoyed it as much as we did!
They invited us back - hurrah! All we can think is that they had a backlog of venison that they needed getting through, given the amount that we hoovered between us last time we were on the island. we were there for the festival during the last weekend in September - a heady mix of good music, great dancing, fine foods, and good people. Roll on next time!
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