NOTE: For the last couple of years, the resident cook/chef Ivy and her team have been providing meals available prior to the social. The prices are very reasonable and the food delicious. However the support for these meals is inconsistent and is not proving particularly viable for them. She has decided to continue the meals for the foreseeable future, but will reassess on a social by social basis. If you want it to continue, please join us from midday.
ALSO NOTE: If you bring food/nibbles to the venue, please be discreet about it and don't put it on the table till the kitchen has closed as a sign of respect to Ivy's cooking.
NEXT YEAR: We may be running a Sunday Evening Social on the 3rd March for some visiting USA line dancers, so put it in your diary just in case.

We seem to be approaching the Instructor holiday season. Many of them are going away for a few weeks. There will be relief instructors for most of the classes, but a few will shut temporarily due to lack of relief instructors or size of classes. Even if your regular instructor is away, please support the relief instructor as it is a difficult task to look after someone else's class, and they are going out of their way to do so.
The following changes are happening as specified:

• Murray Bridge Tuesday Night class is in a new hall: U3A Hall, 19 Mulgundaway Rd
• West Croydon Tuesday Afternoon Easy class closed 20th August (Hall unavailable).
• Seaton Tuesday Night Transition class closed 19th & 26th November.
• Fullarton Monday Evening Easy class closed till further notice (lack of attendance)
• South Plympton Tuesday Night Intermediate class closed 20th & 27th August, 3rd & 10th September.
• Parafield Gardens Wednesday Morning Mainstream class closed 21st & 28th August, 4th and 11th September.

All other classes are business as usual, but some may be cancelled closer to the time if numbers are not sufficient to justify relief.

Over the last few months, we have been experimenting with the addition of some dances and music that have their roots in a different form of line dance, This was the afro-american style of line dance which is popular in those communities in the USA, and also on many US based cruise ships. We occasionally explore new facets of Line Dance as they are brought to our attention in order to keep relevant to the line dance industry as it expands.
If we didn't do this, we wouldn't be doing Irish dances, Latin dances or even use pop music in our classes today. They were all part of experiments in the past that were popular and therefor retained in our repertoire.
This last experiment was less successful however, so we have discontinued the experiment, and returned to our regular material selection methods.
As part of our terminology update, we are now at a point to be able to permanently level all of the dances in our playlist. This will involve a shuffle of some dances between levels with some going up and others coming down. This is intended to happen over the Xmas break. Once done, there will be no more movement and things will become stable and predictable.
 

We have new supplies of Shoe Sox to allow grippy shoes to be used for dancing. $10 a pair available in multiple colours. Ask your instructor, or see us at a social. If you buy some, try just using one on the left foot first for a week or two, before putting them on both feet, to avoid slipping over accidentally.
Wed also have 2 ladies black 30th birthday shirts left over, 1 size 16 and 1 size 20. They are available for $15 each on a first come first served basis.
We have also been asked about supplies of the long sleeved jackets and vests. We have lots of Large size jackets, but no stock of Small or Medium jackets. If there is enough interest we can restock them, but need enough for an order to justify the setup fees for the embroidery. They are likely to be $65 each (not including embroidered personalised name). Similarly with vests (likely to be $30).
Embroidered scarves are still available at $15.
Green Polo shirts ($30), and Black and Green Chiffon Tops ($25) are also still available.
If you would like a jacket ordered, please email me with your size, and I will tabulate the requirements to see if we can do them. This is not an obligation to buy at this stage, just an expression of interest.

This dream holiday has been on the back burner for over 10 years, pending the reduction of tensions in the middle east. It seems that they will never change (its been tense for over 2000 years LOL), so we are going ahead with the plans anyway.
The plan is to go to Egypt, Jordan and Turkey/Türkiye.
It is likely to include the following:

If you are interested in joining us, please send me an email at peter@linedancersofsa.org with your name (and any others that you think might come) and any suggestions you may have for items on the itinerary. We already have about 10 people interested.
Obviously there is currently no cost specified (at least $17K) or itinerary (at least 4 weeks) confirmed, so there is no obligation to go, but if we have some idea of numbers, then we can work those things out in time. Start saving....
Thanks,
Peter

As we head through Winter, the occurrence of Covid-19, Flu, RSV and the Common Cold is increasing. Please be mindful of your other dancers when deciding on coming to class with symptoms. We have not yet had any outbreak of any of these in any of our classes since the start of the pandemic, which we are grateful of. This has been due in part to our strict polices during the initial outbreaks, and the vigilance and thoughtful nature of our dancers. We understand that asthma and allergies will cause sneezing and coughing, so if you have these conditions, don't let them stop you attending. Be mindful of others that are not aware of your conditions. Remember, there is no stigma in our classes should you want to wear a mask.

If we keep these things in mind, I am sure we can continue to avoid any outbreaks into the future.

As there are a number of new people that have joined us this year, and after witnessing a couple of close calls, I feel it is important to remind you all of some rules of the dance floor.