Circle Dance
The easy way to release pleasure compounds in your nervous system!
Music and dance give a constant renewal of pleasure. Tiredness drops away when dancing and it fosters feeling of empathy and connection to others. Moving in synchrony with music raises the pain thresholds. Exercise in itself produces many substances including endorphins which make you feel better, and it leads to improved physical and cardiovascular health. Come to Circle Dance to get your gentle glow of well-being derived from dancing and listening to lovely music.
Now Covid-19 is less of a threat, circle dancing has returned to the second Tuesday (from 2pm) and the Last Friday (from 10.30am) each month, but check the programme for any changes. You are welcome to come for as long a time as you can manage. It is excellent gentle exercise, good for bodies and minds. We dance with good ventilation, and layers of clothing with suitable soft shoes are recommended. Any one can join in, no partner needed, and dances are taught. We have several men, but like many events, there tend to be more women.
Circle dancing is gentle exercise, dancing in a ring, or part ring, to wonderful music mainly from the Balkans, but many other countries are represented. New members are welcome at any time and then we go more slowly with the learning of dances, so that you can learn the steps.
Our leader is Chris Yemm, a man with great enthusiasm and years of experience. You need no previous experience as all dance steps are taught afresh at every session. Be prepared for some fun!
It's unknown why the combination of music, movement, memory and concentration in dance is so good for you - or, as it says in literature, 'found to correlate with positive behavioural effects in a variety of populations'.
Last time we danced, Chris selected several dances from Macedonia. Macedonia has a long history and it is a country with rich tradition and culture. The traditional folk dances (together with the costumes, folk instruments and music) represent the life of Macedonians many years ago when they struggled with wars, poverty and hardship. Some of the dances were originally for men – when they were going off to fight, or to represent their craft such as making tin. Many are dances to the traditional songs lamenting the absence of the men, either away fighting, lost in wars, or working far from home. Others represent the usual complaints of women about their arduous work fetching water, wood, tending the fields and making clothes. Usually, too, there is a dance to a song about a young woman who cannot marry the man she wants to because he is unsuitable to her parents, or is away, usually fighting.
Contact Gill Wakley text 07399 533893 or wakley76@gmail.com for further info. Please check the events page, we do occasionally need to cancel it.