Dance Days is now closed

I know you have all been eager to hear when we are going to restart Dance Days.

It is a long time since I said that I expected to re-open after a couple of months!

It is with some regret that I have decided that I will not be re-opening both the school and the monthly dances.

I am sure that for many of you this will be a surprise and unfortunately not particularly welcome.

This is in part due to the sheer effort that it takes to run the school and having a fulltime job. I have spent the past 6 years running the school and that has consumed most, if not all, of my spare time. Whilst it has been a great joy to teach you all and with our amazing team, I have become more exhausted and had little time for myself and Susan.

Over the last few years, I have done less dancing other than at Christmas in Germany. Susan has been instrumental in the continuing success that we have had but we have had little opportunity to dance together.

I have met many amazing people and made new friends. Re-connected with old friends and seen new friendships develop. I have enjoyed teaching you all over the years. Whilst I have missed all of you over the last months, I have not missed the effort and stresses of running Dance Days. I want to get back to dancing with Susan.

Please take a look at the links page on the website as there are a number of sites that provide lists of schools and dances.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taught, helped and supported us through the wonderful 6 years that Dance Days was open.

My deep and profound thanks go to all the people who have become part of the team over the years.

Susan Baker
Darren Jupp
Helen Wickens
Sheree Payton
Martin Payton
Chrissie Lay
Carol Innes
Tina Frost
Peter Wickens
Karen Ball

From our early years

Pat Driscoll
Daphne Reed
Rosalind Cable

Below is more detail of how I arrived at my decision to close.

Over the last few months, I have found that I have not missed all the work and effort that it takes to run the school. Having a fulltime job and running the school has been very hard work. As I am sure you appreciate there is much more that goes into running any enterprise that you see on the surface.

For me, the first lockdown was a huge relief, a chance to stop running. I had been at the school two nights a week straight after a full day’s work and then 4 or 5 hours on a Saturday. All the planning and organisation coming in the limited free time that we had available. Saturdays I would sleep for two or three hours after teaching.

During this time, I found that I was not missing the school, though I was missing all of you.

As you know I took the decision to close until the end of the year as I could not see that Covid would be under control before that. I was also giving myself time to decide what the short-, and long-term future for Dance Days would be.

During this time, I had been having strong doubts about wanting to return to a lifestyle where I am constantly running without much time to breath. Having discussed it with Susan I had decided that I would continue when we were able.

Should I then still feel that I did not want to continue that I would close at a convenient point.

As December approached, I found myself almost dreading re-starting, and going back to the incessant headlong charge of planning, administration, communications that underly the business. I finally realised that I no longer have the desire to continue to run Dance Days.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement over the years.