Athens

May 16: Porchfest, 1-2 pm. Drop by West End MFG Facility: 3 N Shafer St in Athens to watch and/or dance to live music by the Brickersons. FREE!

March 29 – May 31: Intermediate series, 2-3 pm (with a bonus hour for our most advanced dancers from 3-4 pm), $45, Athens Community Center, 701 E State St, Athens, OH. Register online or at the front desk on your way in. For scholarship information, please email Chris at chrisknisely5@gmail.com.

June 7 – August 9: Beginner series, 2-3 pm (with a bonus hour for our most advanced dancers from 3-4 pm), $45, Athens Community Center, 701 E State St, Athens, OH. Register online or at the front desk on your way in. No class on July 26. No partner or experience necessary! For scholarship information, please email Chris at chrisknisely5@gmail.com.

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Info about our next class/event:

On May 16, we’ll be dancing at Porchfest at 1 pm at West End MFG (3 N Shafer St, directly behind Miller’s Chicken). There will be LIVE MUSIC!! Dances everyone will enjoy together:

On May 17, first-hour dancers will learn:

Second-hour dancers will learn:

  • Magic of Merrill: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/13357/#videos. No new figures, but geography is tricky for the first half reels! If you’re staying for the second hour, please consider watching this video until you get a feel for what’s going on so you can help me get it right…
  • Chased Lovers: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/16465/#videos (This may become a bonus, after-class dance if we run out of time, and we likely won’t have time to learn it extensively — this is a good one to watch if you’re an early intermediate dancer.)

In general, in this term, we’ll be learning dances for the Midway dance (preview here: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/64806/). If you’re ready to commit to the Midway Workshop and/or Dance, you can sign up using this flyer: 2026 Midway flyer.

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Footwork tips:
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Shoe info:
The traditional shoes used for Scottish Country Dance are called ghillies. Here are two affordable online places to order from: https://www.keilys.com/…/highlan…/james-roy-ghillie-red/ and https://corrsirishshoes.com/…/james-roy-highland-dance…
In both cases, DO NOT ORDER YOUR USUAL SHOE SIZE!! Ghillies use UK sizing, and you also want them pretty tight. (They should feel too tight at first, then you wear them while sitting around and the warmth and moisture of your foot will mold them to size.) If you have wide feet, though, you *will* want to order wide ghillies.
Both of the sites I recommended include sizing information, and they might be willing to take the information from your foot tracing and check it against their ghillies to help you choose the right size — it is worth contacting them and asking!!
Consider going half a size up if you want to include insoles (recommended!!!) and/or have high arches. You will want an insole like this that you can cut to fit in your ghillies: https://amzn.to/48KLHrB

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From out of town and want to drop in? We’d love to have you! Email anna@kitenet.net for more information.

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